Modern Languages Blog

Kath Holton leads a workshop on the myriad of ways you can use digital voice recorders and fun plug-ins like Voki on your school blog or website, in an effort to improve students’ performance in foreign language speaking.

The MFLE already carries some ideas on using digital voice recorders in the preparation of speaking assessments, but Kath was keen to look at how we prepare students for success, and motivate them in the process.

Using cheap, digital voice recorders and plenty of rechargeable batteries Kath has set up a system where students can record material out on the move, keeping an oral log of work, a reference of what language they’ve learnt. The pay-off? Where these particular students would be losing revision materials, their assessment preparations and personal plans, they are rescued by the system they have worked at maintaining throughout the year, storing and listening to each other’s revision material from the school server.

Peer-assessment works best

More than that, they can listen to ‘correct’ versions of language from their teacher. Yet this is not the most effective means of revision, says Kath, based on some action research from Joe Dale. The most effective revision comes from listening to peers’ recordings, critically appraising it as well as ’stealing’ elements of language used by other students. This, of course, fits perfectly within the class’s assessment for learning work, and has created an atmosphere of real mutual respect. Students critical appraise within a two stars and a wish structure, offering both positive aspects of each other’s work as well as suggesting room for improvement. It makes me think of the audio and PowerPoint “Rate My Mates” peer-assessment being done by students in Huntly under Adam Sutcliffe’s supervision.

Which kit would I use to get started?

Several Scottish teachers at the conference swore by their purchase of the Aigo, a low-cost MP3 recorder and player.

Moving on from just recording stuff: Vokis

Vokis are free web-based animated characters that move and respond to the tone of your voice, as recorded on the MP3 recorder. Here’s an example of how they can be used from Kath’s S1/Year 7 class. Having registered for Voki, uploaded an MP3 recording from the portable recorder to Voki, she then copied and pasted the Voki into a ‘wiki’, a webpage she and her students can edit. You can set up your own wiki on Wetpaint, PBWiki or Wikispaces. And even if you don’t have a microphone or MP3 recorder, you can type your text into Voki and one of it’s electronic voices (which are remarkably human and can sound rather French) will read your text for you.

Peer assessment on your Voki

Even more exciting is the potential for peers to leave audio comments on each other’s work, pointing out where improvements can be made and, of course, providing an oral example of what they mean. It takes written “two stars and a wish” that little bit further. Click the little notepad logo on the bottom right of the girl Voki on this page for an example. For stronger students, Kath has had them create Vokis with added mistakes, so that classmates can create their own Voki replies in this way to correct them. Take a look at the Daily Routine talk, riddled with purposeful errors, to see how this lad’s peers responded in the ‘notepad’ comments.

Vokis have also proven invaluable for checking students’ spelling. Where students write ‘qui’ instead of ‘oui’ (quite a common spelling/typo error) the spoken Voki voice will say what it sees, not what the student wants it to see. Mistake found. Problem sorted.

Participants at the conference are now heading off to try for themselves. Why not try yourself?

If you’ve never recorded audio before, and want to find out how, you can learn how with the MFLE’s first steps in podcasting.

Categories: Communicate.08, ICT, blogs, podcasts, software