Voice Thread----a good tool to express

Voice Thread----a good tool to express

Voice Thread is a Web 2.0 which can be used to describe pictures by recording rather than literature. I didn't think it is useful for our language learning until I found it can be used as a sound portfolio for learners' speaking activities.

First I'd like to introduce how to use it. It can be accessed easily. You just need to sign an account with an e-mail address and then sign in.

After you sign in, you will have your own page like this:

There are three column: Home, Browse and Create. Home is your home page where you can have your own file of voice. In the Browse you can search public voice thread by topics. Create is the most amazing part of this tool. When you click it you will see:

 Then click Add Media:

You can choose any media that you'd like to describe by this function.

After you up-load, you can see 'Add a little and description'. Here description is in written words. After you doing this, your friend and other people from the word can offer you some comments in audio and even in video. Of course, you can add comments as well.

After giving comment, you embed or ex-port.

Here is what I just recorded:



You can see how easy to use it.

Voice Thread has a another great function that you can invite people into a group and have a discussion. However, it only can be done after up-graded.

I think this tool is useful both for teachers and students who would like to create a portfolio for speaking activities. Compare to other web tools, its most functional use is that you can give audio feedback directly after someone's description. Teachers can use it as a way of peer-assessing speaking without too much time in class. What's more teachers can offer literal, audio or video feedback to students, which may motivate students learning.
Another important feature of this tool is that it does not just for high stake students but also for those lower stake students. Those students who do not have chances to speak out may find their own place here.

In my future teaching, I'd like to use this tool as way of invite students to participate in more speaking practices.

Vocaroo--Simple way to record for learning

Vocaroo--a Simple Tool of Recording for Learning Language

Podcast has been popular in many fields, such as tourism, advertisement,  education. The content of podcast can audios, videos and image materials. The tool I want to introduce is an audio podcast, which is easy to get access to and totally free. 

First, I'd like to introduce you how to use it.

1. Search the website http://vocaroo.com/. You will see a clear webpage.

2. Click to record, up to five minutes.

3. After you record, you can save it in many ways.

You can email, embed, share it in facebook, Blogger, etc.I embeded what I record, you will see how clear the sound is.

Audio and voice recording >>

You also can download it as a mp3 file by simple click ‘MP3'.

Podcasting has been used by many educators for many reasons. I think the most significant reason is its convenience and flexibility. Learners can listen to it everywhere by their smart phones, ipod, laptop, etc. It is helpful to learners with their listening. Vocaroo is not just has the benefits of usual podcast. It is unique because of its easy recording. As learners can record their sound easily with Vocaroo, they can use it to complete speaking tasks. Teachers can check their students' speaking tasks after class to save time.

I think this will be a useful tool for me to check my students practice after class. I used to ask students to reader after some IELTS listening text (as they are preparing for IELTS), then send me their recording by Wechat. Although it is convenient, the recording could just last 50 seconds. It is not enough. With Vocaroo, they can read longer and send the recording by email directly. If they can embed in their blogs, then it will be even better for me to give feedback.

I like this web tool, but it also has its limitation. I tried to use it on my Mac, it always appears 'nothing was recorded'. This is because of the microphone. After I changed to anther laptop, I can use it with an earphone which is with microphone together. As a result, it may be limited to some certain facilities. Another drawbacks is about the length. If someone want to record longer text, then it could not be done. However, I still want to say it is worth trying.




 

Quizlet----useful tools for ESL teachers

Quizlet----useful tools for ESL teachers

I think almost every ESL teacher(especially with young learners) once used vocabulary cards to teach students group of words, like animals, fruits, food, etc. Some teachers may also design slides to show different vocabulary. It always takes a long time to search suitable pictures to match those vocabularies in order to help students understand them. Even you can find good pictures, what about the pronunciation? 

Quizlet is a good solution. It is a free website. You can sign up with Google or Facebook. 

If you want to upgrade to 'teacher', it only cost $25 per year. With the free version, there are also many benefits deserve your attention.

Benefits 

1) There are many sets done by other users that you can apply directly by 'search quizlet' on the top.

I tried animals, it shows there are 5000+ sets. 

And you can sort by different categories, like most relevant, most recent, etc. 

2)You can study and play with every set.

In the Study section, the flash cards are easy for teachers to show how the words pronounce without pictures.  

     

2) If there is a smartboard in your classroom, the 'Scatter' will be a good practice for students. They play it on the screen. You can divide the students into groups to have a competition.



3) The key characteristic of Quizlet is that you can create your own set. For example, I created a set of 'shopping' and it is very convenient to search pictures by clicking the sign of pictures on the right.
you can also add explanation and translation easily.

You can also add sound to these vocabulary, you can even record your own voice if you upgrade. 

4) After creating the set, you can share it on facebook, twitter, or email it to any one you like. You can even embed those practice with your set in your blog or website.

5) For those students who have no computers, the teacher can print the vocabulary for them by click 'print' in 'TOOLS'

Drawbacks

Of course, there are also drawbacks with Quizlet. As it was developed by American technicians, all pronunciations are American accent. If you want British accent, you need to add recording by yourself.  

Evaluation

Quizlet is quite useful both for teachers or students. It can be used in class instead of slides or after class as a assignment for students to learn new vocabulary. 

I think Quizlet helps me solve the problem of how to teaching IELTS listening vocabulary in a effective way. Because we used to just offer students with words list. They always feel difficult to remember those vocabulary not only because of the meaning but also because of the pronunciation.  

They don't have enough time to look up for pronunciation. With Quizlet, they can get access to those vocabulary simply by clicking the link which the teacher shared with them.

FluentU and VoiceTube---Real English to learn

FluentU and VoiceTube---Real English to learn

Films and some funny videos are good resources for ESL students to learn real English. Many teachers choose videos from internet for their classes. However there is always a big issue with it, especially for those teachers in China. Those videos on the internet usually have Chinese subtitles. Students may rely on those subtitles to understand what they hear. As a result, it is meaningless to use those videos as a practice. Sometimes you can find some videos with English subtitles, but it takes a long time. Of course, if films are the only resources you want to use, you can buy DVD disks, but it is really a big sum of money. So I gave up to use videos in class for quite a long time.

However, two websites introduced in ICT class help me solve the problem: one is FluentU, and the other is VoiceTube. Here, I'd like to show you how it works.

FluentU

After signing up (it is free), click 'Videos' below 'BROWSE' on the left. You will see a lot of videos. They have been placed in different categories. You can sort by 'DIFFICULTY', 'TOPICS' and 'FORMATS'.

After click 'elementary', there are quite lot videos for you to choose.  Most of them are cartoons that are suitable for young learners.

Click whatever you want.

 You can 'watch' or 'learn'. I think I'd like to let the students watch it first(of course without subtitles), and then learn it. Below these two tools, you can see 'Dialogue' and 'Vocab'. Click 'Vocab', you will find it has helped you list all the vocabulary from the video. As a result, these words can learned before watching the video or after. 

However, the biggest problem of this is you need to upgrade if you want to learn. 

Voice Tube

For those Chinese students and teachers, I suggest Voicetube which is totally free. What's more there are more videos on various topics, even speeches of TED. 

Those unknown vocabulary can be looked up automatically when you single click. Every word you have looked up will be listed on the right below the script. 

You can even adjust the speaking speed. 

Evaluation

VoiceTube is useful both for teachers and students. Teachers can use it either in class or sign a task for student to complete after class. For those high level learners, this is really a great tool for self-learning. As my students are those preparing for IELTS, so these materials are suitable for them to learn authentic English. I think I'd like to use the VoiceTube once a week. Every week I will choose different topics that are related to IELTS listening and reading content. 

However, there are still some limits with these two tools. One is that these tools are not so interactive. You can contribute your comment if you sign in with facebook account, but there are few people will response you. Another problem is this software was designed by Taiwan company, so all the levels are based on their criterions. 

Wordsift--A fantastic tool to learn vocabulary in text

Wordsift--A fantastic tool to learn vocabulary in text

Vocabulary is always the complicated part for Chinese students to study. They often feel difficult to memory. For those high level students, the problem is not only about remembering but also about how to use those these words or phrases. Most students don't know how to study vocabulary. Wordsift is an online tool both for students and teachers to study vocabulary.

The Wordsift has some significant characteristics:

1)  All the common words like 'the, a, to, of, etc.' are avoided, and the most important words of the text are in larger size.

2) The words can be sorted by various criterions, just click those buttons below the words cloud.

3) Those special vocabulary can also be marked red, like 'academic words'. So, it is very convenient for students to get clear impression of different kinds of vocabularies, and easy to remember by specific categories. 

4) Below those tool buttons, there are two columns. one column can show you some website and pictures that are related to the word you chose to click. Another column is a word mind storm to show some extended vocabulary related to the word you chose.

The right column is my favourite part of this tool. It can be used to help students to understand the word in a more complete way. Most important is that it saves a lot of time for both students and teachers. 

I think for those high level students, this a good tool used for self-learning. Teachers also can use it as a material of slides. For example, those pictures showed on the left column are easy to get their original version, and then embedded in your slides or blogs. You can also take screenshots and paste it into your slides. 

In language class, after showing students the word clouds, the teacher can ask the students to draw their own word map first, and then let them compare it to the one appears on the screen. 

I think the drawback of this tool is that, it may be too difficult for those young learners to understand. However teachers can help the student to understand it.

As my students are those preparing for IELTS reading, I will use this tool to analyse those reading passages from past papers, using the tool of 'sort' in order to place those words in different categories. The word map can help students to learn synonyms of a word and examples of the usage. I will use screenshots to make some slides to show them the results of searching or ask them to look up by themselves and then to make some portfolios.  

   

Wordle--Beautiful Words Cloud

Wordle--Beautiful Words Cloud

When I taught preparing class for IELTS reading, I always considered whether there is a way to show learners the key words in a vivid way, not  just a list of words. It always took a long time to check those key words and design them into a stylish way. However, when I saw Wordle in class, I felt so excited. It is exactly what I want. Although Wordle was not created for language use first, it is suitable for showing a text's most frequent vocabulary.
The benefits of the Wordle :
1) More frequent the words in the text, the bigger the words appear, so it is easy for students to focus on the frequency.
2) The common words like 'the, a, of, etc.' are excluded.
3) The ‘Randomize’ feature creates different versions of a particular text instantly.
I tried to paste a passage from NEW CONCEPT ENGLISH in the box. A beautiful cloud appeared. I changed the style and colour by easily 'click' those links above.

4) And any individual words can be excluded by 'right click'. So the teacher can chose what to show.

5) Both long or short texts can be exhibited, and the words limitation can be changed easily. So you don't need to worry the text is too long.

After I changed the words limitation, it looked more clearly.

As you see, the words are attractive. This tool can be used as a good practice for them to predict the topic of the text. If there are any unknown words, learners can study them before seeing the whole text.
However, the Wordle also has drawbacks. One problem is that the most frequent words may not be the most important words of a text, especially for the long and difficult one. So it may take a long time for the teacher to move those unimportant words.

Collaboration Tools for ELT Class

Have you ever thought of building a chat room for students to discuss some topics out of class? Have you ever considered of asking the students complete a task like writing an essay together out of class? All these activities may seem difficult, but they are not so tough with those collaboration tools online.

I'd like to suggest three online tools that the students can use to complete collaborate tasks. The first one is Stormboard. 

 Stormboard is a place you can create a board where others can be invited to post a discuss. Everyone can post their literatures in a particular colour, so it is easy to recognise.  The host of the storm has the right to edit those posts. What's more there's a special column for participants to chat together before they post anything on the storm, so the storm board will not turn to a chat board.
The benefits of the stormboard is obvious. It is easy to edit ideas of every participants and can be exported as Words, PDF and Excel files. As a result, students don't need to waste time on copying all the contents.
 The second tool is Mopad. This tool is especially for learners who need to complete an essay or report together. Usually when learners need to write an essay together, they will write own part separately, and then read each others and revise. This traditional way is not so efficient, because the learners waste a lot of time on reading and rewrite. Using this tool can help learners to save time and discuss their opinions even they don't have time to sit together. This tool also has a column for chatting, so participants can discuss their parts together before adding any words on the pad. Every Pad has a leader editor who can organise and edit the article into a final draft.
In ELT classrooms, this is a great tool for students learn from each other. Because they can see how others organise words and sentences.

The final one is Google drive. I think everyone knows it. It is a tool for sharing any materials like photos, office files, videos and PDF files.  It is also a social network. The learners can use this to learn each other much better, sharing their learning experience easily.

Everything has two sides, there are also some challenges for teachers using these tools. The most challenge one is the training for students. Every student who will use this for learning tasks must be very clear about what they can do and how to use the right resources. Another important point is all these tools are serving for learning, so they should not be too complicated for students to use, or it will be a waste of time and energy.