Continuing the series Technology in Modern Foreign Languages, Helena Butterfield shares her experiences of using different tools to promote speaking both in the classroom and beyond. Helena is keen to emphasise that teachers do not need to be ICT experts to be able to use her top five tools to get pupils talking.

I am a keen user of new technologies in my teaching, in particular of giving my pupils the opportunity to create with new tools, as I find it a truly motivating experience for them and me. Them, because they can see their high-quality work immediately and me because I am always amazed at what they can produce in such a short space of time and how easily they manage using what I consider to be such advanced technology.

The skill that I am particularly keen on developing with my pupils is speaking. Such an essential skill, when learning a language but one that pupils really seem to struggle with in terms of having the opportunity to do it and having the confidence to go ahead and give it a try.

With this in mind, I find that new technologies provide an ideal opportunity for pupils to practice speaking the language they are learning without the feeling that they are doing it in front of the whole class, whilst also giving them the chance to reflect on what they hear and think about how they can improve and move onto the next level (I believe this is called Assessment for Learning, n’est-ce pas?).

In addition having recordings of themselves speaking means that they can then put themselves onto their iPods, Mp3 Players or mobiles and truly have a mobile learning experience – obviously whilst pretending to listen to cool music with nobody knowing what’s really going on.

With this in mind I’d like to write about my Top Tools for encouraging pupils to talk. I did a short presentation on this topic at TeachMeetNE09-02 a couple of weeks ago and this post gives me the opportunity to talk in more detail about some of the tools and how I use them. I will give examples of how I have used them with my classes – not all wonderful examples – but I think they give a flavour of what you could do and hopeful you will see ways in which you could do better!

Firstly, and most importantly you need to know what you need in order to record your pupils. There are several things you could use. When I record my classes chanting / practising in a group I use a USB microphone connected to my computer and record using the free Audacity program. If I want small groups to record one another I use an EasiSpeak microphone which is really easy to use (even I can use it!) and records straight away into .mp3 format. I’ve also recently been given a digital voice recorder which can do the same thing.

In addition, still in my classroom, if I’d like individuals to record themselves, I’ve asked them to use the voice recorders on their mobiles. This can prove particularly useful to develop listening skills, as we recorded ourselves and then gave the recording to a partner for them to listen to and note the main points.

If I’m lucky enough to be in the ICT suite, I use the traditional headphones with microphones attached and ask pupils to record themselves using Audacity, which is straight forward (although you might need to give them a quick lesson in how to do this.)

So, what are my top tools to get pupils talking?

• Voki – This is a lovely site where pupils can create talking avatars. It’s really easy to use and pupils can add their own voices either by recording in Audacity and uploading the sound file, can record directly from the site or even phone and leave a recording. Having learnt from experience I would advise that pupils record themselves first and only then let them play on the Voki website…otherwise they don’t get the important language bit done. Once complete, pupils can then email you the Voki so that you can then display them on a blog or wiki.
  Here is an example of how my pupils used Voki in an eTwinning Project: Let’s Blog.
• Voicethread – This is a fantastic site to get pupils talking spontaneously. You can upload a photo or a document and then others can comment on it. They can either type or then can record their comments. This is great to get pupils preparing for their presentations for GCSE Speaking Assessments.
  I used Voicethread to encourage pupils to talk about a picture of a house, giving adjectives, opinions etc. Here is our Voicethread.
• Songsmith – This is my current favourite. It’s a great program that adds a backing track to what you record. You can choose the style of the track and it picks up the rhythm of the words you say. It’s fantastic for getting pupils to make up raps and rhymes to help remember vocabulary or verbs. I got my Year 8 group to make up Haben raps. I put my laptop in my office (at the back of my room), gave them a quick tutorial and then let groups do the recordings while we did a carousel activity in the main classroom. It’s amazing how easily they picked up how to do everything – even exporting the files as .wav files. I told each group to nominate a techie who was responsible for the computer side of things and it worked really well. Here is my favourite rap, explaining about Haben: ich, du,er…
• Make a podcast - A key feature of getting pupils to be able to speak a language is getting them to listen to it as much as possible. This can help them improve their accents and give them the confidence to try it too. A really good way to do this is to create a podcast so that they can download sound files that you create and put them onto their Mp3 Players or iPods so that they can take their language work wherever they go (whilst pretending to listen to their favourite music, of course). I’ve also recorded my classes doing some choral repetition and turned that into a podcast. You could really do anything as a podcast…chants, raps, vocabulary for tests, grammar explanations…they’re particularly good for the auditory learners! To publish my podcasts I use Podomatic, a free podcasting platform. I currently run two podcasts that have been particularly useful for my Year 7s: Langwitch Radio (German) and Radio Langwitch (French).
• Make a slidecast – The next step on from a podcast really, is a slidecast. To make a slidecast, I use Slideshare (http://slideshare.net) , it’s really simple and they give you step-by-step instructions. This is essentially a slideshow with sound. So, for example if you introduce some new language with a PowerPoint in class you could have you class doing the repetition and turn it into a slidecast so that they can re-visit it at home. I envisage my classes going home and having the whole family sat round the computer practising new language that has been learnt…truly involving everyone in the learning! This has worked particularly well with some phonics work that I did  with my Year 7s earlier this year : Les Jolly Phoniques.

My final pieces of advice would be to start small and simple and then see where it takes you. Once you begin, you’ll find all kinds of amazing ways to encourage your pupils to develop their speaking skills. These are just a few, relatively straight forward ways of getting pupils talking…if I can do it, anyone can!

Helena Butterfield

Helena Butterfield is International Schools Co-ordinator and an MFL Teacher at Ian Ramsey C of E School in Stockton-on-Tees, where she teaches French, German, Spanish and ICT. She is also a wife and mum-and would do well to remember that sometimes!

Helena blogs at: http://helenabutterfield.net

Twitter: @langwitch

This post is tagged audio, edtech, mfltech, modern languages, speaking