The
purpose of this project is to improve student listening and speaking skills
through an activity that allows the freedom to choose the material of their
focus, while improving vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation, listening ability
and research skills. The activity
can be adapted for academic or non-academic populations dependent upon the
materials chosen for focus.
I
like to refer to this activity as “elastic”: it can be expanded or
reduced by both the amount of technology used and the time allotted for
completion. If the technology and
the time are available, web sites and videos can be created with the
students’ completed projects.
However,
if you are new to technology and not feeling up to creating your own web site,
don’t worry. This activity
is for everyone, at every level.
You can expand the eventual final product as you grow more comfortable
with the material and technology.
Goals and Objectives
From the OPIE
Curriculum Guide/Listening & Speaking Level-50:
•
Students will reinforce
vowels, consonants, and prosody
•
Students will develop
self-correction skills.
•
Students will understand how
to gain and maintain audience interest.
•
Students will be able to
express personal opinions.
•
Students will be able to
organize and present ideas in clear manner.
•
Students will be able to use
appropriate vocabulary & register necessary
for a particular audience.
•
Students will be able to
listen for facts, main points and supporting
information in mini-lectures.
Ø
Students will learn how to
search the internet for (non-musical) listening material (see handout “Internet
Search Techniques”).
• Using search engines and “Boolean” language
• Saving “Bookmarks”
• Internet “jargon”/necessary vocabulary
Ø
After several
“listenings”, students will record oral reviews of the material.
• see handout “Speech Journal Instructions”
Ø
Corrective feedback from
teacher will focus on:
• Oral and visual
presentation skills.
• Summarizing and organizing
information.
• see handout
“Teacher’s Evaluation”
Ø
Listening Piece Review process:
1.
Students search the web for a listening piece and complete the
“CALL Listening Review” worksheet (one or two revisions).
2.
Students record a “Speech Journal”, with notes from the
“CALL Audio Review” worksheet (two or three revisions).
3.
Students give a final presentation of their listening piece,
incorporating electronic media (computer and data projector).
Teacher's Instruction Sheet
(continued)
Equipment
and Supplies:
“Hard”
Facilities:
1.
CALL Lab or computer teaching
facility with internet capability.*
v
One computer (with LCD projector, internet connection
and projection screen) is sufficient for the teacher’s
demonstration – but students will need access to computers with internet capability to complete
this project.
*NOTE: microphone connected to computers are optional but helpful.
2.
Audio Lab with listening and
voice-recording capability.
v
Though an AL is optimum, tape
recorders with built-in microphones
and a quiet room are sufficient.
“Hard”
Materials:
v
CALL Audio Review worksheet
(one page)
v
Internet Search Techniques
worksheet (one page*)
v
Speech Journal Instructions
(one page)
v
Teacher’s Evaluation
(two pages)
v
Self-Evaluation (one page)
v
Peer Evaluation (one page)
*a full version appears on the web
“Soft”
Materials:
v
Netscape Navigator or Internet
Explorer: $=free
v
Netscape Composer (included
with Netscape Navigator): $=free
v
RealAudio Player: $=free
v
QuickTime Player: $=free
v
PureVoice: $=free
Optional (but definitely not required) “Soft”
Materials:
v
Microsoft Word or other word
processing program
- will allow students to “copy” and “paste” URLs,
reducing the
risk of incorrectly
transcribed web locations.
v
ClarisHomePage:
$99/“outdated”
- has more options than Netscape Composer for web page design, such as
allowing the insertion of
AIF files (audio files created by PureVoice).
However, FileMaker has stopped supporting this product but it
is still
available for purchase.
Name
of Student/Reviewer:
Name
of main web site where listening piece is located:
Location
of main web site (URL or address):
http://
Title
of Listening piece:
Location
of Listening piece (URL or address – do not use .RAM or .RA addresses!):
http://
Subject
Matter of listening (summarize):
Length
of listening:
Level
of difficulty (easy, medium, difficult, advanced):
How
many times did you listen to this piece?:
What
did you like
about it (subject, content, speed, clarity of voice, transcript, pictures)? Was
the web site easy to use? Why?
What
didn’t
you like about it (subject, content, speed, clarity of voice, transcript,
pictures)? Why not?
What
did you learn?
Would
you recommend this listening piece to other students?
Explain
your answer: Why? or Why not?
Searching the
Internet for Listening Material
Note: to see this page in full text and
glory: http://www.eslhome.com/esl/listen/search.htm
The internet offers many opportunities
for listening practice.
There's only one problem: how to find the right material? It's not easy, but there are some
things you can do to make your search easier.
Basic vocabulary and terminology:
First, it's important to understand
some basic vocabulary.
Computers and the internet use what seem to be unusual words. But, if you think about them, they are
actually very logical.
For more information visit: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Glossary.html
There are many, many, many, many, MANY
search engines on the Internet. But only a few of them are good for academic
research. One good search engine
is called Google. Google
uses "Boolean" language.
"Boolean" language is a special code you can type into a
search engine, to limit your search.
For example, try to find listening material about the environment. The URL for Google is: http://www.google.com/.
Using the plus sign (+)
If you type: environmental listening
resources, Google will put it into Boolean language and will search for:
environmental +listening+resources. The plus sign (+) in Boolean means:
find these words together on the same page.
This
search took only .03 seconds but... Google found 125,000 web pages!!! You need
to "limit" the search to find less pages.
Using quotation marks (" ")
If you type: "environmental listening"+resources the quotation marks tell Google
to search for the words between the quotes next to each other AND on the same
page as the word following the plus sign.
This search took only .04 seconds and reduced the number to 10 web
pages!!!
Using
the minus sign (-)
To reduce this number further, use the minus sign to subtract sites
you don't want. If you type: "environmental listening"+resources
-music Google
will subtract any sites that have the word music on the page. This search took .38 seconds and
reduced the number to 6 web pages.
Now that's much better than trying to look at 125,000 web pages, isn't
it?
Including
"extensions" or application names in your search
At the end of most files (except Macintosh), there is an extension.
These extensions tell computers what type of file it is. For this assignment,
you will be using RealAudio player and QuickTime player to listen to audio files.
The extensions for these files are: .ra or .ram for RealAudio and .au or .aif
for QuickTime. To be sure that you are locating audio files, be sure to include
an extension or the name of the software in your search. This search found 2
pages; read the summary for the first page on the list:
This looks like
a good page for listening materials about the environment. Notice that each
"listing" has the title of the web page, a summary about the site and
the location (URL). You
don’t have to type the address because the title to the web page is
"linked". Now
...try your own search!
Speech Journal
Instructions
Purpose
Spoken journals help students:
A. to feel more comfortable speaking English
B. to speak for a longer time
C. to become aware of errors (pronunciation, grammar,
vocabulary) they make when they speak
D. to correct errors
E.
to learn and use new
vocabulary
F.
to think about and share ideas
which are interesting and important to them
Journal Entries
1. Students
will summarize their review of the listening material from notes on the CALL
review sheet.
2. Students
will make notes to use when speaking – these notes should be brief
reminders.
3. Students
MAY NOT READ from a prepared, complete
text.
4. Students
will record their journal entries on audio cassettes or on PureVoice:
Each journal entry will begin with the student’s name, date and the topic
5. Students
will speak for at least 1 minute and no more than 2 minutes (this time will
increase during the project).
6. Students
should listen to their recording and confirm that they are satisfied with the
entry.
7. Students
will transcribe the tape/audio file and turn in the transcription with the
tape/audio file.
The Teacher will:
1. listen
to the tape for ideas and your words, pronunciation problems, etc.
2. make
corrections to the transcription.
3. record
an oral summation of the student’s strengths and weaknesses in the entry.
4.
re-record the student’s original journal entry with the
teacher’s reformulation, correcting pronunciation and grammatical errors.
5. return the
tape/audio file to the student.
– the transcription with the teacher’s corrections should not be
returned at this time.
Student Revisions:
1. Students
will listen to their original journal entry recording.
2. Students
will listen to the recording of the teacher’s reformulation.
3. Students
will practice speaking with the reformulated recording: trying to match
intonation, rhythm and pronunciation.
4. Students
will make additional notes of teacher’s reformulation and suggestions for
content changes. Students will add
their own changes.
– Students should not erase
previous files/recordings, but forward to the end of the
teacher’s
reformulation and then begin recording.
5.
Students will re-transcribe the revised journal entry.
6. After the second attempt at the
journal entry has been turned in, the initial transcription
with the
teacher’s notes can be returned to the student.
Adapted from Holliday, C. (1997).
Ohio Program of Intensive English, Ohio University, Athens, OH.
TEACHER EVALUATION
OF PRESENTATION
Name
of Speaker__________________
Score
____________
Strongly Strongly Disagree Agree
1. Main idea
was clearly stated.
1
2
3 4 5
2. The
speaker talked about each main point 1 2 3 4 5
and provided clear supporting details.
3. The
presentation was well-organized. 1 2 3 4 5
4. The
presentation was well-prepared. 1 2 3 4 5
The speaker:
5. showed
interest in the topic. 1 2 3 4 5
6. glanced
at brief notes and didn’t 1 2 3 4 5
read
a written speech.
7. spoke
clearly, at a moderate speed. 1 2 3 4 5
8. spoke
in a voice that was neither too 1 2 3 4 5
loud
nor too soft.
9. used
eye contact effectively--that is, 1 2 3 4 5
looked
at people in all parts of the room.
10. used
internet effectively. 1 2 3 4 5
Pronunciation notes (IPA issues): Grammar/Vocabulary
notes
Comments:
Adapted from Fragiadakis, H. & Maurer, V. (2000). Tapestry Listening & Speaking 4. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
Speech
Evaluation (by
Teacher)
Name of Speaker:
Title of Speech:
|
Very understandable |
|
|
|
Not understandable |
Ideal Score |
Spkr. Score |
|
|
Clarity |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
|
|
|
Too Fast |
|
|
|
Too Slow |
|
|
|
Speed |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
|
|
|
Easily heard |
|
|
|
difficult to hear |
|
|
|
Loudness |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
|
|
|
too many pauses |
|
|
|
not enough pauses |
|
|
|
Breath Groups |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
|
|
|
appropriate/effective |
|
|
|
inappropriate/ineffective |
|
|
|
Intonation |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
|
|
|
appropriate/effective |
|
|
|
inappropriate/ineffective |
|
|
|
Stress/Rhythm |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Attention-getting |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
|
|
Organization of Ideas |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
|
|
Memorable |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
|
|
Adherence to |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
|
Adapted from Dale, P. & Wolf, J. (1988). Speech
Communication for International Students. Englewood, NJ: Prentice Hall .
STUDENT SELF-EVALUATION
Name______________________
Strongly Strongly Disagree Agree
1. The main
idea of my presentation 1
2
3 4 5
was
clearly stated.
2. I
talked about each main point 1 2 3 4 5 and
provided enough supporting details.
3. My
presentation was well-organized. 1 2 3 4 5
4. My
presentation was well- prepared. 1 2 3 4 5
5. I
showed interest in the topic. 1 2 3 4 5
6. I
glanced at brief notes and didn’t 1 2 3 4 5
read
a written speech.
7. I
spoke clearly, at a moderate speed. 1 2 3 4 5
8. I
spoke in a voice that was neither too 1 2 3 4 5
loud
nor too soft.
9. I
used eye contact effectively--that is, I 1 2 3 4 5
looked
at people in all parts of the room.
10. I
used the internet effectively. 1 2 3 4 5
If I could make this presentation again, what (if
anything)
would I do differently?:
What I especially liked about my presentation was:
Additional comments:
Adapted from Fragiadakis, H. & Maurer, V. (2000). Tapestry Listening & Speaking 4. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
STUDENT PEER EVALUATION
Name
of Speaker__________________
Strongly Strongly Disagree Agree
1. The
main idea of the presentation 1
2
3 4 5
was
clearly stated.
2. The
speaker talked about each main point 1 2 3 4 5
and provided clear supporting details.
3. The
presentation was well-organized. 1 2 3 4 5
4. The
presentation was well-prepared. 1 2 3 4 5
The speaker:
5. showed
interest in the topic. 1 2 3 4 5
6. glanced
at brief notes and didn’t 1 2 3 4 5
read
a written speech.
7. spoke
clearly, at a moderate speed. 1 2 3 4 5
8. spoke
in a voice that was neither too 1 2 3 4 5
loud
nor too soft.
9. used
eye contact effectively--that is, 1 2 3 4 5
looked
at people in all parts of the room.
10. used
the internet effectively. 1 2 3 4 5
I recommend that next time you (suggestion to the speaker for
improving his/her presentation):
One very good thing about
your presentation was:
Adapted from Fragiadakis, H. & Maurer, V. (2000). Tapestry Listening & Speaking 4. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
Arlyn Freed © 2001 contact: mailto:support@eslhome.com