Recording for Your Learner Via Computer

Kudos to Favorite Tutor of the Week, Teel Haas, who sent us this very well-developed idea about how to use a resource you may already have close at hand to teach listening skills. Here's Teel:

What I recorded:  My learner has very limited opportunities to practice speaking and hearing English, so I decided to record one of the books we are using so she can go back and listen to the lessons and speak along with them.  The book I recorded is the Basic Level version of  English for Everyday Activities – A Picture Process Dictionary by Lawrence Zwier.  My learner really likes this book because it talks about things she does every day:  cooking rice, making salad, cleaning, doing laundry.  Since she knows these activities, it helps her build her English vocabulary and her confidence.

I was looking at going “old school” with a tape recorder, but accidentally discovered that my new laptop, which has Windows 7, has this great feature called “sound recorder.” 

"Old School"

Here’s what to do:

1. Click on the Windows "Start" button, a 4-color flag icon (bottom left of computer screen)
2. A window box opens up that says, “Search programs and files”
3. In that box type in the words: sound recorder
4. A small rectangular box labeled “Sound Recorder” will appear on your screen
5. On the left side of the box, click on the “button” that says “Start Recording.”  Speak slowly and clearly into the computer microphone.I read through each lesson twice,  the first time at a slightly slowed rate, so the learner can get a feeling for how a native speaker sounds. The second time through I read much more slowly, being careful to enunciate words, with the instruction that she should read along with me. There are some sounds and words that are particularly difficult for my learner because those sounds don’t exist in her native Wolof, so I stop and repeat those words for her.
6. When finished recording, save the audio file to your computer.
7. I then burned a CD for my learner, since she has access to a computer and that’s the easiest way for her to play the CD back to listen and practice. (You can also copy the file to a USB flash drive or similar portable memory stick, if that’s more convenient.)

 

What if you don’t have Windows 7?  Check with a public library near you to find out if their public use computers operate with Windows 7.  (The Madison Libraries website doesn’t indicate what operating system(s) they have available.)

The Joy of Homework

If you feel this way, you're doing it wrong.

One of the most common questions tutors ask is, "Can I assign homework to my learner?" The answer is yes. What kind? Whatever your learner can do. Give homework that fits in with their free time, their resources, the kinds of things they like to do. Homework is anything that lets the learner get more exposure to reading, writing, speaking and hearing English.

For reading homework The Minnesota Literacy Council (www.themlc.org) has a site called Story By Story (mcedservices.com/phonics/phonics.html).  It has some wonderfully organized phonetic stories to help a learner by focusing on specific sound concepts. Better yet, it has a basic lesson plan that tutors can use. At the end of the lesson plan they advise tutors,

·         Assign homework (10-15 minutes per day after instruction). Encourage spending time at home to study or read; however, it should not be required. Greater frequency of practice keeps the mind working on learning between lessons.

·         Read aloud and/or spell word lists to someone at home

·         Read aloud phonics stories to someone at home

ESL tutors can assign listening homework for learner that follows the above guidelines, namely: short, ungraded, enjoyable tasks. Those tasks can include watching 15 minutes of a sanely-paced, clear-speaking news program like PBS' "The News Hour" when they get home from work. For the more beginner-level learner, Wisconsin Public Television has programming before 8:00 in the morning learners may watch with their kids. The Wisconsin Channel (wpt2.org/schedule.cfm) also has programs on outdoor sports and gardening plus documentaries on a broad range of grown-up topics. A homework assignment might follow a plan something like the following:

·         Watch program “X” for 15 - 30 min. on ___ before work with the captions on. Use a notebook to write down three interesting phrases you hear, whether you understand them or not.

·         Bring those phrases, exactly as you heard them, to our next lesson.

·         Don't worry about mistakes. We will talk about what you saw and the phrases you wrote down and try to figure out they meant.

Remember: the chances of homework getting done decrease with the amount of time they take but increase proportionate to the fun factor.

Speaking and Listening

Today we start with a resource for teaching listening skills. I had some fun today listening to podcasts. I visited the website eslpod.com where anyone can download files on a steadily growing number of subjects. Podcast Number 529 concerned insulting people, which promised to be interesting. It was. It featured a dialog in which a man and a woman were reacting to some rude behavior from teenagers. It taught idioms such as get on your nerves, give as good as you get and catch your attention. After the slow reading of the dialog, the moderator teaches all of the idioms. Finally the actors read the dialog at normal speed. The dialogs can be downloaded as MP3 files, burned onto CDs for between-lesson listening and, for the really technically endowed learner, loaded onto an iPod. For speaking skills we have a website full of conversation questions, the International TESL Journal. For instance, click here to see questions that can keep a conversation going on the topic of Christmas and the end of the calendar year. The first questions can be answered with a yes or no, such as these:

• Did it snow last year at Christmas?
• Did you believe in Santa Claus when you were a child?
• Did you enjoy last Christmas?

But they go on to be more open ended, for example:

• Where do you think Santa Claus is from?
• Where will you go on Christmas Day?
• Who do you expect to receive presents from?
• If you are not a Christian, does the intense focus on Christmas in the U.S. make you feel bad in any way (e.g., ignored, dismissed, angry, etc.)?

That last question makes me think that some of the questions may need a little reworking to sound more conversational. For instance, 'Did this year's Christmas bother you, with all the advertisements and noise?' The answers, though, may be surprising. Santa has many different names (Sinterklaas, Pére Noel, etc.) and a variety of origin stories. Other cultures have other holidays that celebrate generosity and human closeness. Wishing you great conversations and heaps of generosity, I and Literacy Network thank you for teaching someone.

Hello, ELLLO

English Listening Lesson Library, or ELLO.org, is an extraordinary website for teachers and learners who want a chance to hear natural but easy-to-understand conversation. Four tabs across the top take you to four different areas.
The Views tab has literally hundreds of stories of real people sharing personal experiences on hundreds of topics. Each story has a transcript you can follow along with. The home page holds the most recent stories, but you can search for other topics you don't see at first. I searched for some very ordinary terms, e.g. childcare, safety, movie, dating. Each of those searches turned up more stories than I had time to listen to.
Speakers take care to talk at a leisurely pace and use clear diction. When a speaker uses an idiomatic expression a link pops up in the transcript. Click on that and an audio player pops up to give a concise definition. Here is a screen-grab of that audio player:

It's easy to pause the story for a quick explanation of the new vocabulary term.

Mixer, according to the site, is " a listening activity that features six speakers. Each speaker answers the same question. Students can listen to the answers for fun or test their listening comprehension by answering the questions."

Game lets you test your listening comprehension by clicking on one of four pictures. I, a native speaker, made a few mistakes on that one. The fact that some of the people have Australian, French or other foreign accents adds a measure of difficulty to the challenge.

STeP resembles a Voice of America program in Special English. It features someone talking with careful English teacher diction about a topic. Listeners can participate in a timed comprehension quiz.

News features a cartoon newsreader who reads imaginary news stories. Her lips move and illustrations change behind her while she reads each piece. Interactive quizzes test what the listener has retained.

In most cases you can download the stories to your computer or iPod as MP3 files . I downloaded one three-minute file in less than half a minute. Tutors or teachers should be able to download these audio files and give them to their students on CDs as homework, or simply as something to listen to while they drive to work or do the dishes. I often assert that homework is anything that gets your learner exposure to English between lessons. For those who don't have ready access to a computer with broadband, the public libraries are a great option. Elllo is here, its fun, it's rich with stories. I hope you get a chance to look at it.