A world language teacher at our school showed me a new addition to her classes. It was a digital voice recorder. The world language teachers have each student record a conversation about the topic or unit of study. The teacher can listen to the recording, score the piece with an oral presentation rubric, and download the file into the student’s folder.

I was excited by the idea and decided to borrow one of her digital voice recorders to try it out in my class. The first time I used it, I tried all of the settings. Then I modeled it with students by recording the passage that we were reading. Then I passed the device around, demonstrating how to record, pause, and stop the recorder. Each beginning-level English language learner (ELL) practiced recording by reading a part of the passage. We then listened to the recordings so that they would become familiar with the sound of their voices. I used an oral language rubric that was created by the West Hartford Public School, West Hartford, CT, World Language Department's middle school, to score their reading.  I then downloaded their pieces to each student's file on the computer.

The next time we used the recorder, I gave students pictures of different families and asked them to record a story about the families. This was used as my pretest for a unit on the family. Some students could say some basic words such as mother, father, sister, brother. Some students spoke only in their first language because they did not have enough vocabulary. We again listened to the recordings. After the class, I downloaded the files and scored them. Later the students could see their scores on the rubric. During this unit the students learned new vocabulary and applied the skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing about the family. After the students had completed this unit of study, I gave them a posttest using the same pictures that I had used for the pretest. In this way I could compare the two assessments. I was also able to save the data by downloading the audio files, scoring the rubric, and charting their progress. By listening to their recordings and seeing the rubrics, the students could also see and hear their progress.

In the meantime I contacted my department and explained the benefits of using a digital voice recorder. The model that I had borrowed was an Olympus WS-600S Handheld Digital Voice Recorder, which cost $79. I was able to purchase one digital voice recorder for my classroom to use for other lessons and projects and with other fluency levels.

In researching, I found other ideas for using this device. Some teachers have students interview other students. ELLs “can use the devices to practice pronunciation or make recordings of certain phrases or words to increase their vocabulary. . . . [One teacher] teams her students up with local state park officials to record educational podcasts about the parks” (Ash, 2009, paras. 6–7). Using these devices also provides an opportunity to teach students about the ethical use of the device. This includes “not recording people without their permission and how to respect copyright laws when putting together a multimedia presentation” (Ash, 2009, para. 22). Audio recording devices are a tool and provide another means of learning that is especially useful for ELLs. The students are able to record, edit, and listen to the pieces they create. This gives them some control in capturing the magic of oral language and creating a special oral presentation.

REFERENCES:

Ash, K. (2009, July 13). Digital voice recorders turn students into interviewers. Education Week. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2009/07/16/04recorders.h02.html

Joyce Bogdan is the IEPIS Community Mangaer. She has a BS in elementary education from Central Connecticut State University and an MA in education with a certification in bilingual/bicultural, English for Speakers of Other Languages from the University of Connecticut. Her sixth year is from various universities, including Brandman/Chapman University.