Oral Journals (Vocaroo)
Intended students:
This is an intermediate-level speaking and listening class in a private university in the US. The students are from South Korea, and are part of a year-long exchange program. The class is a 1.5 hour class that meets 2 times a week.
Time needed:
(Throughout the entire semester, every other week)
Objectives:
Procedure:
Step 1: At the beginning of the course, provide a list of sample oral journal topics (e.g., Talk about something you’ve accomplished during your exchange program. This can be something from inside or outside of class. You can talk about the process, how you felt when you accomplished it, etc.). Also, provide the categories for assessment: pronunciation, speed, articulation, clarity of information (ideas). Encourage practicing beforehand, and listening to the teacher’s feedback several times to improve accuracy. The teacher can play a sample dialogue journal in class.
Step 2: Set aside class time to explain how to use Vocaroo
Step 3: Every other week, have students create oral journal logs via Vocaroo, and send the file by emailing it to the teacher’s Sendtodropbox email (create one beforehand on www.sendtodropbox.com)
Step 4: The teacher gives feedback via audio recording (Vocaroo) and emails it back to students the following week after submission. Students can listen and review the feedback before making their next oral log.
Material:
Vocaroo, Sendtodropbox email account
Evaluation:
References:
Chernen, J. (2009) Taking pronunciation further with oral journals. In T. Stewart (Ed.), Insights on teaching speaking in TESOL (pp. 223-239). Alexandria, VA: TESOL.
Intended students:
This is an intermediate-level speaking and listening class in a private university in the US. The students are from South Korea, and are part of a year-long exchange program. The class is a 1.5 hour class that meets 2 times a week.
Time needed:
(Throughout the entire semester, every other week)
Objectives:
- To be able to verbally present ideas and opinions confidently at a moderate pace
- To improve fluency through encouraging self-correction and allowing students to practice beforehand
- To help build noticing skills by checking feedback from the teacher and implementing corrections/advice in future oral journals
Procedure:
Step 1: At the beginning of the course, provide a list of sample oral journal topics (e.g., Talk about something you’ve accomplished during your exchange program. This can be something from inside or outside of class. You can talk about the process, how you felt when you accomplished it, etc.). Also, provide the categories for assessment: pronunciation, speed, articulation, clarity of information (ideas). Encourage practicing beforehand, and listening to the teacher’s feedback several times to improve accuracy. The teacher can play a sample dialogue journal in class.
Step 2: Set aside class time to explain how to use Vocaroo
Step 3: Every other week, have students create oral journal logs via Vocaroo, and send the file by emailing it to the teacher’s Sendtodropbox email (create one beforehand on www.sendtodropbox.com)
Step 4: The teacher gives feedback via audio recording (Vocaroo) and emails it back to students the following week after submission. Students can listen and review the feedback before making their next oral log.
Material:
Vocaroo, Sendtodropbox email account
Evaluation:
- Organizing submissions. To make sure the teacher can keep track of the Vocaroo submissions, instruct students to include their name, journal number, and topic in the comment box.
- Technical difficulties. Make sure students play back their oral logs to make sure they recorded everything before submission.
References:
Chernen, J. (2009) Taking pronunciation further with oral journals. In T. Stewart (Ed.), Insights on teaching speaking in TESOL (pp. 223-239). Alexandria, VA: TESOL.