Project Part 2: Using Voicethread in ESL Education

My students surprised me today. I divided them into groups of five to talk about their cities. It is less threatening for them to speak in front of four students than twenty students. Their assignment was to present the same information that was in their written reports and on their Wordle, but in a conversational style rather than a formal speech. Other students were encouraged to ask questions so there would be group interaction. I walked around and listened in, and I was amazed at the group dynamics. Even my shyest student who seldom speaks in class was visibly animated as she spoke about Burma. She told her group about the recent tsunami destruction. Students were taking notes and asking questions. Others were walking over to the map and locating the cities and countries. Hamid from Casablanca gave his group advice for shopping in the marketplace. "Buy the leather jacket from the street vendor for $200. In the fancy store with the pretty girl the price will be $1200. Turn and walk away several times to get the price down." This might not seem like a big deal to some of you, but keep in mind that these students were not speaking their first languages. They were speaking English.

Students love talking about their countries, as was evident in my class today. Some of their comments got me thinking about how I could use Voicethread to record these comments. I thought it would be too challenging and possibly embarrassing for my low beginning/high intermediate students to record their comments for others to hear. But today they were polite and nonjudgmental as they listened to each other speak. Why would they be any different listening to each other's recorded comments? With enough preparation, I think they could do it.

One of my ideas is to use Voicethread to set up a world tour. Each student will become a tour guide and record a short speech about one interesting site in his or her city or country. The photograph could be a famous building, monument, sculpture, fountain, wall, market, or natural site. Other students could listen to the speech and make their own comments. Many of my students have limited educations, and this would expose them to new places in the world.
A similar idea would require the students to post photos and comment on their favorite sites in the United States. They could write sales pitches to encourage other students to visit these places.

Today my class finished an activity about famous paintings. Each student chose one painting from a site called WebMuseum: famous artists and wrote a short descriptive paragraph about that painting. The students also needed to comment on why they liked a particular painting. I typed all of their paragraphs into a document and distributed them. The students displayed their chosen paintings on the computers, and the class had to walk around and match the paragraphs to the paintings. I could vary this lesson by using Voicethread. Students could record their descriptions and comments about their paintings. Other students could listen to the comments and voice their opinions about the painting. I could incorporate a lesson on how to express agreement or disagreement with someone's opinion.

All of these Voicethread activities would require students to work on pronunciation, enunciation, rate of speech, and phrasing. These assignments would help prepare students for other types of public speaking. I think it will be worth a try.