Recording the students As we saw in the last activity, the cassette player can be used not only for listening but also for recording. Students, like most people, can feel embarrassed or self-conscious when recording themselves. However, it is an excellent way to build students’ confidence and help their pronunciation. It is often difficult for students to know how to improve their pronunciation. If they are able to listen to themselves, then they can have a clearer idea as to what they need to do. If the students are able to assess their own progress by listening to themselves, by perhaps having a check list of things they have been working on ... and if they do this regularly over a period of time and they can see that there is improvement, that helps. Kenny Graham, teacher and teacher trainer at the Bell School in Cambridge - Teaching With Technology, Programme 3
Students can record themselves as part of activities such as ‘news room’ above, or when doing specific pronunciation exercises. This kind of work is made easier if there is access to a language laboratory where the teacher can monitor and give feedback to students individually. Some practical considerations when using a tape recorder:
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Listen to any material fully before you use it in class. Is the quality good enough? Do you know the answers to the questions?
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Make sure you know how to operate the cassette player. Play the tape in the class before the lesson and adjust and position the player so that it is clearly audible even at the back of the room.
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Cue the tape. This means find the place on the tape where you want the listening to start. Some tape recorders have a counter. If yours has, zero it. This means that even after you have played the tape you should be able to find the starting point again without difficulty.
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Check that e verything works before the lesson. Remember, technology can always fail. If you lose power or the tape recorder doesn’t work, what are you going to do? You should at least have a transcript of the material which you can read out if necessary.
For details on how to stage a listening activity, see Exploiting listening and reading texts on page 19
Radio
The radio is by no means a new form of technology. It has been used in education for many years, but have you ever thought of using a live radio broadcast in an English language lesson?
There are a wide range of English language programmes broadcast around the world through organisations such as BBC World Service and Voice of America. These can provide useful language learning resources for the teacher whether the programmes are designed for learners of English or not. Most course books supply listening materials, but these can easily become dated. Radio programmes supply authentic and up to date materials. Using them can help to bring variety to the lesson and can be motivating for the students. Radio English is seen as ‘real’ English, not the artificial English of the classroom. It is also a way to expose students to other cultures and ways of life. The teacher who wants to use radio material has to be carefully prepared. Here are some points to remember when thinking about using a radio programme in the classroom:
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Try to select programmes that will be of interest to your students, not just yourself! Reception of radio programmes can often be difficult, be sure to check that you have clear reception at the same time
