Transferring Speaking Activities Outside the EFL Classroom

Traditionally, speaking tasks were considered as an integral part of an EFL lesson. Before technology gained a foothold in the EFL classroom speaking tasks were only done exclusively in class. None of us could ever envisage that such tasks could be transferred outside the EFL classroom.

Well, thanks to Movenote this is feasible. This is a free tool from which students can record the speaking tasks that the teacher has assigned for homework. Initially, one logs in with either their google/facebook/Linkedin/ account. The first time somebody logs in there is a video tutorial. It is a very simple and user friendly tool.

Let’s assume that in your course book you have a speaking task about tourism, places one has visited etc, and you have decided to assign a speaking task for home work. After you have demonstrated how to use the tool (in our case movenote) to the students, you can give them the task. A potential task may include recording an oral description of their favorite place through Movenote. As a teacher, try to elicit as much language as possible by providing questions for them to answer. An example is demonstrated bellow.  

(Please note that the task bellow is taken from an MA tutor that presented this tool to me. The sample answer that is provided was done jointly with a course mate of mine.)

You can find the answer here. 

So when the students have created their recording they can upload it to the class’s blog and share it with the rest of the class. Bear in mind that when you create the video you have the option to directly email the URL to the teacher from Movenote. The URL will be right in front of you. This is evident from the following picture. 

This tool fosters the communicative approach to language learning. Proponents of this approach claim that language acquisition occurs when a learner is given the opportunity to communicate through the language, that is to actually speak it. Movenote provides multiple opportunities to language learners in order to practice their speaking skills extensively anywhere they are.

Advantages

• Extensive oral practice for the EFL learners. Time is often limited in class and not enough time is given to each student to speak and receive feedback. Hence, such tools provide abundant opportunities for students to speak and receive recorded feedback from teachers.
• Even the most reticent students produce extensive oral output because they are not speaking in front of an audience, but in front of the pc. Hence, they feel less exposed to any potential weird looks or discouraging peer comments. 
•  The revolutionary aspect of this is that you can go back to what was said. This is very useful when you are sitting for a high stakes exam e.g. IELTS, FCE, CPE.

Disadvantages

• Time consuming for the teacher to give individual feedback for each recording.
•  Providing feedback can be a hassle to some teachers as it requires additional knowledge of technological tools such as screen capture tools (e.g. Snagit).

A decade ago such things didn’t exist even in our craziest imagination. 

Let’s all try to ameliorate our teaching techniques… Let’s all make use of these technological advances!!!