Blog #5: Voicethread

Chapter 6 in our Tips for Teaching with CALL textbook argues that CALL can be used to help language learners develop their pronunciation abilities, which is crucial to developing speaking abilities. CALL activities should provide opportunities for learners to listen to and practice different dialects, focus on particular sounds and stress patterns, practice these sounds, and get feedback from the program.

After reviewing the article at edutopia.org and exploring how Voicethreads work, it seems that voicethreads do not specifically provide opportunity for students to learn about and practice specific pronunciation issues. Also, voicethreads themselves do not provide feedback for student utterances. This is not to say, however, that voicethreads are not effective ways for students to practice their speaking skills.
Chapter 6 also references Eskenazi (1999), who states that certain pedagogical principles encourage the development of pronunciation and thus speaking skills. Included is the fact that learners need to produce lots of sentences on their own, receive relevant feedback, and feel comfortable while practicing in the classroom. Voicethread seems effective in fulfilling these priniciples. Voicethread gives students ample opportunity to produce sentences/utterances about a specific, relevant, authentic topic. The article at edutpoia.org explains that this tool makes all different types of learners feel comfortable practicing the language, as it is more private than speaking in a large classroom. It gives all students opportunity to provide input at their own pace. I would point out here, though, that students can provide responses by voice or by written text, so as teacher, it would be important to make sure students were responding by voice when the focus of the classroom is on speaking. Finally, while Voicethread does not evaluate the accuracy of student input, it does provide opportunity for student self-evaluation, as well as collaberative evaulation, as both teacher and students listen to the conversations and provide feedback. In fact, perhaps common pronunciation issues could be pointed out and addressed by the teacher in subsequent lessons/activities. As research shows that computer feedback is not always effective and often "shakey," this might be a better means of feedback anyway.
Therefore, while Voicethread does not specifically focus on pronunciation, it provides a place for students to practice authentic utterances at a level and place comfortable to them. An engaging and collaberative atmosphere is created for teacher and peer feedback. I would definitely try using Voicethread to help my students improve their speaking skills. Would you agree that Voicethread could be useful for improving speaking skills?

References:

Chapelle, C. (2008). Tips for Teaching with CALL

http://voicethread4education.wikispaces.com/EFL+&+ESL

http://www.edutopia.org/voicethread-interactive-multimedia-albums