Korean Job Discussion Forums

[MissMaggie]

So today I go to the 5th grade classroom all prepared to teach my lesson plan, and find out that not only did the teacher tell me the wrong lesson number, but that the class uses "digital textbook" software and I will have to just watch the class today so I can learn how it works. If you're not familiar with this, I'll explain what I saw.

-All the kids have tablet notebook computers with the digital textbook on them.
-The teacher has a slightly different version where he can show the videos to the class, pretty much just like the CD-Rom for the regular classes.
-The teacher would play the desired video, then have the students put on their headphones and listen to the dialogs over a few times.
-Once the dialog has been presented, the students open a program that will read the dialog and the students must repeat it into their microphones. A little map of their soundwaves appears and compares it to the native speaker's.

My opinion of this technology:
-completely unnecessary and counter productive. The teacher only got through two short (2-4 sentences) dialogs in the 40 minute class. With a textbook I usually get through 2 pages plus an activity.
-You end up spending half the class running around making sure the students are actually doing the correct exercise and not just listening to the songs
-The kids have a hard time focusing on their individual work and staying on-task without someone directly monitoring them
-Even with headphones, all you can hear is 20 different computers playing the dialogs at different times, creating tons of background noise.
-I strongly disagree with the use of the voice-mapping technology. They are never going to match the voice-map of the native speaker. The goal here should be on proper pronunciation and speaking clearly, not on matching the voice of the actor. Especially since the actors were putting the emphasis on the wrong words to make a point. I think the students are just getting discouraged when their voice maps were all over the place, and the technology didn't always work either. It would fail to record, or the recording volume would be too low, only about 60% of the class got any results at all. (not to mention I don't think they are in any way effective: if the results are all over the place when you say "where's my pencil case?" and they're still all over the place when you say "whurrs mye pencir kay?" how are they supposed to know the difference?
- This technology seems to be an advanced tool for non-native speakers to teach the language. Having a native speaker try to use this technology rather than just listening to them speak and judging whether they are speaking well or not is just ridiculous.

Any thoughts?

[frankly speaking]

I have used similar textbooks with similar software. I think that it can be effective if used correctly. Students are engaging the material on their own speed and their own progress and using voice over mapping is useful. Students can judge on their own and repeat as many times as they desire to get the result that they are looking for.

Imagine as a teacher you are having the students pronounce a word or phrase. Do you have time to listen to each one individually? No of course not that would take 10-15 minutes for a class of 30 students. Having them say things in a group doesn't help that much either because individually many can be making the wrong sounds and they don't have the opportunity to see how close they are to the correct pronunciation. If there is even a correct pronunciation. I still stress enunciation over pronunciation. There are so many different ways in which English can be pronounced so as long as students are clear that is enough.

As a native speaking English teacher, do you really think that your job is just to talk to/at students? You also mention that it isn't effective because you can go through more material. However, just covering 2 pages doesn't mean that students actually learned anything or can successfully utilize the material in meaningful communication. Covering 100 pages doesn't mean that they can apply anything.

Overall I agree that programs like this are better for self study and as a reinforcement not as the primary lesson.

Remember, speaking at someone isn't teaching it is lecturing and not that effective.

[lifeinkorea]

Computer stuff like that is good for independent study, but it's like reading a book. It's hard to implement in a classroom setting.

[poet13]

Voicemapping in a regular classroom? Wow!

I use it to help individual students who have speaking contests, or those very few keeners who think it helps them, but that's about it.

I have had good results with voice-mapping, but only using it in specific ways. Two years ago my student placed 3rd nationally, and last another placed 2nd nationally. I only take one student a year for that particular contest.

[MissMaggie]

Of course I don't just have the entire class of 30-something students repeat and assume they are all saying it right. I break the class into more manageably-sized groups and then have them repeat it. It's much easier to determine their abilities this way and the students aren't being singled out. I also use games and activities which require the students to use the vocabulary individually, so by the end of the class I have heard each student use the key vocab and phrases for that day.

The issue I have with the software is mostly that it does not work properly a large percentage of the time, and that I don't feel it's effective in a classroom setting. I agree that it is likely very good when used for independent study outside of class, or when a native speaker is not available.

>Frankly speaking: I never implied that my job was ONLY to talk to or at students. My job is to get the students to understand and use the terms and phrases that I am teaching them. I believe that using a variety of exercises that present different situations in which the terms can be used is more effective than just spending 40 minutes having them practice saying it and ignoring the circumstances in which it should be used. As I said before, when I conduct a lesson without this software, I use a variety of methods to teach them the phrase, and use activities and games to make sure I hear how each student is doing on that lesson.