SpeakApps Tools and Tasks Barcelona, December 13th, 2014 Rachel Playfair & Maria Luisa Malerba  

SpeakApps Tools

Workshop Questions How do you teach oral skills? What learning environments can you use? What makes a speaking task fun or engaging? What should you take into account when designing an oral task? What task types work well? How many of you are using Moodle / Blended or face to face / Use Skype What tools do you use Oral production and speaking interaction Teaching contexts Main

Langblog is a blog with audio and video functionality which is embedded into a virtual classroom.

Task Design Criteria Task length Visual support Interaction Authenticity Challenge Relevance Instruction format Visual / Audio Input Examples / Prompts Growth

Task Types Warm Up Activities Giving Information Describing Processes Presentations Describing Processes Giving opinion / commentary Picture / Object Descriptions Guessing Games Story-telling Rhymes and Poetry Error Correction Tasks Pronunciation Practice Feedback / Reflection Task Types

Keep in mind… Instruction format Instruction length and clarity Give an example Specify the language to be included Set a time limit Encourage speaking naturally, not reading a script How you prepare for recording (before/during/after)

Using SpeakApps tools in the future? The tools are not stand alone programmes. To use these tool in the future you can… use the tools directly from the SpeakApps platform. install the tools in your local LMS (Blackboard, Moodle etc) Installed locally by the LMS administrator Installed and run off the SpeakApps machines Request a classroom from SpeakApps and try the tools!

www.speakapps.eu / @speakapps speakapps@uoc.edu Thank you!