by Rebekah Lloyd, CASLS Graduate Intern
This activity was designed for learners of all levels. It was created to help learners incorporate digital tools into their pronunciation practice and encourage them to engage with the language in new ways while practicing difficult words and improving their Presentational and Interpersonal communication
Learning outcomes:
Learners will be able to:
- Practice pronunciation using digital voice recognition apps or online voice recognition software
- Improve pronunciation intelligibility with feedback from app
Mode(s): Interpersonal, Presentational
Materials: Using Digital Tools to Practice Pronunciation video, voice recognition software or app
Procedure:
- Ask the students if they have ever used a voice recognition software to help them learn a new language. Have the students all use a voice recognition app or device of their choice. They can also use the microphone capability on the text application on their phones.
- Introduce the process of incorporating digital tools into pronunciation practice by watching this video.
- Ask the learners to brainstorm a list of words they find especially hard to pronounce. You may wish to have a few words pre-selected that you have noticed your learners struggle with. You can include words with prefixes, infixes, or suffixes, but if the student’s words don’t have these elements, they can still be practiced by breaking the word down into syllables. Write the words on the board or type them onto a projected screen.
- Select a word from the list and demonstrate on the whiteboard or projected screen how to divide the word into prefixes/suffixes/infixes from the root word. Example: ‘Disadvantaged’ becomes ‘advantaged’ when the prefix is removed. When the prefix and suffix is removed it becomes ‘advantage’.
- Divide the learners into groups of 2 or 3 and have them all speak the root word into their voice recognition software. Encourage peer feedback.
- Monitor the learners as they try to pronounce the word. Provide feedback as needed to help them produce the word accurately.
- When the majority of learners have been able to produce the root word so the app recognizes it at least a few times, have them begin to add the prefixes or suffixes back to the word. Have the students speak the entire word into the app and once again practice until students are able to produce the entire word so that the app recognizes it a few times.
- Ask learmer groups create an entire sentence using the selected word and say the entire sentence into the voice recognition app or software. See if they can produce the entire sentence clearly enough for the software to recognize.
- Repeat steps 4-7 with other words from the list as time allows.
Notes: Steps 5-7 can be completed with words with no prefixes, infixes or suffixes by breaking the words down into syllables and practicing the syllables individually and then combining the syllables back together after they are practiced separately.
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