Podcast - Enhancing Skills In The English Class

Carvalho, Ana Amélia A. (Org.) (2009). Actas do Encontro sobre Podcasts. Braga: CIEd. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Podcast – Enhancing Skills in the English Class

Célia Quintanilha de Menezes E. B. I. de São Martinho do Campo [email protected]

Fernando Lopes Moreira Universidade Portucalense Infante D. Henrique [email protected]

Resumo – É fundamental modernizar a Escola criando condições que promovam o sucesso escolar dos alunos e que estes sejam dotados das competências essenciais para a sua plena integração na Sociedade do Conhecimento. As Tecnologias da Informação e da Comunicação (TIC) representam um recurso indispensável a ser utilizado em contexto escolar nesta nova era. De forma a ultrapassar os constrangimentos ainda existentes na Escola e de dar resposta à filosofia preconizada no Plano Tecnológico da Educação, as ferramentas

da

Web

2.0

apresentam-se

como

alternativas

excelentes

para

o

desenvolvimento das referidas competências. Sendo o podcast uma dessas ferramentas, está a ser feito um estudo, onde esta está a ser utilizada com alunos do 7º ano de escolaridade na aula de Inglês como complemento às suas aprendizagens e como forma de promover actividades num modelo de aprendizagem móvel (m-learning), aproveitando o facto de, hoje em dia, quase todos os alunos possuírem um telemóvel ou um Mp3. Abstract – It is essential to update the school creating conditions that promote the success of our students and the essential skills for their full integration into the Knowledge Society. The Information Communication Technologies (ICT) is a vital resource in school in this new era. In order to overcome the existing barriers in school and to answer to the philosophy proclaimed in the Technological Plan of Education, Web 2.0 tools appear to be excellent alternatives to the development of such skills. Being the podcast one of those tools, a study th

is being held in a Portuguese school. It is being used with 7 form students in the English class as a model of mobile learning (m-learning), taking advantage of the fact that almost all students have a mobile phone or an MP3.

Introduction The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have changed the overall picture of the entire process of building knowledge in the current educational system. With the Internet one can easily access to any area of interest. With this research tool searching, sharing and collecting information are reachable with a simple mouse click. The widely available Web 2.0 tools, applications and sites allow Internet users to interact through blogs, collaborate through wikis, publish podcasts, and build relationships through social networks (Warschauer & Grimes, 2007). With the increasing need to apply different teaching methods and to monitor

203

Carvalho, Ana Amélia A. (Org.) (2009). Actas do Encontro sobre Podcasts. Braga: CIEd. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________

students, we are induced to seek alternative solutions. (Menezes, 2008) The enormous amount and variety of existing applications allow us to solve part of this problem since it is a teaching philosophy based on anytime, anywhere. Nowadays mobile devices, such as mobile phones and Mp3 players, have been playing a major role in our students’ lives. Since these devices are more ubiquitous than ever, they should be seen as potential learning tools when combined with new pedagogical approaches and methodologies (Moreira & Paes, 2007). In a globalized world where time is scarce, the podcast is an extremely powerful alternative technology to be used in the process of teaching and learning either in the distance mode (e-learning) or as a complement to teaching in presence (b-learning). Indeed, podcasting allows the teacher to provide teaching materials and lectures, documentaries and interviews in audio format that can be heard by students at any time of day and in any geographical area. The student can access the information provided by the teacher and download it in his mobile device (Junior & Coutinho, 2007) thus building an m-learning paradigm. This paper is a reflection of the use of podcast as a tool for M-Learning, building a shortcut to implement the policy underlined by the Technological Plan, where the Portuguese are supposed to empower their skills and qualifications in this area, thus building the path to the Knowledge Society. This paper is divided into eight parts. In the introduction we contextualize the podcast within the Knowledge Society. In the second we give some examples of podcasting in Portuguese schools and its importance within language learning. In the third we introduce the school where the study is being held and in the fourth we illustrate the study describing some of th

the experiences done so far with students of the 7 form in the English class. In the fifth we witness how this innovative paradigm emphasizes the potential of the podcast as a tool that enhances and develops skills and even as a new paradigm in the teacher/student relationship and in the sixth we speak about some of the obstacles we have faced. In the seventh we reflect about the students’ reactions and in the eight we point out some of the conclusions we came until then. st

Podcast – First Steps towards 21 Century Skills Podcast used as an m-learning tool is still taking its first steps in Portugal. Two known podcasters are Moura & Carvalho (2006a), who became pioneers when they involved their students in an exchanging E-Twinning project called “Correspondance Scolaire” (Moura, 2007). Podcasting was used as a communication tool, thus developing specific skills in the second language they used - French. These same authors have also used podcast as a learning tool in the Portuguese Literature class (2006b). Indeed, podcast stands to provide Education a very different dimension. Instead of being confined to a classroom, learning through podcast can really happen at home, at school or anywhere else (King & Gura, 2007) and the different rates of learning can be respected this way (Junior & Coutinho, 2007). Although teachers are strongly anchored to traditional methods, they are becoming aware that Society has changed and so

204

Carvalho, Ana Amélia A. (Org.) (2009). Actas do Encontro sobre Podcasts. Braga: CIEd. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ st

School must also change in order to shape the future citizens’ skills to answer to 21 century demands. More than ever, being able to communicate in a foreign language is essential for st

everyone who lives in the 21 century. The increased global contact brought in the new network society through international tourism, business and scientific exchange places a premium on the ability for communication in a “lingua franca”. This corresponds to the imperatives of the new society in which English is seen as that “lingua franca” or as our own additional language of communication rather than as a foreign or second language (Warschauer, 2000). In this context, learning a second language is to make that students develop skills that enable them to use it properly in a variety of situations. If we look at the increasing mobility of people and goods within the European Community and the fact that English is considered to be the “lingua franca”, as Warschauer (2000) says, the development of a range of knowledge and essential skills in this area is strategic (Portal da Educação). In this scenario, podcast can empower students in the process of learning English thanks to its portability and versatility since it is a recorded word product with obvious connections to language learning. The podcast can be integrated in the curriculum, promoting activities such as homework, interviews, poetry activities, as a support tool to language learning with grammar episodes – imagination is the border (King & Gura, 2007). As Moura & Carvalho (2006) stated, the potentialities that a tool like the podcast allow in the classroom are innumerous if the teacher is motivated and willing to face the new challenges brought by this technology. According to the same authors, this tool has both pedagogical and motivational potential since it is a technology that is in the pocket of our students. Taking advantage of this fact, they pursued their experience with podcast as a shift to motivation and promotion of the success of their students. The School The Vertical Group of São Martinho has its headquarters in Escola Básica de São Martinho (fig. 1), which is situated in São Martinho do Campo, Santo Tirso, district of Porto. The local environment is based in the textile industry and a very reasonable part of the population economically depends on it. The difficulties that the textile sector has been facing with the globalization of the economy and the competition from the countries with a cheap workforce have been contributing to high rates of unemployment in this population. Our students reflect this conjuncture since it directly affects the familiar economy. Beyond economical difficulties, or as a consequence of them, many of our students show little interest for school and they don’t really show any kind of social ambitions (Projecto Educativo, 2007).

205

Carvalho, Ana Amélia A. (Org.) (2009). Actas do Encontro sobre Podcasts. Braga: CIEd. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Figure 1 - Escola Básica Integrada de São Martinho.

Despite all the schools in the country are officially covered by the Technological Plan, it is still far from being real in many Portuguese schools. The constraints to use the Internet and to carry out ICT activities in class are enormous. Our school has only two computer labs which are frequently busy with ICT classes or with other teachers’ classes who “arrived first”. The wireless network is only confined to a restrict area of the school so, only a few classrooms have wireless connection to the Internet. Some of existing hardware provides slow and low performances. These are some of the obstacles that can transform a simple research task into a frustrating one. In this context, podcast appears to have great potential if we want to work with ICT. With this study we want to acknowledge how ICT impacts on learning English, highlighting the potential of the podcast as an m-learning tool as a complement to instruction. We are working th

with 97 students who attend the 7

form. As part of this innovative use of podcast to

complement instruction, we created audio content integrated in the curriculum believing that it fosters and enhances skills addressed in class. The Podcasts English is Fun We created the podcast “English is Fun” (fig. 2) to accomplish the goals of our study. This podcast can be accessed at http://englishisfun.podomatic.com/. So far, different types of episodes have been made with different purposes. In the first episode the English teacher introduces herself. After downloading the episode, the students had to listen to it and then they had to write a similar text about themselves. They made some interviews to some of their classmates, as well. Afterwards they were able to make their first experiences with these texts. With these activities they worked out their oral/writing skills, learnt how to work with Audacity, the application we used to record the episodes, learned to post their “voice”, although the management of the podcast is restricted to the teacher and learned how to download the episodes to their mobile devices. The students showed great interest during the activities and frequently made questions to know more about it.

206

Carvalho, Ana Amélia A. (Org.) (2009). Actas do Encontro sobre Podcasts. Braga: CIEd. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Figure 2 - English is Fun podcast.

Some grammar episodes have been made as well. These episodes have been made in Portuguese with examples in English because their language knowledge is not mature enough to understand grammar explanations. These episodes are extremely important to support the students’ individual work at home. It is as if they were with the teacher, as they say. Another experience we made was a listening comprehension worksheet. The students downloaded an episode. They had to listen to it without the support of the written text format. Then they did comprehension exercises about it. The results were very satisfactory. About 35% had very good, 18% had good, 23% had fair enough and 24% had a not satisfactory result. The worst results were expected because the students didn’t believe this type of worksheet could happen, as they confessed later; other students thought they were going to have the text on the worksheet and so they didn´t bother to listen to it. In this school year the English group teachers decided to develop extensive reading activities during the second term and so we chose “Fruit Tree Island” by Sue Arengo. At the beginning of the school year we anticipated some difficulties. The extensive reading is optional and so the purchase of these books represents an extra cost for families. Besides when students are confronted with the fact that they have to read a book, this activity is seen as something boring at once. To overcome these obstacles, the podcast appeared to be an answer with the advantage of having no additional costs for families and the fact that it was something new. K12 English Poetry Our school organized the activity “The Week of Poetry” within the National Plan of Reading. During this week there was a day dedicated to English poetry and rhymes. As a way of an innovative involvement, we built the podcast “K12 English Poetry” (fig.3) and it can be accessed at http://k12-englishpoetry.podomatic.com/. The poems and rhymes were selected and recorded during classes. On the “Day of English Poetry”, the episodes were broadcast on

207

Carvalho, Ana Amélia A. (Org.) (2009). Actas do Encontro sobre Podcasts. Braga: CIEd. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________

the school radio "Onda Aberta". This activity proved to be of particular importance for some students who have very particular characteristics, being some of them "visible" when we listen to the episodes. One of these examples is a student who suffers from almost total deafness – he can hear thanks to the devices he wears. Obviously, the difficulty that this student has to listen is reflected in his orality. The exercises involved in the construction of his episode led him to remember and repeat sounds and words. These exercises have contributed much to improve the performance of this particular student at various levels, especially in developing and enhancing his specific skill of orality.

Figure 3 - K12 English Poetry podcast.

A small group of students have severe difficulties at the cognitive level, which also leads to little orality. Like the previous example, these exercises also have proved to be helpful in fostering and enhancing their skills and to discipline their cognitive organization, as well. Another group of students, who are very shy, accepted without hesitation to take part in this activity when it was suggested that they could do it at home, unlike the majority that recorded in class. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to get a word out of them. On the day of the activity, their reaction was somewhat interesting. Since it was the first time they listened to themselves on the radio, they were very proud of their work. The passing by students were curious and made questions about what they were listening to. During the production of the podcast, the students showed much commitment and there were moments of true fun and relaxation with the selected poems and of great complicity with the teacher. Enhancing Skills The carried out activities have been done collaboratively between the students and the teacher. The podcast has allowed to integrate in a structured and systematic way ICT in the classroom and to take advantage of their potential in enhancing and fostering writing and oral skills in English learning. Before recording their texts, they must write them, they must be corrected and only then they are able to record them. When they are recording, they make mistakes, and so they have to do it again. Repetition here is important in learning a second language, especially for students with difficulties. The linguistic and communicative domains are

208

Carvalho, Ana Amélia A. (Org.) (2009). Actas do Encontro sobre Podcasts. Braga: CIEd. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________

essential and the podcast has been leading the students to improve them, empowering them in their writing and oral skills. One of the goals for the creation of the podcasts was to create a space for sharing contents also made by the students, thus working their technical knowhow, as well. During classes several tasks have been suggested to the students and this way they have become content producers, as well. These activities have been showing to be very interesting since their motivation and commitment have been relevant. However, one of the most amazing things for this tool is to make students with some disabilities engaged in the activities. The final result is not perfect, but they show real enthusiasm to take part in this adventure and, like other students, they work their oral and writing skills. As we mentioned before, one of the students is almost deaf and the podcast has an extreme importance as a supporting learning tool, as a tool to study and as a way to repeat words and sentences aloud. There is also a student that has serious problems in speaking to the class due to her shyness. When she was told that she could create the episodes at home, she became one of the best assiduous podcast listeners. Now, she has been participating orally in class more frequently and to interact with the teacher. Her attitude has clearly changed and we discovered a new student. There are also a few students with severe cognitive difficulties and they look at the English subject as a burden. When they got in touch with podcasting and started to have their first experiences with it, they showed they wanted to take part. They may not have done it perfectly, but the most important is that they felt motivated and were engaged in the tasks and English is not such a heavy burden to them. By using the podcast and the students’ mobile devices, we have been promoting an innovating learning environment where the students are responding quite well. Obstacles One of the major obstacles we have faced was the lack of students’ Internet connection at home. Only 46 of the 97 students had Internet connection. However, a great part of them had a computer, 78 students. As we mentioned before, the school also lacks the ideal conditions to carry out ICT activities in the classroom. However, almost all the students have a mobile device which appeared to be ideal to the implementation of our m-learning model using the podcast. To overcome these difficulties, we had to let the students download the episodes during the classes directly from the teacher’s computer which seemed to be a reasonable solution. Students’ reactions Although the obstacles, the students are reacting rather well to the podcast activities. They usually make comments about the episodes in class. They don’t leave a comment on the application, because they fear to do anything wrong in spite of all the teacher’s instructions to do so. One of the students’ criticisms is that the voice “speaks” too fast, but it is a reason to play

209

Carvalho, Ana Amélia A. (Org.) (2009). Actas do Encontro sobre Podcasts. Braga: CIEd. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________

the episodes again and again. The students say that is something different, original and that ICT is not just going to Google to do some research about a certain issue – it is much more than this. It is making good use of the small portable devices. Another important aspect of this experience is the relationship created between teacher/student. They say that the teacher is sometimes at home with them and never gets bothered of explaining the contents again and again. This creates ties of complicity, contributing to develop a good relationship with the students. The parents also look at the mobiles in a different way since their children don’t use them just to send sms’s. th

A similar experience had already been done with another Web 2.0 tool, the blog, with 9

form students in this school. The students’ reactions were similar and the blog appeared to be a strategic element in the students’ involvement, motivation and scores (Menezes, 2008). Conclusion The podcast has been accepted by the great majority of the students. Using podcast to support learning has already begun to belong to some of the good teaching practices in Portuguese schools. The creation of the episodes allowed a diverse set of activities which went through the production of written texts and the expressive reading of them. These activities have proved also to be very fruitful in enabling students to practise correct pronunciation when listening to the episodes. This way, it was possible to lead the students to enhance language and communicative skills as well as writing and oral skills. The students’ reactions are rewarding and this encourages us to go on. The podcast fosters a good and new relationship with the students. Our imagination is the limit for the creation and for the different uses of the podcast. Podcast is not the miraculous heal for weak school scores. However, it can complement teaching and learning enriching the quality of learning, creating personalized learning environments since it is a resource that respects the different rates of learning. It can also encourage students with some disabilities to be engaged in English learning. Although this study is not completed yet, the reactions we have witnessed so far, lead us to believe that the signs are going in a positive direction in what concerns the integration of the podcast in educational practices in learning a foreign language.

References Junior, J. B., & Coutinho, C. P. (2007). Podcast em Educação: Um Contributo para o Estado da Arte. Libro de Actas do Congreso Internacional Galego-Português de Psicopedagoxia (pp. 837-846). Coruña: Universidade da Coruña. King, K. P., & Gura, M. (2007). Podcasting for Teachers. Charlotte, North Carolina: Information Age Publishing, Inc.

210

Carvalho, Ana Amélia A. (Org.) (2009). Actas do Encontro sobre Podcasts. Braga: CIEd. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Menezes, C. Q. (2008). Utilização de Ferramentas E-Learning no Contexto de uma Unidade Programática na Aula de Inglês 9º Ano – o Blog. Actas do Encontro sobre Web 2.0 (pp. 306-312). Braga: CIEd, UM. Moreira, F., & Paes, C. (2007). Aprendizagem com Dispositivos Móveis: Aspectos Técnicos e Pedagógicos a Serem Considerados num Sistema de Educação. Actas da V Conferência Internacional de Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação na Educação (pp. 23-32). Braga: CCUM. Moura, A. (2007). Projecto ETwinning Através da Web 2.0: Uma Experiência em Língua. Actas da V Conferência Internacional de Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação na Educação Challenges 2007 (pp. 253-256). Braga: CCUM. Moura, A., & Carvalho, A. A. (2006a). Podcast: Potencialidades na Educação. Actas do 3º Encontro Nacional e 1º Encontro Luso-Galaico sobre Weblogs. Universidade do Porto. Moura, A., & Carvalho, A. A. (2006b). Podcast: uma ferramenta para usar dentro e fora da sala de aula. Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems (pp. 155-158). Braga: Uminho. Portal da Educação. (s.d.). Obtido em 23 de Junho de 2008, de Ministério da Educação Portal da

Educação:

http://www.min-edu.pt/outerFrame.jsp?link=http%3A//www.dgidc.min-

edu.pt/ Projecto Educativo. (2007). São Martinho Do Campo. Warschauer, M. (2000). The Changing Global Economy and the Future of English Teaching. Obtido em 15 de Março de 2009, de http://www.gse.uci.edu/person/markw/global.html Warschauer, M., & Grimes, D. (2007). Audience, Authorship, and Artifact: The Emergent Semiotics of Web 2.0. (C. U. Press, Ed.) Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, pp. 1-23.

211