There was a time when I worried too much about how my English sounds. I doubted if it is understandable for the native speakers. I remembered the moment when I decided to ask a question at an international seminar after the seminar finished. I was waiting until the other participants had left the room to ask it. I felt so anxious to let people hear how my English sounds. The speaker told me I should have asked the questions during the seminar, so everyone will get the chance to know his answer. He told me it was a good question and the answer was worth being known by all participants. Since that day, I tried to win my anxiety in order to use my English to communicate. Even though I believe that English teaching should be focused on the meaning, it is still worth paying attention to the accuracy to minimize the anxiety.
For a teacher, it could be a dilemma to only focus on accuracy in the class as it will not make the learning meaningful. I personally would not recommend it too. But no need to worry now, we can share this job with Speechling! It is an English coaching online platform that facilitates learners to practice their listening and speaking accuracy. The focus of the lessons is to guide learners to get every single word correctly in an utterance and also to pronounce every word appropriately. Teachers can assign the lesson in Speechling as an enrichment lesson. Wait...don't blame me for extra work yet, teachers! It will not give you one because Speechling will provide learners with an English coach who will give them feedback on their practice.
Speechling has two practice modes, understanding mode (listening) and speaking mode. Each mode has several types of practice. Let's check what our students can do on this platform!
👂Practicing their listening accuracy
There are 5 listening practice activities in Speechling; Dictation, listening comprehension, multiple choices, fill in the blank, and flashcards. All activities emphasize the importance of getting the right words.
⏩Dictation
In this practice, learners are instructed to listen to an utterance (the length of the sentence depends on the learners' level). Then they need to write what they heard in the provided box. They can check on their answer by clicking the check answer button. Automatic feedback will appear to let them know whether they get it right or not.
⏩Listening comprehension
The title of this section does not represent the activity. The word comprehension suggests a listening activity focusing on getting detailed information. However, all the learners can do in this exercise is listen to a sentence that will appear in the box after the audio played the sentence completely. There is no question to assess their listening. Instead, learners can say the sentence back and record it by clicking a red button in the following picture. Learners can re-listen the sentence and slower the speech speed before recording their utterance.
⏩ Multiple choices, Fill in the blank, and Flashcards
If you think finally learners can have listening comprehension questions, I am afraid you will be disappointed. Again, in this section, learners only need to tell what they hear. It will also happen in the fill-in-the-blank and flashcards sections.
💬 Practicing their speaking
Unlike the listening mode, the speaking mode invites learners to do more than just parroting. There are three sections that can be explored in this part after they practice their "speaking" in the parroting section: answering the question, describing an image, and saying anything.
⏩ Answer the question
Learners can express their opinion in English this time. They will get a random question to be answered. They have to record their answer by clicking the red button below the question. Unfortunately, they will only have 10 seconds to record it, so they probably could not express their thought much.
⏩ Describing an image
Images can be interesting stimulations for learners to activate their vocabulary to describe what they see or feel. This activity can help learners to use their English to articulate their thoughts.
⏩ Say Anything
I hope you agree with me that speaking is not an easy thing for a foreign language user. We sometimes can not recall the words we need to express what we think. This learning section will be useful for learners to practice their speaking. They can write what they are going to say before they record it. This strategy can help them to get through the formulation stage before they finally can articulate their ideas, However, what makes me worry is this strategy will promote unnatural utterances and will fail to encourage the learners to interact in a real conversation.
🔼 What is good about Speechling?
Based on what I experience, practicing English accuracy can be intimidating when there are people around. I can feel like being judged even though no one probably did. Using Speechling, learners can have their private learning space. They will feel secure during the learning and hopefully, that will motivate them to improve their English. Moreover, this platform can also possibly promote autonomous learning since they provide audio journal which contains learners' learning record and feedbacks.
Learners can play their recorded speaking practice back and listen to the feedback. By this, they can find a gap between their mistakes and the feedback they received.
🔼What is limited? 😟 and 🙆What can we (teachers) do about it?
You might have guessed what am I going to say about the limitation. yes! the cost. The platform will only allow learners to record their speech in 10 seconds. The length of the speech will affect how much feedback the online coach will give. This is why they limit it.
But ..... apart from the cost or internet access or devices availability, there is one thing I am more concern about: the feedback.
The feedback from the online coach will only focus on accuracy. Learners will get feedback on how they are supposed to pronounce the words. They will tell learners about where to stress the word or how the word can be pronounced differently in UK or Ame English. The focus on accuracy in the feedback can help learners to improve their intangibility in communicating and when it is improved, it may reduce their anxiety in using English. Nevertheless, it may also work the other way. Learners can feel more anxious because they are exposed to how accuracy matter. Additionally, the accuracy taught in this platform is based on standard English while English has grown into a global language, a lingua franca in an international setting. There are many English variations learners might find in their future real world. Exposing them to only standard language may challenge them to face the real world version of English,
So,.... as a teacher we need to .....
Highlight that accuracy may help our students to face their anxiety in using English as they may feel their English is acceptable, but it is essential to bold that to become an English user, they do not need to always be accurate in their language. What really matters is that they can participate and involve in a real conversation, express their thoughts, and build relationships internationally.
Finally, to end this post, let's answer the question on the title! Does parroting matter? I will say no, but it can help. sources:
Images: https://www.pexels.com/
screenshot: Speechling.com
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