Digital Tools

Vocaroo

Vocaroo is an online tool that allows users to record, send, and download voice messages. Teachers and students can use Vocaroo in different activities. They can record themselves and listen to others’ recordings. The recording can be download and sent by a link or even scanned with a QR code reader.

There are a lot of benefits to this digital tool. In Vocaroo, the students record themselves in English and it’s a good way for them to practice their speaking skills. It improves the self-confidence of the students in speaking. It gives a chance also to shy students that don’t speak in class to practice their speaking. The students can record and listen to themselves; they can take notes on their grammar and pronunciation. They can also use Vocaroo to rehearse their presentations.

Vocaroo helps the students to practice their communication skills. The students share their recordings and respond to each other. The students can work together in-class activities such as podcasting, online discussions, explaining a process or procedure in a certain subject, and so on.

Vocaroo is free and can be used by anyone. However, Vocaroo is a flash-based tool, so it can’t be used from a phones. Therefore, the teacher should give the tasks in Vocaroo as homework so the students will do it from their computers. Another option is to do the lesson in a computer room at school.

TTS Reader

TTS Reader is a site where users can listen to texts in English. The voice in TTS is computer-generated, and reading speed can usually be sped up or slowed down. TTS lets both see and hear text when reading. Many TTS tools highlight words as they are read aloud. This allows users to see text and hear it at the same time.

TTS Reader has a lot of benefits as a learning tool for ETL students. The students can practice on their both listening and reading skills. While listening to the text, they can also see the words and learn how to pronouns it appropriately. They learn to understand the words in English while it’s spoken in different speeds. TTS can also read text aloud from images. The students can take a photo of something that is written in English and hear the words in audio. The teacher can use it as a learning tool inside the class or as a homework after school.

TTS improves the critical thinking skills of the students. While listening and reading texts in English, the students practice and develop many important skills such as analysis, interpretation,inference, explanation, problem solving and so on. Students that have problems in reading from printed words on a page, can use digital text with TTS in class and it helps them read better. TTS also helps kids recognize and fix errors in their own writing. In addition, TTS is available from any digital tool the user choose, such as tablet, phone, computer and so on.

When the teacher is using TTS in class, it might be a problem for students with difficulties. They need to hear it in a slower speed than the rest of the class. Therefore, it can be a problem to play in class a spoken text. However, The teacher can overcome this problem by considering the lower level students. After the teacher play a certain unit from the text, she needs to stop and make sure everyone understands what was read, or rathar the text should be played in advance in slwer speed. This way everyone will have the chance to recognize and understand all the spoken words.

Quizlet

Quizlet is an American online study application that allows users to study various topics in vocabulary via learning tools and games. Quizlet lets users create sets of terms and definitions customized for their own needs. The user can also pick the level of difficulty and game type. This tool is similar to paper flashcards. Users are shown a “card” for each term, which they can flip over by clicking the word.

I can be a great learning tool for ETL students. The students can learn new vocabulary words in a fun and active way. The students has the option to choose the form of the card to be an image, a word, or both. After they choose the definitions of the words, the students see whether or not their answer was correct. They can choose to practice again on the words they didn’t remember. The teacher can use Quizlet as an activity in the class or as homework for learning new vocabulary. It can also be a good way to practice for a test or a dictation.

Quizlet is a good method to improve the student’s collaboration skills. The teacher can breaks the class up into teams or plays the game with students individually.

By collaboration, each team will together choose the correct term or definition to win, the team that has the most points winning. When the teacher decides to mix up the teams, the groups are randomly put into new teams.

The disadvantage of Quizlet is that it might be hard for students to know the definitions of the words at the first attempt. Therefore, the teacher should intruduce the new words to the students in class before they practice on Quizlet.