Activating Authentic Audio:
Online Activities for Listening and Speaking
Language Teaching and Learning Updates
January 5, 2007
University of Tartu Language Centre
This workshop explores how language teachers can take advantage of online opportunities for developing their learners' listening and speaking skills using authentic audio materials. Participants will become more familiar with Internet websites and resources for learning, particularly with the National Public Radio website. In this hands-on workshop, we will explore ways to use audio productively to motivate learners by creating and sharing practical activities for language learning. Using an easy-to-use online tool called Filamentality, participants will generate their own webhunts during the session in order to explore, raise awareness, amplify knowledge, and exchange learning experiences and teaching expertise.
Activating Prior Experience
- What kinds of authentic audio do you already know about?
- Do you use audio in your classes?
- If yes, how do you use it?
Web Sampling with Filamentality and NPR
NPR (National Public Radio) is an internationally acclaimed producer and distributor of noncommercial news, talk, and entertainment programming. A privately supported, not-for-profit membership organization, NPR serves a growing audience of 26 million Americans each week in partnership with more than 800 independently operated, noncommercial public radio stations. Each NPR Member Station serves local listeners with a distinctive combination of national and local programming. With original online content and audio streaming, npr.org offers hourly newscasts, special features and ten years of archived audio and information.
Filamentality is a fill-in-the-blank tool that guides you through picking a topic, searching the Internet, gathering good Internet links, and turning them into online learning activities. Support is built-in along the way through Mentality Tips. In the end, you'll create a web-based activity you can share with others even if you don't know anything about HTML or serving web pages.
Workshop Tasks
Warm-up
1. Open your email in a second window.
2. Send me an email at uhler@ut.ee.
3. Include your name (something about yourself - optional) and a website in English that you recommend to the group.
Note: While working from this page, you can open links in new windows by right-clicking on the links and selecting 'open in new window' rather than navigating away from this PBwiki.
Exploring Authentic Online Audio at NPR
In a new window, open the UTaudio Sampler to explore more about one great resource for using audio in language teaching, National Public Radio.
Explore and Share
1. Find a piece of Audio either on NPR or another site. You may wish to explore one of the many options listed on Jen MacArthur's Hotlist about Online Audio Resources or you may wish to take this time to further explore a resource you already know about but have not used extensively.
2. Take some time to get to know the site a bit -- look for texts or special features you think might be useful for teaching.
3. Using Filamentality, create your own exploratory web sampler to share with another workshop group.
Note: Please also explore the Filamentality homepage. Follow the directions to view samples or to start a new page.
4. Once you have completed your sampler, send it to Jenn at uhler@ut.ee to be distributed and shared with the other seminar work groups.
Learn
Once you have finished exploring, choose one of the samplers another group has created to learn about other new resources for using online audio materials.
Note: After receiving all of your work, Jenn will post all of the workshop samplers here for future reference and your convenience.
Ideas?
Do you have further ideas about how to use authentic online audio materials in your classroom? Share them with Jenn at uhler@ut.ee and she'll post them here for everyeone to see and comment.
Please take a moment to complete the workshop feedback form. Thanks!
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