5 New ICT Tools for Language Courses[Updated Fall 2021]
Try these five ICT tools to increase engagement in your language, linguistics or phonetics courses!
With the autumn semester fast approaching, you may be facing some uncertainty as to the fate of your courses — online? Blended? In-person? For those returning to the virtual learning arena, I’ve curated five of my favorite ICT teaching tools that work especially well in a language classroom. Some of these may be familiar to you, but I’ve included some creative new ways to integrate them into your course plans.
These tools come from a seminar my colleague Vigilija and I sometimes hold across Lithuania. She is fantastic at creative ICT solutions! Just check out her “Cool ICT Tools Padlet!”
1. Socrative
Socrative is an app that allows you to get instant feedback from students. You can use a variety of question types, like multiple choice, true or false, or open-ended, without having to prepare them in advance. It’s a great way to make sure everyone is still awake!
There are many classic mini-assessments that you can do with Socraitve, but by far, my favorite use is for checking-in with students. One of the biggest challenges with my distance-learning language students was simply encouraging them to practice speaking a new language. When my questions were met by silence, I didn’t know if I was unclear, if they just didn’t care, or if there were certain cultural cues I was missing. One day at the end of our class, I launched an anonymous open-ended question on Socrative: “What would make you feel more comfortable speaking in class?” Within ten minutes, I had 50 interesting, anonymous responses. Some students cited working in small, breakout groups as a major aid in feeling more confident, while others mentioned problems at home that made them embarrassed to turn on their microphones.
Bottom line: Try this in conjunction with Mentimeter, and I promise you’ll connect with your students like never before!
2. Mote
Mote is an extension for Google Chrome that takes leaving feedback to the next level! This tool allows you to leave a voice memo on any student work submitted via Google docs, Google slides, etc.
More instructor feedback was the number one comment from my students when I asked them what would make distance learning more enjoyable for them.
Often times, when teaching large groups, it can be difficult to leave written feedback on every assignment, but I found that Mote allowed me to knock-out 1–2 minute recordings for a variety of different assignments.
Some of the ways that I used Mote last semester were:
- Giving group feedback to my C1 students on writing research questions/academic paper outlines.
- Leaving feedback for my B1 students on their oral presentations, focusing on specific words and phrases that were challenging in terms of pronunciation.
- Leaving encouraging words on mini-essays and other assignments.
- Leaving specific notes on sociolinguistic assignments relates to prosody and pronunciation.
Bottom line: the personal touch of a voice note is always appreciated…and you might just save some time!
3. Wakelet
Wakelet allows you to save, organize and present multimedia content with your students, teachers and learning communities. It’s a bit like a mash-up of Padlet and Pinterest, and it works great in a academic setting.
I’ve used Wakelet to:
- Create collaborative boards for language students, where they can leave links and texts about a particular theme/target vocabulary we’re working on.
- To “clip” resources for projects for my Research Methods students.
Bottom line: Pinterest with a twist!
4. Twiddla
While most distance-learning tools such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams come with a built-in whiteboard feature, I like Twiddla for its collaborative nature. Plus, you don’t need to create an account or sign-in in order to use it! Simply start a session, and share the link with others. The free version allows for a 30 minute session, which is usually the perfect amount of time for a short activity.
Some of the ways I’ve used Twiddle are:
- Phonetics courses! This is a very easy and fun way to have students practice their IPA symbols. Try calling out a word and seeing who can transcribe it, for example. The ability to draw can make it a little more fun than needing to hunt for the correct symbols (especially for students new to transcriptions).
- Pictionary-type games. As an icebreaker, I asked students to think of a superpower they’d like to have, then they each took turns drawing it, and we had to try and guess what it was. They loved it! This can be extended for any kind of drawing activity.
- Annotating photos and images. You can upload a photo, and then everyone is able to draw on it or add a comment. I used this with beginner language students, asking them to see who could circle a particular photo detail the fastest, etc.
- As an old school whiteboard game. I got this idea from French classrooms, where it’s quite common for students to use a small ardoise or chalkboard, which they hold up to give a right answer. This is perfect for working on targeted vocabulary related to objects or shapes, where you can ask students to all try and draw or design a particular word or object as you say it.
Bottomline: everyone loves to doodle!
5. Zeeob
Zeeob was introduced to me by Vigilija, who also happens to be a marketing maven! This tool is typically used to check how social media posts will look before they’re posted. I’ve found that it’s an excellent tool to sneak writing practice into our sessions, without students even noticing.
During the first week of classes, I usually ask students to create an Instagram post, either with a picture of themselves, or an image that they feel represents their identity. They need to accompany it with a caption, and they are free to customize the location, the “likes” and their username. I love to see them having fun with it! Depending on their levels, we even take a look at real hashtags in the target language (for sociolinguistic courses, this can be such an engaging way to introduce social media and language discussions).
Other ways that I’ve used Zeeob are
- Asking students to create contrasting Facebook posts that 1) communicate interesting statistics following an academic article 2) an example of a catchy headline and “fake news.”
- Encouraging students to create mock-up social media posts after researching hashtags and trending topics in the target language.
- Creating visuals to represent different spheres of language use in different contexts.
