Oral Homework to Improve Verbal Skills

Bach. Elena Beatriz Madrigal Cordero

emaestria11@gmail.com

Homework is always something that teachers and students have to deal with in their currently study time. This is usually a written task set by the teacher out of class, in pairs or individually. Moreover, it is supposed that the teacher is the one who has to cope with the grading. But Elba Méndez (2010) in her article “How to Set Up Oral Homework a Case of Limited Technology” asserts the importance to change the traditional point of view about homework, and she emphasizes the way oral homework provides students with a great opportunity to practice and improve fluency in a Second Language because all the learners have the opportunity to produce speech, articulate English sounds, and practice listening skills.

In my opinion, oral homework gives great advantages because it can be completed in pairs or individually, it represents an easy way to give feedback and it could be turned by e-mail or with a record device such as a CD or a USB memory. In addition, it provides an opportunity to be listened and receive feedback by other students.

Méndez (2010) states that there are different requirements to take into account when an oral homework is assigned; one requirement is that recording devices must be feasible to the students; quite the opposite the teacher could work with different gadgets like cell phones, school’s computers or students’ computers at home. Also, it is imperative to set up a recording format as MP3 and the name of the file, for example: “OralHWK1-by student’s name ”. Related to this, it is important that the teacher become familiar with some conversion programs, as it is shown in the following website http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/gmm/fwaudiocodec.html. 


Obviously, teachers have to establish guidelines for handing in oral homework which includes the format, speech time –from one or three minutes—it depends if it is assigned individually or in pairs; grading aspects such as grammar or pronunciation aspects. And clearly, the oral homework has to match with the objectives and contents of the course.

Another variable of oral homework is the great variety of activities that could be assigned; it depends on the available resources, the number and type of learners per group perhaps more importantly, the program’s objectives. Some examples of activities are to record phrases to practice intonation; to read a story or a poem; to build up dialogues with specific vocabulary; to create the end of a story; to describe their closest relationship; or summarized something that they have read or listened to; to make discussions of different topics; tell jokes or give advices about social issues, among others.

As a final point, oral homework provides great integration and interaction. Besides, it enhances verbal production of all the students in a class; they can become autonomous and can expand their creativity. Students can learn how to monitor themselves while they are speaking. Even though, there are two aspects to take into account related to oral homework: technological devices must be feasible and grading is time consuming. However, feedback could be provided by the other classmates through comprehension questions, or different Table Ranks such as convincing-acceptable-unbelievable; or through discussions in groups. Regarding to the technological aspect, students can work with their cellular phones, or with their computers at home to find a way to record themselves or the teacher might negotiate the school’s equipment.

Bibliography

Méndez, E. (N° 3 de 2010). English Teaching Forum. Recuperado el 3 de Octubre de 2011, de http://exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/forum/archives/docs/forum-10-48-03/48_3_3_mendez.pdf

The following videos are examples of recording oral homeworks.