Audio/Video Activities

I love readings where theory and practice match, so this week's chapter was the perfect match. I would like to comment on a specific idea thrown along the activities described.

On page 100 from A practical guide to using computers in language teaching, I found an interesting statement "Whatever can be spoken can likewise be recorded and saved to an audio file that students can access and control individualy as they would access local media files of those found on the Internet". 

The paragraph itself is suggesting teachers to record their voices so students can have access to them in later exercises. If the teacher's desire is to show students authentic ways of speaking in the case they are teaching in an EFL setting, I would think of recording two-people-conversations. In doing so I have found some difficulty since most mics come attached to the headphones, and background noise is also recording in the conversation. However if I take this activity to students recording their voices in an oral exam, as I have attempted to do several times this last year, things get really complicated.

I have asked questions to record in real time their responses to my oral questions, and I have learned it can promote cheating somehow since everybody is listening and answering to the same question at the same time. Chapter six provided the solution to this problem, I can simply record my own voice so students reproduce it individually and work on it whenever they are ready, and without going with the flow. Then my concern goes to how to record students oral exercises when they are working in pairs. I have also asked students to share the headset and try to pass the mic part to each participant but it doesn't really work well, there is always a voice cut out. I have looked for voice recorders but most schools have the analog type ones so it is not of great help if I want to maximize my job when grading those exercises.

Here is where I don't completely agree with the statement on page 100, according to my short experience, I would add something else to this statement to: whatever can be spoken can likewise be recorded and saved to an audio file, only if there is one person talking and the school has the standard audio labs: carrels, headset with mics and still some analog voice recorders.