Why did you come to the United States?” asks Yolande. She poses this question to one of several immigrants she is interviewing. She records the interviews on an iPod fitted with a Griffin iTalk, a recording device. She, along with other students in her group, is putting together an audio story for a class project. She is enrolled in an advanced level

ESL (English as a Second Language) class that focuses on oral communication, i.e. improving listening and speaking skills in English. The majority of the students in this class are from Saudi Arabia, with the remaining students from Taiwan, Jordan, Ivory Coast, and Mexico all of whom are learning English.

Carolyn Fike, who teaches this course, says “I wanted students to conduct oral interviews, ask questions, listen and converse and put together an audio story, much like NPR’s ‘This American Life’. I approached Sangeetha, to see what technology was available to use for our project. Her excitement and enthusiasm for this project and our collaboration was contagious!”
From talking to Carolyn about the project it became evident to us that the technology had to be portable, since students were walking around interviewing people. The technology also had to result in good quality audio clips that could be edited into a story. So Amir Husak, our Electronics Technician, came up with the idea of fitting Griffin iTalks to iPods and having students check them out from the FLTC.

Students worked independent of their instructor in groups on the content of their audio stories. They listened to the recorded interviews, edited them, created a story line, and finally added music and verbal commentary to their stories. For the technology aspect of their project, students received an initial orientation of the editing software from Amir and continued technical help as they worked on their projects.

Carolyn Fike is pleased with the student projects; she says, “The stories students have created are so insightful and compelling . . . the people they have chosen to interview shared such wonderful thoughts . . . the content was absolutely amazing. . . .” Students found it challenging to lead an interview in a foreign language, and felt that the experience contributed enormously to strengthening their oral communication skills and ability to work collaboratively. When asked about how this project and the technology helped in their learning, students remarked:
“When you hear the recordings later you identify all your mistakes yourself!”
“Listening to our questions and responses during the interviews provided us great feedback about our oral skills”
“It was great for self-evaluation”
“The software is very powerful”
“It provided us with great flexibility”
The use of iPods supports language learning and allows learning to take place outside of the classroom in a student-centered environment without learning being instructor driven. The technology enabled students to self-evaluate, self-correct and hone their language skills. The use of iPods for this student project is an innovative use of technology.