Overview
Speak Easy is an online web- or phone-based interface that enables teachers to have their students speak outside of class, but without requiring extra work on the teacher's behalf.
There are two core activities of the program, Speaking and Listening.
There are two core activities of the program, Speaking and Listening.
Speaking Activity
Students are required to watch a short video, and record an audio narration of what happens in the video they just watched. After narrating, the student can listen to a native speaker narrating the video.
Listening Activity
Students receive the audio recordings created by another student in the class during the speaking task. They are asked to arrange still images from the video being narrated into the correct chronological order. If the speaker has spoken clearly, this task should be doable.
Personal Statistics
If the Listener correctly arranges the images, then both s/he and the person who recorded the narration in the Speaking task are awarded a point. These points contribute to their personal statistical record of speaking and listening success, tracked dutifully over time.
Ideas for the Future
Although Speak Easy is not actually a developed, functional product, we feel that we have learned enough through user testing that we would now be in a position to brazenly push forward with development.
Teacher Dashboard
If this product were fully developed, the teacher would have access to a dashboard with all of her students' Speak Easy-related information.
She could see which of her students were struggling with speaking and those who were struggling with listening. She would also have access to all of their recordings if was interested in doing remedial work.
She could see which of her students were struggling with speaking and those who were struggling with listening. She would also have access to all of their recordings if was interested in doing remedial work.
Speak Easy Suite of Activities
This video-description task would only be one of an entire suite of activities that could be implemented on the Speak Easy framework.
For example, for an easier task, the videos could be annotated with crucial vocabulary words and easier still would be a a static comic strip. Speaking tasks could be assigned at the sentence-level as well.
For example, for an easier task, the videos could be annotated with crucial vocabulary words and easier still would be a a static comic strip. Speaking tasks could be assigned at the sentence-level as well.
