Link: https://youtu.be/dEtAi55Er5Q
For this assignment, I chose Pronunciator from the Alabama Virtual Library. This is an online learning platform that allows its users to learn more than a hundred languages with a variety of features such as personalized courses, audio and video clips, quizzes, flashcards, etc. At first, Pronunciator reminded me of Duolingo, as both programs are designed to teach foreign languages. However, I think Pronunciator is more accessible and useful than Duolingo for the following reasons: 1) it's free, 2) it offers a variety of options, 3) it has no limits of "heart" (i.e., mistakes will not stop your learning), and 4) it is more education-focused. Pronunciator is helpful for all students, but I believe this will significantly help ELL students the most. With this free resource, ELL students can learn English in their native language! I believe Pronunciator is appropriate for learners of all ages. I plan to share this with ELL teachers in my school, and I also plan to use this in my classroom to help ELL students learn common conversational phrases used in a school and key vocabulary/phrases frequently used in 8th grade math. In addition, I also plan to use this over this summer to learn a little bit of Spanish (e.g., conversational phrases) to communicate with my Spanish-speaking ELL students so that they feel included in my classroom.
Your screencast was very clear and informative, and it made the language resource feel approachable and useful. I appreciated how you walked through the features step by step, it helped me understand how this could be used for both student and personal learning. As someone who’s interested in learning Spanish myself, I found it encouraging to see such an accessible tool available through the Alabama Virtual Library. I have tried other tools and no matter how hard I try it does not stick. Maybe this will help. I can also see how this could be useful in helping ESL students in all their classes.
ReplyDeleteJoey,
ReplyDeletePronunciator is an excellent app for ELL students! How have I not heard about this before? While watching your demonstration, the faces of several of my former ELL students came to mind. I wish I had known about this resource then, because I know it would have greatly benefited them. I am a dropout of the Duolingo app, despite my past attempts to be consistent with it. The fact that Pronunciator is free also has great appeal to the educational world. I conducted a run-through of the website to practice learning French. I like that it includes real-world pictures of the vocabulary words you’re learning. The first lesson I learned was how to ask where the baggage claim is in the airport and where the airport terminal is. I will keep this resource in mind for my future ELL students.
-Anna Rains