ELTWeekly Issue#27, Research Paper: Pedagogical Issues Related to Speaking and Listening Skills & Sound Editing Software: Audacity

Pedagogical Issues Related to Speaking and Listening Skills & Sound Editing Software: Audacity

By Dr. Dilip Barad

Language learning is a multifaceted social and cultural phenomenon, even more so when it involves new technologies that promote a variety of social interactions (Kern & Warschauer, 2000). The pedagogy which addresses contextual factors such as types of learning tasks and teacher’s beliefs about language learning (Warschauer, 2000) could provide valuable information for implementing the new technology and further enrich our knowledge of the language learning process in this unique environment.

In the early 1990’s, some critics still questioned the value of computer technology and the value of implementing it into the foreign language classroom. At present, the focus is not on whether to accept computer technology. Rather, the question is now centered on how to integrate it more effectively into the learning/teaching of languages in culture specific context. The research focus has shifted from simply describing and examining computer technology to exploring how to use it in order to enhance language learning in contextualized environment. Educators have realized that effective use of technology can influence student learning. (Min Liu, Zena Moore, Leah Graham, & Shinwoong Lee) The majority of the studies reviewed from 1990 to 2000 attempted to show the advantages of using computers in the classroom, with a few exceptions. (Min Liu, Zena Moore, Leah Graham, & Shinwoong Lee). Rather than focusing on the benefits and potentials of computer technology, research needs to move toward explaining how computers can be used to support second language learning-i.e. what kinds of tasks activities should be used and in what kinds of settings. Such contextual factors can significantly influence the process of L2 learning in a technology supported environment.

Technology, today, has revolutionized the way teacher taught foreign/second language. In fact, the relationship between teacher and taught has undergone a phenomenal change. With the advancement of ICT computer has become a ‘usable resource for integrative language learning’ (Tickoo, 2003) resulting in the proliferation of multimedia TALL programs. But most of these are western courseware designed to meet general purposes and are culturally biases. So the development of materials and task activities that will meet the varied requirements of the learners of countries like India is the only available option to facilitate vibrant, interactive language learning. Several studies have found that learners respond to technology-aided/enabled/mediated teaching learning materials produced by their own teachers more effectively than prepared by other agencies.

Min Liu, Zena Moore, Leah Graham, & Shinwoong Lee have studies approximately 70 research papers written during 1990-2000 in refereed journals. They finally concluded: “More research needs to be conducted in the less explored skills areas such as speaking, listening, and culture” (Lui et al).

Audacity is one such software which can help teachers and researchers to speaking and listening task based activities which are culture specific. It is an easy to use and powerful freeware for recording and editing sound files. The features it possesses are similar and in some cases even better than commercial software. It can easily be turned into a self-tutorial support for learners. It is one of the most frequently downloaded digital audio editors in the world. Tens of millions of people have used it to record a podcast, create a demo CD of their garage band, transfer old vinyl records to CD, or just have fun with audio. Another reason to choose Audacity is that it’s the only audio editing software that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux computers. As it is open source software, it is not easy to die. It will be updated and survive longer than other programmes. One of the apprehensions with technology is its rapid changeability. They way technology gets outdated, it makes difficult for language teachers to update themselves. They face dual crisis, one updating with pedagogical changes and another that with technology. So, some teachers after walking too far, leave the hand of technology and switch over to traditional mode of teaching – learning. Here, the fear is least. Open source software are regularly updated, ‘freely’, by the users. This makes it survive longer than other professional software.

There are immense possibilities with the sound editing/engineering software like Audacity. It can be easily used for developing CD-ROM and web based practice material, activities for listening skills, exercise for evaluation and mobile / iPod based listening material. One can develop e-skills so that they can prepare authentic materials for language listening and speaking tasks by using sound editing/engineering program like Audacity.

The objectives of this article are two fold:

(i)                 To provide a birds eye view of Audacity’s functions and capacities and,

(ii)                to address pedagogical issues related to speaking and listening skills.

Audacity: Its Functions and Capacities:

Audacity has following important buttons:

These buttons are unknown to none. Most of the users of computers are well versed in using simple DVD/CD player or audio cassette player. These buttons resembles it. It has similar functions of ‘Backward’, ‘Play’, ‘Record’, Pause’, ‘Stop’ and ‘Forward’, respectively. In the mainframe of computer screen, it is visible as given below:

• The blue frequency waves display the recorded script. We can ‘import’ pre-recorded sound file also. So if we want to mix various pre-recorded sound file with recently recorded files, it is easily possible with this programme. One should be cautious and do not forget to install FFmpeg file before importing another sound file. FFmpeg can be installed by following below given steps:
• File>Import>Audio>Browse: sample music in My Music (My Documents).
• Message FFmpeg not found.
• To install FFmpeg:
• Desktop>Audacity>ffmpeg>extract files. Close window.
• Come to Audacity: Edit>Preference>Import/Export>Find library>OK>Browse it from desktop>avformat-52.dll>click OK> OK

FFmpeg is media decoder used to convert audio files in .aup format, which is compatible with Audacity.

Similarly, the ‘export’ function of audacity required to install another add on. It is known as LAME. Lame is media encoder used to convert .aup audio files into mp3 format.

• File>Export>file name>save as type> select mp3>type details if required> OK.
• LAME required: Locate Lame
• Desktop>Audacity>right click books icon>extract files>OK>new folder libmp3lame>open>close window
• File>Export>file name>save as type> select mp3>type details if required> OK> Locate Lame > Browse>desktop>Audacity>lame folder>open> OK.

It is very important to convert audio files into mp3 format. MP3 format is compatible with most of CD/DVD players as well as with mobile phones. Students in India are not as iPod savvy as in the USA, but they are crazy for mobile phones with mp3 players. If task activities for listening skills are transported to their mobile devices, they would certainly use it and it may help them improve their language.

Apart form this; Audacity has several other functions and capacities. The recorded audio can be edited for various purposes. It can be edited and used for:

• Drill exercise as it was in audio-lingual language lab module: For this the teacher has to use just ‘copy – paste’ functions and the sound file can be created which goes on repeating a word or sentence or paragraph.
• Remove unnecessary humming or buzz sound: for this one has just to ‘select and cut’ the frequency waves which are unnecessary.
• Compare and analyze sound frequency waves: For this one has to copy separately recorded sound waves and paste it in new file. Click on ‘play’ to listen both the sounds simultaneously.
• Add sounds to show ‘blanks’ while preparing cloze: For this one has to click ‘Generate’ and sound from the drop down menu. One gets option of ‘pluck’, ‘silence’, ‘drum’ etc to use in cloze test for listening skills.

Pedagogical issues related to speaking and listening skills:

As discussed earlier in the introductory paragraph of this article, pedagogical issues related to speaking and listening skills are not addressed at length (Lui, 2009) as is the case with writing and reading skills. In 1980s, during the halcyon days of audio-lingual language labs, instructions attempted to achieve linguistic competency. The structuralist and behaviorist theories behind the audio-lingual approach held that students became speakers of the target language by learning discreet linguistic units. These units could be mastered through the mechanical process of repetitive drills (Baltra, 1986). A typical audio-lingual language lab activity is one in which students listen to and repeat pre-recorded audio materials, either individually or as a group, with the option of the teacher “monitoring” (listening without disturbing the students) and providing individual feedback as necessary.

Language acquisition theories, however, have changed significantly from the days when those language labs ruled as the pre-eminent technology in language instruction. On the whole, the primary objective now is communicative fluency rather than linguistic accuracy. (Stone, 1991). As the result of this change, those language labs came to be seen as a relic with no merit in today’s Web 2.0 learning environment. One of the many reasons for its failure may be: “because students are plagued by lack of confidence, shyness, fear of committing mistakes in grammar and pronunciation. Fear of speaking or making mistakes while producing output is the result of incomplete acquisition”. (Ponniah, 2009). Krashen (2008) claims that fear of speaking means that learners are about to try to say something that they have not acquired or do not yet have the ability to say. Whereas in acquiring communicative fluency, learner does not fear as he has to speak the way he wants, irrespective of linguistic accuracy. This gives him confidence and confidence makes him speak, first with fluency and later, with accuracy. Audacity has tremendous potential at this point of learning.

• It gives opportunity to speak as well as to listen.
• It makes one to listen his own recording in mechanical drills.
• Listening one’s own voice helps in improving intonation, stress, tone, pitch, pronunciation, phonetics and phonology.
• Recording same dialogues again and again gives opportunity to speak more.
• Self-evaluation is the best form of improving skills. Here student listens ‘n’ number times his spoken dialogues and every time he can measure the level of his improvement.
• The editing is so easy that student can edit & mix his voice with his friend’s or teacher’s and compare it.
• Student can analyze frequency waves of his spoken dialogues with the pre-recorded one by professional speaker.
• Student can record his voice and send it for evaluation through email or post it to blog or upload to web pages and ask any teacher in the world to evaluate it.
• Testing and evaluation becomes student centered as well as it crosses the boundaries of nation /culture with the help of www.

Task-based activities (TBA) and culture specificity with Audacity- Sound Editing Software (SES):

What Lee Ann Stone (1991) observes about language lab can be aptly applied for SES -Audacity: “There are three main criteria for task-based activities (in lab environment or with Audacity. By the way, Audacity can be best explored and utilized to its optimum in language labs).

• First, they have a goal or purpose that requires the use of the target language, but is not itself centered on that language.
• The second criterion involves making use of the unique features of Audacity to create a learning environment that cannot be recreated in the regular classroom.
• The third characteristic of a task-based activity is that it involves the student in a way that intrinsically motivates, lowers the affective filter, and creates a desire to excel. One element of motivation is to want something.

Let us illustrate above given three criterions on task based activities with the help of Audacity.

• For the first criterion, each student writes and records ‘ghost stories’ or their ‘invented experience with ghost’. Students then listen to the stories and evaluate them in terms of which story was scary and dreadful. The students’ goal is to tell a story that interest and excites their peers. The focus is on the story rather than on the language itself; however, the means to the end is through effective communication in the target language. (Stone, 1991).
• For the second criterion, teacher can record cloze test (dialogues or paragraph) by editing it in Audacity. He can use ‘pluck’, ‘drum’, ‘silence’, ‘tone’ etc to denote that the missing word in Noun, Verb, Adverb, Adjective etc. The students will listen attentively the cloze audio file and will be carefully take note of all words and sounds. His attentiveness increases and it helps in improving his listening skills. This can give better results if students work in pair. It allows them to discuss various options. Discussion gives them opportunity to speak. Thus dual skills get good practice in this activity.
• For the third criterion, Stone (1991) gives an example of ‘Murder in the Lab’. An activity such as “Murder in the Lab” utilizes the unique features of sound editing software like Audacity in an even more sophisticated way. In this activity, the teacher prepares a number of audio files with information regarding the people, places, and activities involved in a murder. These files may be transferred to their mobile devices (if there is at least one such mobile in a group). The students’ task is to determine, after listening to the various audio files (each placed in different mobiles), who the murderer is. The students work in pairs or small groups and listen, discuss, reason, and draw a conclusion. At the end of a given period of time, the teacher brings the students together for a discussion about the crime.

To want something is to be motivated, and motivation initiates and sustains involvement in learning” (Spithill, 1980, p.72). Task-based activities, then, can be designed with the help of such sound editing software to provide students with the opportunity to want something. Take the “Murder in the Lab” example: The students want to solve the murder. In the case of the ‘ghost story’ activity cited earlier, the students are motivated by a desire to be creative and to impress their peers. This opportunity to be inventive itself becomes a motivator as the students’ self-esteem is enriched through the positive feedback received from their peers.(Stone, 1991). One of the greatest advantage in such TBA with SES is that teacher and taught are not using material prepared by native speakers or in that matter, by anyone who does not belong to their culture. There is no issue of culture specificity as the exercise created and practiced are all prepared by the people of same culture and nation. Even in multicultural or multilingual country like India, it gives optimum learning opportunity with least possible barriers. The role of task-based activities is to provide learners with opportunities to use the target language contextually, and to explore the target language through situational activities. In this way, the language lab can serve as an invaluable tool in the language learning and teaching process, for it provides opportunities for learning that cannot be duplicated in the classroom. (Stone, 1991).

Thus to conclude let us quote Lee Ann Stone at length: “A tool, however, is only as effective as its implementer, and thus the role of the teacher is central to the success of task-based activities (with SES). The aim of patterned lab drills was to provide a mechanical means to free the teacher for other instructional activities. Task-based activities (with the help SES) bring the teacher back into the lab. The role of the teacher has been summarized by Rivers (1987):

Part of the teacher’s art is to create, or stimulate student creation of, the types of situations in which interaction naturally blossoms and in which students can use for actual communication what they have been learning in a more formal fashion. (p.4). Audacity is one such web 2.0 tool which can help teacher to create and stimulate students’ interest and create situation in which interaction naturally blossoms.

References:

• Audacity can be freely Downloaded from http://audacity.soundforge.net/
• Baltra, A. (1986). “Computer assisted language learning: What is it all about?” Paper presented at a conference at the University of California, Irvine.
• Kern, R., & Warschauer, M. (2000). “Introduction: Theory and practice of networkedbased language teaching”. In M. Warschauer & R. Kern (Eds.), Network-based LanguageTeaching (pp.1-19). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Krashen, S. (2008). “Anxiety is good for you”. The International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching. 4 (1), 19
• Lui, Min, Zena Moore, Leah Graham, & Shinwoong Lee. “A Look at the Research on Computer-Based Technology Use in Second Language Learning: Review of Literature from 1990-2000”. July 25, 2009. < http://jabba.edb.utexas.edu/it/seclangtechrev.pdf>
• Ponniah, J.R. (2009). “Getting Exposure to Multimedia Language Laboratory – A Pleasurable Learning Experience”. Language in India. <www.languageinindia.com> 120 9 : 3.
• Rivers, W. (Ed.). (1987) “Interactive language teaching.” NY: Cambridge University Press.
• Spithill, A.C. (1980). “Motivation and language teaching”. Hispania, 61 (1), p.72-75.
• Stone, L. (1991). “Task-Based Activities: Making the Language Laboratory Interactive”. ERIC Digest. < http://www.ericdigests.org/1992-4/task.htm>
• Tickoo, M.L. (2003). “Teaching and Learning English”. New Delhi, Orient Longman Pvt. Limited. 274-275.
• Warschauer, M. (2000). “Online learning in second language classrooms: An ethnographic study”. In M. Warschauer & R. Kern (Eds.), Network-based language teaching:Concepts and practice (pp. 41-58). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

*Dr. Dilip Barad works with the Department of English, Bhavnagar University, Gujarat – India.