Talk to Google – An Online Pronunciation Activity

In this expert article, Andrea Giordano shares some useful insights to involve your learners in online pronunciation activity.

There’s one question that still has me thinking…

In a recent webinar about improving online student engagement, one of the attendees asked a question that I’m still thinking about:

How to I give feedback to students, when I’m teaching a class of 100 or more?

I gave a few suggestions, including:

  • Have students submit assignments before class begins, and then choose 5 excerpts from student submissions to talk about with the class.
  • Use an LMS (Learning Management System like Thinkific, Teachable, or Moodle), where you can give direct feedback to students there.
  • Use polling when asking a question, so you can validate that all students are participating, and so they get instant feedback about whether their answer was correct.

I also want to share with you one of my favorite pronunciation activities. It’s an activity that provides a ton of feedback for your students automatically.

I CALL THIS ACTIVITY “TALK TO GOOGLE” (OR ALEXA OR SIRI)

All students need for this activity is:

  • Access to Google.com (or a smart phone), set to English settings
  • A microphone.

Talk to Google – An Online Pronunciation Activity

ESL Basics