Express Yourself: Using audio/video technologies to improve language skills

Summary:  On May 30, 2011, Lora and Daniel Vimont gave a presentation, entitled "Express Yourself:  Techniques for Improving Language Skills Through the Use of Audio and Video Technologies."  The presentation focused on two video-based methods which they have jointly developed, both of which are intended to improve English language skills in elementary students.

Express Yourself ‎(full presentation)‎

The first method, presented by Lora, is referred to as "video-based self-assessment and goal-setting".  This method involves making a video of a student as they do a running-record reading assessment, and then showing the video to the student, allowing them to use a rubric to rate various aspects of their oral reading performance (e.g., volume, clarity, expressiveness, etc.).  Based upon this self-assessment, the student then sets goals for improving specific reading traits and formulates (possibly with teacher assistance) a strategy for achieving the goals.  This sequence of self-assessment and goal-setting (always using current videos of the student reading) is regularly repeated, forming a cycle of self-assessment, goal-setting, and goal-monitoring.

The second method, presented by Daniel (at point 21:45 in the video), has come to be known as "Listen, Pause, Echo", an assisted-repeated reading method that is intended to develop heightened expressiveness in the oral reading and recitation of students.  It calls for a student to practice expressive reading by using a video (or audio recording) prepared by the teacher in which the teacher reads a poem or short work of prose in an exemplary expressive manner.  The student, equipped with a printout of the text, is assigned to (1) LISTEN to a brief excerpt of the teacher reading in the video, (2) PAUSE the video, and (3) ECHO the teacher's reading, either emulating the teacher's expressiveness or creating their own expressive variation on the reading.  Following this exercise, the student reads the complete poem or prose work on their own, making their own audio or video recording for subsequent self-assessment and teacher assessment.

View any of the full-length videos we showed in the May 30, 2011 Express Yourself presentation!!  (This includes a number of videos that we didn't have time to show.)

Here is the link to your free copy of Learner English (at the Library of Congress website):

Here is the link to Dan's recent blog entry pertaining to current definitions and research on teaching & assessing English language PROSODY: