What is Vocaroo?
Vocaroo is a free online audio recorder. It is a great tool for students to practice the English speaking skill and assess it. It is easy to use because it does not require to download a special software to use it. Once the recordings are ready, they can be shared, embedded and e mailed easily.
You can find Vocaroo in the following link:
You can find Vocaroo in the following link:
How to use Vocaroo?
You can watch this video to learn how to use Vocaroo:
Why is Vocaroo relevant to language learning?
- It gives the oportunity to practice and assess speaking, specifically aspects such as, pronunciation, fluency, intonation, stress, grammar and vocabulary use, as well.
- Students can record their voices and in order to access them teachers can have access to the recordings more than once, because it gives you the opportunity to save them.
- Speaking is recognised as the most difficult skill to develop in the English Language because it requires more complex cognitive processes. Therefore, Vocaroo can give the chance to students to practice it by their own in a familiar context, at home, and get more confidence while trying it. In this way, it also lows the affective filter in students who are more anxious than others.
- It is a solution for shy students who are reluctant to talk in class.
- Teachers have the opportunity to listen to every student and provide him/her some feedback of their speaking performances.
- It is also a tool that promotes the idea of the 'connected classroom' because students can be asked to practice the language in and then outside the classroom.
- It is a perfect way to practice speaking because students can record themselves as many times as they want to, before the final version of the recording.
- It also promotes learner's autonomy, and learner - learner interaction.
- It is useful to assess students in the speaking skill individually, it gives you a better view of their levels and progresses.
How might you use Vocaroo in class/outside the class?
- Within the classroom
- Students can use this tool in different ways, for instance, to create an audio recording describing their favorite summer vacation.
- It encourages independent students, however, teachers have to guide them so they can be able to build up their autonomy. First, teachers have to prepare the class by recording themselves describing their own favorite summer vacation, students listen to it, take notes of what they listen to, discuss about it in pairs or groups, and share ideas. Then, teachers have to teach them how to use Vocaroo and they also have to establish the different aspects the students have to talk about in their recordings. Then, students can start thinking about their description, they can decide about the different aspects, make an outline and describe it. During the lesson, teachers can check their progresses, assess them formatively and give them feedback.
2. Outside the classroom
How might you use Vocaroo in class/outside the class?
- Within the classroom
- Students can use this tool in different ways, for instance, to create an audio recording describing their favorite summer vacation.
- It encourages independent students, however, teachers have to guide them so they can be able to build up their autonomy. First, teachers have to prepare the class by recording themselves describing their own favorite summer vacation, students listen to it, take notes of what they listen to, discuss about it in pairs or groups, and share ideas. Then, teachers have to teach them how to use Vocaroo and they also have to establish the different aspects the students have to talk about in their recordings. Then, students can start thinking about their description, they can decide about the different aspects, make an outline and describe it. During the lesson, teachers can check their progresses, assess them formatively and give them feedback.
2. Outside the classroom
- To continue with the idea of a connected classroom, in the first activity teachers ask their students to use this tool at home and create their own descriptions, try it several times until they are pleased with their performances, record the final version and send it to the teacher. Then the teacher can use this task to give the students feedback about their perfromances and also use it as summative assessment of the speaking skill.
- Teachers can also ask students to record their opinions about a piece of news, topic or article they saw during the class.
What limitations can you see with the use of Vocaroo?
- It gives you the possibility to record only five minutes.
- You need a microphone.
- It is not practical for teachers who have more than 36 students in a class, it would be time consuming to assess every student's activity.
This is an example on how your students can describe their last summer holidays using this fabulous and easy tool.
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