The #mfltwitterati are mainly a united bunch. Sure, we argue about different methods of teaching on occasion but on the whole we sing with one voice. So, I don't think anyone would disagree with me when I say that one of the difficult skills in Modern Foreign Languages is speaking. I am not saying it is hard to teach; we are a resourceful bunch and we have our ways of getting the 'buggers to' talk (yes, I have nicked this expression from that old teaching classic that I read when I did my PGCE all those years ago).
Armed as we may be with many voice recording tools such as Audacity, Vocaroo, or simply recording in Powerpoint or Class Notebook I would like to praise and highlight in this post the virtues of Flipgrid. If anxiety about speaking is a big issue for students then Flipgrid is the tool that could be considered nigh on a panacea.
What Flipgrid does...
Flipgrid is a tool that can be accessed online and as an app on mobile devices. It allows you to create speaking activities for your classes such as the one below. to which they can then respond,
One of the options I particularly like is 'spark'. This allows you to take something created by a student and share with the rest of the class (with the student's permission, of course) and initiate discussion on an individual point made by the student. It's a great way to get engagement and focus students' attention.
Flipgrid is an incredibly versatile tool, of that there is no doubt. In terms of getting our linguists to speak Flipgrid is a definite go to tool for me and my students whether they are anxious speakers or not.
It's a versatile tool that allows you to:
- set up your exercise with detailed instructions
- add marking rubrics so students know what they need to do to succeed.
- add a pre-recorded video as a point of focus (in fact the list of tools that you can add as a focus point for the task ranges from you tube videos to kahoots, from wakelets to emojis.
- capture your screen - fantastic for these days of remote teaching
- simply record audio and have no visual at all.
Flipgrid allows the teacher to be the moderator and accept videos from students - so there's no chance of anything untoward slipping through. The option to keep the video private to just the student and teacher is also really useful especially if you have students who are not keen to share their voice with others. The important thing is that you, the teacher, hear their voice and understand their progress.
Flipgrid is an incredibly versatile tool, of that there is no doubt. In terms of getting our linguists to speak Flipgrid is a definite go to tool for me and my students whether they are anxious speakers or not.
Why not have a look? I would be interested to know your thoughts.
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