A grant proposal to add noise canceling headphones with microphones to the Spanish classroom |
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Part I: Brief Project Description
My ultimate goal as a Spanish teacher is to prepare my students to successfully converse with Spanish speakers, both in the United States and abroad. Speaking is often the hardest language skill for students to acquire since it depends on complete student production without much think time. Students can be self conscious or afraid to make mistakes while speaking. It can be difficult to create authentic speaking activities in class to help students practice since there is limited time available in class and even fewer opportunities to speak with native speakers. I propose obtaining headsets with noise canceling headphones and built in microphones to aid students with conversational practice.
Headsets would change the setup of class on a daily basis and change the way I assess students summatively. Students would be able to plug in headsets into their individual computers to have simulated conversations with native speakers from around the world. Since the headsets are noise canceling, students would not hear other students’ responses nor feel self-conscious that other students will hear and judge them. All thirty students would be able to practice this simulated conversation at once, which would save an abundance of class time compared to pulling each student to my desk individually to converse. By saving class time, I would be able to give my students more opportunities to have simulated conversations. Additionally, headsets would change the way I give summative assessments. I would be able to have students respond to a question, story, or simulated conversation on the headsets to see what they know. I would no longer need to give paper and pencil tests to quiz them on isolated vocabulary lists and grammar concepts. I would be able to assess how much they know and can produce in a conversation.
Finally, these headsets would help students of all ability levels. Students with a higher ability level will listen to the recording once or twice and then have time to inquire about speaker’s accent or colloquial vocabulary. Lower ability students would be able to rewind and replay the recording before feeling comfortable responding. The headsets would provide many opportunities that I cannot give students in my class right now.
Headsets would change the setup of class on a daily basis and change the way I assess students summatively. Students would be able to plug in headsets into their individual computers to have simulated conversations with native speakers from around the world. Since the headsets are noise canceling, students would not hear other students’ responses nor feel self-conscious that other students will hear and judge them. All thirty students would be able to practice this simulated conversation at once, which would save an abundance of class time compared to pulling each student to my desk individually to converse. By saving class time, I would be able to give my students more opportunities to have simulated conversations. Additionally, headsets would change the way I give summative assessments. I would be able to have students respond to a question, story, or simulated conversation on the headsets to see what they know. I would no longer need to give paper and pencil tests to quiz them on isolated vocabulary lists and grammar concepts. I would be able to assess how much they know and can produce in a conversation.
Finally, these headsets would help students of all ability levels. Students with a higher ability level will listen to the recording once or twice and then have time to inquire about speaker’s accent or colloquial vocabulary. Lower ability students would be able to rewind and replay the recording before feeling comfortable responding. The headsets would provide many opportunities that I cannot give students in my class right now.
Continue to Outlined Transformation
