Running head: INDIVIDUALIZED LEARNING PROJECT

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Individualized Learning Project
Tom Honer
EDET 632 - Classroom Internet Integration
University of Alaska Southeast

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INDIVIDUALIZED LEARNING PROJECT

Abstract
In this paper I discuss how my host teacher and I made use of a software called Sony
Soloist in order to help students improve their oral language skills in the target language (i.e.
German). We use this software in the language lab (a lab especially for foreign language
students); it allows teachers to randomly pair students with a partner in the class and to record
the speech that takes place between them. These dialogues are then saved and submitted to the
teachers computer in easily accessible files, which can be listened to and evaluated thereafter. I
argue that this software is beneficial to students mastering of speaking and oral language skills.

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Students learning a second language are often reluctant to speak in the target language.
The reasons for this are many, e.g.: students feel embarrassed about their lack of understanding;
they feel insecure about their pronunciation or correctness of speech; and, they dont want to
appear any worse than their peers. In language acquisition jargon the term filter is sometimes
used to denote the degree to which a person speaks withor withoutfear of being incorrect or
making a mistake. Students at the high school level have very high filtersthat is, they are
usually quite concerned about whether they are making mistakes and, thus, often opt out of
speaking at all in order to avoid them. As a language teacher, I am challenged daily to get
students to trust themselves enough to utter a few words or phrases in the target language. It is
widely agreed in the language acquisition field that speaking is one of the more difficult facets of
the command of language; so, its no wonder that students experience anxiety when it comes to
speaking in the target language. With the use of certain technologies available through my school
I have been able to some extentwith the help of my host teacherto alleviate the students
anxiety and reluctance to speak. And, as speech constitutes a considerable skill to be learned in a
language class, I find this technology to be a wonderful tool.
The software that we have been using in class to improve students oral skills is Sony
Soloist1. Through this program, teachers can randomly or purposefully pair or group students in
the computer lab with other students via their individual headsets. The way that my host teacher
and I have been using it is to provide students with speaking prompts and then to pair them via
Sony Soloist and allow them to record their conversation and submit it for a grade. This may not
seem so impressive at first glance, but when we look closer, we can see how deep the benefits of
this approach run. Consider the following. Students practice certain vocabulary and grammatical
conventions in class; then, students receive a prompt that asks them to talk about something
within the realm of their abilityusing the vocabulary and grammar from the current or previous
lessons. Finally, students speak with one another in a relatively private environment, where
they are not face-to-face with their partner and are inaudible to everyone save their partner. In
this low-stakes environment students can focus on the language and on what they want to say

1 A link

to a pertinent website can be found in the APPENDIX.

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rather than worrying about other external, distracting factors. As a language teacher I know that
this will be a valuable tool in my teaching repertoire in the coming years.
In order to become acquainted with the technology I relied heavily on the guidance and
instruction of my host teacher. Even now, as I type these words, I must admit that my knowledge
of the program and its divers functions is far from complete. In fact, there is little that I can do
with this useful technology at this point save the random pairing of students via headsets.
However, there are other useful applications of this technology that I could cultivate and use in
the future. For example, it is also possible to create groups of three or more studentsalthough
Im not sure how to do it (yet). This could be convenient for group projects, presentations,
debates, interviews, etc. In addition, there are more capabilities available to students, which
means that students can do more for themselves with this software. Once again, howeverand
regrettably, Im not savvy as to how this works. This is one of my goals for the coming
semester: to become proficient with this software and its many functions so that I may use it to
better serve students on their path to oral proficiency in the target language.
To verify my hypothesisas to whether this software would help students to feel more
comfortable speaking in the target language and would thus improve students oral skillsI
made a subjective, non-numerical assessment and took a poll of student opinions from my 5th
period class2. The reason that I had to make a subjective assessment, which was not backed up by
numbers or numerically measurable outcomes, was because the measurement of students
individual oral progress and development is often better evaluated based on the instructors
observations than quantitative benchmark achievements3. Thus, I perceived that students did, in
many cases, improve slightly in the three week experimentation period. Also, I asked students in
an informal poll to answer the question Do you think that using Sony Soloist in the Language
Lab this past few weeks has improved your speaking abilities? with a simple yes or no. Of

This class is stacked and consists of 21 level-two German students; three level-threes; and, five
APor advance placementstudents, totaling 29 students. I chose to survey these students
because I work more closely with them than with the other two classes with which Im involved.
3

While there are nationally approved and appraised tests and evaluative resources for this kind
of language skill, the focus of this brief study did not necessitate the use of such resources.

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the 29 students polled, approximately half said that they thought use of this technology did
improve their speaking abilities, while (a surprising) half responded in the negative, adding that
the software made for awkward interaction with peers with whom students seldom had any
contact.
I say surprising becausefrom a teachers perspectiveI had thought that our use of this
technology would simultaneously eliminate unnecessary awkward interactions between students
and mitigate the arduous task of getting unacquainted students to work with one another.
However, based on student feedback, it appears that most would have preferred to have simply
worked with a partner or a friend. This unexpected negative feedback doesnt sway my opinion
as to the efficacy of this softwares use in the classroom, however. This is because Ias
someone who has learned a foreign language and lived abroadknow that one will, at some
point, have to speak with people whom one doesnt like, want to talk to, etc. Thus, students
benefit as a result of using Sony Soloists for speaking activities far outweighs their dislike of it,
in my opinion.
Thus, overall I think that the technologyor similar technologiesis very useful and has
helped our language students become more confident speaking in the target language throughout
the course of the past three weeks. As most language teachers will tell you, getting students to
open their mouths and speak (in the target language, that is) can be a very difficult task. And, as
such, I will use any tool I can find that can help students improve in this challenging area of
second language acquisition. I look forward to next quarter and to more opportunities to learn
about other technologies that can help my students learn a second language.

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INDIVIDUALIZED LEARNING PROJECT

APPENDIX
Website for information about Sony Soloist and its functions:
http://www.sansinc.com/products/soloist.php

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