Executive Summary

This summary is designed to synthesize student opinion/evaluation of the use of iPod technology in SPA 205--Spanish Conversation and Advanced Grammar. The overall goal of the use of iPods was to increase students linguistic skills drawing from students ability to download podcast materials. Anticipated outcomes were: 1) the increase in aural/oral skills; 2) students would demonstrate increased satisfaction with their language skills; and 3) an increased motivation in applying conversational skills.Perhaps the strongest evidence from students goes toward the outcome of improving aural and oral skills. Students were clear and consistent about the improvement in their pronunciation. For example, one student commented “Using the iPod was effective in improving my speaking my speaking skills. The chance to repeatedly record dialogs and stories helped me focus on correct pronunciation of words as well as become more aware of my accent and intonation” They also commented on their ability to make corrections and receive feedback,

• Because of the assignments that we had to do with it, I feel more comfortable with my oral Spanish. I was able to listen to myself and make correction in my pronunciation immediately.
• It was a way to practice pronunciation without the pressure of talking directly to a professor
• It was useful because I was able to get feedback on my pronunciation and speakingStudents’ emotional response to the technology was strong, and positive. They liked having the iPods, and creatively using them to complete assignments. The relatively few negative emotions had to do with specific assignments being less interesting, or with technological problems with the iPods/computers.As intimated above, another positive impact the technology had on students was they found it less intimidating to record themselves and get feedback from the professor. As one student put it “I was able to hear myself and so was my professor. It made it less intimidating speaking/recording on the iPod and getting critiqued. I rather (sic) practicing and hearing myself on the iPod.” Students also expressed a desire for more conversational and less structured tone to some assignments, which can be seen as speaking directly to the desire to apply their conversational skills. “I think that having more conversations would be a really great idea. I think that would help students improve a lot in their speaking Spanish.”Students also mentioned structural issues that would incorporate the iPod technology more seamlessly into the course, such as having more and shorter assignments, building the iPod assignments into the syllabus, and thinking about the use of iPods in testing situations.One of the unanticipated themes that came across in the student evaluations was that grasping and using concepts in a foreign language are highly personal experiences for students, perhaps punctuated by insights and "aha's." Students' achievement in language acquisition can be demonstrated by improved pronunciation and intonation, but the individual learning process can sometimes be more obscure. Podcasts have potential as a learning record to document a students’ learning process and reveal unique aspects of language acquisition for each student. Additionally, they can also authenticate student work. Although not the point of this original project, iPod technology might be considered as a means to document the intellectual development of students longitudinally in language classes. As assessment of the use of iPods continues, student evaluation data should be combined with instructor evaluations and examples of student work to gain a more complete picture of the nature of the project.What follows is a listing, by category, of each comment made by a student on the evaluation.

Emotional Reactions—

• …I also liked recording songs
• I didn’t like recording songs, it was boring
• …some of the activities that we did were not as interesting as I wanted them to be. I suggest more interesting activities.
• I most enjoyed recording things that weren’t original works but things that I had translated or things like canciones.
• I liked the letters that we wrote and the group work because it allowed us to be creative. I didn’t like the songs, they took way too long.
• I loved our final project where we told a story in Spanish. It gave me a chance to explore my grammar, Realismo Magico, and new vocabulary
• I really liked translating the fairy tale story into Spanish. It was a lot of fun and I think that it helped me improve my Spanish grammar.
• I enjoyed Asere jé. That was a lot of fun
• One of my favorite assignments was (my original poem) I liked having something were (sic) I was required to read text as it was written. I also liked the pronunciation exercises from the children’s book
• I liked being able to write our own story to record and being able to work in pairs. It was an opportunity to be creative and have fun with the projects. I did not like having a song to remember and record. It was a lot less fluid.
• I liked recording songs and poems
• I did not enjoy the first mini weekly projects, but I liked the monthly ones.
• I enjoyed the creative assignments, such as when we were required to write a magical realism story.
Structural Issues—
Positives
• We should use the iPod in dialog recordings, in pronunciation activities that would become part of the participation grade.
• …it explained the things that I was personally struggling with. It was a personally customized way of completing assignments
• (our final project ) gave me a chance to explore my grammar, Realismo Magico, and new vocabulary
• I was able to hear myself and so was my professor. It made it less intimidating speaking/recording on the iPod and getting critiqued. I rather (sic) practicing and hearing myself on the iPod.
• I liked recording with another person. I also liked recording pieces I’d written.Issues for Consideration
• The technological part was not a problem for me, even though some students have problems with uploading items.
• I would like to be able to record some of my essays or conversations in more casual, less awkward situations.
• Make sure there is a syllabus to go along with the iPod
• (I did not like the earlier projects) because we recorded them once, received suggestion, and then didn’t have a chance to improve our grade. This was corrected in later recordings
• There needs to be a schedule for when we turn in our grabacone and there should be more conversing without reading that are graded for turning them in not for correct speech. I liked projects that were corrected and re-recorded multiple times
• I don’t think it was a good idea to put recordings of songs and have us transcribe it for the exam.
• I think that having more conversations would be a really great idea. I think that would help students improve a lot in their speaking Spanish.
• I liked doing the recording in a group, but it took a lot of time to fit it into the schedule along with the work for class. Sometimes it seemed like the syllabus was set and the iPod was tacked on without taking into consideration the total amount of work expected for the class
• It would be great to have the iPod exercise on the syllabus ahead of time. It was hard to keep track of everything
• …more short grabaciuhes (sic) But that should all be scripted by the professor
• Make it clear when assignments are due
• I feel like having more one-on-one conversation for real time corrections would be more helpful. Sometimes the evaluations were difficult to understand
• It might be useful to separate the ipod and itunes use from the tests because there are so many technical problems with them. Perhaps having separate oral tests might releave (sic) some stress.
• The reason I did not like the mini-projects as much was because they were very impersonal and short, and it is hard to improve our pronunciation that way.
• The testing conditions were extremely stressful-given 50 minutes for a test & being concerned about finding a computer that was able to access itunes. Particularly because this course is a foreign language to most of us it seems necessary to have a nonstressful (sic) environment for our own tests.
• it was difficult to coordinate a time to get together with a partner.
• The due dates for the recordings should have been included in the syllabus b/c I was sometimes unclear about when I had to turn things in.
• …I don’t think that reading the lyrics and recording them really helped me with my pronunciation much.
• The only problem is that there was no one there to tell me if I was saying something wrong but overall it was effective
• I would recommend more pronunciation exercises or recordings of grammatically correct writings. I also would like to see more natural dialog instead of pre-written exchanges
Conversation/Cross-talk--
• …iPod helped me improve my pronunciation and easiness in speaking Spanish
• My favorite activity was pairing up with another student to discuss opposite points of view.
• It allowed us to be interactive with other students and speaking at home and not only in class.
• I would have liked to do more conversation than reading.
• …I think it really improved my “accent” being able to hear others.
• …I was able to improve my ability to pronounce words in Spanish, but most of what I did was reading. If I had been conversing with a human instead of an iPod then I could also have improved my ability to have a conversation.
• …use of iPod technology was an innovative was for students to improve pronunciation, grammar, and fluidity in speaking Spanish.
• It made me really want to speak more. I enjoyed working with a partner on different iPod activities
• It was effective and very helpful at working on my pronunciation.
• Very effective for improving pronunciation but not really for conversing in an unscripted way
• …Because of the assignments that we had to do with it, I feel more comfortable with my oral Spanish. I was able to listen to myself and make correction in my pronunciation immediately.
• It was a way to practice pronunciation without the pressure of talking directly to a professor
• It was useful because I was able to get feedback on my pronunciation and speaking, it was very helpful
• Using the iPod was effective in improving my speaking my speaking skills. The chance to repeatedly record dialogs and stories helped me focus on correct pronunciation of words as well as become more aware of my accent and intonation.
• Sometimes I felt that when I wrote my own responses to read I would be recording and memorizing grammatically incorrect…sentences
• I realize (the oral part of the last exam) was to encourage a natural dialog that included certain grammar points, but in reality we all write a dialog, tried to memorize it, and then record it during the test. I thought this just resulted in sloppy stunted recordings.
• I enjoyed having the iPod because I was able to listen to pronunciation exercises at my convenience (work, walks, etc.) However, I did not feel the recordings improved my ability to converse→ I do feel they aided my pronunciation and listening→ particularly the recordings by the professor and Inés.
• I really did like overall the use of the ipod. I feel like it was better when done in pairs. There never really was a “conversation” using the iPod. It was really useful for practicing pronunciation and getting critiques. I enjoyed the exercises involving the songs and the story. There should be an emphasis on less scripted readings and more conversation. I’m just not sure how you would enforce this.