Monday, December 31, 2007

Using Chinswing to create authentic listening materials



What is your favorite sweet? What do you think it represents about you, your life, or your culture?

It is that time of year when I start to think about yummy holiday foods, like Buckeyes! That reminded me, earlier this year, I posed the above question in a on Chinswing. Responses ranged from my memories of Buckeyes from Ohio State, Carla's musings on Brigadeiros from Brazil, and a host of other tasty treats from all over the world!

According to their web site, Chinswing is "a global message board where anyone can add voice messages to ongoing topical discussions" and it incorporates "podcasting, text forums and live voice chat".

The goal of this project was to collect some authentic listening material on an interesting topic for a university course I teach. Students listened to the recordings (7 people in 5 different countries have recorded messages for a total of 17 minutes), and then continued the discussion on our class blog.


By the way, if you would like to record a message about your favorite sweet, go ahead! I plan to use this voice thread again in another class, and I just heard that my proposal for "Using Chinswing to create authentic listening materials" has been accepted for TESOL 2008 Electronic Village Fair!

This post was included in the Teacher Potluck Carnival: New Year's Edition! Check it out!



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