Audio resource creation for English Language Teaching

Course background

Regional Institute of English, South India (RIESI) and IT for Change (ITfC) are collaborating to design and conduct an workshop on “Audio resources creation for language teaching ” for English language teachers, who are participating in the CELT/PGDELT program of RIESI. The course is based on the National ICT curriculum theme “Creating with ICT”. This note discusses the objectives, approach, requirements of the participants and expected outcomes from the course.

Objectives of the course

1. To understand the connection between the word and the thought (can we communicate abstract ideas without words, i.e., sounds) and to recognize that the combinations of sounds and what they describe is arbitrary
2. To explore new digital methods for language learning. Exploring Audacity FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) tool to create rich language resources for use in a language lesson
3. To learn to record and editing audio using Audacity. Making your audio resource richer by using multiple audio files (background music)
4. To introduce the philosophy of creating and adapting existing audio resources (Open Educational Resources created with FOSS)
5. To publish created audio resource on a public repository for the benefit of all teachers

Agenda of the course

Webinars	Particulars	Activities	Resources
10.00 - 10.30	Introduction to the workshop	Understand the objective of the workshop Go through the workshop agenda and workshop page Listen to some audio resources (Karadi Tales)	Audacity installation
10.30 - 11.00	Get a familiar with Audio resources creation tools and FOSS Understand the technical specifications for audio headphones, microphone	Go through audio recording basic options in audacity Select poem, phrases and stories to create audio resources in the workshop Go through a checklist of recording a good quality audio Brief introduction about Audacity tool and FOSS	Learn Audacity#Working with the application
11.00 - 12.30	Use different applications for audio recording Understanding of Audacity editing tools.	Record audio on the selected topic using smartphones or computers. If it is story - participants can make groups of 2 people to record Save as project file, export recorded audio files Import audio into systems (who are recorded in mobile) And import to audcaity (all) Edit recorded audio files using basic tools as we needed. Get familiar with audacity project files and audio files.	Learn Audacity#Recording with Audacity
12.30 - 1.00	Use Audacity platform to clear/edit background noise Use Audacity to export audio into different formats.	Use edit tools to refine audio by removing unwanted part Use "noise removal" to clear background noise File export as audio files and save as project.	Learn Audacity#Removing noise
1.00 - 2.00	LUNCH BREAK
2.00 - 2.30	Access different background music and sound elements from the audio repositories	All the participants will go through Background music repository Identify some suitable background sounds/music to add	Learn Audacity#Accessing and download background sounds
2.30 - 3.30	Effectiveness of adding audio effects Understanding when and how to use audio effects to the audio's Using an audio editing tool to add sound elements.	Use multiple tracks to add background music for the audio To understand what is a track and how tracks can be used mix audios+musics and multiple sound elements. Use amplification to adjust the output volume of audio files File export as audio files and save as project.	Learn Audacity#Importing audio and multiple tracks
3.30 - 4.30	Use an audio editing tool to enhance an audio resource Understanding of using different background music to make more effective of the audio Publish created audio's on the web.	Fade in/out to adjust the audio -voice modulation Use Silence, noise reduction, pitch change and echo features Add different audio elements to the audio in any particular places Use Soundcloud.com to upload and share audio's	Learn Audacity and www.SoundCloud.com SoundCloud handout
4.30 - 5.00	Participants presentation	Participants can present their audio to other Other participants give feedback Participants feedback	To fill the course feedback form click here

Course Resources

Technology resources

1. Audacity handout
2. Checklist for recording good audio clip
3. What is copyright and what is OER (Watch this video to know about different copyrights laws)
4. Use SoundCloud repository to upload and share your audio materials (Video)

Online OER audio repositories

1. Background music tracks accessed from different OER repositories (Google Drive)
2. WikimediaCommons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Audio_files
3. BenSound - https://www.bensound.com/
4. Soundible - http://soundbible.com/
5. FreeSound - https://freesound.org/
6. SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/

Reading materials on ELT

1. Krashen's hypotheses for SLA (Second Language Acquisition)
2. Multi-linguality_and_the_teaching_of_English_in_India - Prof Rama Kant Agnihotri
3. NCF2005 Position Paper on Teaching of Indian Languages
4. Digital Storytelling, an ICT-based method of co-constructing and transacting curriculum

Additional resources

1. Rich recitations
   • Karadi tales - Very rich and brilliant audio stories based on Indian stories and using Indian tunes.
     1. Crickematics with Rahul Dravid
     2. Monkey on a Fast with Sanjay Dutt
2. Poetry online
   1. Poems online (10,000 poems) available for download
   2. Access poems and upload your poems All Poetry
   3. Poetry foundation
3. Great speeches:
   1. I have a Dream, speech by Martin Luther King .Jr

Audio resources created by last batch participants

1. September Primary school teachers album
2. September Secondary school teachers album
3. November Primary school teachers album
4. November Secondary school teachers album
5. December CELT Audio resources album
6. January CELT Audio resources album
7. March CELT Audio resources album

Course assignment and feedback

To submit your audio file click here

To fill the course feedback form click here