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AU Case Studies - Podcasting and Wordle in Foreign Language Teaching

This is a follow-up report based on the training described in the case study, Podcasting and Wordle in Foreign Language Teaching.

I’d like to give some examples of what I have done following Antonio’s wonderful training course.

In December 2009, I did a revision class with my Welsh for Beginners. I asked them to work in groups and use vocabulary lists to make a Wordle of all the lovely, fluffy, nice words that they had learnt, words they liked to say and another Wordle of all those ych-a-fi words that they didn't like the sound of or had difficulty remembering. We did this in the Workstation Room. In the following lesson, I gave them colour print outs of their own Wordles and asked them to say why they had included the words and phrases that they chose. Some were able to recognise that they listed items that they found hard to remember and they said that they feel they will be able to remember better after having done this exercise.  

Here are some examples (they're on Blackboard for the students):

• http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1453340/braf_words (see attached image above, made with http://www.wordle.net)
• http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1453306/hoffi 
• http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1453355/dim_hoffi 
• http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1453344/Ofnadwy!

In a previous session, where we were studying the past tense, I asked them to work in pairs/trios to write a story using a certain number of verbs which were given to them on a handout. Once they had written the story, they then recorded it in the classroom and I posted the stories on Blackboard. They were very creative. I've attached an example.

I believe that the use of these two things has helped the students to learn and I have enjoyed using the technology, and learning at the same time. Thanks to Antonio for opening up these possibilities for me and my students.