Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. In this workshop, some fun, interactive and student-centered activities were demostrated in order to allow teachers to enhance their computer-lab classes.

For all the activites demonstrated, the audio files had to saved in a shared folder, so that all students in the lab had immediate access to the files.

You can download Audacity at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

In order to save Audacity files as mp3 files, you need to have Lame Encoder installed http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&item=lame-mp3

Ice-Breakers:

• ABOUT ME

1- Teacher asks ss to answer some questions and they record their answers saving them in one audio file with their names;

2- meanwhile, teacher prepares a box with slips containing all ss’ names;

3- when ss are done, they have to draw one slip from the box and listen to that student’s answers taking notes;

4- debriefing: each st has to say something he/she has learned about that friend.

• WHO IS THIS?

1- Each st writes a brief description of him/herself and records it saving it with his/her name;

2- when everybody is done, teacher can play introductions one by one from one computer with speakers and ss have to guess whose description it is they have listened to.

• INTERVIEW

1- T gives each st a slip with the name of another st;

2- ss create some questions they would like to ask the friend they picked;

3- after checking the correctness of the questions with the teacher, ss record their questions in one audio file, saving it “questions_from_abc_to_zzz”;

4- then ss look for a file with questions for them and answer the questions saving them “answers_from_zzz_to_abc”;

5- finally, ss look for the answers for their questions and report some of the information learned to the whole class.

Grammar:

• INDIRECT QUESTIONS

1- Ss come up with a question they would like to ask everybody and record it, saving it with their names;

2- ss then listen to all the questions and write the indirect version of them beginning with “somebody wants to know” (e.g. “Eduardo wants to know where I live.”);

3- debriefing: as a whole class discussion, ss may choose one of the questions to answer.

• REPORTED SPEECH

1- Teacher gives each pair a set of questions. Ss answer the questions and record all of their answers in one audio file saved with their names;

2- each pair is then assigned to listen and write the reported speech version of two other students’ answers (e.g. “Eduardo said that he had gone to the club the day before”);

3- debriefing.

Others:

• PRONUNCIATION

1- Teacher can record some words and/or sentences whose pronunciation needs to be practiced and then have ss listen to the recording and then record themselves saying the words/sentences to compare their pronunciation with the teacher’s pronunciation.

• RADIO COMMERCIAL

1- Each pair of ss gets a picture of a product and has some minutes to prepare a radio commercial for that product. After teacher checks their written version of the commercial, ss can record their commercial;

2- when all ss have finished, they can start listening to their friends’ commercials and then vote for the most effective / most persuasive / most creative / funniest commercials.

Important Reminders:

How to save your audio files: (this information only applies to Casa Thomas Jefferson computer lab)

· Click on “File”

· “Export as mp3”

· Look for “Desktop”

· Choose the folder called “documentos de alunos”

· Choose a subfolder

· Name your file

· Click on “Save”

· Click on “OK” when a new window opens

Make sure all students save their files in the same (shared) folder

Make sure you delete all audio files created in your class if you are not going to use them later