Storytelling to improve speaking skills
Initial situation
Students of foreign languages, especially those learning in their native country, often have inhibitions about speaking. Speech training is also often neglected in the course simply because of the large number of participants.
Based on this initial situation, the idea was therefore to initiate a project to strengthen oral expression skills.
In addition, the project should have a pragmatic relevance for professional life after graduation in order to show students that what they have learnt during their studies is not only relevant for their final grade, but can also be relevant after graduation.
To ensure that all participating teachers and other students could see the projects, the results also had to be available to a (limited) public. The students were given one semester to complete the project.
You can see which app we decided on in the following overview.
At a glance
The course participants should develop a story themselves and transform it into a video with the help of pictures, videos, music, text and their own voice, which will be published for all participants.
They should learn
Adobe Express Module Video can be run on any PC or Mac via a web browser. It can be used free of charge after registration.
The module Video alone is sold under the name Adobe Spark Video for iOS systems.
Students with Android systems must switch to the web browser.
The learning curve for the programme is very short and flat: Students can learn the essential functions in 15 minutes. After that, learners quickly gain a sense of achievement with the programme, as it quickly generates a semi-professional output. The programme is suitable for both beginner (Niveau A) and advanced lessons (Niveau B/C). It motivates learners to tell a story in the foreign language that can easily be published.
The examples were developed by the participants in one semester (= 15 double lessons) as well as some time outside of class.
The student introduces a car category that is a speciality of Japan. There is a surprising twist at the end of his story.
The actual theme is not quite spot on, but the story is told in an interesting way.
The examples were developed by the participants in one semester (= 15 double lessons) as well as some time outside of class.
Tatami is the traditional floor covering made from thick rush mats. In her story, the student talks about the advantages of tatami and what else can be made from tatami apart from a floor covering.
The examples were developed by the participants in one semester (= 15 double lessons) as well as some time outside of class.
A bento box is a container for transporting food, e.g. your own lunch, which you can take to work, university or school. The student talks about the variety of shapes and the numerous functions of these boxes.
Selection of the programme
The choice fell on the module Video of the programme Adobe Expresswhich allows the result to be saved on the Adobe website so that anyone who knows the link can view the presentation. The app is also free of charge. Most of our students work with a smartphone at iOS. Students with Android systems were able to present their presentations using the desktop version of Adobe Spark Video that can run in any browser, regardless of which operating system you use. The functionality is the same as with the app.
Task definition
The "story" or task for the participants was:
"You work for a company that manufactures a product that is currently only sold in Japan. Your boss wants to expand and sell the product in other regions of the world. He knows that you studied German and asks you to present the product in a film for social media.
So create a film in which you present the product. Your task in detail is:
The programme
Adobe Express Video lies the concept of the storytelling Instead of presenting pure facts, a story is told that places these facts in an interesting context, which contributes better to the retention of the information that is to be conveyed. This story is told orally and supported by images and text. The whole thing can then be saved as a video.
The programme supports the narrative with predefined outlines: Depending on the intention of the "story", there are various templates that already suggest the suspenseful arcs of the presentations and thus implicitly suggest a possible structure of the story. story support.
Operation of the programme
Once you have selected a template according to your story objective, the programme provides assistance for various parts of the video: This assistance varies depending on the selected narrative goal (see Fig. 2).
Further operation is very simple: users select a medium that supports what is being said. This can be an image, a graphic or even a video. You can select this medium from the image library of Adobe or create them yourself. Text can also be added.
Then press the record button - the blue microphone icon in picture 2 - and speak the text. The recording is automatically levelled correctly and placed over background music. The background music can also be selected from a variety of presets. Alternatively, you can also select music from your own computer. However, attention should be paid to third-party rights. If you do not like the recording, you can repeat the recording process as often as you like until you are satisfied.
You then continue in the same way with the next images and recordings until the story is finished. The speaking process is therefore divided into small sequences. This means you don't need a long breath - even for a long story. This means, on the other hand, that you can start the story, interrupt it if necessary and continue recording and working on it again on another day. This way of working accommodates a time-limited course of lessons.
The simplicity of operation means that the technology largely takes a back seat. The students can invest their time and energy in the content of their presentation. Their actual task is first to decide which story they want to tell. As a second step, they have to divide this story into individual parts, to each of which a meaningful image and supporting text should be assigned. Finally, the narration is assigned to these image/text elements.
It therefore makes sense for students to prepare their presentation with a three-column table: The columns contain the narrative text, the text that additionally supports the narrative or visual information in writing and a column with the description of the image or, if the image has already been found, with the image.
Compared to simply recording your own voice in a sound file, working with this app has various advantages:
(28.1.2023)
