Ameliorating_Speaking_Fluency_in_Esl_Learners_Utilizing_Auditory_Dictionaries_and_Audio_Books.Docx_Uploaded_Successfully

Ameliorating Speaking Fluency in ESL Learners Utilizing Auditory Dictionaries and Audio Books Neda Aghaei Sheikh Bahaei University Instructor: Dr. Afzali Abstract: English spoken all around the world is asserted as the most global and frequent one being taught as a second language. Among English students studying structures, working on their reading comprehension, writing skills and other attainments; still we see a gap in their career which is the fluency in their speech. As a second language learner, no one is perfect and native-like speaker but what we try to work on in this study is to elaborate upon the significance and way of using auditory dictionaries and audio books, their advantages as the new means of learning a language and their teaching methodologies in making students fluent in their speech. In this direction, Richard et al.(1985) maintain that fluency is “the features which give speech the qualities of being natural and normal, including native-like use of pausing, rhythm, intonation, stress, rate of speaking, and use of interjections and interruptions.” This study seeks to investigate whether audio books and auditory dictionaries affect the learning process of speaking. At last this paper shows that speaking with above-mentioned tools can ameliorate the speaking fluency in the right path. Keywords: fluent speech, language skills, auditory dictionary, audio books Introduction Nowadays more and more English speaking courses are being developed for learners who find it difficult to make a balance between work hours and other commitments. More so these courses have plenty of advantageous features such as flexible course hours and software programs to help sharpen the learner’s ability in picking up the speech in comparatively lesser time duration. It comes as an immediate attraction to many. Also the programs are simply more efficiency generative and have better quality standards in improving the spoken English of a learner. The participation towards programs comes instantly with interest and gains more plus points than the otherwise unpredictable work patterns of the coaching classes who extract money while giving out very little. Such programs like dictionaries that include audio spellings and speech recognitions contribute to their best in improving the English speaking skills of the learner. Wide range of photographs and drawings stimulate the learner to speaking English with interest and genuine spirit. These programs also come with a variety of interactive programs such as problem solving, group discussions, short telephonic conversations, interviews, public announcements and a lot more. The student not only improves his English but also develops the confidence in speaking it with others in public. Learning English speaking was never so easy before when a learner had to run from pillar to post for the right kind of course material. Today learning English is a burning desire to not only aspiring youngsters but people of all ages for whom English is apart from being an official language is learnt for personal fulfillment. The attractive and fun based learning programs give a boost to learning English speaking more effectively and productively than ever. Phonetics have become an inevitable topic to assimilate by all the English language learners who not only look for refining their written English but want to prove their worth by speaking fluent English as well. To sharpen your pre-listening, lecture orientation skills while hearing or explaining to your seers and peers when you have to create that lasting impression with your powerful speech in English, find the most comprehensive package of learning that now arrives in the form of auditory dictionaries and audio books. As learning comes compacted in these gadgets, the number of drawbacks that one faces while learning are declining to a great extent. These materials come well equipped with miscellaneous activity based programs and practice lessons for learners to sharpen and polish their English language. As the audio books are wonderfully equipped with aural development methods auditory dictionaries too come enhanced with features such as native-like pronunciation and voice recognition, process writing activity books, specially designed communication activities such as group discussions, public announcements, interviews or telephonic conversations. Altered auditory feedback (AAF) such as singing, choral speaking, masking, delayed or frequency altered feedback have long been known to reduce stuttering. Early altered auditory feedback devices were large and thus confined to the laboratory or therapy room, but advances in electronics have permitted increasingly portable devices such as Derazne Correctophone, the Edinburgh Masker, the Vocaltech Clinical Vocal Feedback Device, the Fluency Master and the SpeechEasy. Current devices may be similar in size and appearance to a hearing aid, including in-the-ear and completely-in-the-canal models. Statement of the problem Among students of English working hard on their language skills we see a common problem which is not being able to easily say what goes to their mind and want to express. This could result from shortages prepared in class environments and not sufficient materials to improve speaking skills and making it fluent. Purpose of study Digital dictionary programs composed with human voice in different stages with various functions and audio-books are course materials, which facilitate students to study without other people’s help in correct pronunciation. The aim of this study is to inspect their functions and effects in making speaking more fluent. Audio-books make students learn on their own in effective, productive and equal learning environments. Creating audio-books is not only practical but also easily accessible and inexpensive as well as duplicable indifferent environments such as cassette, CD ROM, the Internet. This is another goal for us to help and also all students benefit from this. Besides, universities contribute educational opportunities for people, thus this project will have a good impression in constructing a public opinion about students in Iranian universities. Significance of study Auditory dictionaries and audio-books are instruction materials that students can use in every situation and every time without being tied to any place or without other people’s help. Audio-books produced for students can create an environment to provide, enrich, inform, guide and teach subjects completely by creating an environment to learn and also develop independent learning skill to solve problems and answer question as well as discuss on different course related topics. The benefits of audio-books in distance education provide an easy, access, low cost and quick change of the content when it is necessary. Since audio-books are educational tools to support learning, programs must be established with simple vocabulary, supported with music and sound effects and the length of program must last 15-20 minutes. Additionally; students need to listen to audio–cassettes, etc. and like the idea of being heard on audio book. Courses would gain status by having an audio-book. Learners can achieve some objectives only with the help of an audio-book: • Auditory Dictionaries present ‘raw sounds’ for learners to experience; these sounds may be natural (e.g. the call birds or animals), mechanical (e.g. the grinding of gears), musical (e.g. the magic of Mozart), etc. Also, it provides a spoken glossary of which are difficult to pronounce terms. • To present some conversations to be analyzed, e.g. between doctor and patient, sales staff and criminals talking about their way of life. • To provide an ‘expert’ talking in an informal, engaging style. For tutoring, i.e. guiding learners through a task or exercise that requires eyes and hands as well as ears, for example: • To study a series of diagrams or photographs. • To operate a machine or piece of equipment. • To assemble a model. • To deal with physical or biological specimens. • To complete a form or questionnaire. • To set up equipment and/or an experiment. • To consult tables of statistics, accounts, etc. • To examine a map, plan, blueprint, etc. • To provide guidance in fieldwork situations, etc. Research Question The study has investigated the following research question: To what extent auditory dictionaries and audio books improve speaking fluency' Creating an Effective Learning Environment for Students What kind of learning environment an audio-book provides is that some criteria are listed below: (Rowntree,1994, p. 7-9) Matching your learning objectives: Audio will be virtually chosen it if the learning objectives require earners to respond to sound. Audio-book is one way of presenting necessary stimulus. It will be the best way for students. Appeal to your learners: Any learner is likely to find some media more appealing than others. Older learners may be happier with printed materials or television; younger people liking high-tech ones, will like computer-based learning and multimedia. Audio-book has always been a popular medium among students; because only this kind book helps them study without other people’s assistances. Physical access: audio-books are easier for students to get access to than others. For instance, learners may need to make a journey (and possibly an appointment) and the place and times may be inconvenient for them but more and more people have a tape or CD player at home, or can get access to one if necessary. Most people have own an audio-cassette player, some have one in their cars as well as at home. Convenience in use: Few media can be superior a book to in terms of convenience in use, but audio-cassette player is very user-friendly, certainly. Because learners can study the material at any time they choose; stop and start the sound whenever they want; replay a passage as many times as they wish; and skip over any material they do not need. Necessary learning skills: Different media require different learning skills and different attitudes. For example, audio-books require students to be good listeners. Learners have positive attitudes toward media; such as they used to be relaxed for entertainment often limit them in using those media for study purposes. Most learners can acquire necessary skills and attitudes, of course, if they want to. However, we have to be sure that it will be worth their time while within the time they have available for course or program they are working on. Clearly, audio-book can provide relief for learners who are not too keen on reading. We may need to support it with printed materials to help them develop the skills for using the audio medium effectively. Literature Review In 1931, Congress established the talking-book program, which was intended to help adults who could read print. This program was called "Books for the Adult Project." The American Foundation for the developed the first talking books in 1932. One year later the first reproduction machine began the process of mass publishing. In 1933 anthropologist J.P. Harrington drove the length of North America to record oral histories of Native American tribes on aluminum discs using a car battery-powered turntable. Audio books preserve the oral tradition of storytelling that J.P. Harrington pursued many years ago. By 1935, after Congress approved free mailings of audio books to citizens, the Books for the Adult Project were in full operation. In 1992 the National Library Service for the and physically Challenged (NLS) network circulated millions of recorded books to more than 700,000 physically challenged listeners. All NLS recordings were created by professionals. Though spoken recordings were popular in 33-1/3 vinyl record format for schools and libraries into the early 1970s, the beginning of the trade acceptance of this medium can be traced to the introduction of the audio cassette and, most importantly, to the prevalence of these cassette players as standard equipment (rather than as options which older drivers did not choose) in imported (Japanese) automobiles, which became very popular during the 1979 energy crisis. Thereafter, consumers and authors slowly accepted the medium. Into the early 1980s there were still many authors who refused to have their books created as audio books, so a good many of the audio books were original productions not based upon printed books. With the development of portable cassette recorders, audiotapes had become very popular and by the late 1960s libraries became a source of free audio books, primarily on vinyl records but also on cassettes. Instructional and educational recordings came first, followed by self-help tapes and then by literature. In 1975, Olympic gold medalist, Duvall Hecht founded Books on Tape, Inc. as a direct to consumer mail order rental service for unabridged audio books and expanded their services selling their products to libraries and audio books gaining popularity with commuters and travelers. By the middle of 1980s the audio publishing business grew to several billion dollars a year in retail value. Caedmon was the first to work with integrated production teams and professional actors, while Nightingale Conant featured business and self-help authors reading their own works first on vinyl records and then on cassettes. The Audio Publishers Association was established in 1986 by six competitive companies who joined together to promote the consumer awareness of spoken word audio. In 1996 the Audio Publishers Association established the Audie Awards for audio books, which is equivalent to the Oscar for the talking books industry. The nominees are announced each year in January. The winners are announced at a gala banquet in the spring, usually in conjunction with Book Expo America. While most music fans rapidly accepted CDs, audio book listeners were slower. One reason may have been that a cassette tape by nature retains its position when the player is turned off, but many early CD players did not retain the playing position of CDs when turned off. Also, it was not until cassette players were replaced by CD players in most automobiles that this format eventually took hold. With the advent of the Internet, broadband technologies, new compressed audio formats and portable media players, the popularity of audio books has increased significantly. This growth was reflected with the advent of audio book download subscription services. In this sight, L2 teachers have often claimed that fluency is a difficult concept to define. According to Derwing et al. (2004), the difficulty in achieving a definition lies in the fact that fluency encompasses many aspects of language. Realizing the difficulties involved in arriving at a precise definition of fluency, Brown (2003, p. 1) gives a sample of some of the well-known ones. Hartmann & Stork (1976) suggest that “a person is said to be a fluent speaker of a language when he can use its structures accurately whilst concentrating on content rather than form, using the units and patterns automatically at normal conversational speed when they are needed.” Brumfit (1984) feels that fluency is “to be regarded as natural language use.” Structure involved in Audio-Books In audio-books, besides a professional narrator, there must be music and sound effects as well. Structured format elements in audio-books to help students are listed below: (Ozgur, 1999). Presenter or Teacher Talking Directly Subject taught in this format is given with the style of direct talking by a presenter or teacher. In this format, it must be paid attention to the fact that there is only one subject to be taught and it is supported by means of music and sound effects. In presenter/teacher format, presenter-teacher is the voice and personality in program. Teacher-presenter must influence students/listeners by means of his/her tone of voice, style of talking, reliability, intimacy but not physical properties and (the most important this is flat) s/he must be convincing establishing emotional relations with students. Dialogues Radio education program presented to students is given using characters’ voices to be found out with helping radio playwright written about subject to be taught. Testimony Radio is a personal media. In general, students are alone while they are listening to radio. Sometimes, the point of teaching can be told with those people’s testimonies related to that subject. In other words, when real people talk about their experiences, they can realize learning. Story Radio education programs telling story are realized with help at a story, which has been starting, developing and ending; such as radio phonic plays. Drawing listeners’ attention to story developing, educational goals and/or subject is presented to students in program that story is resourced from teaching subject itself. Recorded Programs Recorded programs are prepared in advance, cover certain periods and designed in units and involve music and sound effect. Sometimes, converting TV-based education programs to radio-based education program technology also contributes to support subject taught in TV with radio. The advantages of recorded programs are that they are creative and it can be controlled in each phase of preparation. Process of listening to become fluent in speaking 1. Practice “Narrow Listening” “Narrow listening” means listening to many things about the same topic. This method is more powerful than trying to listen to many different kinds of things. Students who listen to similar things learn faster and speak better than students who listen to different kinds of things. For example, you can choose one speaker and find many things by him. Listen to all of his podcasts, audio books, and speeches. This is powerful because all speakers have favorite vocabulary and grammar. They naturally repeat these many times. By listening to many things by the same person, you automatically get a lot of vocabulary repetition. You learn faster and deeper! Another example is to choose one topic to focus on. For example, you could read an easy book, listen to the same audio book, listen to a podcast about the book, and watch the movie. A.J. did this with his class in San Francisco. The class read “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. Then we listened to the audio book. Then we watched (and listened to) the movie. Then we listened to interviews with actors in the movie. His students learned a lot of vocabulary in a short time, and their speaking improved very quickly. 2. Divide Your Listening Time Which is better: to listen for two hours without a break, or to divide that time during the day' Well, dividing your listening time is best. By dividing your time throughout the day, you remember more and learn faster. So it’s much better to listen 30 minutes in the morning, then 30 minutes in the car or train, then 30 minutes coming home from work, then 30 minutes before sleep. In fact, this is the exact schedule we recommend to our students! 3. Use an MP3 Player You can learn English while walking, while shopping, in the car, in a train, while cooking. With an MP3 player, you don’t have to worry about CDs. Also, you can find a lot of English listening on the internet. You can find lessons, stories, podcasts, TV shows, interviews, and audio books. Simply download the audio, put it on your iPod and learn English anywhere! 4. Read and Listen at the Same Time Listening and Reading together are very powerful. While you listen to something, also read it. This will improve your pronunciation. Reading while listening also helps you understand more difficult material. Read and listen to learn faster. After you do this a few times, put away the text and just listen. You will understand a lot more and you will improve faster. Always try to find both audio and text materials. Discussion and Result The goal of speaking instructions is to enable students speak fluently. In this procedure, additional activities make use of technology such as auditory dictionaries, audio books, DVDs, and computer programs. Repeated trainings have been shown to increase fluency (Samuels, 1979). When a student has an opportunity to re-listen a read passage, he becomes more familiar with the vocabulary and is able to determine where to place appropriate pauses and notes of expression This technique improves word recognition and offers a model of fluency not only in improving reading comprehension but a fluent speech that students can achieve by imitation. Captioned television programs, videotapes, and DVDs can be used in a similar fashion. With captioned programming, students are able to see the words on a screen and hear the actors read the words in a natural, conversational manner. After watching a program several times, teachers may wish to play the program without sound and encourage students to read the captions. Fluency is a goal of speaking educators. When students become more fluent, they are able to focus their attention on other factors and they are better able to discuss their thoughts with classmates and teachers. Fluent speakers have confidence in their ability and are eager to explore new materials. In this aspect, audio-books produced for students are quite important for all students to study on their own whenever and wherever they want with a more productive and efficient way. Reference Brown, J. (2003). Promoting fluency in EFL classrooms. Paper presented at the JALT Pan-SIGConference Proceedings. Retrieved November 7, 2004, from http:// www.jalt.org/pansig/2003/HTML/Brown.htm Derwing, T., Rossiter, M. Munro, M. & Thomson, R. (2004, December). Second Language Fluency:Judgments On Different Tasks [Electronic version]. Language Learning, 54 (4), 655–679. Erdamar, Bengul (1992). Radio Programming. Istanbul, Der Publishing. Ozgur, Aydin Ziya (1999). “Radio As a Medium Supports Learning at Distance Learning and Open EducationFaculty Applications”, BITE, Ministry of Education: FRTEB, Ankara. Race, Phil (1998). 500 Tips for Open and Flexible Learning, London, Kogan Page. Rowntree, Derek (1994). Teaching with Audio in Open and Distance Education, London, Kogan Page. Searched Websites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audiobook http://www.englishspeaking.in/articles1/audio-books-for-english-speaking.htm http://www.power-english.net/english-learning/the-key-to-speaking-english.html http://successfulenglish.com/2011/04/if-i-wanted-to-speak-better-english/