I agree with many of the teachers in this lesson that smartphones are there so we should take advantage of them. And I do. I use the VOICE MEMO function and the VIDEO CAMERA the most.
Students in my Speaking class do a fluency practice in every class called “Tekito Talking” (Speaking off the top of your head). They speak or listen to four topics that I prepare beforehand. For example, in the second week after AABB, they might have Cats, Christmas, Desk, Dictionary. They must speak as long as they can without stopping (2-3 minutes target). I give them a loose structure to support them: 1) Describe it as much as you can, 2) Tell a story about it, and 3) Anything else you can think of.
At the end of this exercise, I ask them to record themselves using ANY one of the four words they already spoke about or listened to. However, they only have one minute, and I want them to speak as much as they can. Then they listen to themselves and count how many words they spoke. They report their score and I keep track of it for 15 weeks in a row.
Just for your information, my Japanese first year university students went from an average of 48 words per minute in the first lesson, up to an average of 92 words per minute in the last lesson. We were both happy with this increase, and having their smartphones made this a very easy activity to do in class.
