Useful links for LLT 361

I will be talking about CALL as a guest speaker in Dr. Peter De Costa’s LLT 361 class, Second Language Learning, at MSU on November 14. I’m planning this as a mini workshop on the following tools, including some activities that could be done using them and the connections to SLA. All of the tools are free except for Scribblenauts Remix (which costs all of $0.99).

I’m mainly focusing on digital games, but if there is time, I will also show Flipgrid. I’ll be using InfuseLearning to do a poll of the digital games that the students play.

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1) Akinator and 20Q are two similar games that can be played in a wide variety of languages, including English, Spanish, French, Chinese, and Japanese. They are both like the 20 questions game you may have played with your family to fight boredom on long road trips. The difference between the two is that for 20Q, you are asked to think of a thing that is not a proper noun. For Akinator, you are asked to think of a real or fictional character.

Video podcast of Language Lab Unleashed Live – This is where I first learned about Akinator, and Dr. Felix Kronenberg gives some ideas for using it in the language classroom. This podcast also includes other useful ideas for using games.

Handout about using 20Q, also from Dr. Felix Kronenberg.

 

2) Quizlet is a flashcard application that supports images and audio as well as text. The teacher or students can create the flashcards and share with others. In addition to the normal flashcard functions, Quizlet has a matching game and a “Space Race” game. It also generates tests with fill-in-the-blank, multiple-choice, matching, and true-false questions, and it has a quiz mode in which the student listens and spells the correct word.

 

3) Scribblenauts Remix is a iPhone/iPad/Android game that costs $0.99. To play this game, you have to create objects by inputting their names. If you input something ambiguous, such as “chips”, the game will ask you to clarify by choosing from options, such as “chips (food)” or “chips (money)”.

I learned about this game from a presentation by Dr. Felix Kronenberg.

 

4) Flipgrid is a tool that teachers can use to have students record video responses to discussion questions. It works like a discussion board in that every student can view the other students’ responses. Teachers need to create an administrator’s account, but students do not need to create an account to record a response.

Review of Flipgrid in FLTmag – Dr. Adrienne Gonzales introduces Flipgrid. This is where I first learned about it.

Example Flipgrid (Spanish) – Also from Dr. Adrienne Gonzales.

 

5) Infuse Learning is a student response system that you can use to keep students engaged in the classroom. During my workshop, the link to respond to the question is student.infuselearning.com