Talkie: Where it all began
This was posted back in November 2019 when Talkie was pretty much just an idea that would not leave me alone. What a year it has been since…
Here’s an idea, why don’t we build that app we all need and could use together?
I’m serious. I have researched apps, came up with ideas of my own, rejected them, went back and forth with this for months on end…Until I decided I might as well just have a go at it.
Please feel free to enlighten me or comment if you disagree. I welcome, nay, encourage discussion below as I need as many insights as possible to solve this problem.
Duolingo, Quizlet, Memrise, even Kahoot – who has tried them all?
Existing language apps for students are mainly focused on building and consolidating vocabulary knowledge. The ones mentioned above are great, but what happens post-vocab drilling?
So far, I’ve yet to come across an app that enables the learner to apply the vocabulary acquired and develop their speaking skills, creatively and independently – in short, to express themselves verbally.
The apps which encourage these skills may be available, but often by means of an online native tutor i.e. Italki, Verbling, Preply, which requires engaging with a stranger online. Due to safeguarding concerns, our students cannot access, let alone benefit from these apps.
So where does this leave us?
From my end, this app needs to…
- be simple, intuitive, easy to use
- give students the opportunity to exercise creativity and express themselves in the target language
- have effective scaffolding to build confidence and enable students to independently produce answers (this would likely come at a later stage as I would need more teacher and student input)
- encourage a habit; implement a reward scheme to incentivise students to practise regularly
- enable you, the teacher, to provide meaningful, personalised feedback with a touch of a few buttons
This would not replace what goes on in your classroom but seek to complement the learning that took place, provide more practice for your students (given the little teacher-student contact time we get!) and incite creativity which is often neglected in lessons due to the fast-paced nature of the curriculum.
The challenges
Hold uppp. You ask, “but is there an actual need for this?”, I bet you’re already doing so much for your students to develop their skills both in and outside the classroom.
Plus, you might be thinking how we can encourage students to use such an app regularly, especially those who are not intrinsically motivated to pick up the language – or even how we’ll encourage teachers like yourselves to subscribe and incorporate this in your schemes of work.
Am I just too much of an idealist? I’ve thought about this too, but I couldn’t let it go without hearing from you first.
How?
This is where you come in, my dear reader, fellow teachers.
This blog has this sole purpose: user research. I want to find out what could significantly help you and your students improve their speaking skills which I have been passionate about since I started teaching. I have a few questions as well as ideas, soon to be prototyped, for you to look at and comment on.
If you, like me, think there is an opportunity to improve how tech impacts learning and as a bonus, minimise your workload and still provide useful feedback, I urge you to follow or better yet, engage and join me on this journey!
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PS. I am a qualified MFL teacher and have enjoyed the last 3 years of teaching. Four years, if you count teaching English abroad. It was a mix of delight, non-stop learning, dread and never-ending frustration, like so many of you out there. Despite all of this, there is this itch I need to scratch – it’s a now or never issue for me – and that is tech. So I’m giving this a good go.