USING PADLET TO ENCOURAGE SPEAKING

Padlet has become an endless teaching tool. I discovered it in a workshop I did around 2 years ago. Since then, I’ve been using it with different purposes:

• To do an initial diagnosis of what students know about a topic.
• To monitor students’ interests and motivations.
• To collect students’ questions and/or contributions about a topic.
• To present the written result of a learning process.

During the lockdown, I realized I could also use it to record students voice among many other options such as uploading a file from the computer, including a direct link, google search, take a photo or a film from the device, record the screen, draw, add a location, or add a link to another Padlet.

Encouraging speaking when teaching a foreign language is always a challenge and we are always looking for activities that motivate students to speak. I started a radio programme at school (it was not in English) and we have to stop it because of the lockdown. Then, a couple of weeks at home it occurred to me that it could be a good idea to create a Padlet where each student could record a part of the radio programme.

I organized the Padlet in four different columns: INTRODUCTION OF THE RADIO SHOW, BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS, READING OF SHORT PARTS OF THE BOOK, AND GOOD-BYE.

We agreed on who did the introduction and the good-bye, and the other students contributed when they finished a book they liked.

This activity provided:

• Speaking practice
• Motivation for reading
• Interaction between students during the lockdown
• Digital competence practice
• Good assessment tool for teachers

Núria Parareda