Students' Guide to Recording Conversations

Why do we record our conversations?
Some students say their practice conversations in English classes are sometimes unnatural, boring, or worse, meaningless. They think can't improve very much because they aren't shown their mistakes or given a chance to improve those mistakes. One way to overcome these problems is to use cassette recorders to record conversations.

How do I prepare to record?
You prepare for recording conversations in the same way you prepare for ordinary SOCC conversations. Your teacher will introduce a topic, you'll look at the instructions, and later create a conversation card (e.g., Family & friends card, see below).

When you bring your card to the next class, everyone will review the topic. Then you will get ready to record by practicing your conversations 2 or 3 times for about 5 mintues with different partners. Between these conversations, teachers will give you some advice. After practicing 2 or 3 times, take a cassette recorder and record your conversation with your partner.

The benefits of recording
Recording has more benefits than only helping you to use English. After recording, students transcribe and self-evaluate their recordings. This is called Recording Conversations for Student Evaluation (RCSE). It helps you look more closely at your English skills and to learn from your partners. After transcribing, students also benefit from a self-evaluation. Students bring their transcription and self-evaluation to the next class and talk about them. They note any new words and expressions. Little by little students can improve their English by increasing their vocabulary and using more conversation strategies.

Comments from students on the first day of recording
Students’ comments generally support the use of recorders:

• "I think it made me improve my English skill. Because I can learn a lot of words from partners."
• "It was fun…because I could listen how I speak English."
• "I think to know how I speak is good progress."
  

Some students, however, get a little nervous the first time:

• "I tense up and can’t speak better than usual."
• "My partner and my voices are trembling. I should prepare more."
• "I didn’t know my voice was different from the voice I hear. I was shocked and surprised."

Every student I've taught quickly got used to recording and realized how important it is to prepare. Besides liking recording, many students also supported the RCSE process:

• "Writing transcription was so interesting."
• "I did not catch all mistakes. But my partner teach me my fault."
• "I had some reflection about transcription. So, this card is very useful."

In fact, no student has ever told me that recording wasn't helpful. And one student remarked:

• "Recording is the most interesting English study I have ever. I’m glad to know my level clearly!"