--- Forwarded Message from Judy Shoaf <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Tue, 08 Feb 2005 15:45:07 -0500
>From: Judy Shoaf <[log in to unmask]>
>User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; WinNT4.0; en-US; rv:1.3) Gecko/20030312
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum
<[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #7791 Oral testing in lab
>References: <[log in to unmask]>
>In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>

We've been using our Tandberg lab for speaking tests right from the
start (literally--the installation deadline was a SPEAK test). This is
the system now sold by Sanako, consisting of instructor software called
ICM and student software called Divace; it's expensive and includes some
proprietary hardware as well as the software. We have been really happy
with it, though, and in particular for testing.

The great thing is that it will automatically collect the student speech
as mpg files, which can be burned onto a CD and reviewed by the
instructor. Since saving the files correctly is the trickiest part, this
saves a lot of anxiety.

The student files are called Student1, Student2, Student3 etc. so it is
important to have assigned seats and a good record of who is sitting
where. Spoken identification is also a good safeguard.

The test interface wants you to play a question on tape or ask it live
and then pause while students answer. This works for some kinds of
testing, especially if the answers are relatively short (you can stop
the recordings as soon as everyone stops speaking and move on to the
next question). Only the answers are recorded and saved in this mode.

However, you can also "transfer" a cassette tape, media files, CD, etc.
with timed pauses for answers, and collect the resultant recordings. A
third method is to let the students initiate their own recordings and
then collect them at the end.

We have not only been using this for course testing and the SPEAK test,
but also this past year for the Florida Teachers' Certification Test in
Spanish. I helped work out the protocols.

Judy Shoaf



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