For those of you who have language labs in your building, this post may not be very enlightening. For those of us that teach in a building without such luxuries, we too can incorporate similar assessments and practice with other technologies. If you have access to iPods, iPads, a bring your own device policy, or even access to computers or recording devices, you can have students record in pairs.

I gave my students a script to complete with their partner. Using the app “QuickVoice” or “Voice Memo” students were able to record themselves and share the file with me as an e-mail. Here is a video clip of the script and a sample student recording:

I can get a short, quick assessment of their fluency and pronunciation on an individual basis and only spend 10-15 minutes of class time doing it. By working in pairs, I only have 1/2 to listen to. The parts they have to translate tells me how well they know that information while the scripted parts are a good sense of their pronunciation.

Quick Speaking Assessment

For a sample script with a rubric, download our Language Lab Script Rubric.