Sonocent
I am a big fan, and avid user, of Sonocent’s AudioNotetaker. I first came across it in 2012, and wrote about it in the final chapter of my book, Phonology for Listening.
What makes AudioNotetaker so attractive is that it enables me to have images, text, and audio side by side in the same view. Great. But even better is the fact that the audio is presented in pause-defined chunks, and I can assign each chunk a colour code. I can move the audio around (copy, cut and paste as well as colour code) and edit it pretty much as easily as I can edit text. And I can have the equivalent of four components of any textbook side by side in the same view: Images, Teacher’s book instructions, Student book text, and audio chunks.
I have used it for:
- Teaching pronunciation
- Teaching presentation skills
- Teaching listening
- Analysing recordings for research and teaching purposes
- Drafting and trialling new publications
Teaching pronunciation: I am able to give a pronunciation task, colour-coding the target sounds and words, with (there are two text panes) written instructions and then a text or script for the student to recording, and an image or graphic for motivation or instruction. I can send files to my students and they can send back their attempts, and I can review and send them back with the chunks targeted for improvement colour coded and with instructions in the text pane.
Research: It makes it possible for me (and everyone) to operationalise recent research findings, and pedagogic advice from listening experts. It enables me to demonstrate that:
Words take their shapes from the intonation group as a whole and may not be identifiable until the whole group has been heard (Field, 2008: 196)
It enables me to present …
The same words in a wide range of contexts and voices (Field, 2008: 166)
It enables me to teach students …
[to identify] the often important words in-between the stressed syllables (Thorn, 2009)
In teacher education it enables me to get, and communicate to others …
… a greater understanding of the nature of the speech signal (Field, 2008: 140-141)
And to …
… equip teachers of listening with sufficient information for them to be able to identify the areas which are most likely to give rise to decoding problems (Field, 2008: 141)
Not bad eh? Try it here.
Field, J. (2008). Listening in the language classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thorn, S. (2009). Mining listening texts. Modern English Teacher, 18/2, pp. 5-13