How can you take effective use of ELSA AI?

 

The prize for Teaching Pronunciation 

Excellence goes too... ELSA AI👏👏👏

The world has gone digitally advanced now. I am very impressed to see how technology is granting opportunities to us to study languages easily, effectively, with less stress, in shorter time compared to the past. 

There are a wide variety of apps anyone can choose today that serves this purpose. I compare this case to the scene in "Rock Dog" animation movie when the musician dog chooses a guitar in a huge collection of more than thousands of guitars according to his taste. Or in the Aladdin movie, the Genie makes the wishes possible in a blink of an eye like the apps for language learning are facilitating these days. Learning English is becoming easier and more accessible thanks to the development of technology. Learners choose the apps according to their needs and preferences. 

One of these apps is ELSA AI. It is a very helpful tool to learn and develop pronunciation. As an EFL teacher, I would recommend it to other colleagues and students to enhance their pronunciation. Especially, it is useful to A1 and A2 levels. Also, ELSA AI can motivate the students to engage in learning (Kholis, 2021).

One should download the ELSA AI app to start to practise and improve pronunciation. There are 3 versions of the app: ELSA Free, ELSA Pro and ELSA Premium. 

ELSA AI offers conversational practise and role playing scenarios. Proficiency comes with practise in learning languages. Obviously, it takes some time. Learners may feel confident while talking to this app without the fear of being judged or making mistakes. There is no human factor as it is an AI app. This app provides thorough feedback for your pronunciation and feedback is objective. I prefer this app for this reason. Also, a research by Dennis (2024) on AI-powered speech recognition technology for enhancing pronunciation and speaking abilities found out that considering the dynamic relationship between language acquisition theories, the use of technology and learner factors are important to create effective language learning environments.

There are some limitations of ELSA AI app. Advanced levels might find the app too basic, as it is mostly tailored to beginners and elementary levels focusing on accent and clarity. Also, it may provide incorrect or very strict feedback, especially with varied accents or intonation which may hinder its objectivity.

Companies can use this app as well, for example, to boost pronunciation skills of their employees. 

Here is the example for pronouncing the word "confidence". Learners should write the word on the app, then may tap to listen and say it. I would recommend to use this app along with other apps to promote language skills, because one drawback of ELSA AI app could be it is only focused to develop pronunciation. 

Here is the link for a YouTube video about ELSA AI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFuhtAi5tJk

References

Dennis, N. K. (2024). Using AI-Powered Speech Recognition Technology to Improve English Pronunciation and Speaking Skills. IAFOR Journal of Education, 12(2), 107-126.

Kholis, A. (2021). Elsa speak app: automatic speech recognition (ASR) for supplementing English pronunciation skills. Pedagogy: Journal of English Language Teaching, 9(1), 01-14.

A visit to Kedleston Hall

 

My unforgettable journey

We have been to Kedleston Hall a day ago with our Warwick Applied Linguistics team. It was my first trip to a historical castle as an international student. I dreamt to visit such castles since my childhood, to be honest. I really wanted to feel that atmosphere when I watched the movies "Pride and Prejudice", "The Duchess", "Wuthering Heights" etc. I am a huge fan of historical movies, books and sights. 

We have a great team of PhD and Master's students. We were guided by our amazing professor Tilly Harrison. We had such a nice experience thanks to her efforts.

I loved the clean and fresh weather and immense landscapes there. I am back home now with full of impressions, peace and tranquility in my heart. I love how people treat the nature here in the UK. Trees are sacred and not cut randomly. I have seen centuries old trees in the forest walk and felt so nice and harmonious with the nature. Besides, I am impressed how people care to their children's attitude to nature in England. They walk along the forest with their kids and play some interesting games with them which serves to spend the time meaningfully together, strengthen family bonds and promotes positive and loving attitude to the nature. I witnessed people bringing their kids to the castle, showing historical artefacts, the halls, portraits and answering to their questions in detail and patiently which I think raises intesest and respect in children to the glorious history. I experienced it in Oxford National Museum as well. I believe, such trips are important both for parents and the kids. People care so much about history here. 

   

I was very impressed by the decorations, portraits, dishes and the carpet in the dining hall. It is full of art and creativity. 

     

The trip was wonderful and adventurous. I believe, such experiences serve to build stronger rapport and broaden the horizons of people. Thank you!

An amazing tool for brainstorming and collaboration!

Organize your ideas easily with Bubbl.us!

Brainstorming and mind mapping ideas are vital part of education process these days, especially in language learning. I would choose to use a collaboration tool Bubbl.us, as it offers several and easy-to-catch ways of mind mapping for my students while for example, coming up with ideas for writing essays, analysing and sharing thoughts for project assignments. This tool has unique features like, note taking with pictures, links, and formatting that can help students to make their ideas in order. Bubbl.us may help to develop better critical thinking and promotes smooth organization. Also, Stair (2013) suggested that Bubbl.us as a useful online application that seamlessly enhances student-student and student-tutor engagement.

Here is the link you can use for this tool: https://bubbl.us/en

I can see variety of benefits of this tool for the teachers of all disciplines

• Teachers can show the tasks in big visuals and mind maps which usually help students to remember easily. To the best of my knowledge, this method is more interesting than showing simple notes in this technologically advanced era. It is obvious that most people pay more attention when the information is presented in visual charts and mind maps and remember better.
• This tool promotes collaborative learning in the classroom which in turn strengthens stronger rapport among teacher and students and within the small teams that are working together as well.

Bubbl.us offers great range of charts as you may see in the following photos. For instance, I would use Outline Right Align chart for brainstorming advantages and disadvantages essay. One group could search and discuss merits of a particular issue by using Outline Right Align form to tailor their ideas accurately and by implementing technology to the classroom while another group does the same for demerits of the same matter and in the end, both groups may share and discuss their opinions. I believe, students will be more engaged when they align the technology to the given task. Abd Karim et al., (2020) suggested that studied effectiveness of this tool and found out that Bubbl.us helped to improve learners' writing skills. 

Limitations of Bubbl.us could be the time and the resources. It can be time-consuming process to enroll students to brainstorm the task with Bubbl.us until they get quite familiarized with it. Also, it can be difficult to access to Bubbl.us in low resource contexts with poor Internet connection and lack of  computers and mobile phones.

So, my dear technophile friends, let's make our lessons more fun and interesting with Bubbl.us!

Here is the link for the chart for an SLA lesson that I created. You may have a look!

https://go.bubbl.us/e889cb/27ad?/Organization-Chart

Photo credits: Pixabay

References

Abd Karim, R., Tahir, M. H. M., Adnan, A. H. M., Idris, N., Ismail, I., & Abu, A. G. (2020). Bubbl. us: A digital mind-mapping tool to promote a mobile-based technology approach in writing courses. In Emerging Perspectives and Trends in Innovative Technology for Quality Education 4.0 (pp. 231-235). Routledge.

Stair, N. (2013). Bubbl. us–Web 2.0 Mind Mapping. Compass: Journal of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 4(8).

My insights about British Council’s Learn English Online platform

 

An autonomous learner? 

British Council’s Learn English Online platform is for you!

As an English language teacher, I used several platforms to raise the quality of my lessons and to make my students more engaged in classes. One of them is British Council’s Learn English Online platform. It is a digital hub intended to facilitate language learning with plenty of sections that offer fascinating resources for all skills in language learning. The design of this platform incorporates a blend of educational techniques, like live classes, IELTS preparation, personal tutoring, quizzes, podcasts and even corporate trainings.

IELTS preparation has become popular in Uzbekistan recently as people are too much obsessed with taking IELTS certificates. Students are stressed to achieve higher scores in IELTS and compete with peers which could negatively affect their mental well-being later in return. This is sad to mention. To the best of my knowledge, not all families could afford in Uzbekistan to pay for General English or IELTS courses which are forced to last at least a year to get to the exam to take the certificate. British Council’s Learn English Online platform can come very handy in such cases. The sources are tailored to meet the high standards for online teaching and learning tools indeed. It is very helpful for learners to share their favourite topics, exchange ideas, learn English meaningfully and get more services from the British Council (Cuong, 2016).

                      

Valuable sources for IELTS exam!

The IELTS course in this site is based on more than 80 years of teaching experience and has been used and approved by more than 80 million people which can make it valid and reliable source to study. There are several good reasons to choose IELTS coach which is given below in the picture.

Learning hub

Learning hub is another valuable part of the site where people may collaborate and share common interests with others. It grants opportunities to practise English and make friends at the same time.

Also, teachers may find it exciting to find original, innovative and authentic materials to apply in their English language classrooms in special section for Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking skills.

Grammar is here to help!

The power of Grammar should never be underestimated. According to Swan (1994), knowing certain structures helps to communicate meaning successfully and without correct grammar, it is difficult to make comprehensible sentences.  Meaningful and learner-oriented tasks, quizzes and other materials are provided in this site for Grammar and effective learning is prioritized.

Limitations 

Though, there are some limitations. The platform is web-based and there is no mobile application version which may interfere the learners who wish to use their mobile devices for this source. Also, the courses in the platform follow standardized curriculum which that may not always meet the needs of the learners. 

Overall, I find British Council’s Learn English Online platform very effective. I have been implementing the materials I find there to my classes for more than 9 years now. I recommend you too. Why not to try?

References 

Cuong, T. G. (2016). CALL EVALUATION: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/in language learning.

Michael, S. (1994). Practical English Usage. Oxford University Press.