Mote for Pronunciation Assessment

Guest post from Mote Ambassador Leader Frederick Ballew, Computer Science Teacher in Bloomington Public School District
‍

Did you know that you can use Mote for pronunciation assessment with Google Forms? As teachers we are constantly introducing new vocabulary to our learners. Whether it be elements from the periodic table for our Chemistry classroom, kingdom and phylum names of animals in our biology classrooms, Italian words that represent tempo and accents in our music classroom, challenging names in our Literature class, or names of people and places in our history classes we are continually throwing a staggering amount of vocabulary at our learners. Recognizing and understanding these vocabulary terms are only part of what we want them to learn, we also want them to be able to pronounce them correctly. It is great when our learners understand that epitome means a perfect example of a person or thing, but if they pronounce it “ep-E-toe-m” we feel that we have failed them. Here are 3 ways that we can use Mote in Google Forms for pronunciation assessment.

Repeat after me

You can create a Google Form with an embedded Mote with you pronouncing each word and the learner's response can be for them to record themselves repeating the word. With the Mote extension installed for both teacher and learner all of the Mote recordings are embedded right into the form. Grading is a snap with all of the responses from your learners appearing on a Google Sheet.

Fluency and Intonation

Many multisyllabic words can be challenging for learners of all ages and backgrounds. Nearly all music terms are written in Italian. This is because Italian music theorists were the first to write down the rules for music notation, and they did so in Italian. So for learners in a music class not only are the words in a different language for most of them but every term is at least two syllables. In Italian, the emphasis is often on a different syllable then English speakers would expect. After teaching and regularly using these terms in a music class students, a Google Form can be created with the same terms creating questions for the students to then answer them by pronouncing them in a Mote message. The responses are then all put onto a Google Sheet and can be graded from there.

Self-Assessment over time

Students can record themselves in a Google Form early in their learning and throughout which can be especially helpful in language classes. By making the Google Form a quiz you can adjust the settings to allow the student to receive a copy of their responses and also to show the link to try again and submit another response. The students can go back and listen to their pronunciation each time they take the Google Form quiz and improve as they learn more.

Check out Rick's MoteCon session below where he expands more on accessibility with Mote and pronunciation assessments.