Teenage student voices as part of a live news programme in class

CLIQUEZ ICI POUR LIRE LA VERSION FRANÇAISE

This is the sister article to Why hearing your own voice is like seeing a selfie which indicated why speakers can sometimes be disturbed by the sound of their own voice in a recording. I propose to continue this exploration with the outline of a collective class activity for teachers interested in helping teenage learners focus on voice acceptance, one of the keys to enjoying oral expression.

The project described here is an example of how to make and record a short radio news bulletin from start to finish in one class of 45-50 minutes with the teacher as anchor-person and the students as journalists. Once the news bulletin is completed, the recording is played back and used to talk about the experience in order to move naturally into a discussion of the perception we each have of our own voice.

Having used this activity framework over time, it has become clear that the short news programme format is familiar, particularly to older teenagers, either in the form of a complete news broadcast or as separate reports shared on social media where breaking news is often condensed into a 30-60 second soundbites.

In the EFL classroom, the challenge is to work towards producing that “live” report in the foreign language. However, the same framework can easily be adapted by teachers of maths, history, economics and so on, by orienting content so it includes themes relevant to their particular subject. In such cases, the news programme is prepared and recorded in mother tongue.

Announcing the task and starting the session

Typically, the teacher starts the session by announcing the final objective. However, since the day I realised that this actvity also enables us to reflect on the sound of our own voices, I now use a sightly different lead-in which goes something like this :

“I’m an English teacher, but I’ve always dreamed of hearing myself presenting a radio news programme – not a long, exhaustive news discussion programme with lots of debate, but simply the sort of news update which you hear once or twice in the hour – I would announce the headlines and then take reports from a different jounalist for each news item – sometimes asking them a question for more details if that’s appropriate – anyway, I would be that anchor-person presenting the news. And I was wondering : what if that could happen today? What if we could do it together? If you agree, of course… What would the news be today? Any ideas?”

People talk to each other for a minute or two about possible news stories from around the world, nationally or locally. Suggestions for news stories are written on the board or posted on screen in the form of key-words or phrases.

As current events elbow their way into the classroom, certain topics will provoke comment, some of which could be negative. This is a brainstorming phase so don’t worry. Just remember to also pick up on unusual, stimulating or funny stories which students mention – variety will make the final selection process more interesting.

Once there are at least 10 potential stories posted, it’s time to invite people to choose : “As presenter of this news programme, I’ll leave you journalists free to pick your story from those we have suggested. Work in groups of 2-4. Which topic would your group like to choose to make a 30-45 second report?”

Students confer and announce their choice. This then gets ticked or circled to signify it is no longer available to others. Groups will have 15 minutes to prepare their reports before the news programme goes live.¹

Creating a newsroom

Give each group their own work surface to create their reports while all staying in the same newsroom. Encourage them to use their own knowledge, not searching online. Of course, they can ask questions to the teacher or to their classmates in other groups concerning content if necessary – a newsroom is a collaborative place.

As preparation reaches closure, each group needs to plan delivery. Who will speak? One person or more than one? If they share, then how will they organise that? The group’s spokesperson could ask other members brief questions – as witnesses to an event or experts on a situation. Let each group decide. Finally, since most will have written down² what they are going to say, make sure they rehearse saying it out loud to make sure that their words come tripping off the tongue.

The teacher-presenter will also need to prepare 3 further key-points for the coming news programme: fixing the running order of the stories, making sure this is visible to all when the class goes live ; checking that the smartphone recording function is active and ready to use – this is vital to the follow-up discussion so it is important to be confident it will work ; giving groups regular time-checks so they know how close they are to air-time for their report.

Let’s go live!

When the time comes to go live with the news, something clicks into place as soon as soon as the teacher-presenter pushes the record button : here’s an oral production which involves everybody’s voice, including the teacher’s.

Kick off the programme by giving listeners the full list of what is to come, before inviting each group in turn to make their report. Make sure each speaker is close enough to the microphone to ensure stability in the volume of the final recording – there is often a student who is happy to do this job, if not, the teacher simply needs to be mobile during the programme.

As presenter, you may want to consider creating gentle surprises to enhance the atmosphere of oral spontaneity.

YFor instance, you may want to include brief mentions of one or two stories from the initial list not chosen for reports – particularly items which drew comments in the intial brainstorm – while adding : “we will have a full report on this in our next edition.”

Another option is to initiate unplanned interaction between members of a particular group. For instance, following a sports report : “Thanks for your report. I believe you have supporters of the winning team with you. What were their impressions during the final penalty shoot-out ?” Students won’t be expecting this, so there may be a pause before response comes. Stay in role : “Are you still there? Maybe there’s a problem with the satellite link …” Relax the situation so the person is able to muster a few words. If nothing comes, just keep calm and carry on : “I’m afraid we’ve lost contact with our reporter on the spot. Time to move on to our next story …”

These minimal ploys bring out the “live” quality in the recording. The teacher-presenter is also performing live, both as a speaker and a facilitator for other speakers, and needs to be ready to adapt to what happens in the moment while maintaining informational flow.

Don’t forget to thank listeners and reporters before ending the programme and the recording.

Listening to the recording and debriefing the experience

After a natural exchange of spontaneous impressions, it’s then time to play back the recording.³ This can be left as an open task with no particular guidelines, simply a “Let’s listen!”. But with voice as our focus, I like to say : “Let’s listen and see if we can recognise each other as we speak on the recording.” Along with speaker identities, language students will also notice other things – accent, volume, details about expression or how natural they sounded. However, once these have been touched upon,⁴ it’s important for the teacher to refocus attention on the issue of voice by talking about hearing their own voice as presenter.

Be gentle, but direct : “How did you you sound? What was it like hearing your voice?” If people are reluctant, share your impressions on hearing your own voice. There is always something new in this experience, even for habitual public speakers like teachers. Your ability to engage on this subject will help the students do the same while introducing to key points into the conversation.

Hearing the sound of your own voice can be disappointing and bewildering. One way to talk about it is to connect it to the experience of seeing a selfie. The difference between the voice we know and the voice others hear can surprise us. This phenomenon is known as voice confrontation and you will find it outlined HERE in the post Why hearing your own voice is like seeing a selfie.

Encourage exchanges about the difference between students’ perceptions of their as they know it and as others know it. There is an easy way to highlight this difference : “Cup one hand around your ear, and place your other hand in front of your mouth like a sounding board. Now speak in your normal voice so that the sound bounces off the palm of your hand and is projected directly to your ear. There’s the voice everybody else hears when you speak!”

Conclude by encouraging students to get used to hearing their own voice because discovering and accepting the way it sounds is crucial to being able to speak with Words tripping off the tongue. Personally, I found the discovery of the sound of my own voice unsettling as a young teenager and only really learnt to accept my voice as a teacher – it wasn’t easy, and you can read about it here. You may want to share part of your own journey with students at some point – but that’s optional, of course.

More on radio news

Making a news bulletin in a single class together creates the individual and collective momentum which is crucial to oral work. Certain classes get to enjoy doing it to the extent that it can become a regular routine – with a different language focus each time – once a term or sometimes more, thereby enabling students to see and hear their speaking change over time.

If you’d like to know more about what goes into a radio news programme before trying it out in class, I recommend the very practical guide posted on 24h In A Newsroom which gives a step by step account of what radio journalists do. It’s more than you need to know, but it is clear and performance-based. It also has a specific page on voice training.

Check out The Subjective Classroom and Orality and Storytelling for related posts.

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Footnotes

1. Check your timing on this by always looking ahead at what still needs to be done before the end of the class : reports, recording and discussion. Modify timing according to how things go on the day. ↩︎
2. This is the case in 99% of classes whether or not students are instructed to write down everything they want to say in their report. ↩︎
3. If your class period is only 35 or 40 minutes, you may need to stop here and pick up the playback as a promise for the next class. ↩︎
4. The subject for another activity in another class. ↩︎