Listen and clap

There are a handful of voice extensions we can install in our browser as add-ons to interact with ChatGPT through voice. These extensions can also read ChatGPT’s responses outloud. Some popular extensions include Voice In, Talk-to-ChatGPT, ChatGPT Voice or VoiceWave. I have Voice Control for ChatGPT installed. This extension allows us to adjust the playback speed of the generated text, which is an added bonus for the language class. We can also install the ChatGPT app on an Android phone or tablet for voice interactions with ChatGPT and connect the phone to speakers.

Both options open up a myriad of possibilities for creating listening activities on the fly in the language classroom. Today, I am going to share a suitable activity for beginners.

We are going to ask ChatGPT to generate and read short, simple texts featuring words from lexical sets. The students will have to identify the focal vocabulary and clap their hands (or stand up) every time they hear a word from that lexical set. Let’s take clothes as an example. Here’s the prompt: Please write a short story that will take about 20 seconds to read that a beginner student of English can understand. Your story must feature between 2 and 6 words related to food and drink.

Once, there was a man named Jack. He loved cooking for his family. One weekend, he decided to make breakfast. He cooked eggs and bacon and toasted some bread. For drink, he made fresh orange juice. His family sat together at the table, happy and hungry. They enjoyed the delicious meal and talked about their week. Jack felt great joy as he watched them eat and smile. It was a lovely morning filled with good food and love.

The read-aloud speed is set at ‘1.0’ by default. We could slow it down to ‘0.7’ to ease things off for our beginner students. We then tell everyone to close their eyes or look away so they don’t see the screen at the front. When they identify the key words, they should clap their hands.

Next, we let the students know that they can look at the board now and check what the key words are.

Let’s explore another lexical set that beginner-level coursebooks typically introduce in their early pages: countries and nationalities. I used the same prompt but replaced ‘food and drink’ for ‘countries and nationalities’.

Once, there was a girl named Ana. She lived in Brazil and loved to learn about different countries. One day, she met a boy from Japan. They became friends and decided to share their cultures. Ana showed him how to make Brazilian pancakes. In return, he taught her to say “hello” in Japanese. They talked about their countries, Brazil and Japan, and learned about their traditions. Ana felt happy to have a friend from another part of the world. It was a great day filled with friendship and new experiences!

We can ask ChatGPT to read the story again or create a new story following the given criteria.

Here’s a video where I am using the ChatGPT app on my phone. The generated text is way above the learners’ level of English, but what makes a task suitable has more to do with the type of outcome expected from the learners than with the text itself. I find this type of task really interesting from the perspective of a bottom-up approach to listening activities in the ESL classroom. In other words, guiding learners to decode sounds to construct meaning, starting with the smallest units of language. Over to you to listen and clap.