A Digital Storytelling-assisted Activity: Making Requests

This activity is designed with a speaking/listening class in mind, or perhaps a social life component of an EAP integrated course.  It would fit in well with a functional syllabus.  The focus of the activity is recognizing poor strategies for making a request and then generating more effective ones.  The site goanimate.com is utilized for the following reasons:

1. Ease in quickly producing a short video (can use text-to-speech or audio recordings)
2. Ability to provide some visual context for the situation
3. Allows for repeated playbacks, pausing, etc. (compare with a teacher-read dialogue)

Pre-Listening (10 minutes)

1. Place Ss into groups of 4-5.  Ask them to think about the last time they made a request- it could be as simple as borrowing a pencil, asking for tutoring, or borrowing a car.

2.  Direct groups to share their most recent request with each other.

3.  Assign one group member to be the Scribe.  He/She will write down what the group decides is the ranking of most to least valuable requests (e.g. borrowing a car > borrowing a pencil)

4.  Each group can share their ranking with the class, time allowing.

5.  As a class, discuss if you should ask to borrow a car the same way as you ask for a pencil.

6.  Announce that they will watch a scene where a boy makes a request to his friend.

During Listening (10 minutes)

1.  Pass out a worksheet/have students prepare to answer the following questions on a piece of paper:

• What is the boy's problem?
• What request does he make?
• Is he successful?
• How do you think the girl feels?

2.  Play the following video A Friendly Request, students answer questions while listening.

3.  Question students to confirm comprehension.  

4.  Play the video once again, this time directing students to take notes and identify what the boy said that caused him to fail.

5.  In groups again, members should discuss and come to agreement on what caused the boy to fail.  Review these findings as a class.

Post Listening (20 minutes)

1.  Recap why the boy was unsuccessful.  As a class, brainstorm some strategies or things the the boy could say to be successful in making his request.  Direct the discussion towards the following ideas if students miss any of them:  

• hedges (e.g. "Could you loan me 5 bucks?" v "You must give me money") 
• offering reasons ("I forgot my wallet at home!"  or "I don't get paid until tomorrow.")
•  a promise of repayment ("I'll pay you back tomorrow before class")
•  expressing future gratitude ("I'd really appreciate it...")

2.  Break off students into pairs or small groups.  Their task is to create a successful version of the story where the boy uses some of the strategies brainstormed by the class.  

3.  If available, students can create these on goanimate.com.  Voice recording can be used if microphones are available.  Otherwise, students can create roleplays with notecards.

4.  Pairs/Groups can share their stories.  Audience members can vote whether or not they would let the boy borrow some money.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Overall, I think GoAnimate has some good potential for use in the language classroom.  It is quick and easy to use, able to create video files that can be manipulated (repeat, pause, etc) for intensive listening instruction.  Though the suprasegmental features of the text-to-speech leave something to be desired, one does have the ability to record and insert audio in the scenes, adding to authenticity to the input that students will hear.  Since the content creation is so easy, and users can simply register and login with their Google or Facebook accounts, students could also easily create content to share and save, which is hard to do with conventional roleplays.  Grouping students adds interaction and negotiation of meaning to the video creation process, too.