A Genial Approach to Speaking Practice through the Use of Genial.ly

ORGANIZING THE PROJECT:  

In order to do this task, I asked my students to work in pairs throughout the whole process. Primary or secondary teachers as most of them are, I thought it would be a good idea to give them freedom to choose the topics for their oral presentations; so, that’s what I did. This way, they could feel more comfortable talking about a topic or subject they were familiar with, which could in turn boost their motivation.      

I started by explaining them the final aim of this task, which was to prepare just the beginning of an oral presentation on a specific subject, and to present it to the whole class. I emphasized the fact that they were expected to take into consideration a series of important elements generally involved in public speaking (apart from content and form), such as body language, intonation, pauses, and the use of visual aids to make it easier for the audience to understand and follow their speech. Here, I introduced Genial.ly as the tool we would be using in order to create such a presentation. After that, each pair of students created a free account in Genial.ly, using the “Education” modality, and explored the different possibilities offered by this tool. Then, I shared with them the rubric I would use to assess their work, explaining all the assessment criteria there included. All this was done during our first session. 

Our next session was fully devoted to preparing their oral presentations. In pairs, students started brainstorming ideas and preparing a first draft for their presentation on the chosen topic. As they were working, I kept on moving around the classroom, monitoring, checking on their progress and helping them whenever it was necessary.  I thought they would finish preparing it in just one session, but it wasn’t enough time, so I told them to finish it at home.    

Finally, on session 3, I had my students presenting their work for the rest of the class, using their Genially presentation for visual support. As each pair presented a topic, the other classmates had to write down any relevant aspects (in terms of language resources, body language, etc.) by making use of some rubrics I had previously shared and explained. Every presentation took between 2 and 3 minutes, so all the students could present their own work in class.  

I think the use of Genial.ly was something positive, since it was a motivating way to promote teamwork and to further their knowledge of new technologies. As this was the first time we used this tool, and it was completely new to all the students – even to me, as well – it took as some time to explore it and learn about some of its basic options. I guess next time it’ll be easier to use it for us all, and quicker to finish our task!