• Do some quick pronunciation work

    Send your student a list of words they usually have problems pronouncing. For homework, the student checks the pronunciation of these words, using the Preply vocab flashcards or an online dictionary, and records themselves pronouncing the words. Extend the activity and increase the difficulty by asking the student to record full sentences using the difficult words.

  • Share corrections

    When marking written homework, recording your voice is a more time efficient way of giving feedback. Record yourself giving general feedback on your student’s text and then read out their text, pointing out corrections as you go. The student listens and marks the corrections in their own text, practising both their writing and listening skills. *Note: voice messages can be up to 15 minutes long. A 250 word exam assignment typically takes between 5 and 10 minutes to correct with this method.

  • Track progress

    Ask your student to send you voice messages regularly, so you can both see the progress they are making. You can choose a new topic every time, or, to make it easier to see the improvements, you can choose a question like “what did you do at the weekend and what plans do you have for this week?” that the student can answer each time. Every now and again, ask your student to listen to an old recording and correct their mistakes or level up their language. This will give them a sense of progress and motivate them to keep going.

  • Use success criteria

    Ask the student to record themselves answering a question or speaking about a particular topic, but set success criteria first. Choose three conditions they must meet, depending on their weaknesses and the focus of recent classes. For example: 1. Do not use the words “good”, “bad” and “important”. Use synonyms instead. 2. Use three discourse markers from our last lesson (“you know?”, “I mean”, “well…”) 3. Speak for at least 45 seconds

  • Shadow reading

    Record yourself reading out a short dialogue of maximum 2 minutes in length. Send the student the written script also. The student listens to your recording and practises reading together with your voice, imitating your pauses, intonation and sentence stress. When they are ready, they record themselves reading out the dialogue themselves. *tip! If the student wears headphones, they can listen to your recording and record their own voice message at the same time. Only their voice will be recorded!

  • Level up the student’s language

    Ask the student to record themselves answering a question or speaking about a particular topic. Listen to their message and record yourself saying exactly what they said, but reformulating it to include more natural and idiomatic language and pronunciation. The student listens to your recording, takes notes of the interesting or natural language they hear and want to “steal” and uses it in their second attempt.

  • Do some dictation

    Record yourself reading a short text of maximum 50 words. Read slowly and pause frequently, but try to position the pauses where they would naturally fall when speaking. The student listens and writes down everything they hear. They can pause and replay the recording as many times as they need to. This is especially useful if you include lots of dates, spellings, numbers, times and prices.

  • Practise connected speech

    Once you have introduced to the student how the sounds in your language melt together in natural speech, send your student a recording of some short phrases or sentences where this happens. For example: “What are you doing?” -> /Watchadoin/. Ask the students to record themselves copying the sounds as closely as possible

  • Record your student in the classroom

    Ask the student to click the record button before the start of a speaking activity in class. Be mindful that if they are wearing headphones, they will only record their own voice. At the end of the activity, you can both listen to the recording. This will make it easier for the student to identify and correct their own mistakes, and for you to point out those they did not notice. Remember that the maximum length of the recording is 15 minutes.

  • Encourage multiple attempts

    Ask the student to record themselves answering a question or speaking about a particular topic. The first time, they should only think about the content and not worry about grammar, vocabulary or pronunciation. They then listen to their recording and try again. This time, they know what they are going to say, so they concentrate on using more sophisticated vocabulary and grammar. They listen to their latest recording, and try one more time. This time, they should say the same thing, with very similar words, but the recording should be half the duration.

  • Improve pronunciation with minimal pairs

    Make a list of pairs of words that sound very similar but differ in one sound, such as “cup” and “cap”, and send it to your student. Next, record yourself reading only one word from each pair (for example, read only “cap”), and send the recording to your student. They listen and write down the words they heard. Check their answers: did they hear “cup” or “cap”?. Using the same list of words, the student then records a message reading only one word from each pair (for example, they read only “cup”). Listen to their message and write down the words you heard them say. Are they the ones the student was trying to pronounce?

  • Do a dictogloss

    Choose a short text of maximum 100 words. The text should include some interesting language (vocabulary, phrases or grammar). Record yourself reading the text, at a slow but natural speed. The student listens to the recording three times only and takes as many notes as possible, especially of key words, but must not pause the recording or replay it at any point. Using only their notes and memory, the student works on writing down the text as best as they can. The student sends their text to you, and then listens to your recording again. They highlight the differences between the two texts and send you the “correct” version. In class, give feedback on the first text the student sent you. The task is useful because it sparks conversations on how the same concept can be expressed in different ways, so focus on helping the student fix their text so it is correct, even if the words used are different from the original, and discuss how the two different wordings differ.