Improving Oral Proficiency by Raising Metacognitive Awareness with Recordings

Audio technology such as podcasting may be an efficient tool to improve oral proficiency by exposing learners to more authentic input (e.g., listening to podcasts) and by giving them opportunities to produce substantially more output (e.g., creating podcasts). Combined with self-evaluation activities, voice recording technology can also contribute to metacognitive awareness, i.e., “the ability to reflect upon, understand and control one’s learning,” (Schraw and Dennison, 1994), an important component of the learning process (Swain, 1985).