Resource Review: Olympus DS-40 Digital Voice Recorder
Learning a foreign language is a decidedly non-technological enterprise. Too much reliance on technology, or embracing the wrong kind of technology, will undermine the learning of a skill that is primarily about face-to-face human communication. With that said, the right kinds of technology can make the process of learning a foreign language significantly easier.
My wife and I recently bought an Olympus DS-40 Digital Voice Recorder. I figured I would need a way to record my classes in Jordan, because I most likely won't understand everything I hear the first time. The money was well-spent; the recorder is proving to be a valuable tool to help with my Arabic learning.
Amazon.com sells a number of different voice recorder models. I bought this one because the price was reasonable ($110), it's small, it has strong user reviews, and it has all the features I was looking for. I won't go into the details (you can read the Amazon.com page), but I'll share a few highlights.
The device has 512 MB of onboard memory (enough to record 136 hours), organized into five folders. You can easily browse and record new sound files in any of these folders. Clips are recorded as .WMA files. When you plug into a computer, the device acts like a thumb drive or a digital camera--you'll see five folders with your sound files in them. Every time you start and stop, the device creates a new clip, so it's quick and easy to segment and organize your work. The unit also has small but ample speakers, so you can playback sounds and listen to them. With a single button-press, you can slow down the playback--a helpful feature for any Arabic learner. The unit has three gains you can toggle with an external switch: dictation, conference room, and auditorium. My only regret is that the unit doesn't record directly to MP3, but this hasn't posed a problem; it's easy to convert the format if I need to. The device runs on two AAA batteries. I don't know how long battery life lasts, but my wife and I have been using ours for both recording and playback for six weeks without changing batteries. The recorder has other, more advanced features, but I haven't felt a need to explore them.
So how do you employ a digital voice recorder in your learning? My wife and I have a Jordanian tutor who works with us twice a week on dialect. He usually prepares a new model dialog for us to use during each session. We have him record each dialog as a separate audio file. Also, if we encounter a particular category of words--such as times, or ordinal numbers--we ask him to record a list of words. The recorder is so quick, easy, and natural to use that we can make an audio recording in seconds. We now have a large library of organized dialect clips. I use my PC to rename the files something sensible. We use one of the five folders to store our organized dialogs and word lists, and a second folder for "work in progress." When we travel around--driving in the car, walking along the beach--we can bring the recorder to play back and practice our dialogs.
The unit is perfect for a classroom environment. Set the gain to "conference room", hit "record", set it on your desk, and you're done.
Another way to use the device is to record yourself speaking. Sometimes I like to listen to a passage recorded by a native speaker, then read the passage myself, trying to match the pronunciation. When I record myself and play back the two recordings side by side, I'm usually horrified; but after a few more times through the passage, I usually see a vast improvement in my pronunciation.
A digital voice recorder is a simple but elegant piece of technology that provides good value to a language learner. I'm sure I'll rely on mine even more once I'm in Jordan.
My wife and I recently bought an Olympus DS-40 Digital Voice Recorder. I figured I would need a way to record my classes in Jordan, because I most likely won't understand everything I hear the first time. The money was well-spent; the recorder is proving to be a valuable tool to help with my Arabic learning.
Amazon.com sells a number of different voice recorder models. I bought this one because the price was reasonable ($110), it's small, it has strong user reviews, and it has all the features I was looking for. I won't go into the details (you can read the Amazon.com page), but I'll share a few highlights.
The device has 512 MB of onboard memory (enough to record 136 hours), organized into five folders. You can easily browse and record new sound files in any of these folders. Clips are recorded as .WMA files. When you plug into a computer, the device acts like a thumb drive or a digital camera--you'll see five folders with your sound files in them. Every time you start and stop, the device creates a new clip, so it's quick and easy to segment and organize your work. The unit also has small but ample speakers, so you can playback sounds and listen to them. With a single button-press, you can slow down the playback--a helpful feature for any Arabic learner. The unit has three gains you can toggle with an external switch: dictation, conference room, and auditorium. My only regret is that the unit doesn't record directly to MP3, but this hasn't posed a problem; it's easy to convert the format if I need to. The device runs on two AAA batteries. I don't know how long battery life lasts, but my wife and I have been using ours for both recording and playback for six weeks without changing batteries. The recorder has other, more advanced features, but I haven't felt a need to explore them.
So how do you employ a digital voice recorder in your learning? My wife and I have a Jordanian tutor who works with us twice a week on dialect. He usually prepares a new model dialog for us to use during each session. We have him record each dialog as a separate audio file. Also, if we encounter a particular category of words--such as times, or ordinal numbers--we ask him to record a list of words. The recorder is so quick, easy, and natural to use that we can make an audio recording in seconds. We now have a large library of organized dialect clips. I use my PC to rename the files something sensible. We use one of the five folders to store our organized dialogs and word lists, and a second folder for "work in progress." When we travel around--driving in the car, walking along the beach--we can bring the recorder to play back and practice our dialogs.
The unit is perfect for a classroom environment. Set the gain to "conference room", hit "record", set it on your desk, and you're done.
Another way to use the device is to record yourself speaking. Sometimes I like to listen to a passage recorded by a native speaker, then read the passage myself, trying to match the pronunciation. When I record myself and play back the two recordings side by side, I'm usually horrified; but after a few more times through the passage, I usually see a vast improvement in my pronunciation.
A digital voice recorder is a simple but elegant piece of technology that provides good value to a language learner. I'm sure I'll rely on mine even more once I'm in Jordan.
posted by Reach 364 at
6:13 AM
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