Voki in the Classroom

SEN stands for "special education needs" and it is used to refer to students with a wide range of needs which require special support in the classroom (Hockly, 2017). The term SEN includes different cognitive, learning, behavioural, social and emotional challenges.

There is a vast variety of technologies that can support these students when learning a foreign language. In this post, we will explore the use of Voki.

What is Voki?

Voki is a subscription-based companion site to Voki, whose name is a blend of the latin word for voice "vox" and "Loki", a god from Norse mythology who can change shape. With this app, you can create and customize characters to resemble living people, animals and cartoons by recording their voices via microphone or telephone. Other options include using an uploaded file or one made with a text-to-speech function available in more than 25 languages.

Main benefits of using Voki in the classroom

• It gives students a voice, which can be particularly useful in the case of learners with speaking challenges.

• It enhances reading, writing, listening and speaking skills.

• It is highly motivational for young learners since they can customize their own avatars.

Classroom activity

In order to practice vocabulary on jobs and professions, each student in the class will be asked to create an avatar using Voki to play a Guess Who game. They will have to record an audio including as many hints as possible regarding activities related to that job or profession for the rest of the class to guess it.