There are tons of simple tools that English Language Learners can use to practice speaking when they’re in the computer lab, and I’ve got the best ones listed at The Best Sites To Practice Speaking English.

But what about when you’re not in the computer lab? What’s the easiest way to have students do an audio-recording so that they, and their classmates (and others), can listen to — and evaluate — their work?

One option is to consider the tools listed at The Best Sites For Students To Record Audio By Phone.

However, I just learned about a new way that might just be the easiest.

Audioboo is an excellent recording tool, and is on “The Best….” speaking list. And Posterous is a blogging tool that — though it has some disadvantages,too — is on several other “The Best…” lists.

Here’s a short video that shows how easy it is to connect Audiobook to a Posterous blog — and it’s VERY easy. I could see setting-up a class blog, perhaps only for audio recordings, and regularly going around with my iPhone and having students in the classroom record short snippets — of what they’re reading, writing, or some dialogue they’ve prepared. More importantly, at least in my case since we typically have generous access to a computer lab and can use other audio tools that I think are a bit better, it would be great to use this combination when we’re on field trips. I’ll be teaching Beginning English Language Learners next year, and we’ll be going on many short ones, so I could really see this combo working out well.

Thanks to Jeff Thomas for the video tip.

One of the ways we finish the year strong in some of our classes is having students design their own unit plan (on a topic of their choice) and teach a portion of it to classmates. I’ve included the complete lesson plan and hand-outs in my newest book, and have also previously posted about it.

This year, we’re adding a new element — having students create a simple introductory PowerPoint presentation to their topic. I’ve found a few short and simple videos we’ll be showing students to help provide some advice. I’ll embed them here, and add them to The Best Sources Of Advice For Making Good Presentations.

Check-out the Worst PPT Slide Contest Winners and read design advice from the contest organizers.

I’m adding this to The Best Sources Of Advice For Making Good Presentations.

SoundCloud lets you very easily record an audio message — the first 120 minutes are free — and then you can post the link or embed it where you like. They’ve also just begun a new site called Take Questions, which TechCrunch calls a “Quora for audio.” There, you can set-up your own page to take audio questions that you can then answer — in audio.

I’m adding both to The Best Sites To Practice Speaking English.

“What makes a great scientific talk?” is an excellent post by David Winter. His advice, though, is excellent for any kind of presentation — not just one related to science.

I’m adding it to The Best Sources Of Advice For Making Good Presentations.

Paul Nation is particularly known for his research on helping English Language Learners develop vocabulary, but he knows far more than just that area. In this video, he shares a simple activity that lets students develop greater speaking fluency. It’s a variation on an exercise that many of us probably already use in our classrooms, but the variations he suggests are important one.

He calls it the “4-3-2″ Fluency Activity. In it, students line up (standing or sitting) facing each other. Each one must be prepared to speak on something that they are already quite familiar with. First, they speak to their partner for four minutes about the topic. Then, they move down the line, and say the same thing for three minutes. Next, they move and speak for two minutes. Then, the students on the other side do the same thing.

Nation explains in the video how this practice meets the criteria of a fluency activity. Professor Baker (I found the video in his blog) summarizes the criteria in this post.

The video is worth watching, and I’ll be trying this activity out soon in class. Professor Nation suggests that it would be a nice weekly activity.

You can see more of his videos here.

I’ve previously posted about Fotobabble, the great app that lets you easily post a photograph and a one minute accompanying audio narration.

We’ve begun having students write short dialogues, take their photos, and then have them record their dialogues. Afterwards, we listen to them as a class and together evaluate how clearly the words are pronounced, along with if they speak with “feeling.”

You can check them out at our class blog here.

Here’s a video from the organizer of Ignite presentations (which are somewhat similar to TED Talks) giving advice on how to present at those conferences. It, too, provides good advice on giving public presentations. Anecdote shares some additional advice related to the video.

I’ve added these resources to both The Best Sources Of Advice For Making Good Presentations and to The Best Teacher Resources For “TED Talks” (& Similar Presentations)

Both of those lists, by the way, also contain links to The TED Commandments – rules every speaker needs to know which is advice for people who are preparing to give TED Talks.

In addition, I’m adding 100 Things You Should Know About People: #56: People Process Information Best In Story Form to The Best Sources Of Advice For Making Good Presentations.

You might also be interested in The Best Digital Storytelling Resources.