Nohelia Rojas-Miesse shares #HowIBoomalang,

Miami University (OH)

Image from Boomalang Speaker, Fabiola Granados, de Heredia, Costa Rica

#HowIBoomalang is a series of interviews with educators sharing how and why they implement Boomalang conversations. Below are selected quotations from the interview.

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"The confidence translates into the classroom as well. They are more responsive and they actually talk instead of being hesitant and shy."​

Classes: Intermediate Spanish 

Problem

Miami University Senior Lecturer Nohelia Rojas-Miesse was in search of resources to complement her intermediate Spanish 201 classroom, and the technology packets included with their Spanish textbook just wasn't cutting it.

"The goal of [additional resources] was for the students to practice the language outside of the classroom because the university is in a community where there isn't an opportunity to do that.

And probably for most students, this is the only time they got to talk with a native speaker, so my goal was also to expose them to native speakers."

Solution

"The students have to complete five conversations per semester," explains Nohelia. "Each conversation has a specific topic centered around the unit/book subject matter. Students have to write a reflection. And for some of the conversations, students had to do pre-work, such as prepare questions they were going to ask their conversation partners."

Results

Boomalang was the fit--and allowed for some cost savings. "Because we have been able to incorporate Boomalang, we were able to eliminate some of the accompanied products from our textbook, savings the cost of the book add-ons."

The implementation also proved to boost their self-assurance. "The first reflection tends to say 'I feel bad,' 'I don't think I did well,' 'I messed up a lot.' By the third reflection they say 'I'm getting better,' 'I feel more confident,' 'I'm really happy that I can communicate.' So, they evolve. It give them a lot of confidence that they can have a complete conversation. And that confidence translates into the classroom as well. They are more responsive and they actually talk instead of being hesitant and shy."

Have a story to tell? No matter the detail, help the community by commenting below, emailing info@boomalang.co, or sharing on twitter using #HowIBoomalang.

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Saludos,

Alison, Community Engagement