Abstract
The affordances and pedagogical benefits of technology in the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classrooms are widely acknowledged. One potential use of technology is in eliciting and managing students’ responses, which is an area where EAP/ESP teachers often report difficulties. Traditionally, teachers either nominate students to respond or rely on students volunteering to answer questions. In practice, this condition tends to mean that the more confident students respond, or students are ‘put on the spot’ by being nominated to speak by a teacher. One way to address this issue is through response cards. Students can respond in unison with a card or whiteboard displaying the answer. Response cards are effective at all levels of education. They increase active responses, improve test scores, and motivate learners. There are now digital alternatives to response cards called ‘student response systems’ (SRS). These systems provide a flexible and diverse way for students to respond using their mobile devices. SRS include Mentimeter, Kahoot, Plickers, GoSoapBox, and Poll Everywhere. Due to its versatility and unlimited number of participants, we believe Mentimeter has greater potential in the EAP/ESP classroom. This tech review will provide an overview of Mentimeter’s features and potential uses.
Introduction
The affordances and pedagogical benefits of technology in the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classrooms are widely acknowledged (Healey, 2018). One potential use of technology is in eliciting and managing students’ responses, an area where EAP/ESP teachers often report difficulties. Traditionally, teachers either nominate students to respond or rely on students to volunteer to speak. In practice, this situation tends to mean that the more confident students respond, or students are ‘put on the spot’ by teacher-nominations. One way to address this issue is through response cards. Students can respond in unison with a card or whiteboard displaying the answer. Response cards are effective at all levels of education in increasing active responses, improving test scores, and motivating learners (Twyman and Heward, 2018).
There are now digital alternatives to response cards – called ‘student response systems’ (SRS). These systems provide a flexible and diverse way for students to respond using their mobile devices. SRSs (SRSs) include Mentimeter, Kahoot, Plickers, GoSoapBox, and Poll Everywhere. They provide for instant, anonymous responses to a range of questions and prompts posed during lessons (Moorhouse, 2017a; Kohnke, 2019), leading to improved on-task behaviour and maximizing participation. In the age of bring-your-own-device, such systems can readily elicit students’ responses. SRS platforms have individual benefits and limitations. Kahoot has a game-like format but only allows multiple-choice questions. Plickers does not require students to have their own devices (students respond with a QR code on a response card), but only allows multiple-choice questions. Mentimeter, Poll Everywhere, and GoSoapBox offer a wide range of question formats, but the free version of Poll Everywhere limits the number of participants to 25, and GoSoapBox to 30 (less than most class sizes), while Mentimeter is unlimited. Due to its versatility and unlimited number of participants, we believe Mentimeter has greater potential in the EAP/ESP classroom. This technology review provides an overview of Mentimeter’s features and potential uses.
Overview
Mentimeter is available on most web browsers and mobile devices. Teachers can create an ‘interactive presentation’ after registering at https://www.mentimeter.com. The format resembles PowerPoint, but the slides include various ways for students to respond on their mobile devices (Mentimeter, 2019). It takes a few minutes to create a presentation. On the ‘homepage’, the teacher clicks on ‘new presentation’ and gives the presentation a name (See Figure 1). The program takes the teacher to the presentation creator platform to customize the presentation. Teachers can select question types (e.g. polls, word clouds, open-ended questions, and Q&A) as well as write prompts and questions (see Figure 2). Each question type has options (e.g. profanity filter, show correct answer, allow for multiple responses). Teachers can add slides until the presentation is complete.
Presenter’s homepage.
Presentation creator platform with question types.
The teacher can show the presentation using the class computer and projector. When the presentation appears, the program creates a unique code (see Figure 3). This feature ensures that only students in the classroom can respond. Students go to ‘menti.com’ on their device and enter the unique code to follow the presentation on their device and submit their responses (see Figure 4). These responses appear on the teacher’s screen (see Figure 5), but each respondent remains anonymous. The teacher can move to the next question or prompt at any point, and the material will be ‘pushed’ instantly to the students’ devices. Presentations can also be customized to allow students to work through the presentation at their own pace by selecting ‘audience pace’. At the end of a presentation, all responses are stored on the system and may be downloaded as a permanent record.
Presentation displayed on the class computer and projector.
Question displayed on students’ device.
Student’s response shown on the class computer.
Potential Benefits in the EAP/ESP Classroom
There are several pedagogical benefits of using Mentimeter in the EAP/ESP classroom, including increasing interaction and engagement, soliciting opinions, and formatively evaluating student understanding.
Through questions or prompts, teachers can break up monologues with quick and instant student responses (e.g. a quiz question or ranking). This feature helps maintain student engagement. Students anonymously see other students’ responses, creating a more collaborative learning environment and the co-construction of knowledge.
The wide variety of response formats makes it easy for teachers to solicit students’ opinions. These responses can be used to stimulate group and class discussions (Moorhouse, 2017b) through open-ended questions or word clouds. Drawing on students’ ideas, teachers can structure their lessons around students’ interests and increase engagement while achieving specific ESP/EAP pedagogical goals. For example, the teacher could provide students with a discipline specific text, and ask them to share questions they have as they read it instantly on Mentimeter through an open-ended question. These could then be discussed as a class. They could also elicit academic/discipline specific vocabulary through a word cloud.
It is often difficult for teachers to evaluate how much students understand during class because when asked if they understand something, students will often nod in agreement. At the beginning of a class, Mentimeter can be used to ascertain students’ previous knowledge and expectations. At the end of a class, the program can be used to assess students’ opinions of their learning and gather questions about the material.
Mentimeter can be useful for assignments. Students can be asked to share assignment topic ideas or share their thoughts about assignment exemplars. As responses are anonymous, Mentimeter creates a safe space for students to ask questions or make suggestions (e.g. How could this course better meet your English learning needs?, How could the course be more relevant to your field of study?).
The strategies mentioned above allow students to engage in the target language in context and successfully participate in the academic or vocational community, an integral function of the EAP/ESP classroom (Wette, 2018).
One potential limitation of Mentimeter is that the program may limit students’ opportunities to share their responses verbally. This limitation can be overcome by giving students time to discuss their responses in groups or pairs before sharing them on Mentimeter (Moorhouse, 2017b). Some active learners who want to respond to teachers’ questions openly and orally may be frustrated by Mentimeter. It is important to get students to ‘buy-in’ to the use of Mentimeter and for the teacher not to overuse it.
Conclusion
Mentimeter has potential for use in the EAP/ESP and English-language classrooms. The free version allows for two questions and five quizzes per presentation. Two subscription versions with educational discounts are available: Basic (US$9.99 a month) and Pro (US$24.99 a month). The paid versions have unlimited questions and quizzes, private presentations, and compatibility with PowerPoint and Google presentations among their features. Visit https://www.mentimeter.com/plans for pricing and details. The Mentimeter website offers free webinars. These webinars provide instructions and tips. One webinar useful for EAP/ESP educators is ‘Mentimeter for the Digital Classroom’. For further details see: https://www.mentimeter.com/webinars.
