Page 36 - ELG1903 Mar-Apr Issue 464
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RESOURCES                .




                                                                                                                    TED TALKS



















                                                                                      Chris Burkhard gives a Ted Talk
                                                                                      on the joys of cold-water surfi ng


        High impact at lower
        High impact at lower levelslevels



        Interested in using authentic videos with lower level learners?
        – Lewis Lansford explains how.


              t’s a great time to be an English   In a beginner-level class, you could just play   personality? Is it confident? Shy? Funny?
              learner, with easy access to a   the soundtrack of the video as Tom makes   Serious? Watching the video first, without
              seemingly endless supply of free,   music, and ask learners what they hear: a   the sound, can get students thinking about
        Thigh-quality English language input   trumpet, a drum, applause – it sounds like   what they’re going to hear, and make
        through online videos, social media, podcasts   live jazz. But when you play the video again   listening easier.
        and blogs. Most teachers understand that   with the image, you reveal that Tom has made
        using authentic materials – anything   all of the sounds with his mouth. This can   Choose videos where the
        produced for a purpose other than teaching   bring a lot of language into the classroom,   4  pictures and words support
        English – can capture and hold learners’   even when students haven’t listen to a single   each other
        attention and motivate them to improve.   spoken word. This sort of exercise is especially
          Take TED Talks, for example. A fantastic   useful at lower levels, because the listening   Pictures can make the content more
        range of freely available, relatively short   itself isn’t just easy, it’s actually fun.  accessible to learners, especially at lower
        videos (from four to 18 minutes) about some                             levels. In Magical houses, made of bamboo,
        of the most-discussed topics in the world                               Elora Hardy describes a house she designed,
        today – big ideas that learners want to talk   Set the level of the lesson   while showing pictures. As she names each
        about. On top of that, they feature a wide   2 with the task            feature of the house – ‘big curving roofs,’ ‘tall
        variety of English speakers with a range of first                       windows’ and even a ‘tented bed’ – we see a
        and second-language English accents. They   Focus on the level of the classroom activity,   picture of it. This allows learners to see what
        also model good presentation skills.   not the level of the input. Set a task that is   she’s describing and thereby get the meaning
          But unfiltered, ungraded content like   challenging enough to provide a learning   of her words, even if they’ve never heard
        this can be hard to understand. Speakers   opportunity, but not so difficult that   them before.
        often talk quickly and use grammar and   learners fail.
        vocabulary that learners haven’t yet mastered.   For example, rather than have learners try   Find videos where the
        Working with such material successfully in   to comprehend individual words or sentences,
        the classroom requires more than just playing   play a short excerpt and ask students to say   5 unexpected happens
        the video and asking a few comprehension   or suggest something about the context, the   Many people watch online videos for
        questions, especially at lower levels.   topic or speaker. You could watch two or   entertainment, and pressing entertaining
                                            three short excerpts and compare the three
        Here are a fi ve tips for using videos   speakers’ voices, and so on.   material into the service of language learning
                                                                                is a win-win: learners develop their skills, and
        such as TED Talks successfully in a                                     everyone has fun.
        low-level class.
                                                 Use the pictures – they’re      Matt Mills’ talk Image recognition that
                                            3 full of language                  triggers augmented reality takes surprising,
              Listen to everything – not just                                   sometimes funny turns – many of them visual
         1 spoken language                  Video images can carry a lot of language,   – making learners curious to know what’s
                                            even with sound switched off. Mark   going on. Without understanding everything,
        Audio material that doesn’t include speech   Bezos’ talk A life lesson from a volunteer   students can visually absorb some of the
        can also be useful. Tom Thum’s TED Talk   firefighter is a great example. Play the   content, thereby giving them something
        The orchestra in my mouth, for example, has   first minute or so without the sound off   to talk about.
        a long passage with no speech, just Tom   and ask learners what they can see. He’s   Using authentic video in the classroom
        performing music.                   clearly a firefighter, but what about his   is an effective way to engage learners and

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