Week 3 - How I have been using technology in teaching.

I have said that my favourites are songs and videos. I have talked about songs in my previous post and I am going to tell you something about using videos now.

Non-verbal behaviour or paralinguistic features of the spoken text are now available to the learners when using videos, so learners can develop their listening skills in a richer language context.

Almost any video can be used to teach English according to the language point you wish to teach and the level of your student(s). Videos can be used:
-to practice/consolidate a range of language points
-to introduce subject(s) for debate
-to encourage conversation amongst students
-to improve writing skills
-to introduce new vocabulary
-to develop listening skills (with visual aid)
-to improve pronunciation

Besides the agendaweb videos I also used whole movies as “ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory “ , “ My fair Lady “ ,” Lady and the tramp” , “ Alice in Wonderland , “ Ratatouille “ , “ Mary Poppins “ ,and Pinocchio “ . I designed different while-watching and post-watching activities.
For example for “ Pinnochio “ , I had a summary of the film to be completed with the names of the characters and discussions about the themes developed in the film : process of growing up and making choices. For “My fair Lady “my students had to match quotations from the film with the character who had said those words , to answer a quiz and , after being introduced to the myth of Pygmalion, to compare it with the film.

http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/ is another site I usually use for the development of the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing and provides enough material to practice each of them. Children just love it because it is colourful, funny and has a large variety of topics for their age (<13). It has two parts : learning English and Teaching English . Following the latter one you will find yourself at http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/. There you will find a huge variety of activities to do in class, teaching tips, lesson plans, articles, news and so on .Take some time to explore it !

In this week’s websites to try there was this link : http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/ . If you access the “For Teachers “section on the right menu and you will find the section “Video “– The teacher. I have been using this particular section in my teaching because I consider idioms as a part of daily speech .They are used to convey a meaning quickly and are often easy to use and learn. They should be used carefully in a way that they add flavor to writing and speech; using too much, however, will result in diverting from the original meaning that they were intended for. There are often context clues in the idioms that suggest the hidden meanings. I have a deal with my students : they are taught by the BBC teacher a set of idioms a week and their task is to “ hunt “ for the appropriate context in the next English classes and use the idioms. If they can do that (and most of them took the chance) they have the maximum grade on the spot.

I have been using tapes and audio CDs, of course, but they do not provide the facial expression, the gestures, and the physical background to make a piece of listening easier to understand. The visual element is attractive and commands the attention better than audio alone because is much closer to real life.

Yours, in the land of Nod,
Cami