Teaching language via story telling.

Story telling seems to be hard wired into us and tapping that deeply rooted need is a great way to get students to be more creative and expressive in the foreign language they wish to learn. Nowadays, with the advent of ever cheaper hardware and a ready supply of free-to-use applications, the cost of using such equipment in lessons has dropped significantly.

Here is a teaching idea that utilises such opportunities.  A number of different aspects of language can be practiced with this exercise and it encourages active production in written form while creating dialogues and via the recording section it encourages students to listen to themselves and change their performances in response.

This is a long term project that will need multiple lessons and much will be best assigned for homework, also it requires the teacher to be comfortable with the software used and so is not for the technologically faint hearted. However, to simplify the procedure the video segment could be omitted and student could record themselves on their smart phones.

The level of the lesson depends very much on the source material chosen but could range from near beginner to advanced.

You'll need:

-Access to PC with a microphone and speakers and ideally the internet (useful but not absolutely
  necessary).
-Comics in digital form or scanned pages from regular comics
-Windows Movie Maker
-An image processing app/program such as Windows Paint./Photoshop or GIMP.
-Audacity a free audio editor and recorder program (Optional).

Many comics in digital form come in .CBR/CBZ and other similar formats which means you'll need a special program to read them on a PC e.g. Comic Book Reader. However, this format cannot be read by image processing programs, To make them compatible you'll have to decompress or "unzip" them. which you can easily do by right clicking with your mouse or touch pad the file you need and decompressing it.The result will be that every page will become a jpg image file which you can then use with the other programs mentioned here.
.

Lesson Plan

There are three possible options for this stage of the lesson, you can use a comic strip with no dialogue e.g.  Tiny Titan's Beast Boy or you could use a strip with dialogue and either let students read existing dialogue or blank out the speech bubbles and let students replace it with their own - see Star Wars Rebels example.

Once again the choice of comic strip also will reflect what kind of language structure,  and/or vocabulary is being practiced/taught. Also whether the project will be best done by individual students or in groups is on best decided by the teacher. The exercise is very open ended and can be adapted for any number of language teaching items. This plan is a general introduction to the concepts rather than a step-by-step guide. Also the burden of much of the preparation will have to be taken up by the teacher unless you want to spend hours explaining several different programs to your students.

You will need to cut up the comic strip into sets of one, two or three using your image processing program and then add these images to the the Windows Movie Maker program (Here is a video tutorial on how to use WWM). To add your dialogue to the video you can use the existing recorder function that WMM has or record them via Audacity, an excellent free to use studio recording program, in which case you'll need to add the audio files separately to your WMM project.

You'll then need to adjust the length of time the images stay on screen in order to fit images and dialogue (the video tutorial mentioned above explains how to do this)..

BE WARNED: Recording dialogue correctly is a time consuming process and your students will probably need multiple takes before you or they are happy with the final result. However, this is the heart of the exercise as it requires students to listen to themselves closely and correct any mistakes made in pronunciation. The time spent is well worth the results.

The downside is that older student often recoil from the sound of their own voice, the upside is that it makes them aware of long term issues and allows them to improve enormously.

Instead of using comics, you could also use children's books or pages from a school text book.

English for refugees - Recipe dictation and cooking together

This lesson plan is based on a idea from Teaching Adults Second Language Learners by McKay and Tom

Aim - To help refugees use cooking vocabulary, write recipes

Materials - Cooking equipment and ingredients, access to a kitchen, photocopies (see below)

Level - Elementary/intermediate.

1 - Ask students what verbs/words we use to talk about cooking. write some on the board and mime them to ensure understanding. Otherwise ask students to use smart phones for translation.

2 - Elicit words and write them on the board, use mime to ensure understanding.


3 - Hand out this photocopy from Englishwsheets.com

4 - Students copy down any words they didn't know, check comprehension.

5 - In pairs, student mime words from the photocopy and the other s have to guess them.

6 - Now explain that you are going to give them a recipe (or write it on the board) and that they have to copy them into their notebooks but some words and/or numbers will be missing. (Just choose numbers for beginner students).

7 - Read the recipe aloud and have students fill in the missing gaps.

8 - When you have finished reading have students take turns in completing the dictation on the board or in groups of 3-4

9 - Now get students to use this as a template for their own recipes, encourage them to use their smart phones to find ingredients and names of cooking equipment

10 Tell students that next lesson we will be cooking together in Oikopolis's kitchen, ask students to say who would like to cook something simple for the class, e;g salads, dips etc that take less than an hour to make. Take students on a tour of the kitchen to check that it has all the equipment they need.,

English for refugees - word games for the revision of vocabulary

Last time we played this game to lighten the mood and revise some of the vocabulary areas we have covered recently.

1 - Divide the board into a grid, On one axis write the categories you wish to cover, I also included easier categories such as cities and names in order to help the less advanced students.

2 Divide the class into teams - The size will depend on how much English your students know, with elementary/beginner students, use bigger teams.

3 - Ask students to shout out some (5-10) letters of the alphabet.

4 - Write them in the grid and go through some examples.

Letter           Name           City               Part of the body       Something in the home

F                  Fay               Florence        Face                         Freezer  

5 - Set a suitable time limit (2-10 minutes) - encourage students to use their notes from previous classes and their smart phones.

6 - The winning time is the one who complete the grid or has the most correct entries when the time limit is up.

7 - Elicit answers from the whole class, write them on the board,
                       

English for refugees - Describing homes - finding accomodation

  PART ONE

Aim - To help refugees with some grasp of English describe and find accommodation Greek city of Thessaloniki

Materials - Photographs of different kinds of housing  either from magazines or via  via smart phone.

Level - Elementary/intermediate.

1 - Ask students to think of their dream/perfect home. You may need a photograph to help get your message across and then describe the place and say why you want to live in this place.

2 - Now elicit suitable vocabulary for describing a home;

Type - e.g. flat/house/villa etc

Size - e.g in  square meters or number of rooms/bedrooms

Location e.g in the centre/suburbs/countryside

Amenities e.g.garden/swimming pool/utilities room/garage etc

3 - Write these on the board elicit further terms from the students.

4 - Now students look for a suitable dream home on their smart phones or simply describe it to the person next to them. Students then ask each other why they want to live in this place.

5 - Now draw a floor plan of your own or one you have found on the internet. Label the rooms and facilities, check comprehension.

6 - Students then draw their own present home/previous residence floor plan or for their dream home.

7 - Students then describe their plan.

e,g, It is/was

       It has/had

       I like/liked etc

PART TWO

Aim - To help refugees with some grasp of English describe and find accommodation Greek city of Thessaloniki

Materials - Photographs of different kinds of housing  either from magazines or via  via smart phone and a map of the city..

Level - Elementary/intermediate

1 - In the next lesson recap the language used to describe homes (see part one)

TYPE

SIZE

LOCATION

AMENITIES

2 - Now divide the students into two groups landlords/landladies and tenants - explain terms.

3 - Now in their groups students think of questions the landlords/landladies and tenants would ask.

Landlords/landladies

e'g How long do you want to stay?

     Do you have pets?

     How many people are there in your family?

     How will you pay the rent?- cash/credit card/direct debit?

     etc.

Tenants

e.g Where is the apartment?

      How big is it?

      How many bedrooms does it have?

      How much is the rent?

      Howe much is the deposit? 

      etc.

4 - Write these and any others on the board so students can see them during the following exercises.

5 - Give out landlords/landladies and tenants role play cards (cut into strips)

6 - Work on vocabulary issues and either assign roles at random or ask student to choose their own roles. 

7 - Students write down/copy suitable questions and practice them in pairs.

8 - Now students stand up and the landlords/landladies go to one corner of the room and tenants to the other. Explain that the tenants are looking for accommodation and the landlords/landladies have properties in and around Thessaloniki. Remind students that in Greece prices are often are negotiable so they can haggle/negotiate things such as cost of rent.

You may also need to pin up a large  map of the city to help students understand where the properties are located

9 - Student try to find suitable property/tenant. Encourage students to try more than one option.

10 Students then explain how they made their choice to the class.

11 - If time permits students swap roles.

In the next lesson students can repeat the exercise using their real life details in order to recap.

English for refugees - Giving directions

Aim - To help refugees with some grasp of English give and understand directions as well as talk about locations in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece.

Materials - A map of the city either on paper or via Google Maps via smart phone.

Level - Elementary/intermediate.

Before the lesson begins, choose a nearby shop/cafe/office that the students are likely to know or have seen.

1 - Ask the students if they know the shop/cafe/office you have chosen. 

2 - Now ask them where it is and how I can get there.

3 - Write these phrases on the board Turn, left, turn right, go straight on, stop

4 - Explain to the students they are going to play a game and that they need to get into teams of 2-4 people each. In each group one person is going to be blindfolded (students can use hats/scarves/hooded coats etc and the other students will be giving them directions in order to reach a particular point in the classroom. You may need to demonstrate this yourself and get students to give you directions,

5 - Stand in the corner of the classroom and students in another corner. Now their fellow team members shout out directions so they can reach you. 

6 - Play the game 2-3 more teams with different team members blindfolded.

7 - Now ask students to once again elicit language used to give directions. Use mime and example as well as drawings ti explain them.

e,g It's on the left/right/next to/near/opposite/behind/in front of/on the corner/at the supermarket/cross/go past etc.

8 - Students write down how to get to their bus stop from the building or how to get to a supermarket/shop etc from their home.

9 - Now students explain to each other the directions they've written (if they can without looking at their notes).

10 Hand out a map of the city or ask students to look it up on Google Maps on their phones and write some nearby landmarks on the board.

Aristotelous Square/Kamara/ The sea front etc.

11 - Together students give each other directions of how to reach there.

English for Refugees - addresses and locations

Aim - To help refugees with some grasp of English give and understand addresses as well as talk about locations in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece.

Materials - A map either on paper or via Google Maps via smart phone.

Level - Elementary/intermediate

I - Revise how to say addresses in English, use some well known example, for example the building in which the lessons are taking place. In Greece addresses are usually given thus;

Egnatia 34  - Name of the street then number
Kalamaria  - District
Thessaloniki - City or town
54333 - Post or zip code

Often the floor of the apartment is given as most people live and work in apartment blocks.

You may need to teach

0 - ground floor
1 - first floor
2 - second floor etc.

2 - Now read out an address and ask students to write it down. Repeat as many times as necessary until people have it written, Optional activity - ask students to find out the address on Google Maps.

3 - Now students dictate addresses that they know to each other (be warned many newcomers may not know any, including their own address). Alternatively. they give their own address back at home but the y not want to do this for obvious reasons.

 Another possibility is this address

Brothers Menexopoulos Dried Fruit and Nuts store (it has herbs, spices, dried fruits and nuts, grains and black tea at very good prices)

Katounis 49
the centre

4 - Revise or teach points of the compass


5 = Draw or hang a map of the city and ask students to say where they are now in the city.

e.g In the centre, in west Thessaloniki etc.

6 Now ask students to say which area they live in and its location in or near the city (if they live in camps). You may have to help if students are hazy about the location of their neighbourhood,

7 Teach or elicit other useful phrases used to describe the location of a place,

e.g next/close to, near, behind, in front of, between, above and below (useful in Thessaloniki when talking about roads).

8 Now ask students to describe the location of the building where the lesson is taking place. or the shop mentioned earlier

9 Students now describe the location of their accommodation.

10 Ask students to describe buildings/ locations that are useful for them

e.g local supermarket/police station/doctor's office etc.


A useful mobile phone app is the one by the local public transport company OASTH  which gives information on local bus routes in Thessaloniki area.

EFL/ESL mash ups

No, its not time for us to chow down but rather use existing media and programs to make something new. This could mean using our own videos and photos along with stuff we find on the internet.

So what has this got to do with teaching English? Recently, I have been working with my students on different projects in which they use video as an extension of their writing assignmments. We work on traditional skills such as writing a discursive essay or story telling then use turn these formats into something more visual such as a mini - documentary.

In every such case I've tried to adhere to these rules.

1 - The project has to be connected with some more traditional language learning skill and/or be useful in getting them ready for external exams (e.g. essay writing, interview skills, debating etc).

2 - The technology has to be easy to learn and use.

3 - All programs have to either free and/or open source. Nobody is going to pay me hundreds of euros to buy software.

4 - Personalise the project in order to suit the students' interests and level of competence in English.

My most recent venture has involved using video taking off the internet from sites such as YouTube so that students have footage to use in their projects. This forms background to their narratives which are either recorded using a microphone or done straight - to - camera.

This doesn't require specialised equipment just access to a PC, a microphone and a video camera/webcam or cell phone. The software used was Real Player (which allows you to download videos off the net), Winff which converts .flv video files (that is the format used on sites such as Youtube) to AVI or WMV format (which can be edited). Finally, we used Windows Movie Maker which comes as standard with every copy of Windows.

Taken all togther this sound like an imposing list however the programs are easy to use and I think that an hour ir two is all you need to invest in getting the hang of them. It's time worth investing as the skills you pick up can used endlessly in lessons.

I would love to show you some of my student's work but they choose not to put their videos on the net. For more of my teaching ideas using video, internet etc. click here.

Jeremy Kyle's EFL/ESL masterclass - letters of advice

Picture from TV Scoop

I'm sure many of you who teach EFL/ESL have had to do a lesson on writing letters of advice and I'm sure that many of you have come across activities in course books that use newspaper or magazine problem pages. I thought I'd post a web - based twist on the idea that could be used to introduce the idea and provide valuable listening and speaking practice.

The exercise is aimed at post intermediate learners and preferably over 16 year - olds as the subjects tackled may be considered too sensitive for younger students. Alternatively, you could use the same approach but source more appropriate materials for your teaching situation.

Lesson plan

1 Tell students that they are going to see a short extract from a British TV programme called the Jeremy Kyle Show. As they listen they should think about the following points.

- What kind of TV show is it?

- Is there anything similar in their country?

- Why do people appear on this show?

- What kind of people watch shows like this?

2 Show the video. I choose his particular extract as it has been subtitled making easier for students to understand the regional accents. Show about 1 or 2 minutes just enough for them to get the general idea.



3 Students discuss their answers in groups/pairs then share them with the rest of the class.

4 Divide the class into two groups. One group watches the rest of the video posted above the other waits outside for four minutes. The group writes down as much as they can about what they have heard.

5 The second group comes in and watches the second part of the show and does the same. n the meanwhile the first group leaves the room and compares notes.



6 The class gets together to form pairs with one person form each group. They compare notes on the situation described and discuss the following questions.

- Who is involved?

- What is the problem?

- Who is right?

- What should be done?

7 Discuss the situation as a class.

8 Now explain to the class that they will see the final part of the how in which an expert is asked to comment of what has happened. They should listen and write down.



- What advice does he give?

- Do you agree?

9 Discuss the answers as a class.

If you have time you could also explore with the class the ethics of such shows or the differences between Britain and their own place in handling such situations.

10 Now explain to the class they are going to write an email/letter giving advice to the brother.

11 You could use your course book or perhaps a writing skills one such as Longman's Writing Skills for FCE. For more problem pages check out Problempages.co.uk.

Alternatively, you could get students to write a scripted answer and then get the to record it on video using a webcam or mobile/cell phone. The replies could be posted on their personal blog/portfolios or on a class moodle/blog.

Snakes and ladders and young EFL/ESL learners

Snakes and ladders, originally uploaded by deebeeandswivel :D.

Over the last couple of years I have been doing more lessons with younger learners of English. It makes a welcome change from the usual exam obsessed classes I teach. However, it does involve approaching the subject from a completely different angle.

Here is a teaching idea that you might find interesting as it can be used to recycle/revise a whole range of ideas using snakes and ladders. Currently I'm using it to help revise numbers 1 - 100 but that is just the beginning (click here to play online).

1 Some alternatives might include creating questions for each ladder or snake. When you land on a snake or ladder to go up or avoid dropping down you have to answer a question correctly. This could be anything that you have already covered.

E.g. What is this (showing a picture of a pen/chair/notebook etc)

or

Count up to ten.

2 When you throw a six you answer a question. Get it right you double your score. Get it wrong you do not move.

3 Every time you throw you get the chance to double your score if you answer a question correctly.

As you can see the questions can be about anything so the possibilities are endless.

To involve the students more you could get them to write their own questions or vote on the rules they want to play by. In addition younger learners could make their own boards.

Teaching EFL - ESL in Greece

Tested to death, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Lately,I have been receiving emails from people who would like advice on getting work as an EFL - ESL teacher in Greece. I suppose that they have looked in Google and come across my blog. In the beginning I was careful not be appear too negative and so just said that they should check out the ministry of education's website for the requirements and be sure that they know their work rights before signing any contracts with schools here. .

However, I have come to the conclusion that somebody who is serious about teaching would be best off going to another country and that the conditions in which teachers, both foreign and Greek are currently working are going from bad to worse.

It is not just the low pay (try living on 700-900 Euros in today's Greece) or that you're only fired every summer holiday, it's also the fact that the treatment of educators in the private sectors has fallen to an all-time low. High graduate unemployment and a struggling economy means that there is a seemingly endless stream of people willing to work in foreign language schools. As a result the value put on educators is minimal and this is reflected in the rapidly deteriorating working conditions. Summary dismissal, abusive behaviour and irrational demands are now par for the course in many schools.

Thankfully,I have manged to avoid most of this, however, many of my colleagues have not been so lucky. A case in point is Lambrini, a hard working teacher wth many years experience and mother - of - two. Like many others, she too was looking for a new position in a language school this September. During her search for work she came into contact with a possible employer via Hyphen, "an ambitious company dedicated to inspiring realism, quality standards and viable practices to educational businesses throughout Europe ".

After phoning the school and talking about working there part - time Lambrini, mentioned the fact that there might be a possible timetable clash with her other job and asked to postpone her decision for a day or two so as to re-arrange her programme in order to accommodate the school.

Apparently, this so outraged the school owner that she immediately contacted Hyphen to complain. In turn Hyphen then sent the following email saying that Lambrini had been "blacklisted".

"Dear Mrs. M#######,

We had received your Curriculum Vitae for a potential Teaching position September 5th, 2008.

During that time, we were pleased to hear you had accepted a teaching position at Mrs. K##### Foreign Language School at Evosmos,

however, much to our disappointment, we were informed that after you had agreed to a cooperation with Mrs. K######, you decided to terminate that cooperation in a rather sudden manner.

Please note that we only accept professional behaviour, be that of potential teacher applicants, or school owners.

We consider your behaviour was not of the standard we require and for that reason, you have been blacklisted.

In addition, we have also informed Foreign Language School owners of the above.


Sincerely,

Tina #####

Academic Project Manager

hyphen (engineering education)

As you can see the situation is truly dire when simply asking for more time to make a decision is grounds enough to get you blacklisted. Nor are such extreme reactions isolated incidents. In Athens, Thanasis Papadopoulos, a teacher of German working for the Europaiki Poreia language school was fired and then sued for "abusing the honour and esteem" of a student when he dared take his case to the local teacher's union. Not content with this the school owner also took union representative, Dimitris Papadopoulos to court for "slandering" the school's "good name".

These two cases are just the tip of the iceberg. In many language schools poor wages, chronic job insecurity and abusive employers are now par for the course. Bugged classrooms, teacher reduced to tears by screaming bosses, non-payment of bonuses and insurance contributions no longer raise eyebrows.

So, if you are considering teaching EFL/ESL in Greece, you seriously need to think about what you are letting yourself in for.

Using L1 in the EFL/ESLClassroom

Classroom, originally uploaded by SM Photo.

As part of the SEETA (South East European Teacher's Association) moodle discussion on the uses of L1 in the EFL/ESL classroom, Penny Ur made a call for teaching ideas that allowed students to use their own language in the classroom but allowed them to learn English more effectively. At first this may seem like a contradiction in terms as the more students use English the better they become. However, to ask learners to totally abandon something as important as their mother tongue is neither practical nor desirable when teaching.

So here are some ideas to integrate both L1 and L2 in ways that encourage learning.

1 - Play Telephone. Give a short passage in English, either spoken or written to a student.They then translate it into their own language and then pass it on to the next student. This student then translates it into English and then passes onto the next person in line who translate it into their own language and so own and so forth until the message ends up back at the beginning with the teacher.

You could then discuss what happened to the message and why perhaps it changed in meaning.

2 Use comic strips (I talked about this exercise on my blog previously, click here to see). The basic idea is to get students to attempt to translate the humour in comic strips such as Doonesbury. Can it be done? Are the obstacles cultural, linguistic or is there something else?

Then ask them to translate a cartoon or comic from their own language into English. Check out Arkas as an example in Greek. If possible compare their examples with other official translations. Is it faithful to the original? Is it still funny? Can it be improved?

3 Watch a short part of a film on DVD without sound but with the subtitles in the students own language. The students then translate into English the dialogue, utterence by utterence. This could be down by students working on their own at first. Then they get into groups and compare their versions and agree on a common translation.

4 The students then watch the film (with or without English subtitles, depending on the level) and discuss why their versions are different. Is it a matter of right and wrong? Or are there other matters at issue such as the inability to translate between languages without losing some of the original meaning?

In this particular activity a badly translated movie is just as useful as a well translated one.

SEETA and Penny Ur

Today I took part in a very interesting forum discussion on the uses of L1 (mother tongue to those who are unfamiliar with EFL/ESL jargon) with Penny Ur, one of the biggest names in teaching English as a foreign language. Ur has challenged the prevailing wisdom that in the ideal language classroom everything should be in English.

"The only really valid argument, in my opinion, in favour of minimizing (not banishing) L1 use is that over-use of L1 lessens the time available for English use in the classroom. Obviously we want our students to have maximum exposure to English in our lessons. But this means limiting L1 use, not banishing it altogether. Insisting on keeping to English even when students don’t understand what is being said may lead to the message ‘it doesn’t matter if you don’t understand’, or the morale-lowering assumption by learners ‘I don’t understand English’."

It was also great to see EFL/ESL practitioners in Greece and the wider Eastern Mediterranean area embracing web 2.0 technologies such as moodles in order to come together and exchange ideas.

To take part in this debate and next Sunday's discussion click on the SEETA moodle. Register and enjoy.

Job search

If anyone is interested in doing English lessons in the Thessaloniki area or would like to hire an experienced, qualified EFL/ESL teacher for the next academic year. I can be contacted at this email address; cpwefl2003@hotmail.com.

To see my CV click here.

Teaching English using mobile phones

A couple of days ago I mentioned an idea for using audio tours as the basis for an efl/esl lesson. The actual lesson plan was for more advanced students and perhaps would not be useful for many teaching situations. So here is another idea which can be used for post beginners/intermediate students and can be more easily organised in a classroom context.

Lesson plan

1 Explain what a audio tour is. Ideally, have one ready top play on your mp3 player/mobile/PC etc. Click here to see a list of Lonely Planet Travelcasts to get some ideas.

2 Students listen to a short, easy section and then ask them in groups to discuss how this could help a tourist or visitor to their country.

3 Now explain that they are going to do their own mini audio tour/podcast/travelcast. However, this is not going to be about historic sites or landmarks but about their own home.

4 To help them with this work on the kind of vocabulary needed to describe the outside of somebody's home. Elicit ideas for categories;. For example;


type: flat, two bedroomed semi, etc.
size: small, huge, square metres, etc.
location: in the centre, next to a park, on the corner, etc.
other: old, modern, etc.


5 Students then write a short description (2 to 3 sentences) and check it with each other. the teacher quickly has a look to help or correct student work.

6 Now ask students about ways in which they can describe the inside of their home. What would we need to know?

rooms: kitchen, living room etc
colours, light yellow, bright white,
shape: square narrow, low,
atmosphere: friendly, cosy etc.

7 Explain to students that they are going to give a tour of their home and record it. The easiest way to do this is to use a mobile phone. Most models now have the ability to record audio which can then be transferred to a PC (though this is not necessary).

8 To help students oragnise their thoughts get them to draw a floor plan of their home. It maybe necessay to draw one of your own on the board to make sure they get the right idea.

9 Students then outline the route the tour will take on the plan.

10 Help them with useful phrases such as;

On the left you can see....
straight ahead is the......
just opposite......
etc.

11 Students write out their descriptions, either in full or in note form. Remind them that they are going to talk for just a few minutes and that they do not need to describe everything in too much detail. However, do get them to add a few personal details such as;

"This is my study where I revise for my exams etc."

12 Students record their descriptions on their mobile phones. Encourage them to repeat the process until they are happy with their presentation.

13 The descriptions can be posted on a class/personal blog along with either pictures or video if the students wish . Once again the mobile phone is an ideal way of doing this.

As you can see this lesson allows students to revise many areas of vocabulary such as shapes, colours, rooms, housing vocabulary, adjectives describing personal feelings etc. In addition it allows them to personalise their learning experience and finally, the act of recording and listening is a wonderful way to improve speaking skills.

For more teaching ideas using mobile - cell phones click here.

Teaching listening skills with audio tours

One of the things about being on holiday is that it gives you time to think and not just rush about from one job to another so here is a teaching idea I've been playing with.

As the internet and mp3 players have become more popular so has the use of audio tours. Once the preserves of museums which handed out clunky cassette players to visitors wanting a tour of the place audio tours have broken out of the geek ghetto to become the vital accessory for any self respecting tourist site. Cheap to produce, easy to use the mp3 audio tour can now be downloaded within minutes to your mp3 player or cell/mobile phone and then used as you wander around Athens, Bilbao or Crakow. So here are some ways they can be used to teach EFL/ESL.

Lesson plan 1

This lesson is aimed at upper intermediate or advanced students and is an excellent way of practicing listening skills.Also it is a great way of getting out of the classroom. Great perhaps for students studying English in UK summer schools. Learnerss will need;

an mp3 audio tour in English of a tourist site in their area,

mobile phone or mp3 player

mobile phone or digital camera

access to a pc and the internet

Windows Movie Maker or Photostory 3

1 Students download an audio tour onto their mp3/mobile phone. Click here to find an example of such a tour in Bristol.

2 Explain to students that they are going to illustrate the audio tour using their own pictures and images off the internet. So they will need something that can take pictures such as a digital camera or their mobile phones. If students do not have either of these the form groups in which at least one person has one.

3 Go to the start of the place mentioned and section by section follow the tour in groups of 2 - 4. Each group has to do one of two things;

a make a note of any names mentioned e.g The Watershed Media Centre, Charles Dickens etc.

b take pictures that show what is being described.

4 At regular intervals the teacher should stop each group and allow all students to swop any information they have noted or help with any problems of comprehension.

5 In the next lessons students once again form their groups in the classroom, each with access to the internet. For the next stage of the exercise you'll need either Windows Movie Maker (which comes as standard with Windows or Photostory 3 which can be downloaded free from the Microsoft site (click here to get it).

6 Students use the net to find and download any other images that could supplement their own photos such as maps, historic illustrations etc.

7 Go through the basics of your programe of choice such as how to add mp3s and pictures.

8 Students then use the programs to add photos and other images to the mp3 audio tour to make a visual version.

9 Students could then post their own version on YouTube, a class blog or even send it to the city/tourist site and ask if they could use it on their page.

Of course this is not the kind of exercise that all teachers would feel comfortable with. Lack of access to PCs or internet, unfamiliarity with the technology or even not being able to take students out of the classrrom are all factors which must be taken into account.

Using VoiceThread.- My year in twelve pictures

Sorry about the repetition but since I've got some time off I've been trying out various web tools connected with blogging. I think that VoiceThread is an interesting alternative to the traditional essay format. It allows EFL/ESL students to practice speaking skills.

My year in twelve pictures.

Lydia learning

, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

This week we worked on our news presentation skills. Actually, it was her idea. And I thought that this would be a great way to practice our language skills by reading out the news.

Reply | Get This

Stuff for your blog

Today I came across two interesting widgets/sites that could prove very useful in teaching EFL/ESL. Thanks to Theodora, I found out about Snapvine's nifty little application which allows you add voice/video to your blog. A great idea for those students whose typing skills are weak or who hate writing in general. You can even start a video/voice blog.

The other application is Voicethread which also allows you to add the spoken word to your blog. I haven't tried it out yet but it looks very interesting and beautifully designed. Thanks to Joe Dale for that. As he says;

"Jo Rhys-Jones creator of the Ning network Talkabout Primary MFL has written a great post on ideas for using VoiceThread for teaching primary languages which beautifully exemplifies some of the potential of this powerful tool.

e.g.

• using the doodler feature to label, annotate, trace a route on a town plan and play games such as noughts and crosses
• differentiating according to ability
• encouraging independent work in the target language
• reinforcing adjectival agreement
• creating evidence of pupils' work
• engaging pupils with technology
• encouraging pupils to leave comments in a moderated environment
• singing a rhyme using a picture prompt
• using authentic digital photos from the country whose language you are learning
• as a prompt for discussion
• describing the weather using an authentic image from the net
• creating a dialogue or open ended text from a picture prompt
• inviting your partner school to comment on a protected VoiceThread
• letting pupils choose the images that appear in the VoiceThread
• scanning in or photographing images pupils create themselves."

The power of lists

Top 10 list, originally uploaded by jennifer*clare.

This is something I've been doing recently with my private students as a way of getting them to use their blogs. Basically, I ask them to write a down a list of their favourite cars/songs/film/musicals etc with a picture/video to illustrate them. The idea is that they write a paragraph for each of their choices and add an appropriate link. However, to make things more interesting I then ask them to use this material as the basis of a short video in which they discuss their lists.

With either Windows Movie Maker or Photostory 3 they use photos and/or video to narrate a short clip explaining their choices complete with music and titles.

Teaching through pop videos

OK. This teaching idea is particularly off the wall but I just think it might work given enough encouragement by the teacher. I've just seen Placebo's video for Running Up that Hill. It consists almost entirely of their fans lip syncing to the song and in a strange way, it is really effective. It got me thinking if maybe we could do something similar on our EFL/ESL classes.

Lesson plan

1 Ask students to write down five English language songs they have listened to recently.

2 Students then work in groups of four and choose three songs they all like.

3 The groups then get together and come up with a song that is acceptable to all the class. A time limit on discussion might help focus minds.

4 For the next lesson print out lyrics for the song and make sure you know where it is on Youtube or Radio Blog so you can post it on the class blog.

4 Hand out the lyrics and deal with any possible vocabulary issues. Ask student what the song might mean or if it has a message of some kind.

5 Show the Placebo video.



6 Ask them what they think of it (lyric can be found here).

7 Now explain to the students that they are going to make their own video using the song they chose. For the sake of practicality it might be best to divide the class into two/three groups and assign each group part of the song.

8 Students can use the use the song off the blog to lip sync to and can record themselves using mobile phones, digital camera, video cameras or web cams. They then give you the raw material and you use it to make a CD which each member of the the class uses to make their own version of the video using Windows Movie maker or imovie.

9 The class then posts their videos on their class blog and the class votes on the top three.