Using DVD and Video in Your ESL Class - Part One
by: Keith Taylor
Have you ever wondered how to use movies in your ESL classes, without just sitting your students down in front of the screen, hitting 'Play' and sitting back to watch?
Here are a few ideas to get you started, using very short movie extracts to present and practise new language and develop communicative skills.
1 No picture
Choose a short extract (2 or 3 minutes) with plenty of sound effects. Play it with the screen covered or turned away from the students, and ask them to write down what they hear.
If two of the sound effects are birds singing and a baby crying, you could use the extract to present or practice any of these language points (and I'm sure you can think of more):
Some birds are singing / A baby is crying
Some birds were singing / A baby was crying
It must / might / can't be birds singing or It must / might / can't have been birds singing
I heard some birds singing / I heard a baby crying
After playing the extract, have students compare what they heard in pairs, and then elicit the language from them. Remember to show the extract with both picture and sound at the end of the activity to satisfy the students' curiosity!
2 No sound
Here's the opposite idea. Show a short extract (again, 2 or 3 minutes is enough) with a lot going on, or where the characters convey a lot of emotion in their expressions, but play it with the volume off. Students can then do one of the activities below without having to worry about understanding dialogue:
Describe what happened using narrative tenses
Describe the scene
Anticipate dialogue or reactions
Arrange a cut up dialogue which you have given them.
Finally, play the extract again with sound. Having done one of these tasks, your students will be able to fit what they hear into a context much more effectively than if they had viewed the extract initially with picture and sound.
3 Jigsaw viewing
You may have done jigsaw reading activities in your class, where students have half the information, and share what they have read with another student to recreate the whole story. You can also do this with short video sequences in a number of ways:
Half the class watches with no picture, then the other half with no sound (you'll have to take half the students out of the class in each case). In pairs they then question each other to recreate the scene.
Half the class have picture and sound, the other half just have sound. You can do this by sitting students in two rows, back to back, so that only one row can see the screen. The half who only had sound then question the other half.
One student listens with headphones, while all the others view without sound. The student with headphones questions the others to recreate the scene.
4 Viewing on rewind
Choose a short sequence with a lot of action. For example, a woman enters an apartment, picks up the telephone, listens, looks terrified, runs out of her apartment and down the stairs, and runs off down the street.
Movies are, of course, a great source for this sort of material. Play the scene backwards to the students (DVD gives more flexibility than video with the speed of playback) then have them reconstruct the story in chronological order, using narrative tenses, or future tenses, or whatever you want the linguistic focus to be. Finally, play the sequence normally so students can compare it with their version.
5 Pause / Freeze Frame
If you use pictures in your classroom for introducing new vocabulary, or for describing people and scenes, you can add a new dimension to this with the pause/freeze frame button of your video or DVD player. Hit pause when a character has an interesting expression on his or her face, is about to react to something or answer a question, or when there is a lot of colourful new vocabulary on the screen.
Have students describe the character/scene, or anticipate what the character will say or do next.
Release the pause button to allow students to compare their ideas with what actually happens.
Video is a motivating and effective way to bring variety to your ESL classes.
Using short, sharp sequences with a clear linguistic focus, your students will go away from your class with much more than if you sit them down in front of the screen and hit 'play'.
About The Author
Keith Taylor is the founder of eslbase, http://www.eslbase.com, providing free resources, information and advice for TEFL teachers, as well as a directory of TEFL courses and TEFL jobs worldwide.
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Defensive Driving - What Are The Choices?
Defensive Driving - What Are The Choices?
by: Mark Stone
At some point in our driving years I suspect most all of us have to take defensive driving, whether to get rid of a ticket or maybe to just lower our insurance. For many years you only had one option, traffic school. But times and the options have changed.
Traffic school used to consist of getting up early on a Saturday morning or spending two nights during the week sitting in a classroom, listening to a instructor speak in a monotone voice and watching old 16mm films with 1950?s cars and actors explaining the right and wrong way to drive a car. Although that option is probably available if you look for it, these days defensive driving class has gone high tech.
So what are the choices?
* - Traffic school with a twist: Some of the options you can choose from if you?re looking for an in-class experience is humorous traffic school, traffic school with a meal, juggling and magic...
Defensive Driving - What Are The Choices?
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LCD flat screen TVs provide a superior picture as compared to a traditional television - and they can come in more attractive styles to boot.
A flat screen LCD TV can be mounted on a wall, under a cabinet, on the ceiling? or can sit on a stand or on top of furniture.
LCD TVs are versatile, flexible, and provide a better entertainment experience? but how do they work?
LCD flat screen TVs, and LCD technology itself, is based on the properties of polarized light.
LCD TVs consist of two, perpendicularly arranged panes of polarized glass "stuck together" by a liquid-crystal-filled polymer solution. When they are exposed to electrical currents, the crystals untwist to varying degrees, permitting specific amounts and colors of light to pass though them.
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Dvd > LCD TV Checklist: Are you Prepared?
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When I address business audiences, I often ask people to share their companies' brand promises.
To my amazement, many don't have articulated promises at all.
And those that do are often given to promises so fuzzy as to seem indistinguishable from those made by thousands of enterprises in any and all markets. These self-deluders tell me their brand promise is "world-class quality," or "guaranteed best service," or "a company you can trust."
My unspoken comment is harsh:
So what?
In a world where winners shout distinctive promises, these misguided companies whisper sweet nothings and set themselves up to lose.
A generic promise has no meaning to the customer.
You have to be specific:
First, discover who your consumers really are and what they expect from you.
Second, tell them exactly how your unique product...
Dvd > Do You Know Where Your Brand Promise Is?
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by: Rick Chapo
I?ll assume ?him? doesn?t refer to me, but still help you out with some ideas for gifts for him. These gifts for him run from the practical to outrageous, but all make good gifts.
Gifts for Him
And here we go?
1. Brother MPrint Bluetooth Mobile Printer ? A practical gadget, this mobile printer lets him print wherever he is from his Palm or PDA device. The printer is wireless and about a half inch thick and five or so inches long. This mobile printer will set you back $380, but look for rebates and specials.
2. John Cleese ? Wine for the Confused DVD ? A humorous take from the Monty Python veteran. Cleese takes you on an epic study of the finer and?less finer points of wine. Cleese covers how to pick, what they are, how they are grown and so on. A DVD that will teach you something and make you laugh a bit. Expect to pay $15 or so at most retailers.
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Gifts for Him
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Motivate Yourself
by: Steve Gillman
Why do you want to motivate yourself? Actually, just answering that question fully can be one of the better ways to get your daily motivation. Below are seven more ways that have been provem to work for others. Chances are, some of them will work for you too.
Seven Ways To Motivate Yourself
1. Explain your plans. Usually, by the time I tell my wife about the newsletter I'm going to write, I'm out of my slump and...
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This vehicle was sold in 2002 only. In fact, it is one of the most short-lived vehicles in the automobile industry. The Lincoln Blackwood is a luxury pickup truck that has been manufactured and introduced under the Ford Motor Company?s Lincoln brand. And all due to its short lifespan, this vehicle has been known and considered as one of the most spectacular failures in the automotive industry.
In its history the...
Dvd Reviving the Blackwood Using DVD and Video in Your ESL Class - Part One trucks
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