Before starting this lesson, please fill out this very brief feedback form. Thanks.
(This is the same feedback form as in the MOODLE site, so you only have to do it once.)
The deadline for submitting the seminar paper proposal is midnight, Tuesday, 24 December, 2024. (But, please don't wait until the last moment!) The submission of this proposal has the weight of three normal in-class assignments. The proposal will include:
A very short explanation of your topic - (This will later develop into the Introduction section of your seminar paper.)
A proposed Research Question - It is crucial to have a do-able research question that can reasonably focus on your topic. (Remember, you don't have the time to try to "prove" that doing procedure X will result in outcome Y. In addition, on a theoretical level, research never "proves" anything! If you are lucky, a research project will support or weaken a hypothesis. In stead, I strongly suggest leaning on copious research showing the positive correlation between motivation and successful L2 learning/acquisition (from which you will have to cite at least one recent article) and then ask students their opinions about a certain digital tool or procedure. (e.g., Did they like using the tool in class? Did they like using the tool outside of class? How easy was it to use the tool? Did they think that they learned English using the tool or procedure? Would they like to use the tool or procedure in the future?) Assuming that motivation leads to successful L2 learning/acquisition; if your students respond positively, you could then suggest that your chosen tool or procedure helps your type of student (age and other factors) learn/acquire English. If your students do not respond positively, you can suggest a less positive evaluation of the tool or procedure and/or try to explain why the students responded negatively.
An example of a Research Question is:
Are 10th grade students motivated to use <tool X> while learning English?
Of course, there are other types of Research Questions, but choose one that is do-able and make sure you have checked it out with me asap.
The beginnings of a Methods Section - Present your preliminary thoughts about how you are going to answer your Research Question. Will your work be quantitative, qualitative, or mixed? Will it be a questionnaire to either students or teachers? (I recommend a questionnaire for ease of processing.) Will it be an interview with students, teachers, or administrators? Will it be structured observation (not recommended because of its complexities)? Will it be some other form of "research instrument"? You don't need the actual questions yet. First, get my approval for your proposal, then immediately get to work writing no more than 10 questions for students or 15-20 questions for teachers and administrators. You have to get my OK before using any of the research instruments. (Also start your reading!.)
A short bibliography of the titles (and other APA details) of at least 5 potentially fruitful sources. Hopefully, they will be from academic journals, but they also might come from non-journal academic Websites, "trade journals," or teachers' blogs. (If you are going the motivational route, suggested above, make sure you have at least one recent article about motivation and L2 learning/acquisition). You don't have to have read them yet, but checking the abstracts or executive summaries will help. For sources other than peer-reviewed article, google the qualifications of the author(s) to decide if they are potentially good sources. By the end of your seminar paper work, you must cite at least 10 sources in the text and list them in your APA-style Reference List. (See the OWL site for formatting requirements at: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html )
Please note: There are only 24 minutes of required video on this webpage. You can leave the first three "example" videos as soon as you get the point. Please watch the last three required videos to the end.
If still images are "worth a thousand words" for ELLs, videos are even better, making them one of the most powerful media for language teaching/learning! Video in the hands of an individual student allows for pauses and repeating sections of the clip, or the entire clip, as many times as needed for comprehension. There is no problem of looking foolish in front of the class. There is no problem of annoying the teacher by asking for a repetition of the material. The student can privately imitate the pronunciation of the language presented. In short, after the teacher has chosen the video material, the student is in charge of the learning process.
Note: YouTube indeed has great videos, but it also has annoying advertisements, which sometimes will be objectionable in some of the schools you teach in. This is a very unfortunate result of capitalism in the digital age. Luckily, there are alternative sources for good videos, which we will discuss later in this course. For now, let's look at YouTube as the generic video sharing platform, knowing that most of what we talk about is also available on the other video platforms.
Use the search tool to find lists of videos about content topics or grammatical structures.
If you are dealing with a subject that is quickly changing, you might want to check the most recent videos first. The age of the videos is usually included in the general list of the videos. If the age is not shown, then under the individual video, there is a publication date. (On the other hand, older videos have withstood various take-down threats created by the video sharing platforms and by individuals and organizations who may demand a take-down. Most of these take-down threats stem from copyright laws, which we will discuss in a future lesson.)
You might want to choose videos that have been used by a large number of people. Although this is not a definite criterium for quality, really good educational videos tend to be re-used by teachers with many classes. This results in larger number of views. (Nevertheless, please note that newer videos will have smaller viewer numbers, by definition. Also, there may be less well-know sources of educational videos producing fine videos.)
Obviously, not all videos are worth using. Here are some key criteria for selecting videos for your ELLs:
Does it actually teach the content material? (Don't use video for time-filling babysitting!)
Is it long enough to invest the time? (With all the energy and time spent in technical set-up and take-down with in-class videos, make sure there is enough worthwhile content. Please note: An EMBEDDED video on your webpage, blog, or wiki can be very short and still be worthwhile. We will learn about embedding in the future.)
Is it short enough not to lose students' attention? (Remember, our friends at EduTopia suggest that the maximum length should equal the grade level X 1.5 minutes.)
Does it meet community standards? (Have you watched the entire video from start to finish? You don't want to lose your job because of some unexpected surprise somewhere in the video.)
If you are showing a video in class, queue it up before the lesson to avoid wasting time, losing the focus of the students, and looking inept. Have the video in a separate tab, in the background, and click on the tab when you are ready to show the video.
Show your students how to slow down the speed of a YouTube video (and the soundtrack) via the gear icon (i.e., the SETTINGS), which you can access by mousing the screen. In general, the 0.75 speed slows down the audio enough to help EFL students, but not enough to become annoying.
To maximize language learning from any video, use the "Closed Caption" option if there is one. (This will be via a CC icon when you mouse the screen.) Then the students can hear, read, and see the content. (Please note: Occasionally there is a mistake in the spelling of the "Closed Caption," but that's a small price to pay for this service.)
Another aid to ELLs is the ability to see the transcript in many (but not all) of the YouTube videos. The learner can access the transcript via the three-dot icon (i.e., the "more" icon) directly under, and to the right, of the video. The phrase-by-phrase transcript, to the right of the video itself, highlights the phrase that the speaker is currently saying and shows the exact time in the video of the phrase. You can get the transcript with numbered lines or without the numbers (if you want to COPY and PASTE the transcript to some other tool, like WORD).
Russell Stannard has produced a number of tutorials about the powerful options in YouTube that can improve language learning and teaching. Some of these tutorials show you how to use YouTube in conjunction to other digital tools (like Quizlet). I highly recommend watching at least some of them. Some of them might repeat items, so see it as review.
You don't have to worry about copyright when you are showing a video from the YouTube site (or similar video-sharing site) by LINKING to it or EMBEDDING it. The YouTube people have an algorithm that sorts out and deletes (sometimes erroneously) videos with copyright infringement.
On the other hand, if you download a video from any video-sharing site, without permission, and thus a copy of that video sits in your computer, you have probably infringed on someone's copyright. (We will learn about copyright later in the course.)
If you create a video and post it to YouTube or any video-sharing site, make sure all your material is legal! If everything is legal, then you own the copyright of the video.
Once again, in regard to copyright, you are legally free to show videos directly from YouTube (or other online sources) via LINKING or EMBEDDING. This means that your students are watching the video at its source, so copyright is not your problem. On the other hand, if you actually download a copy of a video, then you are opening yourself up for copyright infringement claims.
Always give the students something to do with the video.
You might give a few brief pre-viewing questions (frontally or on paper) to get the students ready for the video. This will help students access their prior knowledge about the topic presented in the video.
Give out a page with important questions that the video will answer. Given the linguistic level of the class, the questions could be fill-in the blanks (with or without a word bank) or totally open questions. Make sure the students put their names on the page and submit their work to you!
If you are using video to present a song, find a video in which the lyrics appear on the screen and you give the students a CLOZE exercise to do while watching and listening to the song. Once again, collect their work, even if you just grade it as "done."
Have students respond to the video in some other way that motivates them to watch the video carefully and produce some type of written or oral response.
You might give a few post-viewing questions (frontally or on paper) to make sure the students understood the purpose of the video.
Here are some AI Tools that you can use in your EFL teaching:
Twee (Twee.com), which we dealt with before in this course, will do many of the activities, above, and some others, within seconds! For example, Twee will take the URL of a YouTube video and do the following things:
Creates a script that you can use in class (but YouTube can do this for you)
Create warm up questions for students before watching the video
Create various types of questions about the video: open questions, multiple choice questions, and True/False questions
Creates three summaries of the video, only one of which is correct
InvideoAI (https://ai.invideo.io/) is an incredible - and incredibly easy to use -AI video generator.
You just type in what you want in the video and add a few other details.
The images and text in the resulting video can be edited before you actually download it.
Click here to watch Russell Stannard's 13-minute tutorial about InvideoAI.
Think about having your students create their own videos with this tool. They will be reading and writing quite a bit of English. It's almost guaranteed that they will want to show off their videos to other students.
Fliki (https://fliki.ai/) is another A.I. tool for generating videos with voice-overs and subtitles. It is a bit more complicated to use than InvideoAI, but is rather easy. Watch the tutorial (at the top right-corner) before you begin.
Beyond those basic ideas, you may find ideas in the following OPTIONAL presentation. It's long, so please skim it and focus in on any item that seems relevant to your teaching environment:
50 Ways to Use Video in the Classroom (Originally a blog post from EFLClassroom 2.0)
Where can you find good videos for your EFL class?
During the COVID-19 crisis, the Israeli Ministry of Education produced a large number of educational videos, according to the national curriculum, and posted them in the MOE Portal. Here is the direct link to the catalog of all EFL lessons and other EFL links.
Nevertheless, probably the largest (and therefore the best?) source of videos is YouTube at http://www.youtube.com . Of course, the biggest problem with using YouTube is the advertising. But there is a work-around for that!!
Edpuzzle (which we will be examining next lesson - https://edpuzzle.com/) - will allow you to legally show a section (short or long) of a YouTube into your own Edpuzzle video clip, with or without questions and comments, but without the advertisements (at least at the time I'm writing this). This hopefully offers a work-around for teachers who work in schools that block YouTube or for teachers who feel frustrated with the advertisements on YouTube.
A less efficient work-around is when teachers keeps their cursors on the "Skip Ad" button and are ready to click on it. In the best case, the ad only appears for 5 seconds, but there are some ads that you can't skip. This method also ties the teacher down to the computer, waiting for ads.
Here are some examples of videos specifically for English language instruction:
This is probably the most amazing ABC song ever:
Amazing
Beautiful
Creatures
Dancing
Excites the
Forest
Glade, in my
Heart how
I do
Jump like the
Kudo
Listen to the
Music so
Nice the
Organ
Plays.
Quietly
Rests the
Sleepy
Tiger
Under the
Vine tree at the
Water's side and
X marks the place 'neith the
Yellow moon where the
Zulu king and I did hide
Here is another example, this time a "synthetic" song create to teach the present simple:
If your school blocks YouTube, then try:
TeacherTube at http://www.teachertube.com
or
SchoolTube at http://www.schooltube.com .
or
EduTube at: http://edutube.org/
or
The Khan Academy at https://www.khanacademy.org/
or
WatchKnowLearn at http://www.watchknowlearn.org (Go to the Language Arts section on the left-hand menu.)
TED ED is a growing collection of educational videos that have been "flipped" for better quality learning and teaching. Here's the link to the "Literature and Language" section: http://ed.ted.com/lessons?category_id=221
Please watch this 5-minute section of a 26 March 2024 Russell Stannard video about a tool that allows you to transcribe a video or audio file and read along with the original audio. It offers a number of other options that are helpful for teaching languages.
Starting on January 1, 2020, US law requires marking any material made for (or by) pupils 13 years old, or younger, as "For Kids." Video-clip creators in the United States will receive heavy fines for breaking this law. Outside the US, such creators will run into administrative problems at YouTube. Please watch this (optional) explanation:
Please watch this short 1 April 2020 tutorial:
There is an amazing free digital tool to re-enforce learning vocabulary, in context, using YouTube videos.
I strongly suggest watching the first 6 minutes and 20 seconds of this video, but also read "A Word of Caution" relating to the tool.
Here's the abstract of recent research about using video clips in class. The research indicated that short videos (less than 6 minutes), with a "talking head," were the most effective. It also indicated that "rough" personal presentations (i.e., like Khan Academy videos, rather than carefully crafted PowerPoints) were also effective with students.
You might want to watch the following January 2023 video by Russell Stannard about using a "viualizer camera" in your language teaching.
According to Amazon, visualizer cameras range from $40 to $200. If you are lucky, you can convince the techies at your school to buy one for the entire school (and then use it as much as you can).
Please note: Late homework will be penalized 20% of the initial grade. Your first post is worth 60% and the second post (a meaningful response to some one else) is worth 40%.
Explore the various sources that you can find videos for your EFL classes. Think about your school policy about accessing the Internet. Can you actually use those videos? Which video sources can you use?
Go to the list of video EFL lessons in the Ministry of Education Portal (and here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y8VIdiThphXxJwmoDPTSRXu-7hc17udv39cHMOb0gh0/edit) and find a video that you might use with a class. (If you are pressed from time, watch enough of it to get a feeling for the teaching style and note the over-all length of the video.) What do you think of its quality in terms of presentation and content? Would your students enjoy and benefit from watching it? In a WORD doc, type a brief review of the video and your opinion of it as a teaching tool in your particular class. Make sure you copy the URL of the video. SAVE the WORD doc for use in the up-coming questions.
Now select a YouTube video that is relevant for teaching the same content as the MOE video you just wrote about. (If your school blocks YouTube, use one of the other video sources listed, above.) In your WORD doc, answer the same questions as above. Be sure to copy the URL of the video. SAVE your WORD doc. (Please note: It would appear that the MOE uploaded most/all of its videos to YouTube. This question deals with non-MOE videos.)
In your initial post to the Lesson 07 discussion forum in Moodle, compare and contrast the two videos, using the material in your WORD doc. Make sure you present the URL of each video. Among other things, consider the length, the quality of presentation, and how your students would respond to it. In addition, note the opportunities of each to function as a jumping-off point for expanding your in-class lesson on the content.
Read the posts from all the other students and REPLY to at least one with a meaningful response of at least 50 words. (Please note: "I agree." or "Great!" is not meaningful without a thoughtful presentation of why.) Perhaps choose the most controversial or most helpful. If you disagree with someone, please do so politely and constructively!
Please note: If you post your initial text or your REPLY in the wrong forum, it will not be part of the class discussion on the current topic. Few will see it. Few will benefit from it and few will be able to respond to it. Thus, your post will be (almost) worthless and will receive a grade of zero. Just follow the instructions and get the full grade!