Here’s the featured article for the fourth issue of ELTWeekly:
YouTube for ELT
by Tarun Patel
The English Language Teaching process has been energized with the emergence of new Internet technologies and now the Web 2.0 tools.
Also using videos for language teaching has been one of the most effective ways to achieve success in the classroom. The ELTicialsn have been using the videos for teaching English language skills since many years now. The organizations like BBC and CNN have even made billions of dollars selling the video content for teaching purposes.
Money and Time – are two things which have been creating so many hurdles in accessing the authentic video content in the past time.
But for last three and a half years, YouTube, a video content sharing website has been making the difference to it. At YouTube, anyone can post / access video content.
YouTube now contains enormous amount of video content, some of which is highly exploitable in the classroom.
YouTube features videos in several categories. Some of them are:
– Autos & Vehicles
– Comedy
– Education
– Entertainment
– Film & Animation
– Gaming
– Howto & Style
– Music
– News & Politics
– Nonprofits & Activism
– People & Blogs
– Pets & Animals
– Science & Technology
– Sports
– Travel & Events.
The real advantage of YouTube – at least from a language learning point of view – is that it offers authentic examples of everyday English used by everyday people.
Yes, this is the challenge as well. Students may enjoy watching these clips, but poor sound quality, pronunciation and slang can make these short videos even more difficult to understand.
At the same time use of YouTube videos enables teachers to attach the students to the “real life” nature of these videos. By creating context for these short videos students can be helped to explore a world of online English learning possibilities.
YouTube videos can be used in an ELT classroom for various teaching vocabulary, accents, pronunciations, voice modulation and what not.
BBC Content on YouTube
YouTube and BBC’s international commercial television channel have collaborated. With this around 30 news clips per day will be offered, with up-to-the-minute news and analysis from around the world. The advertising-funded clips will be available to users outside the UK only. Users will be able to comment on clips, rate them, recommend them to friends and post their own video responses to communicate with the BBC and other viewers.
This helps teachers have even “authentic” authentic video content for their classrooms.
The BBC content on YouTube is available at http://www.youtube.com/BBC
Other than BBC, there are several ELT experts worldwide who have been posting their English Language Teaching content on YouTube.
Such videos include English teaching tips, tricks, methods, approaches and more.
If you search for “ELT” on YouTube, the search engine will bring up abut 1830 videos. And if you will search for “English Language Teaching” the search engine will bring about 1240 videos.
YouTube also features hundreds of videos in the following categories too:
– English Language Learning
– English Language Lessons
– English Language Course
– English Language Comedy
– English Language Tutorials
– English Language History
– English Language Commercials
– English Language Teaching Tips
– English Language Teaching Methods and much more.
All this ELT video content is offered on YouTube on the following channels:
– Teaching English in China with EF English First
Key benefits of using YouTube for ELT are:
– Teachers get free video content
– Also a lot of variety
– Teachers can reproduce authentic language in the classroom
– Also comprehensible input is offered through videos
– More intelligences are – The more times and ways we are presented with information, the more likely we will learn it.
Here it has only been possible to touch briefly some information on the use of YouTube videos in ELT. One aspect not yet mentioned is motivation.
Students in many contexts have said they like video activities because they provide a break from the usual textbook-based activities, and even when the activities challenge students, learning with video is more enjoyable.
If you have any query / suggestion, I can be reached at tarunjpatel@gmail.com.
Here are some useful links if you wish to use YouTube for your ELT: