Random Quote
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
---- George Orwell
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
---- Albert Einstein
I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.
---- Galileo Galilei
To have another language is to possess a second soul.
---- Charlemagne
A magician pulls rabbits out of hats. An experimental psychologist pulls habits out of rats.
---- anonymous
Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
---- Leonardo DaVinci (1452-1519)
This may be the most interesting blog theme I've ever seen. http://eflgeek.com/index.php Definitely in my top 5 at least.
---- Steve Dembo
Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.
---- Fred Allen
I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.
---- Mitch Hedberg
Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.
---- Edward R. Murrow
Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
---- Malcom Forbes
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
---- H. G. Wells
Any man whose errors take ten years to correct is quite a man.
---- J. Robert Oppenheimer
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.
---- Edward Abbey
Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.
---- Author Unknown
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
---- Sheik Abd-al-Kadir
The least of learning is done in the classrooms
---- Thomas Merton
A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
---- John Ciardi
As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls.
---- M. Cartmill
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.
---- Pablo Picasso
Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation.
---- Kin Hubbard
The voodoo priest and all his powders were as nothing compared to espresso, cappuccino, and mocha, which are stronger than all the religions of the world combined, and perhaps stronger than the human soul itself.
---- Mark Helprin, Memoir from Antproof Case, 1995
Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
---- Terry Pratchett
Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
---- Arnold Lobel
You Tube and ESL
Recently I’ve posted a few videos or links to videos that are amusing. For the most part these focused on language or language learning: I speak no English, Berlitz commercial, and another English commercial. In the comments to I Speak no English Gord and Jamie both suggested the possibility of using that clip with their students.
I have since created a page on my student site that incorporates the video and script. I realize that the video may be a little complex for many students but the script is there and the context of the page should help as well.
I know that it is common for students to try to memorize conversations and speeches. However most teachers do not like to listen to memorized conversations as they are not natural and are very difficult to listen to. In fact, most teachers I know would rather listen to a natural conversation with grammar and vocabulary mistakes. This serves two purposes it shows the students true English ability and also helps the teacher to find areas that the student needs to practice.
After posting this to my student web site I had an epiphany about video, YouTube, and teaching. I then searched YouTube for ESL, ELT, EFL, TESL and TEFL and found a number of videos that are useful. It seems that some teachers have started making short productions for their students and uploading them to YouTube. One teacher, based in Japan, uploads pronunciation exercises and tongue twisters. Sarah produces The Daily English Show and provides additionally information on her blog.
These videos got me thinking about two things specifically. The first being that I could easily find lots of short clips for authentic listening and viewing to use with my students. It’s not necessary to have a computer or internet in the classroom, though it would be nice. What I have to do since I have neither, is add the videos to my student site and use them for homework assignments or extra practice or as examples.
One of my stronger classes are going to be doing oral movie reviews. In the past I had given the students a hand out with a written review and gone over what I expected them to do. With YouTube I can show them amateur movie reviewers in action and tell them what I like about the clip and what I don’t so that they have better guidelines as to what is expected of them.
The second thing I thought about is that I could make better videos than what are currently available on YouTube. I’m not necessarily talking about content, though I intend to be better, but rather I’m talking about the quality of the production. I’ve got the computer skills to make some great films and in fact have done so, but not for educational purposes at this point.
Currently I’m putting together a proposal to get funding from our school to make videos to supplement our in-house textbook. The bonus here would be access to professional equipment and a recording studio all of which the school has. This would make for a higher quality video - not necessarily acting but who knows maybe we could get professional actors as well (unlikely). The school would be able to make DVDs for in class use and make the files available on the school web site for students to watch on their own either as self study or homework.
I did a quick search and found several other free video providers that may be useful for teaching.
http://youtube.com
http://video.google.com/
http://grouper.com/
http://filecabi.net/
http://www.bolt.com/video
http://www.zippyvideos.com/browse.z
I was also thinking that it wouldn’t even really be necessary for the video to have any speaking in it. If you were to use the following commercial with students it would make a great reaction peice or conversation starter.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Apr 25, 2006 at 07:05 AM
Teaching | Moodle | Materials |
Kevin Kim wrote 220 words on Wednesday Apr 26, 2006 at 12:29 AM
A very international commercial. The kid grunts out a victorious “Ja!”, which sounds German, but the caption under the screen at the moment he kicks the dog reads, in French, “Accomplished with special effects,” i.e., a disclaimer to keep enraged animal rights activists from hunting down the marketing geniuses who thought the commercial up. The final logo says “Be football,” which is obviously in English—not “Seien Sie Fussball!” [Ger.] or “Soyez foot!” [Fr.]. Interesting mix of languages.
[And is this set in France or Germany? You can see an awning with “Boulangerie” on it, but that’s no guarantee that we’re in France. Here in Seoul, you can find quasi-German bakeries labelled “Bäckerei.”]
Since you write that this video could be useful for EFL class useful despite having no dialogue, I guess it could be shown just about everywhere in Europe.
Language trivia: the French caption said, “Réalisé avec trucage.” The French word “truc” can mean “thing” or “trick.” “Le trucage” means “special effects,” i.e., visual trickery.
I wish we could do dog-kicking commercials in the States, but animal rights folks would throw their lawyers at us.
Kevin
PS: My colleague likes to have half his class watch a given short video (like the dog-kicker), then explain the video to the other half of the class (usually done as partner work).
Sean. wrote 74 words on Wednesday Apr 26, 2006 at 05:49 AM
Kevin,
thanks for explaining the subtitles - I have zero french. I would love to do what your colleague does except that I have no video in the classroom. Our building will be renovated over the summer and there is rumors that we will end up with beam projectors, a teachers computer, and a/v equipment all integrated. I hope this is true so that I can do activities like the one you have suggested.
Kevin Kim wrote 57 words on Wednesday Apr 26, 2006 at 03:14 PM
Whoops—I wrote:
I misread. Thought I saw something that wasn’t there. Actually, it says “Boucherie” (butcher’s). Everything else still applies.
Sorry,
Kevin