Podcast: The English We Speak – Photobomb

In The English We Speak podcast series from BBC World Service, listeners are presented with a 3-minute introduction, including a description and many examples, of an everyday English phrase or piece of slang. In the episode Photobomb, we hear a few examples and a natural explanation of the term “photobomb”, all contextualized in a (scripted) conversation.

I think English language learners would respond really well to this episode in class. Students always ask to learn slang words, and this episode gives them a fun new term: photobomb. Disguised as a lesson on slang, I would use this podcast to practice listening strategies. Starting with a pre-listening prediction phase to activate students’ background knowledge using images of photobombing, I would ask students to listen to the podcast episode and find characteristics of the new word, such as meaning and part of speech, based on how it is used. This episode is only 2:36, the recording is clear and consistent, and the speech is casual but slow for learners. It would make for good listening material for students to practice skills to determine the meaning of a word in the context of a conversation.

Comics with Strip Generator

Using Strip Generator, an easy-to-use web-based comic creation tool, I made this comic as a demonstration: 

Comic or graphic story strips can be a great, quick way to have students practice or demonstrate understanding of vocabulary, phrases, or language patterns. Not only do comic panels benefit language learners by dividing text into smaller chunks that are easy to digest (or write), they also offer visual cues to contextual background.

I have had students write (paper) comics before to demonstrate usage of target language forms and vocabulary with generally positive results. At first, I asked students to draw their own original comics. They had a lot of fun, but drawing each image seemed to take up too much time. I started editing out the text of popular comic strips (Garfield and Spiderman being the favorites) and asking students to use certain words or language patterns to fill in their own stories. A digital tool like Strip Generator offers a great balance, allowing students plenty of creativity to make any story they want, but also providing pre-made images to speed up the process by not focusing too much on intricate drawings.

For example, after finishing a lesson on prepositions, I would ask students to use Strip Generator to make a comic including the words in/on/over/under along with visual representations of the text. Students could work with partners and share their finished comics with the class. Students would be able to use target language for creative expression and write collaboratively. Teachers could use the context of the visuals to help assess students’ understanding of the language used.

Whether practicing vocabulary, writing procedures, or grammar patterns, comics offer language learners an amusing opportunity to generate English narratives. The ability to supplement the text with creative visual imagery (a way for learners to express ideas they want to share but feel unable to translate into English) doubles as a fun incentive for students to present their work to the class.

Photo Stories with Animoto

Photo shows, such as those made with Animoto, are a clever way for students to make very nice looking video slide shows. Students can add photos, text, videos, and music to make polished slide shows perfect for a simple presentation, or just sharing with the class. 

Here is an example I made using Animoto:

Using this video as an example, groups of students could search the Internet for images that interest them and build their own photo show videos writing similar captions to describe the images with target language (for example, prepositions). It allows students to work creatively and collaboratively while focusing on specific language usage. Using a cultural theme, such as holidays or food, would give students an additional opportunity to explore that, as well. Students can present and explain their image choices and captions to the class.

Alternatively, students could use this kind of tool to document their personal holiday or weekend events from their own pictures. Students would then come to class and share what they did. This kind of project could give teachers some original student-generated material to make a quick informal assessment regarding students' written captions or spoken presentations.

TED-Ed Lesson:

I made a TED-Ed lesson based on Melissa Marshall’s Talk Nerdy to Me talk. Marshall briefly discusses some of the difficulties people have understanding scientific and technical content, and offers a few tips to better communicate these ideas. The need for clear and simple communication is certainly not limited to scientific or technical fields. The ideas from this talk are fairly universal concepts for more effective communication.

Many language learners are excited to use new, challenging vocabulary as often as possible. Though this can be great practice, it also leads to misunderstandings. Communicating in clear and common language may seem less impressive at times, but is much more practical in most situations. The primary objective of this lesson is to have students understand the difficulties of using jargon. Students learn what jargon is, why it is beneficial to communicate in clear, simple terms, and then practice re-wording a term that may cause a misunderstanding. Students could be evaluated by their discussion reply or by rewriting a few jargon-rich sentences in clearer terms.

The Flipped Classroom

The flipped classroom is a class that reverses the function of homework and in-class work. It requires a system of instruction for students outside of the classroom, using a video, textbook chapter, slideshow, or some other vehicle to deliver the content of the lesson. When the students come to class, they work on completing an activity or task that would typically be assigned as homework. This allows the teacher more time to assist students individually with their specific needs while completing their tasks.

I have used this idea for one-off projects before but have never ran an entire course based on the flipped classroom model. It does seem to promote a very attractive use of classroom time. The ability to better address students’ needs as individuals and in smaller groups talked about in the Flipping Your EL Class: A Primer article is certainly a great benefit to implementing this kind of system. Similarly, the article Three Reasons to Flip Your Classroom notes that this model provides an opportunity for students to absorb the lesson at their own pace. Students could pause a video, go back, listen twice, and take their time with the material.

With such easy access to so many powerful web tools, it is really not all that difficult now for teachers to put together a lesson using a video or web presentation. I think it is approaches like the flipped classroom that really show the most advantageous uses of technology in schools.

Twitter for Teaching

An interesting read, Amanda Wynter’s article Bringing Twitter to the Classroom shows a high school English teacher experimenting with integrating Twitter into his classroom. He does ultimately seem to have success, and students appear to have been more engaged and interested in participating in discussion when given the opportunity to do so online.

There are quite a few interesting observations about having students use Twitter throughout the article. In particular, I liked the part about how students could “utilize their experiences in English class and include their class hashtags as they responded to tweets from One Direction and Tim Tebow.” This allows the teacher to measure students' comprehension and application of concepts introduced in class. The opportunity to directly connect students back to class during their leisure time is certainly attractive, but could also be difficult in terms of winning over reluctant parents who may be particularly protective of students’ online activity. I also liked the idea of this teacher sharing students’ tweets to his network of education-oriented followers to favorite and reply to students’ ideas. Not only would it be a great opportunity to practice for a language class, but students can also experience their ideas being thought worth reading by other people out in the real world.

Searching for more ideas about how to make use of Twitter as a teacher, I came across 60 Inspiring Examples of Twitter in the Classroom by Global Digital Citizen Foundation. It’s a pretty straightforward list of (you guessed it) 60 links to examples of ways to implement Twitter into a class. They’re split into sections like Communication, Organization, Resources, Writing Skills, and Twitter Exercises. Many seem obvious, but there are a few that stuck out as clever.

I like the ideas of having students follow public figures or news agencies for easily digestible news summaries, network with native speakers who share interests, and build a foreign language content stream. I also liked the idea of teachers connecting their classes to exchange foreign language practice. Twitter is a great way for the language learner to practice because each post is limited to 140 characters, so students never have to struggle with staring at a big page of foreign language. They can feel good about understanding and being understood more easily in such concise messages. Using any of these activities over Twitter seems like it would be a smart way to get students to practice outside the classroom.

In addition to the social networking benefits teachers enjoy when growing a professional network, there are also many possibilities for language learners to improve by making direct use of a global communication tool like Twitter.

#LangChat - Twitter as a Professional Development Resource

Logging into Twitter can be overwhelming sometimes. There’s a lot going on and any given tweet could be pushed out of view before we get the chance to give it a look. For those of use who check our Twitter feeds every once in a while, it can seem like too much of a mess to bother keeping up with. Scheduled at specific times and organized by hashtags, Twitter chats turn the microblogging platform into a more straightforward chat session about a given topic. Yesterday, I spent about an hour checking out a Twitter chat about language education, #LangChat.

LangChat has multiple sessions scheduled throughout the week, which makes a lot of sense given the global nature of the topic (world language education) and platform. I joined the session that starts at 10AM EST Saturday morning. The chat is operated in a Q&A format with moderators proposing questions and participants posting answers, sparking some discussion as replies. At the end of the chat, participants are asked to share what they took away from the session.



I think this platform and discussion format works really well. Dropping in on a weekly chat like this is a great way to find and share ideas and resources. It’s also a great way to find professionals active in your field to expand your network. The questions posted by moderators help jumpstart discussion on relevant topics, and suggestions from participants are also accepted throughout the week. What I like most about doing this via Twitter, as opposed to a discussion forum or similar, is the real-time access to other users. Shooting someone a reply to ask for clarification or to elaborate on a point made is very straightforward, and the responses are more or less immediate. Of course, this also means we have to schedule a specific time to be available to join the session in the first place. Overall, this felt like a great way to utilize the immediacy and quick-moving nature of Twitter in a way that benefitted me more than just occasionally checking a disorganized feed of everyone I’m following.