TED—ideas worth spreading

TED—ideas worth spreading

Last Saturday, I attended TEDx Warwick2013. It's fantastic! Actually,I usually watch some videos on its website before, but it's really great to see it live!

Today I want to introduce this website for language  teaching and learning. Let me give a brief introduction to TEDx first. TEDx was created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading." This program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level. It is the third year that our university holds this event. And If you want to know more information about TEDx Warwick, please click  here. Also, there are all of talks and presentations in previous TEDx events of Warwick.

• What is TED?

TED is a non-profit organization, which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. Remarkable people give their talks and share ideas on this conference .

• Why TED is relevant to language learning and teaching? What is the advantages?

Similar to Youtube, TED.com is also a video sharing website, and it is totally free to the world. All of these presentations are subtitled in English, the texts of these talks are offered as well. The most merit, I think, is its authenticity. Real people, real situations, and interesting topics, all these things are helpful for audiences to improve their listening skills. On the other hand, these authentic materials and topics are definitely great for discussion and learner-learner interaction.  In addition, since all the talks are provided with advanced ideas and meaningful thoughts, audiences have great opportunities to think deeply. In this case, it's really beneficial for critical thinking as well as generating ideas in their writing. Moreover, students are likely to learn language through video or film, so maybe these vivid talks and presentations can motivate students in some respects. It can engage the learners and get them talking, debating, creating and so on. The last thing need to be mentioned is that the materials in TED website, generally speaking, may be more suitable for advanced learners , or at least for the intermediate level due to the presenters' speaking speed and difficult words etc. 

• Some suggestions of using TED in language learning and teaching.

If you are a teacher, you can use TED like these:

1. Using TED to improve Ss listening and speaking skills. At beginning of the class, make a brainstorm regarding a certain topic. Let Ss generate ideas. Then, teacher can play the inspiring video and ask Ss to take notes down in shorthand. After watch the video two or three times,teacher can group the Ss and let them discuss what they have got from the talk. Also, they need to rebuild the speech together and share their achievements, giving a presentation in front of the class later on.
2. Using TED to improve Ss reading and writing skills. First,teachers can use these videos to stimulate ideas for story writing and film design or something. Second, teachers can select an extract from the script and use this authentic material to either develop Ss' abilities of reading comprehension or teach new vocabulary and grammar.Third, teachers can ask Ss to write a story after they watch the video and generate ideas.

If you are a student, you can use TED for intensive listening like these:

Thousands of talks are available for you here, you can just choose one topic you are interested in and begin your English learning journey. You can also choose subtitle not only English but also your mother tongue when you watching the videos. There are more than 50 languages for you to choose.

Two ways of browsing the content as following:

 

You can watch a speech without subtitle at the first time.Maybe you cannot catch up all the words or sentences at this time. So, watch again with English subtitle to help your understanding. At this second time, you can read the script and repeat several times. Also, you need to look up the new words and try to figure them out. Last time, you can watch the video with L1 to fully understand the content.

• Limitations

1. This website is not suitable for all levels. For example, the intensive listening I mentioned above maybe more useful for English major students in colleges or up-intermediate learners who want to develop their listening ability.
2. It is not an easy work for teachers to find a suitable talk considering both the learners' competence and the speeches' length.

MyBrainshark— a good tool for presentation making

What is it?       

MyBrainshark is a brilliant tool that
users can combine different forms of documents (e.g. voice recording, picture, video, powerpoint, podcast) into one integrated form of exhibition.

Some Advantages/Why is it relevant to language teaching and learning?

• The greatest advantage of MyBrainshark, I think,is that it can have audio, video and written documents synchronised.
• This tool can be used to promote distance learning and learning autonomy since they can do it at home or anywhere else if there is network connections.
• It is interesting and motivating for students to give a oral presentation by combining students' own life, for example, their photos or creative pictures, with their oral expression.
• It provides a good opportunity for teachers to make a mini-lecture! 
• It's helpful for students to practice their speaking and presentation skills.
• The recordings encourage students to pay more attention to the accuracy because everyone wants to show a perfect talk to the public.
• Your talk can be embedded, if you like, into another site, like a blog, as I show on my second page"Echo's talk", to share your information with others.

Some approaches to facilitate teaching/learning

• As individual work, teachers can let student make a oral presentation of his/her life,commenting on his/her photos.Or,give personal opinion of an event.
• As group work, students can make a combined presentation together  which also improve their collaborative working skills.
• There are a number of talks already being uploaded on this website, so it can also be used for listening activities to promote learners' listening skills as well.
• Use this tool to add others' voice in order to give a oral feedback.we can send our uploaded written documents to other people to ask their feedback, such as students sent their homework or presentation to their tutor or teachers send their handout to other fellow teachers.
• Teachers can use this tool to make a mini-lecture, thus students can replay several times until they are fully understand.
• Use this tool to make a product. In terms of "Presentation, Practice, Production" teaching model, after giving instructions at class, teachers can ask students to complete a task as the "production" stage at home by using this tool. It not only saves time but also connects inside and outside class!

Limitation

It can only record for 15 minutes. Maybe it's not enough for teachers to give a mini-lecture while it's quite a long time for students to talk.

Breaking News English

• What is it?

Based on the current news event, Breaking news English is a teaching material website which is produced by Sean Baville. A variety of completed and well designed exercises and activities are provided, including listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary and grammar skills.

• Why is the content good for language learning?

1.Less preparing, more educating. The materials are designed into different types of tasks, such as warm-up activities, while-reading/writing exercises and after reading  or listening activities.It is very convenient and time-saving for teachers to choose the parts they want and print off as handouts or download the listening file(MP3). Both of them are free.

2.The news and information is up-to-date and quite relevant to people's life, so students will find it meaningful and stimulating to learn.

3.There are a wide varieties of high quality quizzes designed in line with the materials, with which the teacher could use to strengthen  students' language knowledge.

4.There are also some collaborative activities,which can create a more interactive learning atmosphere. During these sort of tasks, students may feel relaxed and be willing to engaged.

• How might you use it in a teaching context?

1.Select a chunk of activities related to a certain topic or lesson to do warm-up activities and brainstorm with the learners.

2.Select a relevant activities to expand students vocabulary,such as matching games. Also,it can be used as an interesting testing program.

3.Put the students into pairs or groups to do some reading comprehension together.For example, the quiz activity.

• Limitations

1. This is a fixed genre which can lead to a narrow range of vocabulary learning.

2. As to the audio clips, they are almost recorded by the same person reading at the same speed. Thus, students may rely on this accent.

3. Less considerations taken into students' personalities. If a student dislikes news as teaching material, he/she may feel boring.