Alternatives to YouTube and how to use them.

You can find million and millions of videos to consume in YouTube for consumtion either in or out of the classroom. The sites featured here contain videos intended for more educational use than the funny videos in YouTube. However, there are educational channels aor universities channels quite interesting and I will try to cover them in the future.

Why to use Videos?
 The answer is simple: To stimulate your students' brains. If you have the appropriate equipment for showing videos can be a part of a warm up activity or an excellent source of information or even the prompt to start a conversation.

TeacherTube


Good site specially designed for teachers. Contains loads of educational videos and also some interesting resources such as lesson plans. Here is an example of a video and how to use it in the classroom:

Fashion



Last year I had to teach a unit about fashion in B1 level. In the course book there were activities for all skills and the last activity of the unit is always the writing and speaking activities. The text about fashion at the beginning of the unit was a bit blunt. The classroom had an IWB so what I did was to show students a video like this in order to stimulate them and motivate them to take part in the speaking activity first and then come up with some ideas for the brainstorming pre-writing part of the writing task.



BBC learning zone

BBC's educational portal is extremely good and full of ideas. Although it is mainly attended to native speakers it is ideal for a CLIL(Content and Language Integrated Learning) context. One of the benefits of using BBCs videos in language teaching is that it is an authentic material specially designed for learning. Well, I won't write more, go and check it out yourselves.Here is a video about the climate change:

Lyrics Training. Language Learning tool and fun for everyone!

What's that?''Lyrics Training'' is a site using music videos and requires to type the lyrics. There is a range of levels starting from the Karaoke mode in which you actually have all the lyrics subtitled to the video. Then you can choose among three levels. The beginners and Intermediate level integrates gap filling activity and the 'experts' level requires typing the full text. The list of songs is still growing so the chances to find your favourite songs in there daily increase.

Why Lyrics?Teaching a foreign language with the aid of lyrics is not something new. I still remember my English teacher playing a tape of "Imagine" pausing regularly and making us write down the lyrics. Writing down the lyrics help learners improve their listening, speaking as well as writing skills. Lyrics Training is ideal as a dictogloss activity and will certainly help your students improve their pronunciation.

In classroom or out of it?In both cases works fantastic! In classroom of course there might be some limitations. If you're gonna do it using the whiteboard then learners will write down everything in their notebooks. If there is a possibility of one computer-one learner then it's easier. A headset is also required if used in classroom. In my opinion, it is better to introduce it in classroom and then let your learners use it at home. Believe me, the more you use it the more hooked on you get. I have sent the link to some friends and they all enjoyed themselves only in their leisure time but also in their office hours. My friends are not learners of English or any language and yet they still enjoy it. This is an example on how your learners' autonomy can be boosted.
My Top 5 on Lyrics Training

1. Stand by me -Ben E. King
2. We will rock you - Queen
3. New York, New York - Frank Sinatra

and something more updated:
4. Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
and to refresh my French:
5. Le Vent Nous Portera - Noir Desir.
Have fun!!