Hot potatoes, are they really hot?

I am not talking about jacket potatoes here! But Hot potatoes is a software that allows the teacher to create an interactive English language tasks and exercises such as gap-fills, crosswords, multiple choice and mix-match etc. The idea underneath this software is that, it allows the teachers to adjust, omit and design classroom materials that suit the students’ needs, level of their proficiency and topics they are interested in. The students have a chance to do all those activities that help encourage students to engage with the class while learning at the same time. The great thing about this Hot potatoes is that after each exercise the teacher allows to set the feedback on each of the answers, students will receive a direct feedback instantly. Moreover, the teachers can ask students to work in pairs, groups or individually.

I have to admit that I like this old fashioned looking software even though it does look dated but it is very simple to use/create and I believe that students will enjoy doing exercises on the computer instead of some old dreary worksheet!

Webquest the 21st century learning

I believe that a few of us have heard of a Webquest before but for me I thought that it was a new launch of a computer game?! Well, after I searched further about this Webquest, I thought to myself that this is very cool, and this is how education has been changed over passed decades. Webquest is a real deal as the class is entirely a student centred which helps to enhance students in every skills especially in communication and creative skills! Here have a look at the video link from Youtube how much children are enjoying themselves by using Webquest in their classroom. And look at those laptops….that would cost quite a bit!

Films with language teaching/learning

Films with language teaching/learning

Learning English through film is like bringing language to life (King, 2002).This week I learned an interesting tool that will help encourage language learners to interact with the language classroom through the aid of films. This is a very interesting and fun activity for the students to engage in with the lesson. Moreover, this is a great instrument as it allows students to get exposure to a target language and the authentic contexts and it is a key to a communicative practice. King (2002) stresses the important of film that ‘Films offer endless opportunities for pedagogically sound activities for developing fluency’. There are a number of ways to apply the use of films in the language classroom. Here are some ideas that you can introduce in your lesson (Lonergan, 1994):

• Create tasks with the aid of films by asking students to spot mistakes on the film’s subtitles and do alteration. First, teacher provides a clip of a short film and produces an English subtitle containing some mistakes. Then allow students to work in pairs or on their own. The purpose of this activity is to raise an awareness of using correct grammar or vocabulary appropriately.
• Allow students to work in pairs or groups to give a prediction of the following situations that may occur in a film. Let’s them discuss, maybe write the ideas down.This activity would give the students an opportunity to practice their speaking skill and be more communicative.
• For the beginners, there are a lot of ways to introduce new vocabularies via films or animation cartoon clips. This method really works in South East Asian countries such as in Thailand! Surprisingly, Thai teenagers and adults love watching Japanese cartoons (in Thai dub) and addict in reading Japanese comic books!!! Make sure to put English subtitle on and use English films instead! According to Hayati and Mohmedi (2009), students who watch films with subtitle gain better perceptive and receptive skills more than those who watch film without subtitle!

I am certain that those approaches will really draw your students’ attention. Those activities will definitely help enhance their English reading, writing, speaking and listening in definite!

 

Hayati, A., & Mohmedi, F. (2009). The effect of films with and without subtitles on listening comprehension of EFL learners. British journal of Educational Technology, 181-192.

King, J. (2002). Using DVD feature films in the EFL classroom, Computer Assisted Language Learning. Routledge, 509-523.

Lonergan, J. (1994). Video in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.