Russell Stannard goes down the tube and gets inundated with good material.
YouTube is overlooked by many teachers, who think it is just a site for younger people to upload their weird and wacky videos. In part this is true, but it is also the repository of an enormous collection of varied and fascinating videos, many of which can be incredibly useful to teachers.
Teaching presentations
There are some superb example presentations on YouTube, which you can show to your students as both good and bad models.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXILI9Q1jIw
In a recent lesson, I got the students to watch this video a couple of times and then to work in groups and discuss all the things the presenter did wrong. It created some laughs and a useful list of what not do to when presenting.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFJg1T2hMk8&feature=related
I put the students in groups to watch this one. (It is broken up into two parts, showing first a bad and then a good presentation.) I asked them to make a list of the ways in which the woman had improved her presentation the second time she gave it. I then put the students into larger groups so that they could compare their ideas. Again, it gave them a useful insight into what to do and what not to do in a presentation.
YouTube tip Key Presentations into the YouTube search engine, and you will be amazed just how much there is.
Interviewing stars
It is nice for students to listen to interviews with people they know and are interested in, especially when you are working with younger students. YouTube has an incredible number of interviews with pop stars, actors and people from the world of entertainment. If you want something more serious, try searching for interviews with politicians or writers.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilWLk9T9e-k
This is a typical chat show interview with pop star Rihanna. I got the students to listen to the interview and then make their own comprehension questions. YouTube allows me to access rightup- to-date artists and interviews. Try searching for a few artists and you will be very surprised what you can find. I have used interviews with Madonna, Tom Cruise (talking about Scientology), Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Jennifer Lopez.
YouTube tip Key the name of any fairly well-known person into the YouTube search engine, followed by the word interview. Then click on search.
Helping your students with their exams
If you want to give your students some tips for their exams, then YouTube can definitely help. Try keying in IELTS or TOEFL. It is surprising just how much material there is available.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=56WFNiQBOb8
What about this for starters? It is just one of many example interviews from the IELTS interview section. It provides a superb resource for helping the students really understand the oral exam and what questions they might be asked.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJg138YlwvA&feature=related
The help offered by YouTube goes further than an oral exam. There are also lots of videos giving tips on all parts of the exams. Try this video to watch and listen to a woman giving tips on the TOEFL exam.
Experiencing live lectures
When I teach on EAP courses, I like to give the students the chance to experience what a live lecture is going to be like when they study at university. There are many examples of live lectures on YouTube. You can use the videos to get the students to listen and take notes.
YouTube tip Key Lectures in [subject] into the search engine. You will find a large number of different topics and an incredible range of lectures.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc8Asv7EK9c
I used this lecture/discussion just this week, as it is very topical. It deals with the credit crunch and was excellent for my economics students who are on an EAP course.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2VxreFE-Gc
In this lecture a teacher talks about how to approach a Masters or PhD dissertation. It is great because students get a taster of what a university lecture might be like in English, and, at the same time, learn about writing a dissertation.
Teaching methodologies and ideas
Recently a reader contacted me and asked me for good material for learning about teaching methodologies. I did a few searches on YouTube and couldn’t believe what I found! There are talks given by many writers, like Scott Thornbury, Adrian Underhill and Jeremy Harmer, and loads of material on communicative language teaching, pronunciation, grammar, Suggestopedia, language games, etc. In fact, I was completely inundated with material and it is going to take me years to get through it!
Teaching grammar
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtwDhKso2No&feature=related
Suggestopedia
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXaRZQmtwSY
Scott Thornbury on repetition
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzGhw8NOcrI
Day in the life of an ELT teacher in China
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxdGYlK9leY
Training tip For more ideas about YouTube and more indepth information about loading your own content, try out my training video: http://trainingvideos.hscs.wmin.ac.uk/ youTube/index.html
Russell Stannard is a principal lecturer at the University of Westminster, UK, where he teaches using technology on multimedia and TESOL courses. He also runs www.teachertrainingvideos.com, a website that trains English teachers to use technology.
This article first appeared in English Teaching Professional, Issue 59, 2008
