Here’s another fun example of how to use viral marketing to help teach and learn English.  In Tiger Film Dub students can choose scenes from an Asian movie, choose what they want the actors and actresses to say, and then have them say it.  It’s like one of those old poorly dubbed movies you used to see on television.  Students then can email their completed films to themselves, a  friend or a teacher.

I’ll be trying it out later this week with my students, and will post their finished products on my website.

I’ve put this link under Student Movies on the Examples of Student Work page.  It’s the one that’s titled “You can make another fun movie here.”  While you’re there, you might want to check out several other links posted there where students can make movies and some examples.

There is, however, one concern I have about this particular site.  It’s sponsored by a beer company.  The sponsorship on the site itself is fairly minimal, though.  Ordinarily, I would never consider putting a link connected to this kind of business on my site (of course, students are exposed to far worst many times each day).  But this activity seemed so unique, and I knew all my students (especially the Asian ones) would love it so much, I made this one-time exception after consulting with other teachers.  Please feel free to leave comments agreeing or disagreeing with my decision.  I’m still not entirely comfortable with it.

This situation demonstrates the danger and opportunity of using these viral marketing devices in teaching English.  As I discuss in my TechLearning article on their use in language teaching, it’s important to also discuss with our students the use of commercial manipulations in our market culture.