I’ve added a new section on my Teacher’s Page called Videos For ESL Beginners. It contains a short list of videos that I’ve found very useful when I teach Beginner classes. They grab the attention of students (of all ages, including adults); there is minimal if any dialogue, so students can understand what’s going on; and they are only a few minutes long, or at least can be divided into short segments easily. In addition, there are quite a variety of them, so I can easily fit the videos into whatever theme I’m teaching at the time.
I show these clips and then have students write a sentence about what happened, either individually or in pairs. We then share the sentences and I write them on the overhead. Students copy them down, and then we use them in other activities during the week, including for clozes (also know as “fill-the-gaps”).
I was inspired to create this category after having recently read a post in the Teaching Generation Z blog about a delightful show I had never heard of before called “Shaun the Sheep.” In addition to “Shaun,” I include “Mr. Bean,” “Brum,” “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” and “The Bear.”
Of course, clips and episodes from many of these shows can also be found on YouTube. However, I suspect they’re copywrite protected and won’t be there for long.
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