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.