YouTube and TeacherTube

I love YouTube, anything I want to know it is second best to google. "Just google it" why not say "just YouTube it"!

I am an subscriber to communitychannel with Natalie Tran on YouTube who has been recognised as one of the most watched video blogger. I love watching her channel, it is always very entertaining. She has been on many talk shows and has become rather well known. If you want to check it out her channel is at - http://www.youtube.com/user/communitychannel


Here is a video I found after only searching for a little while. This video describes a Tanabata festival, and how it is about to star crossed lovers. Making what could be a boring work sheet to read into a interesting video that will engage the students. This means also provides them with visuals of the festival which a story in a book would not have the same effect. Nunan (p.192, 1996) said "that the video has been one of the most underutilized resources in language education". He also recognised video is useful to show realistic slices of of life, it has the potentiall to get students talking and it proviedes an element of entertainment.



Or here is another video I found at TeacherTube to help students learn Japanese numbers. It has a very catch beat/pattern that will allow students remember the numbers better. Richards (1996) recognises different memory strategies to help students language learning. One of these is the use of sound and images. I would allow students to move about and tap on knees with the song to included kinesthetic learners.




YouTube can be used in many different ways, video blogs, to explain/introduce and even to give you a step by step how to. It saves teacher time as all these great videos already exist.

Reference
Nunan, D & Clarice, L. (1996). The self-directed teacher, Cambridge University Press,
Melbourne.

Richards, J & Lockhart, C. (1996). Reflective teaching in second language classrooms,
Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.