Category: Using Technology in EFL Classroom

Why and How to Use Multimedia in EFL Class

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There are various types of multimedia that we can use in an EFL lesson. Among these are DVDs, CDs, video clips, flash presentations, audio files, … etc.

But why do you think we need to use multimedia in our lessons? The following are the main reasons.

  1. To maintain a high level of interest in the lesson.
  2. To expose learners to life-like language.
  3. To promote greater student participation.
  4. To simulate an English speaking environment.
  5. To sharpen learners’ memory.

In the Past written passages were the main way to get the language and most of our comprehension drills were boring and not very effective. In addition, ideas were either vague or too simple

Nowadays multimedia are available everywhere and pupils find them interesting and attractive. Sight and sound evoke pupils’ curiosity for learning and capture their attention in a better way, which results in a more effective learning and enhanced retention. Multimedia encourage pupils to use the language, comment on a scene or act it.

We can mention more and more advantages for using multimedia in EFL lesson such as they:

  1. increase learners’ retention.
  2. add variety to your lesson.
  3. provide better details.
  4. enhance the persuasive appeal of your lesson.
  5. reach learners by addressing different learning styles.
  6. can be used to show abstract concepts.
  7. reduce your public speaking anxiety.
  8. improve pronunciation, intonation and word stress.
  9. help minimize teachers’ talking time.

How to use multimedia effectively?

First of all, you should:

  1. choose a suitable material.
  2. prepare additional aids, such as pictures, slides, wall sheets, etc.
  3. prepare handouts containing all types of questions.

Steps in sequence:

  1. Playing for enjoyment (non-stop).
  2. Giving blank sheets of papers.
  3. Asking pupils to write down their notes, ideas, questions and difficult words.
  4. Second play for “note taking”.
  5. During the second play, making many stops for the sake of repeating a word, a sentence or asking a question.
  6. Final play for checking answers.
  7. Wrapping up by making pupils act or retell what they have seen.

Seven Top Technologies Will be Used More in ELT in the Near Future

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These technologies represent some of the latest tools and trends in ELT. While some are being implemented now, the use of others is on the horizon. So you need to prepare yourself for them in the next one to five years. Here is the list of them:

1. Smart Watches

Smart watches promise for new ways of learning. Its motion and pressure sensors can make it more applicable for activity-based learning.

2. Smart Phones, Tablets and Mobile Phones

Students who have these gadgets and used to access to the internet using them have been growing. Students can easily use these tools for their learning. It will give them an opportunity for more independence and openness in addition to more collaboration with tons of learning resources and apps.

3. Cloud Computing

Google Classroom  is one of the cloud-based tools which more schools will use in the next five years as it make easier for students and teachers to have access to information wherever they are, on whatever device they have.

4. Social Media

Using social media nowadays is the standard. They will be used more in the near future across schools and universities for research and share information

5. Open Source Software

Blogs, eBooks MOOCs and other open source content will be used increasingly as they provide students with a chance to have control on their learning.

6. Flipped or Blended Learning

This approach will become more commonly used in the next five years as it allows students to be responsible for their learning and gives opportunity to teachers to spend more time preparing challenging tasks to their students.

7. Gamification

Using games in learning increases the stickiness of the lesson in students’ memory as they – according to many researches – remember 90% of what they do. For that reason it is expected to use gamificaton more in the next two or three years.

In Sum: These new technologies continue to emerge and be used in the learning community in general and particularly in ELT field. As a teacher, you should be ready for that use evaluating them to see how to get the most benefit from each one.

Using Video Clips in EFL Classroom

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video in classroom

We often use video clips in EFL classroom to enhance listening skill and promote speaking. Video clips are valuable classroom tools especially when English is considered as a foreign language that is available to be listened to only in the classroom and not spoken outside it. Video clips provide students with an important stimulus for language production and practice. In addition, there are many other advantages of them in EFL classroom. Some of these advantages are as follow:
1. Students can observe in them real setting, actions and gestures.
2. They can be stepping stones to fun and communicative activities which include pre-viewing, while-viewing and post-viewing tasks.
3. They make everyday English accessible to learners.
4. The speech in them is authentic and the adversity of accents is clear.
5. They are rich with English-speaking cultures.
6. The language spoken in them is real, that is, structures are used in real contexts and real-life situations.

There are many things we can do with these video clips in EFL classroom. Here are some video clips-based tasks:

Sound off and watch:
Students are divided into groups. They watch the video clip with the sound turned off. It is preferable that the clip on focus includes emotions with plenty of gestures to stimulate students’ imagination. Students in each group are asked to predict the content of the scene, write their own script and perform it for the public. After the performances students watch the scene with sound turned on and decide which group was the funniest and which one is the nearest to original. This exercise is a good fun and promote speaking and imagination as well.

Information-gap exercise:
Students are divided into two groups. Students of the first group see and hear a clip; students of the other group only hear it. After that students of the second group have an interview with students of the first group asking them about what they have seen. This exercise is good for practicing grammatical structures, promoting speaking and enhancing listening skill.

Watch, observe and write:
Students view a scene full of actions. Then they are asked to write what they have seen. This exercise aims at practicing new vocabulary and writing compositions.

Dictation exercise:
Students watch a clip a few times. Then they are asked to write the main words and important phrases that a particular character says. Students are divided into groups. Each group is asked to focus on a character, listen carefully to what it says then write the key words and phrases of its speech. Teacher checks spelling and grammar of what students have written.
After that students are asked to use their memory or imagination to add to what they have written to compose the whole script of the video clip. Then the groups can perform the scene. This exercise gives students the opportunity to work on grammar and vocabulary, promote listening and practicing writing.

Watch and answer:
Students are asked to focus on the actions they can see and the dialogue spoken. Teacher can teach them the key vocabulary beforehand. After watching, students’ memory and comprehension are tested by asking them a series of true/false questions and asking them to put a series of events in order.

Features of pronunciation exercise:
We can select a scene deals with connected speech in particular prominence (or sentence stress) which is the speaker’s choice and use to convey a meaning. Students can watch the scene and decide which parts of the sentences are prominent and the meaning that the speaker wants to convey with his sentence stress. This exercise is very useful to allow students to practice sentence stress in context.

Put-in-order exercise:
In this exercise students listen to and see some jumbled mini dialogues. They are asked to put the mini dialogues in logical order to make a good and real conversation that we can enjoy and understand. And then students are asked to role play the whole conversation. This exercise develops students’ communication skills and encourages them to practice conversational English.