Intervue

Intervue is a website that enables you to do video recordings of oneself.

What is amazing about it: 

1.You can do recordings of yourselves whenever you want to. 

2. There is no time limit given for the length of the video. 

3. You can send the video right away to the intended recipient. 

4. Motivating. 

5. Fun tool to use individually and with friends and teachers. 

6. Multiple functions and not only for classroom purposes. 

7. Appeals to visual aid learners. 

8. Flexible for different types of topics as long as it get the students to speak. 

Limitations : 

1. Too intimidating for beginners to speak and record themselves right away. 

2. Internet connection is crucial for this task therefore it is truly limited to areas which do not have good connections. 

3. If it is done in the classroom, it may be too noisy for one to record themselves. They may be too distracted with others and perhaps being cautious of their own language use and limit themselves from speaking. 

4. If it is done in the classroom, students may not take it seriously as they would have at home for the atmosphere generated by this tool is a fun atmosphere so they may take it lightly and have too much fun at it while the task is neglected. 

5. However, on the other hand, with a fun atmosphere it may actually motivate students to do the task immediately and not postpone their work any longer. Thus, enabling them to finish their homework in time and learn not to procrastinate. 

6. In areas which have limited access of internet, it is awfully good to ask students to do it straightaway for they may not have the facilities at home.

How it could be used in a language learning classroom (suggestion): 

This is a great way to promote speaking in a second language for second language learners for they may do it in the comfort of their own home. Then after a recording has been made, the recordings can be sent to the teacher's mail for private assessment. The fact that it is only viewed by the teacher may console students who are conscious of their own performance and thus motivates them to speak for they feel they do have an audience but the audience is not too intimidating.

 Teachers will find the time to assess students' speaking performance based on the video, and they too can do so in the comfort of their own home. Teachers may gain a lot of information on their students' progress based on their recording, although there may be a tendency for students to have corrected themselves repeatedly to get it right and may even read a script for the recording.

Though there is a danger to that, still the effort made by students to actually produce a non grammatical script might as well benefit them in the long run in terms of self correcting and self learning skill.

Click on the link to give it a go : http://intervue.me/
Have fun trying!

Storybird

Today's entries is about Storybird.

Storybird is a tool for which you could create your own stories through it. It has all the animation you need and all you have to do is think of a story, select the type of illustration you want, and add in the words and finally publish it. A very simple way of making the stories in your head comes to life through books.

What is amazing about it:

1. There are many types of illustrations provided, ranging from different artists. 

2. Very motivating- the idea of being able to create your own story is incredible.
3. Ownership- one would be able to produce something according to their own interest and ideas.
4. Challenges and explores one's creativity.
5. Saves time if one is thinking of creating a story for professional reasons, they could create their stories quick and have them published.
6. Great for long term working skills. It would help them to get used to the pressure of having a dateline and improve on their other skills that may be needed in the future. 

Limitations :
1. Initially, it needs one to explore a bit before they could really use it. It is not that quick and easy to understand how it works in the beginning.
2. If one does it collaboratively with another person, it would be need really good planning of the storyboard and when to do it as if not, if two people are working on it in separate places, they would not see what the other person did and they may have their ideas all jumbled up.


How it can be used in language classrooms (suggestion) :

Teachers could introduce this site to their students as a tool for them to get creative and have a go at making stories of their own. It could be very useful for group or a paired project.

Students can be paired up and or in a group and start a story together. They may discuss the storyboard together in class. This website would be a great motivation for them to brainstorm their ideas. Once they have drafted their story, each would be given their part to do and they can do it at home. Later, they could collaborate their stories and produce a story of their own and perhaps present it to their friends.

Teachers could make this as a fun group project in which one could take students' work to be used in a competition for which the students could benefit.

Or teachers could use this site to encourage the art of storytelling among students and narrating them while focusing on their grammar use, past tense. Teachers could assess students' use of past tense in their stories.

Have fun trying, thank you!

Click on the link to give it a go:  http://storybird.com/

Lyrics Training

Lyricstraining is a website where not only can you listen to songs of different languages but also type in the lyrics while you sing it.
It is a useful tool for a fun and interactive language learning.

Check out the clip showing a preview on how lyricstraining. com at work. 

What is amazing about it:  

1. A lot of songs available ranging from different genres (pop, hip hop, R&B, ballad etc) which would attract and cater to different music interest of learners. 

2. It is user friendly. The website is easy to use where in a matter of seconds, learner would know how to use it on their own without a lot of instructions given. Plus, the songs can be easily searched for. The selections vary.

3. Selection of songs is not only of English language but other languages are available as well ( French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Portugese and German). This encourages learners to get to know and explore other languages through this website. 

4. Appeal to all level of learners,beginner, intermediate and advanced. Very motivating. 

5. It would help in learners' spelling, vocabulary and listening skill for they have to listen and know the words to be able to type in the lyrics so that they can finish the song. Learners could also practice their typing skills for speed typing is essentially good to do the activity. 

6. Fun type of homework. 'Go home and sing to Adelle's someone like you' on lyricstraining.com and let me know how long did it take you to complete the song'. Imagine your teacher giving a homework such at this, it would be a really fun thing to work on. 

7. Great for extra curriculum projects especially for choir practices. They can practice singing and memorize the words through here.  

Limitations : 

1. Not all languages are available, asian languages mainly. It would create a demotivating scenario especially when learners from Malaysia or Indonesia trying to find a Malay song which they could not. 

2. Not all songs are available either in the available languages. Only mainstream songs are uploaded. 'Underground' songs which some learners do listen to may not be there. 

3. Short forms of language for example 'ain't, gonna' may influence learners' use of language in their written work which is not preferable in a formal, academic piece of writing. 

How it can be used in language classrooms (suggestion) :
Teachers could pick out a song that may be unfamiliar to the students and ask them to complete it by listening carefully to the song or they could guess the words that are used. An unfamiliar song is used so that it would be fair for all students to have a guess at the words used in the song.
Later, when everyone has completed the song, the teacher could ask the students to listen to the song again and note down any words they did not understand or get the meanings confused. Then perhaps, the teacher could work on the words the students find difficulty in and have some language practice with them. 

Click on the link to give it a go : http://www.lyricstraining.com/

Have fun trying teachers, thank you!

Dvolver

Dvolver ; a movie making website that enables language practice at use.

What is amazing about it : 

1. Allows learners to get creative and have fun at constructing sentences.
2. Gives learners a chance to have a sense of ownership and able to prove themselves. 

3. And a very cool way for teachers to check on students' homework!

Limitations :
1 Limited selection of characters.
2. Does not provide any voice for the characters. Although this website mainly focuses on encouraging students to construct sentences. But it would have been more motivating if there were voices for the characters to act out the dialogues constructed by them. Learners would benefit more than constructing sentences for they would also get to know the pronunciation and the rhythm of a certain language used.

How it can be used in language classrooms (suggestion): 

For example,

if you were to ask your students to use adjectives in their conversation, you could ask them to go to the website and create a dialogue which adjectives can be used. The website would provide your students with the setting, the characters and thus creating a contextual learning environment for them to practice their language use.

The clip below is one example how a student may want to use adjectives in their conversation. And later learners could email the clip to their teachers for checking. 

Click on the link to give it a go: http://www.dvolver.com/moviemaker/make.html

Have fun trying, thank you!