Learning English with Edmonton CBC

I heard about Edmonton CBC's Learning English pages at the TESL Canada conference but then I forgot about it. Fortunately, one of my colleagues mentioned it just now. There's lots of good stuff here with very clear, slow, simple English along with transcripts, well developed lesson plans, and extensive materials, all linked to the CLBs.

The materials are covered by CBC's copyright, but permission is granted to reproduce for educational purposes. It's regularly updated, and very professional. CBC Manitoba does something similar. I just wish CBC Toronto did.

Humber News

Humber College runs a journalism program with a YouTube channel called Humber News. Humber News is produced by the final year journalism students at Humber College. It is a Toronto newscast broadcast three days a week. Its main mandate is to cover the community, including the college and surrounding area, as well as breaking news of interest to that community. It airs on Humber's internal television channel and on Youtube.

ESLvideo.com

This site primarily seems to use YouTube videos, the quality of which, obviously, vary greatly. They seem to have been graded, but it's not clear how the grading works or how accurate it is. The exercises are also mostly of dubious value. Overall, if you find something useful, that's great, but perhaps the best part of this is the ability to make your own exercises. It requires a login, but the account is free.

Cambridge Student Arcades

Cambridge University Press publishes many ESL textbooks, and they're putting a lot of the related audio on the web for anyone to download. They also have specific listening exercises for many of the chapters. Go to their Student Arcades page and select one of the textbooks and then the book level (most of the books would be for lower-level EAP classes.) Next, either download self-study audio, or click on "sort by activity type". The listening exercises are called "What do you hear?"

Dictation

Dictation is a good way to focus students on the details of language form rather than meaning. Of course, looking at form without understanding meaning impoverishes language learning, but an unrelenting focus on meaning can distract attention from form and slow learning. One site that provides dictation practice is Listen and Write. It requires students to create an account and log in, but it is free.

It has a number of levels and a level test. The levels test is in beta, and I was placed in level 6 of 10 (based on the graph) despite doing the test in earnest (Also, confusingly, the audio seems to go up to level 22). I think the problem may be that I was hitting punctuation where none was expected and then barrelling on past the error with each keystroke counting as a further error. I'm not really sure though.

Another thing to be careful of is that not all of the tracks are English, so look at the language label. Also, the audio quality varies. All in all, it's may be a good idea to vet a number of dictations yourself before sending your students to the site.

TED Ed

For those who like TED talks but whose students might not be ready for a full-on 18 minute lecture, TED Ed is a good alternative. Many of the talks are shorter, often about 5 minutes, and they are supported with animation that helps convey the meaning. They also come with a number of multiple-choice comprehension question, two or three "think" questions, and a "dig deeper" suggestion for research.

Unfortunately, most of these are not really aimed at language learning. Fortunately, though, you can "flip" the video, which means you can make your own questions, which would be associated with a unique URL which you can give your students. TED Ed also provides tools to track the viewing of and responses to your flipped video. More info here.

When you flip the talk, sadly, you cannot edit or add multiple-choice questions; you can simply include or exclude what is already there. The "think" and "dig deeper" sections are editable, though.

Unlike TED talks, a transcript isn't provided on TED Ed, but many of the videos will have a CC box, which, if clicked, will provide closed captions.

Video Language Network

Here's another free language-learning website with videos. No time to check it out now. Please, leave comments and I'll label it later.

Real English

The Real English website has impromptu video interviews with a wide range of people, many of whom are simply folks on the street. They are often tagged and grouped around certain grammar points. Many also have exercises and pre-listening vocabulary lists.

Unfortunately, many of the interviews are quite fragmented with a very simple question-answer format and little followup or connection between the questions. (e.g., Q: What did you do yesterday. A: We shopped. Q: What do you hope to achieve before you die?...)

English Central

English Central is mainly a collection of existing videos, rather than a producer of content. They do, however, add some significant value.  First, they rank the videos for different English proficiency levels. Then, they add subtitles and provide an easy to use viewer. Next, they encourage students to record themselves speaking the lines from the video and use speech recognition software to indicate whether these have been spoken correctly or not. They also have vocabulary lists.

Overall, I think the main value is in the ranked, subtitled videos. The pronunciation check is not likely to be very effective and the glosses for the vocabulary vary a good deal in terms of how easy/accurate they are. Nevertheless, there is a large amount of material available, and it's worth checking out.

Learning English with the CBC

[If you have trouble with the videos, try a different browser.]
CBC Ottawa has started putting together some self-study listening lessons. It looks like it might be useful, but right now, the videos don't seem to be working. I've tested it on both Windows and Mac. Keep checking back and let me know if something starts working.

From TESL Canada

TESL Canada is collecting materials. Right now there are some monologues and dialogues designed by Brock University student Martin Woodyard. They include illustrations, a transcripts, and MP3s. For each transcript, the CLB level is indicated at the far right of the link, (e.g., Transcript-LateMono(for MP3 1-2-3-4)-L-4 is CLB 4). Permission is granted for classroom copying, but copyright remains with the creators.

Other non-listening resources are available here.

British Council Elementary Podcasts

The British Council has been doing elementary podcasts since 2008, so there's a lot of material there. The first two seasons' podcasts are about half an hour each, broken into multiple sections, while the third season had shortened them down to about 10 minutes each. Most of them are covered by a creative commons license, which allows you to freely reproduce them. Each has materials attached.

As you would expect, the accents are mostly British. The speaking can get a bit fast, but the content and the activities are aimed at quite low levels.

Premier Skills English

Premier Skills English is a collaborative project between the British Council and the Barclays Premier League. They have heaps of lesson plans and materials based around football, including interviews with some of the top players.

To make your own MP3

This is great for teachers and students. Just load the website, click to record, and share. Couldn't be easier.