Showing posts with label Animation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Animation. Show all posts

Thursday, 31 January 2013

Click n Learn - To Learn / Teach English Interestingly And Interactively


What is Click n Learn? What can Click n Learn do?

If you think it is ideal to teach / learn English while playing games, then you cannot miss a fabulous website called 'Click n Learn'. Click n Learn is a free website which provides numerous English teaching and learning resources related to different topics such as music, sports, traffic, colors, weather, etc. Also, all the materials are categorized into three levels (easy, intermediate, and difficult), which are convenient for users to use this website more properly.


Why is Click n Learn relevant to language teaching?

    1. It contains a lot of pictures, animations and audio effects; most 
        materials are designed as games. These are helpful to arouse 
        Ss' curiosity and attention, especially for young learners. 
    2. It includes vocabulary practice, grammatical rules, cultural 
        knowledge, etc. The wide-ranged materials are beneficial for 
        Ts / Ss to teach / learn.
    3. The materials will appear automatically from basic ones to 
        advanced ones. Ss can choose the most appropriate level and 
        material to learn instead of challenging the hardest part at the 
        beginning.
    4. Ts can select ore or more specific topics related to the 
        textbook to teach or to use this website as supplements. Also, 
        Ss can choose the most interesting topic to learn, which will 
        help promote learners' motivation and autonomy.


How can Click n Learn be used in / outside class?

    1. Ts can use the games as warm-up activities, which will easily 
        attract Ss' attention and make them more interested in the 
        following learning activities.
    2. It also provides materials to teach pronunciation (e.g. vowel 
        sounds, phonemes, dipthongs, etc.). In my context, speaking is 
        always ignored due to time limitation, and most Ss refuse to 
        speak just because they do not think they have good 
        pronunciation. Thus, Ts can take advantages on the exercises 
        to teach pronunciation in an interesting and interactive way, or 
        ask Ss to do further online learning / practice after school.
    3. Some grammatical exercises are also suitable to be used in 
        class such as tenses, voices, clauses, and so on. Also, the 
        lexicon part is also designed very well for learners, especially 
        for beginners. These are good materials for Ts to do questions 
        and answers in class. Ss also have opportunities to review 
        again and again at home.
    4. The materials in this website are mainly divided into different 
        topics. For example, the topic 'number' requires both English 
        and mathematics skills to answer the questions. Maybe there is 
        a possibility for Ts to develop and promote 'CLIL' (Content & 
        Language Integrated Learning), which means to apply what Ss 
        learn in target language to other subjects.


What limitations are there?

    1. This website is basically designed for Spanish speakers. 
        Therefore, it is inevitable to see some Spanish terms appearing 
        on the webpage. What's more, some instructions are only 
        written in Spanish. Sometimes it may be interference while 
        teaching / learning. 
    2. The background audio effects sound good, but from time to 
        time it may distract Ss' attention. Also, there are some 
        misspelling words which may cause misunderstanding if T does 
        not clarify the errors.
    3. Some grammatical questions can not be answered merely 
        based on Ss' English knowledge (see 'passive voice' for 
        example). Instead, it requires knowledge in other fields to 
        successfully choose the correct answer and language learning 
        may be out of focus. Thus, Ts should be responsible for 
        choosing or recommending suitable materials to maintain 
        teaching / learning quality.

Saturday, 26 January 2013

Dvolver - An incredible moviemaker

What is Dvolver? What does Dvolver do?

Dvolver is a free and convenient Internet tool that enables you to produce your movies. What you need to do is to select characters , backgrounds, scenarios, and add your own dialogues in the bubble. It is very easy to use and also a great choice for language teaching, especially for younger learners.

How to use Dvolver?

    1. Link to www.dvolver.com and click "make a movie."
    2. Select one of the backgrounds and sky images for your movie.
    3. Click “next” and then select a plot scenario.
    4. Click “next” and then select the characters you want.
    5. Click “next” and type the dialogue text for each character.
    6. Click "next" and select a background music.
    7. Click "next" and add another scene to repeat this process, or 
        you can continue to finish the movie after entering the title and    
        the author.
    8. Preview your movie and send it to others. You can also embed 
        the movie in a blog or website and share it with the world.

The following is a self-made movie. I adapted the dialogue from the textbook in my context (Taiwan), which is for nine graders.






Why is Devolver relevant to language teaching?

    1. It makes teaching more interesting. Compared with the 
        texbook picture above, the movie is more vivid and attractive   
        to Ss. The learning environment will also become much  
        friendlier. 
    2. It is free, simple and quick to use, but gives very professional 
        looking results which can be shared. Movies / animations are  
        great at showing Ss the chronological order of the dialogue as 
        they actually do exist in time. The convenience is also an 
        advantage for Ts to use it in language class.
    3. Ts can use this tool to design various language teaching 
        activities which will be described in the following part.

How can Devolver be used in / outside class?

    1. T can use Dvolver as warm-up activity or as a tool to teach 
        dialogue / conversation. For example, T can make a movie 
        about today's topic and have Ss to guess what it is. Like 
        riddle-guessing, Ss will pay more attention and involvement 
        to what they are learning.
    2. It is a good way for T to ask Ss to give group presentations 
        via Dvolver. Ss will learn how to choose and organize the 
        most important concepts together to make a movie.
    3. It promotes Ss' creative thinking. For example, T can ask Ss to 
        'create conversation' based on specific ideas such as a word, a 
        place, a festival, and so on. Besides, Ss can practice telling 
        English jokes by using Dvolver. If Ss have their own blogs, 
        they can also embed the movie in their blog.
    4. It is also possible to do storytelling with Dvolver. Ss who are 
        interested in cartoons, animations, and movies will have more 
        motivation in language learning.


What limitations are there?

    1. Limited technical support:
        (1) The maximum of each sentence is 100 letters, the 
              maximum of scenes is 'three', and the maximum of 'movie 
              title' is 20 letters. Sometimes they are not sufficient when
              using. 
        (2) When playing the movie, the flow is a bit too fast and there 
              is no 'pause button'. This will be a disadvantage for mixed-
              ability class, especially for low achievers.
        (3) No audio. Listening is a significant factor when learning a 
              language. However, Dvolver can only provide 
              background music during the process.
        (4) You can not edit the movie afterwards. What you can do is 
              to repeat the whole process again. Sometimes the inability 
              to edit is inconvenient and time-consuming.
    2. Ethical considerations:
        (1) Some of the characters dress improperly, which may result 
              in negative influence for younger learners.
        (2) It is possible for naughty Ss to put inappropriate words or 
              sentences into the conversation if T does not remind them
              in advance.