Comments about the videos (Didáctica de inglés)

This entry is dedicated to comment the following videos:

British Council - Teaching Speaking Techniques (John Kay)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF7zsz8fi64

In this video John Kay is talking about Teaching Speaking Techniques while we can see a Primary class and a Secondary class in Thailand . Some items that are important to tech speaking are:

• To organise the lessons before start the class is avery important thing to teach with success.
• Feeling relaxed is the most important thing to speak for an audience, so we as teacher must try to feel relaxed because the children notice if we are nervous, and maybe they feel nervous too. If children feel relaxed, they participate more.
• Making groups: the teacher give them some flashcards with animals to make groups. Children have to talk each other to know in which group they are. I think this technique is a good idea because they can talk in a relaxed atmosphere, they don't feel evaluated. Also, they help each other, so that is very useful to learn.
• Giving instructions: teachers must look around to see if their students understands the commands that they give. We have to look out their actions; if they do well, they will understand the instructions. If they don't understand the instructions we will give the instructions again. The instructions must be easy to understand.
• Target language: repeat some sentences, be creative and never speak while children are talking. 
• Useful language: to teach them the normal language and encourage them to use the English in class.

I like this video because I can learn a lot of useful speaking techniques to aplicate them in my future classes as an English teacher. 

Teaching Activities - British Council - BBC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Gyd9NEa9M

This video has filmed in the same way as the previous video, in Thailand, with the same teachers and classes. In this case, we can see some activities to teach speaking.

The most important thing is to be careful with the topic that we choose to teach because they learn better if they are interesting to talk about this topic. 

• Debate: it can be modereted by the teacher or a student. I like the way that the teacher prepare this, with different flashcards that contain some expressions that we use in a debate. They can understand these useful expressions and practice them. I like too that the whole class participate, some of them agree with the topic, another group disagree and the rest are the audience. At the end of the debate the audience have to decide if they agree or disagree and explain the reasons.
• Building dialogues: the pupils, in groups, make predictions about an image and then they compare their predictions with the real situation. We can give key words if we want. So, I think this activity motivate the children because they are able to imagine all that they want and explain to their mates.
• Storytelling: the children guess the character that the story is talking about. The teacher uses images to tell the story. As we study in our storytelling subject, the pupils make predictions about the story. I think that is interesting the way that the teacher encourage them to make predictions: with some images about the story that they have to put in order. Finally, they play the story.
• Information gap: in real life, in a conversation one person have some information that other person doesn't have, so this is an information gap and it need to practice. They can find the information question each other.

All this activities are useful to do with our future pupils. I can see in this video all the items that we have been studying in Didactics and Storytelling subjects.

Carol Read: The secret of working with children

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/carol-read-secret-working-children

In this video Carol Read is speaking in a conference about how to work with children. 

Teachers have to learn the lesson so hard because children ask a lot of questions and they shouldn't view us doubtfully. It´s very important to transmite culture with the different activities that we do in class with them. Is important too to show them enthusiasm for lerning and doing the activities that we propose because it encourage them to learn better.

As a teachers, we have to evaluate ourselves too because maybe there are a lot of things that we can improve for others times.

I like Carol´s ideas, for example about punish children. If we punish all the time when they are wrong, they will be afraid about learning english. 

Carol Read: Ideas for using flashcards

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9KebTgfLJI

In this video, we can view some ideas about using flashcards with young children: 

1. Flash!: show the image very fast and then the children guess wich animal or thing is there. It is a good idea to catch children attention.
2. Slowly, slowly: show the image unvailing slowly what it is.
3. What´s missing?:  stick the flashcards on the board and then repeat the words and the children too. Then, the children close their eyes because the teacher remove one flashcard. After that, they open their eyes and have to guess who is missing.
4. Magic eyes: with six flashcards, that are sticked on the board with an order, repeat the words with the children with a rhythmic way. Then remove the first flashcard and continue with the repetition of the words. Remove each time one flashcard but continue with the same rhythmic words. I like this activity because it develops their memory.
5. Lip reading: children have to guess the animal that the teacher say without any sound. This activity is good to improve their attention.
6. Flashcard riddles: children have to guess in  which animal is thinking the teacher following some clues. This is interesting to encourage children to think and to improve their vocabulary.
7. Flashcard groups: give a flashcard for each group and give commands for one group. First give the instructions and then say the animal. This is a TPR activity that is useful to review some vocabulary. They like move a lot, so this is a funny exercise to do in class.
8. Hand on heads: divide the class in two teams. Give to each group three flashcards. When they hear one of their animal, they have to put their hands on their heads. We can say the animals faster to make funnier the activity.
9. Flashcard chain: in a big circle, pass the first flashcard to the one who is in the left hand and ask a question and he/she must answer the question. Then this one has to pass the flashcard to the next partner with the same question following the same structure. When the flashcard has passed for some kids you introduce another flashcard and so on. When all the flashcards return to you, the activity has fisished. I like this activity because pupils can practice the language. 
10. Kim´s game: stick 12-15 flashcards from different topics on the board. Then give children a minute to remember the flashcards. After that remove all the flashcards and ask them to work in pairs and try to remember as much as they can. Is a funny activity to improve their memory.

In conclusion, flashcards are very useful and practical to learn a second language. They offers teachers a lot of posibilities to work with chidren and practice vocabulary