Bring the Real World into Your EFL Classroom with YouTube

Since I've started using YouTube in my EFL classes, I've seen a dramatic increase in my students' attention spans.

Listening to and watching videos on YouTube is a lot more realistic and natural in teaching listening skills than playing the old, stilted conversations on the cassettes that often accompany language textbooks. While you can use a laptop to view YouTube videos, I've found that the iPad is even better. With its flash technology, the iPad is on instantly. I use the iPad for showing videos to EFL students, and I don't have to lug cumbersome wires, batteries or other paraphernalia with me. My iPad is light, convenient, and I'm in control in the classroom with it. I don't have to depend on the school's equipment which often doesn't work.

How to show YouTube videos using the iPad
The best feature of iPad technology is how easy it is to show YouTube videos and build entire lessons around them. Here's how:

• Find a YouTube video that will pique the interest of your class. (One of my favorites is the video of Susan Boyle of Britain's Got Talent, 2009. There are four videos I play for students, interspersed with an article about the singer and her experience as an unlikely, leading competitor on the popular amateur talent show.)
• After choosing a video, download it onto your iPad. (As good as the iPad is, you need to download the video and not depend on using it via wi-fi or the Internet during your lesson. That can lead to disaster, as all teachers using technology eventually learn the hard way.) When you download the video, it's there on your iPad or laptop as long as you need it.
• Download the video by either emailing the link to yourself and then saving it onto your iPad's desktop, or save the video directly from YouTube via Keep Vid.com., a free program off the Internet that helps you save videos to your computer, laptop, notebook or iPad. Review the video before you show it to your class to make sure it works.
• Once you've come up with language goals for your lesson, plan the lesson as you normally would, with the video as the main activity.
• Start by introducing the subject of the video, follow by pre-teaching the essential vocabulary used in it, give the students a pre-video guideline as to what they are about to see and then show the video itself.
• Follow up with a discussion of the subject.
• The only disadvantage of using the iPad to show a YouTube video--as opposed to a laptop in the classroom--is its relatively small size. Therefore, prop the iPad up on a chair in the middle of the room and students will be able to see it. If a student offers his/her laptop to watch the video and it works, take the student up on it! Students love to contribute to a class lesson.

Today's EFL students expect technology in the classroom because they use technology in their own lives. The multitude of videos on YouTube is ideal for teaching EFL students how to listen to various forms of English--American, British, Australian, South African. If a photo is worth a thousand words, the YouTube video is worth millions when it comes to using it as an EFL teaching tool.

Susan Boyle YouTube Video: The First Episode