Using Online Videos to Enhance an ESL Lesson

The days of having to rewind and fast forward a video of people speaking English for a class of English language learners are not gone, but they are slowly being replaced by the availability of short online videos that students can watch. There are many sites out there that have ESL-focused videos for use by individual students or by classes. Here are a few sites for both students and teachers.

www.ESLvideo.com-This site has a lot of free videos. It has interactive quizzes and transcripts available for students and teachers, too. Teachers can create quizzes and have them sent to their students as well. The videos are categorized by subject. Some are music videos, which will be a hit with younger learners.

http://www.englishmedialab.com/beginnervideos.html-This site is geared towards beginners, but there is some content for intermediate to advanced students, too. There are more videos and even Power Point presentations for teachers to download from this site, but access to those is restricted to those who pay the fee.

http://eslbasics.com/esl-videos.html-This site is belongs to an ESL teacher who has made several short videos about different phrases in English and different aspects of the English language. They are good for a "vocabulary word of the day" sort of activity.

http://www.youtube.com/user/JenniferESL-This is an ESL channel on You Tube of a teacher named Jennifer. She has some really good resources and connections to other ESL videos on her You Tube page.

Get creative with your classes and utilize the wealth of ESL videos available on the Internet, if you're a teacher. If you're a student, these links can give you the extra listening and pronunciation practice that you've been seeking. Video and other media that allow students to watch and listen to native speakers of English will definitely help them develop their communication and other English language skills more quickly than just a book alone.