Mary Poppins' Bag of Speaking Fun

For those who don't remember or who had an underprivileged childhood, Mary Poppins is a nanny with a magic bag that fits anything and everything. This post is kind of like that. I found some great sites that will address all your speaking needs--topics for discussion, idioms, pronunciation, and everything in between.



I'm very partial to discussion topics, myself. For one, it makes students feel like it's worth it to speak up when the topic is important or interests them. And though some may try to avoid using forms they aren't proficient with, they will also be confronted with these same forms when other speakers use them. But sometimes it's difficult to constantly come up with something to discuss. At least if I went on a blind date, I would run out of things meaningful things to talk about pretty quickly before reverting to the daily habits of my cat.

ESL Discussions is a great site with a plethora of topics to discuss, and each comes with several questions for teachers to ask students to elicit their opinions. There is a bar on the right side of the page with links to discussions of the latest news topics, such as "Swine Flu," "Barack Obama," and "Rising Prices." There are even sections for discussions that revolve around grammar and idiomatic language.

The discussion on animal idioms, for example, opens with "Does your teacher ever have to badger you to get your homework?" This can open up into a great cultural comparison of which animals are used to convey which personality traits in the L1 and L2. There are actually many similarities between these in Russian and English, such as the infamous crafty fox.

Another site I'm fond of, English Daily, focuses specifically on idiomatic language. Each "lesson" provides a short conversation for context that features an idiomatic word or phrase, such as "to get on board" for "to participate. At the end of the conversation, it glosses and explains the phrase. These can provide great warm-ups for a class in general or for a discussion in which you want students to use idiomatic language. No book-talk allowed!

I would also like to use these discussion questions, particularly those on "Russia" and "A New Cold War" and record the reactions of people from different cultures to discuss Russian history and stereotypes and how they feel about them.

Finally, the real bag of goodies comes from the website SpokenSkills. There are idioms, specialized vocabulary (from business English to aviation), and speeches, and practice with pronunciation. Every one of these is accompanied by listening practice and a recorder, so students can compare their pronunciation to that of a native speaker.

Many advanced students can recognize which sounds they need to work on because they are the same sounds they have difficulty distinguishing in listening comprehension. For example, Russians tend to have trouble distinguishing between the short "i" and short "e" (pin / pen) and the short "u" in "but" and "love" and the long "a" in "father." (On this site it is referred to as the short "o," but it is commonly known as the long a). These clips will help them compare the sounds, so they can draw the line between them.

The site also offers teachers the opportunity to upload sound clips, so students will have more of a variety of material. This would be a great site to supplement practice with minimal pairs or drawing attention to the different types of language that are used in different situations, such as telephone calls vs. business meetings, but it also offers students an invaluable resource for self-evaluation and practice.

Deviant ELLs

On the Internet today there are sites for every interest imaginable, from babies to skateboarding. These are nearly universal, and for English speakers, they are easily accessible online.

My own interests are in art and science fiction, and luckily Deviant Art has attracted artist from several nations, and the forum makes it easy to find them and strike up a conversation. Just today, there are call outs on the Deviant Meet Board to "Deviants" in London, Barcelona, Denton, Ekatarinburg, Venice, Sydney, New York City, India, the Philippines, and more! In my foreign language studies, I've actually run across several Russian and German speakers who just by chance joined the same interest groups as me on the site. This has really improved my writing ability, even if the subject is a drawing of a psychotic, one-eyed samurai who fights aliens.

But regardless of one's own artistic ability, it is easy to get started on this site even just as an observer and to search for art relating to one's interests. Photographers in particular tend to flood their sections with pictures of, say, their Chow. And Chow owners tend to be very enthusiastic about their dogs, so they will be glad to tell you all about them! Or for the more serious student, there is also a section in the forum for political discussion.

Wherever the conversation will be taking place on the site, it is guaranteed a quick response. On the forum, responses are immediate, while personal notes or comments to artists may require a two day wait or more. But a response of some sort is almost certain, and this, I think is the most important part of writing ability. Just like listening is important for speaking, reading is important for writing. To keep up with their new virtual pen pals, students will need to read their reply... and depending on the age and socioeconomic status of the artist, that could be difficult. And even if they happen to be Harvard graduates, recipients are unlikely to provide any correction.

To ensure this interaction (and the ability to monitor what sort of "deviant" input students are receiving), teachers can even create a section for themselves and post pictures or poems for students to comment on. Of course, it will have to be original material, so strap your creativity boots on!

A common strategy for clubs on the site is to allow members to submit their material for publication on the club page. (The administrator will simply save their picture or file and resubmit them there as an original production of the club members as a whole). This could provide a fun project for the class, where students could take turns posting pictures of their surroundings or interests, write a description of them, and wait to reply to comments provided by their peers. Teachers could even connect with other ESL classes this way and invite them to join in the fun! This is also a great way to have students expand on their vocabulary by drawing from their peers' differing interests.

Podcasts Galore (non SLA-centered)

Today's English in Today's Russia

You just spent $50+ dollars on a textbook... only to open it up to photos of the main characters to writers developed. It's 2005, and every page is polluted with plaid shirts and mullets. Apparently, your top of the line textbook is already out of date. If you took a foreign language in an American school, then you've had this experience. Luckily, the Internet has really helped solve this problem by giving students access to more contemporary material, and at the forefront is the podcast-- shows and mini-shows that can be heard live or downloaded onto a computer or iPod.

There are many good and bad sides to podcasts. In Russia, more often than not the problem is going to be access. Borat and his neighbor may have iPods in the Hollywood version of Kazakhstan, but the reality is that, in general, mp3 players are just too expensive for the average Russian and the average English teacher!

Luckily, podcasts can typically be downloaded and then burned to disc, allowing teachers to play them in class or students to listen to them on their own time with a basic CD player. So long as you have Internet access and a CD burner on your computer, the timeliness of the podcasts can still be captured with just a little more effort.



A Cast for the Whole Class

The moment I found
Silver Street: Daily Urban Soap on the BBC Podcast Directory, I knew it was a winner. Soap operas or character-centered series are popular in language classes. They're a great way to learn language and culture at the same time by listening to how people interact, but they often have the same "dated" issues as textbooks.

Silver Street, on the other hand, takes place in modern England with a flavorful blend of the issues and mixed ethnicities that now characterize it.

Gritty daily radio soap set in a vibrant urban community. Want something that really gets to grips with your issues? This soap brings different cultures and generations together and isn't afraid to tackle taboo stories rocking the foundations of relationships, family and religion. The cast reflect the cultural mix of Britain today strongly representing British Asian, Irish and Black characters in a cool non-stereotypical way.

Even better, each show is labeled with a title and summary that shine a light on the context and help student gear up their schemata, such as "Vinnie gets annoyed with Jodie: Vinnie wants to get Jodie off his back, and Sean feels guilty for wanting to leave." The episodes are also only five minutes a piece, so students won't become numbed or anxiety-ridden by an enormous amount of input.



I could definitely see burning a week or a month's worth of episodes and assigning one for listening homework each night with some guidance or consideration questions: "Why is Jodie upset with Vinnie? How do you know?" A second listen at the beginning of class will help warm students up for the day and lead into a discussion of the show to date. How did they feel about Jodie? Did she have a right to be upset with Vinnie? How do students feel about issues at play, and how are they dealt with differently in Russian culture?

The Downsides?

1) It's British English, so students may have trouble if they've had instructors with different accents. In fact, as an "urban" soap, it isn't even "standard" British English. If students have trouble, though, transcripts will help with assignments and broaden their dialectic comprehension in general.

2)There are a lot of characters, though, so teachers will definitely need to familiarize themselves with the series and give students some background information on them, who's in which episode, etc. until they can pick out the voices.

3)Because the textbook didn't script them, you might be hard pressed to integrate episodes into the unit in terms of grammar or content, and it's difficult to pick and choose, just as it's difficult to figure out what's going on when you jump into The Young and the Restless. Who slept with whose husband?



Peas in a Pod: A Podcast for Every Interest

In my opinion, the key to improving L2 output is to play to the students' interests. When it comes to global politics, I always start to nod off, but when the topic shifts to science-fiction, I suddenly become pretty talkative! Well, that's what I want from my students, and the wide variety of podcasts floating around the Web provide a great way to draw in different students.

The BBC Podcasts Directory is an amazing resource for shows of every interest, from business to gardening, and mostly in "standard" British English. A great class exercise would even be to have students get on the site (if such technology is available in the class) and choose a podcast to follow. They can present from time to time and offer the class helpful vocabulary that pertains to their subject. With technological constraints, teachers can just as easily download a few episodes on topics the students have said they like. This may be more helpful for students that are less advanced and need more guidance through the episodes.

Grammatical Sing-a-Long

When The Beatles said they were bigger than Jesus Christ, there was definitely some debate as to whether or not they were better. I won't go into that argument here, but at least in Russia the band is probably more universal. While scanning the mosaics in the Church of Spilled Blood, my Russian guide admitted that because of the anti-religious stance of the former Soviet Union, she didn't know the stories portrayed, but she did know the lyrics to "Yellow Submarine!"


Karaoke Videos

There are a wide variety of karaoke videos on YouTube, and they're not hard to find, as long as you search the song name with "lyrics." Many songs, especially by The Beatles, would make fantastic listening activities in a lesson on informal speech habits, such as the use of "ain't" or leaving out beginning words that can be implied: "(I) Love you every day, girl / (You are) Always on my mind." (Eight Days a Week, The Beatles)

"(You)Can't Buy Me Love" is also a good example of this, but would make an even better exercise in conditional sentences. "I'll buy you a diamond ring, my friend, if it makes you feel all right."


Work with Clauses

Songs are also a great resource for grammatical structures, though, because they tend to follow a repetitive pattern. The lyrics of "When I'm Sixty Four" contain examples of the subjunctive ("would you lock the door?") and multiple clauses in every other line! "Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I'm sixty four?"



Notice that in this example the dependent clause follows the independent clause. I plan to use this in my class to show students how these clauses can be rearranged by having them rewrite the lyrics as "When I'm sixty four, will you still need me?"

This song also provides an opportunity to discuss the punctuation of clauses. While I prefer to mark a beginning dependent clause with a comma, the accepted position is that it is only really necessary if this clause is very long. For example, "When I suddenly discover that I've grown very old, disheveled, and generally bothersome, will you still feed me?" (Not by The Beatles)


Some Advice

Because YouTube and its "directors" have a habit of removing items, I also strongly recommend saving material you like. This can be done through ripping software or a ripping site. Just type in the video URL address and save as an .avi, .mp4, or .mov.