I'm endlessly impressed with my wife's independent efforts to improve her English, and just today I found her learning from a Korean-American (or at least a Korean with fluent American English) on YouTube about how to put together a "lion look" for Halloween.
Here's the video she was watching:
Now, it occured to me while watching this (after a teenage boyish hope my wife might have this in mind as a birthday surprise for me, given the proximity to Halloween -- just joking!) that a video like this might be the last thing to appear in classroom materials or activities.
But, being a qualified make-up artist, this is something that really interests my wife. Watching it with her (and -- admittedly -- gaping a bit towards the end and getting slapped), I realised what a rich source of language input this is for her, alongside being a "craft" that she's instinctively interested in. She's also very driven to improve her vocabulary and expression in English in this particular field (make-up), so it creates very targeted and appropriate content for her.
The challenge now, of course, is to help her use this and similar resources to create noticing opportunities and build her vocabulary, expression and pronunciation.
I'm working through a couple of ideas for her now, but thought you might have some suggestions, too! (Feel free to comment!).
It also occured to me that, in classes where there is Internet access, it could be a good idea to just let the learners surf things like YouTube and find the videos that most appeal to them. From there, I could get them to write reports and do vocabulary research. During the actual viewing time in class, I could also actually wander about and spend a little 1-1 time with each student, helping them with their topics and language while getting to know a lot more about their individual interests.
[Aside: Bet you didn't expect a post and video like this on English Raven, didja?]
:-D
