Teacher, trainer and blogger Steve Muir answers The Image Conference Questionnaire.
Your favourite film video website:
Not going to be very original here, I’m afraid. About 99% of the videos I use in class can be found on YouTube or Vimeo.
Your favourite film to use in class:
I think the full-length film that I’ve got the most mileage out of in class is Little Miss Sunshine. Suitable for adults.
A video clip that always goes down well is Pigeon Impossible.
<iframe width=”640″ height=”360″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/jEjUAnPc2VA?rel=0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>
Useful image-related teaching tool:
I like the Guardian Eyewitness app, which gives you a photo a day taken somewhere in the world. Sometimes trivial, sometimes serious, always striking, they’re great for conversation, speculation, description, story-telling, and vocabulary generating.
Tell us a bit about your session:
It’s going to be full of multi-level teaching ideas based on a mixture of funny, moving, bizarre and creative video clips.
Why are you interested in using video in your classes?
Chosen by teacher or student, a video can be engaging, thought-provoking, stimulating, entertaining, and versatile. It also means I can justify the hours I spend watching moving images on a screen as lesson preparation!
What should your audience expect to learn?
I hope that they’ll get ideas for activities that they can try out with their own students. More importantly though, if they don’t use video much, I hope they’ll be inspired to go off and look for their own clips to use in class.
What are three words that sum up your session?
Practical classroom ideas
Which other presenter(s) are you looking forward to seeing?
I wish I could see them all!
Read more about Steve and his session here.
Telly Learning
Steve Muir British Council
16.15 – 17.15 Room 11
In this practical workshop we will look at a range of classroom activities inspired by clips from short films, TV and YouTube. These activities focus on a variety of language areas and skills, including listening, pronunciation, and speaking. The activities can easily be adapted to use with many other clips. Participants will get a number of teaching ideas to take away with them and use with their own students. And most importantly, students seem to enjoy them!
Steve Muir has worked in ELT for over twenty years. He has taught English to young learners and adults in the UK, Egypt, Hong Kong and Spain. He lives in Madrid and works at the British Council in Alcalá de Henares.
