Review of Simple English Videos

Today's review will be on Simple English Video (link embedded in name) and how it helps students become more autonomous in their learning.

Simple English Video is produced by an American husband-British wife team who speak English as their L1. Their credentials can be found here (link embedded).

Types of videos

As the name of the websites suggests, there are many different types of videos which help people learn English in a simple manner. When browsing, there are two ways in which the videos are organised: by difficulty level and by grammatical component or function.

Should the learner want to focus on a specific component, the videos are divided into 10 categories: Grammar, Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Everyday English, Songs & Stories, Speaking Practice, Hang out with us, Business English, British & American and How to learn faster.

Ways to use this website

The teacher can use this website as a teaching tool if he/she wants to focus on a specific component. For example, the teacher would like to introduce or draw students' attention to particular pronunciations in the English Language. Instead of having to plough through all the videos on YouTube, or look for resources, the teacher can use the videos found in this website. Although the videos uploaded are not exhaustive, but there are some useful materials that teachers can use in class.

Having said that, what I think would be a better use of this website is have students visit it on their own. This way, students have the autonomy to decide what they would like to learn or reinforce. The website has enough videos and content that students will be able to view and review at their own pace.

Pros

The presenters are conscious that their audience are learners of English, hence the speed at which they speak is slower than normal. There is even an accompanying transcript of what was said in the video. The content of the videos are also targeted at learners as detailed explanations are provided. This is possibly due to the presenters assuming that their learners are self-taught and do not have access to a teacher or someone whom they can ask for help. Hence, they try to make their materials as comprehensive as possible. The layout of the website is also clear and simple, which will help students navigate it with ease.

All these things aid students in becoming more autonomous (if they are not already), since information is easily accessible and readily available in one site.

Cons

The site is not meant to be interactive in the sense that students do not interact directly with the website like in LyricsTraining or TubeQuizzard, where learners can type their answers directly onto the site and get immediate feedback on their answers. The only sort of interaction available is during the pronunciation practice videos, where learners are left to be self-directed and have to be disciplined to practice pronunciation on their own when the presenters tell them to.

While the lack of interactivity is not a big disadvantage per se, but it can be off-putting for some students who like to have a more hands-on approach instead of being passive recipients of information.

In Singapore context

Depending on the students' competency level, teachers can either have them watch particular videos to reinforce learning or introduce it so they can be autonomous in learning new vocabulary or practising pronunciation, for example.

Teachers can also use the videos as trigger activities when introducing a particular vocabulary item or grammar component.

Conclusion

Regarding giving students the autonomy to learn, I would recommend that teachers also introduce the other two websites mentioned above so that students are not restricted to only SimpleEnglishVideos when it comes to learning, as some might like more interactivity. That is not to say that this website is less useful or that the content is not as good; rather these three websites serve different purpose. LyricsTraining and TubeQuizzard seemed to focus more on listening skills as students have to pay close attention to the audio to get the answer. There is no real teaching element involved, and seems to be more appropriate to reinforce learning in the classroom or to inject fun into learning. Thus, these three websites should be introduced together since SimpleEnglishVideos fills in that gap missing in the other two websites.

While it cannot and should not be used to replace the teacher in the classroom, SimpleEnglishVideos will be able to help its audience learn something new and gain autonomy.

Review of WebQuest

This post will be examining the pros and cons of WebQuests.

What is a WebQuest?

Dr. Bernie Dodge, the creator of WebQuest explains what it is in the video.



In summary, a WebQuest is a lesson that requires students to synthesise the information they found from the various websites provided by the teacher to produce a piece of work set out by the teacher. The important thing to note is that a WebQuest is not suppose to be a mere creation of various pieces of information found on the Internet. The task that the teacher designs needs to ensure that students process the information they have read and sieved through, and create something new using that information.

I find this site to be a good example of a well-designed English Language WebQuest. It hits all the right notes in terms of synthesising information and creating something out of it. Moreover, through doing this WebQuest, students horizons are broadened as they learn about other cultures and how to appreciate them. Teachers can extend the lesson further by using this as a stepping stone to discuss other related topics, like globalisation, or even culture and identity (depending on the level of students being taught).

Uses

Well-designed WebQuests are cognitively challenging as the task demands students reach the higher levels of critical thinking skills in Bloom's Taxonomy, i.e. analysing, evaluating and creating. In today's world, these critical thinking skills are extremely important, and very much in line with MOE (Singapore)'s 21st Century Competencies of producing students who are "Critical and Inventive Thinkers".

WebQuests can be used for Task-Based Learning as students have to complete a task using the resources they have sieved out from the websites given to them by the teacher. For example, students can be asked to design a travelogue, or create a presentation about a particular aspect of the topic. In this way, students are able to practise at least two skills at one go - reading and writing - on top of using English itself to communicate with their team members.
 

Disadvantages

Having said that, designing a good WebQuest is not exactly the simplest task. The teacher has to put in many hours designing a task that requires students to produce something original (and not a mere copying of information off various websites), looking for good websites that the students can use to gather the knowledge to complete the task, and also create a set of rubrics that is detailed enough so that students are aware of the criteria they need to fulfil. The fact that so much is demanded of the teacher might be off-putting for some, since having an abundance of time is a luxury for teachers.

Advantages

In spite of that, a well-designed WebQuest is like any course material; it can be recycled and reused many times over with little or no modification required (barring any major hiccups or changes to the curriculum). In my opinion, even if there is a change to the curriculum, an English Language WebQuest would likely still be valid - assuming the original task is to produce something that is along the lines of one of the four skills - since changes to the curriculum is unlikely to exclude any of the skills. Moreover, as English Language teachers, WebQuests are very much in line with language learning outcomes, since students are required to utilise language to create a meaningful and coherent product, thereby improving on their language ability in accordance to Swain's Output Hypothesis.

Conclusion

All in all, it would do well for the students to be exposed to a WebQuest at least once for the reasons mentioned above. Teachers can go to QuestGarden to either create one or look for existing WebQuests, though discretion has to be exercised when searching for a pre-existing WebQuest to use as not all WebQuests were created equally.