Hi everyone!
This is my first entry for my blog. Lets see what I have this time!
In the 'ICT in ELT' class during the first week, Russell has introduced an amazing website that is very interesting and fun which is:
This is my first entry for my blog. Lets see what I have this time!
In the 'ICT in ELT' class during the first week, Russell has introduced an amazing website that is very interesting and fun which is:
What is it?
A simple moviemaker website that allows users to create their own animated movies and write their own dialogues. Users can choose the backgrounds, music, scenes and characters from the options given in the website.
To see how it works via an on-line training video, we can log on to Russel Stannard's great website, one of the most outstanding websites for teaching and language learning through various web tools.
How can it be used in the classroom context?
To see how it works via an on-line training video, we can log on to Russel Stannard's great website, one of the most outstanding websites for teaching and language learning through various web tools.
How can it be used in the classroom context?
# At the beginning of the class, teachers provide brief tutorial or model and instruction sheet on how to use this tool
# Teachers ask learners to work in pairs and create their own movie. Teachers need to decide whether the topic is theme-free or based on certain issues.
# For example, in the literature class, teacher can assign task to learners to do the summary of every chapter in the novel that has been used as a part of the syllabus where they need to pick up one each (one pair for one chapter) and transfer the information into dialogues in the movie.
# As every movie created has a link, teachers can ask learners to send the link to them and their peers' emails.
# Teachers can choose which movie is the best, show it in the class and write some comments.
# Teachers can also get feedback from the students on how to improve the movie especially in terms of content.
# Apart from that, teachers can publish the links on their blog, create a poll and make learners vote for the best.
# To vary the learning styles, carrying out the role-play based on the movie can be a good follow up activity
What are the learning styles that have involved?
In this case, it involves the implementation of Flemming's VAK:
1) Visual: Learners can enjoy seeing and exploring the characters, contexts and scenes in colourful animation type
2) Auditory: Learners can hear the sound provided, involve in discussion with their peers and listen to the explanation of the instruction, lead by the teachers.
3) Kinaesthetic: Learners can try to act out the movie that they have produced.
# Teachers ask learners to work in pairs and create their own movie. Teachers need to decide whether the topic is theme-free or based on certain issues.
# For example, in the literature class, teacher can assign task to learners to do the summary of every chapter in the novel that has been used as a part of the syllabus where they need to pick up one each (one pair for one chapter) and transfer the information into dialogues in the movie.
# As every movie created has a link, teachers can ask learners to send the link to them and their peers' emails.
# Teachers can choose which movie is the best, show it in the class and write some comments.
# Teachers can also get feedback from the students on how to improve the movie especially in terms of content.
# Apart from that, teachers can publish the links on their blog, create a poll and make learners vote for the best.
# To vary the learning styles, carrying out the role-play based on the movie can be a good follow up activity
What are the learning styles that have involved?
In this case, it involves the implementation of Flemming's VAK:
1) Visual: Learners can enjoy seeing and exploring the characters, contexts and scenes in colourful animation type
2) Auditory: Learners can hear the sound provided, involve in discussion with their peers and listen to the explanation of the instruction, lead by the teachers.
3) Kinaesthetic: Learners can try to act out the movie that they have produced.
Who are the learners?
# Secondary school Malaysian students whose mostly first language is not English
# Intermediate and advanced levels of English as they are believed to be already equipped with the sufficient level of English, some vocabulary to be used plus knowledge from the previous experience in learning English back in their primary school.
# Age range: from 13 - 17 years old.
# Secondary school Malaysian students whose mostly first language is not English
# Intermediate and advanced levels of English as they are believed to be already equipped with the sufficient level of English, some vocabulary to be used plus knowledge from the previous experience in learning English back in their primary school.
# Age range: from 13 - 17 years old.
However, this should not be seen as a barrier that denies the lower level learners' opportunity to learn as teachers can also play their roles in providing assistance for example, at the beginning of the class, teachers can work together with them and come up with an example of the movie, then later show it in the class. This will engage learners' attention to the actual task. Then, students can be asked to work in pairs and try to produce their own movie using their own vocabulary.
Apart from that, it is also worth for the teachers to provide hand out containing the steps involved, just to guide the learners who are not really good in using computers. For example:
Apart from that, it is also worth for the teachers to provide hand out containing the steps involved, just to guide the learners who are not really good in using computers. For example:
The example of the end product:
The movie below is produced by me and my friend, Vee Vien during the ICT class:
The movie below is produced by me and my friend, Vee Vien during the ICT class:
1. It is fun and great for motivation
As the learners at the age of 13 years and above are usually enjoy watching movies, this tool can arouse their interests towards learning English and deviate from the usual chalk-and-talk traditional teaching method. They will have so much fun creating and even more fun watching the end product. They will also get excited by the prospect of actually producing something that they could show or send to family and friends, thus perceiving English as an interesting and worth subject to be learned.
This tool is equipped with different sections such as backgrounds, characters, sky and plots that can be chosen by students thus providing them the contexts and make them focus on what they are going to do for each step.
This is possible in the sense that students can express their own thoughts and ideas especially in creating the plot needed for the story line of the movie. As students are given such opportunity, in this situation, to pick up the characters and construct the dialogue that they want, the element of freedom is taken into action and this also helps to personalise the lesson .
4. Develop writing skill
To some extent, this is a great starter to get learners to write because normally, some students struggle putting ideas into words. This tool does not require them to write the dialogue in very long sentences. As learners are expected to write accurate dialogues of the characters in the movies, this tool can become a good review of spelling, sentence construction, question word order, reported speech and reported question and natural conversational language.
What are the limitations?
1. Inappropriate use of English
As students can choose their own dialogue for their own movie, they might resort to the use of inappropriate vocabulary, colloquial language or slang that they have heard before from their previous experience in watching movie or film.
2. Time-consuming
It is a bit time-consuming especially for the learners who are struggling to make up their own dialogue for the story.
3. Limited context
Regarding the content, the criteria given is limited, for example only two characters will be involved for each scene. This somehow prevent learners from expanding the ideas of the story.
4. Inappropriate context
As most of the Malaysian students are Muslims, there are some scenes and characters that are not really suitable for the students to use in lesson. For example, in terms of their appearances, plus the characters' clothes are not really designed in a decent type. Therefore, if students use this tool at home, their parents might be misunderstood of their action.
Further suggestions:
4. Inappropriate context
As most of the Malaysian students are Muslims, there are some scenes and characters that are not really suitable for the students to use in lesson. For example, in terms of their appearances, plus the characters' clothes are not really designed in a decent type. Therefore, if students use this tool at home, their parents might be misunderstood of their action.
Further suggestions:
If the learners are already mastered the lesson, teachers can expose them to other methods of do-it-yourself animation to be tried at home, thus fostering autonomous learning such as:
i) Xtranormal: A text-to-movie website in which there are more options and contexts are involved, thus engaging learners with the art of movie making.
ii) Go! Animate!: A web application that let users to generate fully animated cartoons and for learners who are keen on comics, this tool is a worth choice to be opt for.
Bear in mind, all tools that have been mentioned above appear to offer their application FREE! Therefore, grab this opportunity to vary your teaching and learning styles.
~Because English is FUN! :) ~
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