#5 TED

What is it? What does it do?

TED is a huge resource of high-level talks and presentations by native English speakers.  TED is a non-profit organization bringing people together from the very broad areas of Technology, Education and Development.

It has a tagline, 'Riveting talks, by remarkable people, free to the world'.  It does, indeed, have over 500 talks showcasing exactly that.   TED has many 'branches' and one of those is the independently organized TedX events around the world.  The program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level.  

Just today (20/01/12) there are featured talks on 'Why SOPA is a bad idea', 'What is Athiesm 2.0?' and 'How astronomers can help doctors'

I want to write, however, about 12 year-old Adora Svitak's talk, 'What adults can learn from kids' - see below section - How would I use this video?

The site has a useful interactive transcript, which can be used to jump to parts of the talk by clicking on chunks on text. It also has a brief synopsis of the talk and information about the speaker.  It is very clearly laid out and has a nice interface.

Relevance of using Video in ELT

Video can be defined as the selection and sequence of messages in an audio-visual context.  It can have benefits in ELT only, it has been argued, if 'the visual works in a positive way to enchance or supplement the language point' (Canning-Wilson, 2000).   Other research has provided a mixed conclusion to the use of video:

Scenes where utterances were backed up by an action and/or body language and that were relatively shorter, were considered easier to understand by students.  Less lively scenes, which involved relatively longer stretches of conversation, were labeled as more difficult.  (Balatova, 1994)

So visual cues are important, but they can either facilitate or distract from understanding, depending on what is chosen and how it is used.   Students often like learning language through video, but I believe this is because of a general interest in watching online video and film.   It is also far more accessible now, in 2012, than it was 12 years ago, when doubts about the educational benefits were being expressed.  I have a more positive view.

User-generated video is great for authenticity.  Real people, real situations can be superb for generating discussion and learner-learner interaction.  It can also be relevant in a social-cultural context.  A video is often likely to show an alternative culture, viewpoint or attitude to the local one, especially with a homogenous class.  This, of course, depends on both the context and the choice of video.     But an alternative cultural source can be used for stimulating and generating debate.

I have quickly developed an interest in using video as a way to integrate skills in ELT.  It is also useful for task-based learning.  Rather than simply showing a video and basing a lesson around it, I have used video to stimulate ideas for story writing, storyboarding, film design and production.  It works excellently on short-term project-based courses, especially where an element of fun is encouraged.  Films and film-related resources can really engage learners and get them talking, debating, creating, writing, acting, listening and directing.  This appeals to the different individual cognitive, affective, personality and learning styles of learners.

I have previously got teenagers involved in making, from scratch, two Zombie movies, a murder mystery and a pastiche of 'Romeo and Juliet'.  The essential focus was that THEY decided what to do and THEY decided how to go about it.  I merely facilitated the process, as a kind of 'executive producer'.  See the 'video' section (tab) for the full version of one of the above.

Using short video clips in class can work very well, providing the clips are used constructively in the class.  The length is important. Anything over 10 minutes is likely to be counter-productive for attention span and generating interest.  Similarly, the content needs to appeal.  Whereas 'Mr Bean on Holiday' once worked for a group of lower-intermediate 13-14 year students (whom I taught one summer 2009), it wouldn't have been as appropriate for upper-intermediate 16-17 year-olds (summer 2010).  'Speed' or 'Kill Bill' were better options, although you have to be careful not to show clips of explicit 18-certificate films, even if they know them and have already seen them. 

Videos are good for generating task-based learning activities.  With this video from TED, for instance, a courtroom discussion could be set up, with two sides to an argument being presented.  If a teacher was to ask at the start of class who have been the most inspiring, creative people to have ever lived, let us assume that even children might immediately chose a list of adults.  Then this video could be played.  I will write more about task-based activities using video in #8.

How would I use this video?

Adora Svitak is an internationally-known 12 year old child-prodigy with a tremendous interest in language, promoting literacy and the written word.   She is a prolific writer and blogger, has published essays, poems and also full-length books. The first one, 'Flying Fingers' was published when she was 7.  In January 2009, she was featured on a Channel 4 documentary, 'The World's Cleverest Child and Me', in which she was extensively interviewed about her work and was filmed going to her local primary school - to teach.  In February 2010 she spoke at the TED conference on the themes of 'childish thinking', 'big dreams' and 'optimism'.

The video is only 8 minutes 13 seconds long which is a perfect length for use in class.   It has to be noted, however, that I would still break this down into chunks for reasons I state below.  It is a straightforward recording of her speaking, with some images interspersed to complement what she says.
 

Although most TED videos would only work with higher end ability students, because of the subject matter, I might use this particular video with intermediate level students. 

There could be a number of lesson objectives using a material such as this.  The adjective, 'childish', or nouns 'child-prodigy' and genius could be pre-taught vocabulary items.   There are also the words 'discriminatory', 'behavio(u)r' and 'irrational thinking'.   On the flip side, students could be alerted to the argument that Adora makes and words such as 'idealistic', 'naive', 'opinionated' or 'precocious' - with their negative connotations - could be elicited - as these are not spoken in the video but could be interpretations. 

Look at this extract from early on:

So, as you can see evidenced by such examples, age has absolutely nothing to do with it. The traits the word childish addresses are seen so often in adults that we should abolish this age-discriminatory word when it comes to criticizing behavior associated with irresponsibility and irrational thinking.

At various points, the video could be paused and predictions made to what she will say next.  It is important to break down any video into chunks in order to exploit the macro-listening skills and to give students a choice to review and predict.  Students can be encouraged to express what they think about her - to that point - and whether there opinion changes as the talk continues.

Depending on the age of your students, you might get students to predict how Adora might grow up, what her teenage years might be like, what she would like aged 30?  What is the audiences reaction to her? Positive or negative? Why? Do you think she was 'pushed' by her parents or did she 'push' her parents. Was she spoilt?  Is she special?  What do you think she has been exposed to in her formative years?   Interestingly, her mother has posted comments below the video answering some queries raised by other comments:

It would be a good source for predicting, guessing, generalising, giving opinions and drawing some critical thinking skills.  Ultimately, I believe a class debate or courtroom-style argument could be developed with one side arguing for and against what Adora believes.   

It would be interesting if your class includes a 12-year old girl. What would her response be? What are the expectations of someone of that age? Is this 'normal' and what other vocabulary can be used to express an opinion about her?  Do child geniuses grow up to be happy?  And what motivates them?

It could be used a basis for designing a wiki or some other small project on what ideas have children given to adults.