Unchain Your Students and Watch the Magic with Listening!

By

 

Some students see their learning process like this.

Image credit: charliehr.com

                                                   While others see it in this way.                                                

       Image credit: neuroleadership.com


Whose decision is it in this case? Is it the teacher's or the learner's? 🤔

Thinking about these questions, I think that the key word is autonomy. There is a consensus among ELT experts and theorists that the decision of autonomous learning is both the teacher's and the learner's. However, without the teacher's understanding, motivation and facilitation, there may be many blocks in the student's road to autonomy. Both the teacher and the learner work on parallel lines to achieve their aim for autonomous learning. The less authoritative role the teacher will play, the more accountable and independent the learner will be as Gerald Grow shows in his Staged Self-Directed Learning Model (SSDL) (1991). 

(Image credit: Gerald Grow, 1991)



There isn't still any problem with understanding the importance of autonomy, the characteristics of an autonomous learner and the steps the teacher should follow to help the learner pave the road to better autonomous learning process. I think the challenge many of the ESL/EFL teachers face is how to put these principles into practice. When it comes to the skills and the systems a learner will improve on his own, the teacher can find interesting readers and novels to improve their reading. They can also depend on collaborative learning and project-based approach to enhance their learner's productive skills. Yet, what about listening?

Teacher kept wondering about a platform that provides different interesting listening examples for different levels and with tasks that evaluate the learner's comprehension. It seems that you ask for a part of the heaven. 😂 So, I think this post is for you!

TubeQuizard is your tool to discover your learner's door to magic. 

1- In TubeQuizard, your learner can find listening activities for different levels.

2- You will find a variety of tasks for them to focus on grammar, vocabulary, comprehension, spelling and believe it or not, pronunciation. What a surprise?! 😃

3- TubeQuizard covers different listening tasks types such as films' scenes, songs, series' scenes, Tv. shows, animation and TED talks.

4- What's more, TubeQuizard helps your learner with different topics, for example, business, entertainment, education, IT, news, society, culture and music.

5- It offers two language varieties and aims to add more, so your students will not focus on one variety.

6- You can also add your video for your students and find similar ones.

7- Last but not the least, It is FREE 👌👋👏

So, if your learner enjoys Ed Sheeran's songs, Lion King and Lord of the Rings, or if they are into inspiring speeches and presidents or celebrities' talks, or if they can't stop watching Guardians of the Galaxy or Avengers or if they are nerds and into TED talks and scientific programs, you find your and your students' treasure.

What you should do is to give it a start and think about the project or the approach you will follow with the help of TubeQuizard You can even differentiate according to your learners' intelligences. It's your call.

For me, I don't find drawbacks. Just shoot.

Don't forget, I would like to see your experience or your students' with TubeQuizard in the comments.


References:

Grow, G. (1991). Teaching learners to be self-directed. Adult Education Quarterly, 41, 125-149.

Comments

  1. SFebruary 18, 2022 at 6:01 PM

    Hi Yumna, it's a thoughtful review showing you, as a teacher, have thought of autonomy a lot and how to apply this to the practice. It's always hard for me to have a balance between students' freedom and teacher control :P TubeQuizard is definitely a tool allowing users to have freedom, so I thought teachers would need to think about how to guide learners to focus on learning (not just listening to songs). Still hard, right? :P Thank you for the useful information!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yumna M. AlyFebruary 19, 2022 at 4:36 AM

      Hi Suji,

      Happy to see your nice comment.

      Yes, you are definitely right. We always think about songs and movies and forget about other sources that can help.

      And yes again;) It is still hard....But, believe it or not, I tried it before with my students using project-based learning and flipped classroom and it worked. When you assign the task and relate it with a discussion or a presentation they do in class, they love it and it becomes a routine for them to have.

      Delete
  2. BolapeFebruary 25, 2022 at 12:54 AM

    Hi Yumna, I love the images you used to describe how students feel during the learning situation. I believe this is very true. I also love how you introduced autonomy as a solution that would encourage a better learning situation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yumna M. AlyFebruary 25, 2022 at 4:51 AM

      Thanks a lot, Bola.

      Hope we all can promote autonomy in our classes

      Delete
  3. Ika JuniastutiFebruary 25, 2022 at 1:21 AM

    yumnaaaa, what an interesting way to describe our students learning experience! the pictures reminds me to an article which describes how pictures can be used as linguistic sources. TubeQuizard is a very interesting learning tool! I wish I knew this tool earlier, I love to learn from movies and song!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yumna M. AlyFebruary 25, 2022 at 4:53 AM

      Thanks a bunch, Ika.

      Yes, it is a nice tool and it is not too late. You still can use it in your context as well

      Delete
  4. NikoMarch 4, 2022 at 3:28 AM

    What a great blog Yumna! love the pics of how students see the learning process! You also have a really nice way with words - "Nerds into Ted talks" amazing :D:D. really good summary of TubeQuizard

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yumna M. AlyApril 27, 2022 at 7:55 AM

      Thanks a million, Nik.
      So let me tell you a secret, I am one of these people into TED talks ;) And when the presenter spices it up with unique way or idea, I find it an amazing tool for our classes.

      Delete
  5. JannatApril 13, 2022 at 5:05 PM

    Hi Yumna, the images in the post provide a strong signal of the learning process, very well utilized. I have also come to know about TubeQuizard and the role of autonomy linked to this tool. Well done, dear!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yumna M. AlyApril 27, 2022 at 7:53 AM

      Thanks a lot, Jannat.
      I am a visual learner, but keep it a secret ;) That's why I love images.
      TubeQuizard is one of the tools that I can describe as "one size fits all" but as "one site fits all", so it helps all levels, all students' interests, all topics, all kinds of listening...etc.

      Delete
  6. Siyu MaApril 15, 2022 at 1:52 PM

    I like your organisation highlighting the crucial advantage of the tube quizard, that is, motivating students. The theory of self-directed theory is also helpful to support your idea. It is an excellent blog!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yumna M. AlyApril 27, 2022 at 7:49 AM

      Thanks, Siyu
      Self-directed theory is really an engaging area to discover while improving learners' autonomy. It really helps me and I am sure it will help you as well.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Isn't It a New Technique?!

By
Image
  Yes, isn’t it a new technique to start your blog by reviewing another blog? 🤔 I assume your answer is “ yes ”. But, let me tell you two benefits of this experience before going through the blog under review. After the first look at a famous blogger’s reflection, i.e., his/her blog, you may get impressed and say: “how I will create mine”. Yet, my evaluation of Ozge’s blog boosts my decision of what I can focus on in my blog. Second, as no one is perfect, I noticed some areas of consideration in her edublog that I may try to avoid while blogging. Let me introduce you to Ozge.                  Ozge Karaoglu Ozge Karaoglu is a foreign languages department K12 technology integration specialist, a teacher trainer and a course book writer.  She has been recognized by the ELTons Awards, ESU, MEDEA, Microsoft, and Telly Awards for her digital projects. She currently teaches young learners, and she...
Read more

To WebQuest or Not to WebQuest: Choose Your Student's Journey!

By
Image
Some teachers get hesitant when they feel that most of responsibilities of the online learning process will be on their students. This is not because they feel alienated and have a little to do with them 😉😉, but as they are not sure that they can find an online lesson format that is appealing to their students, user-friendly and can take the students in a useful learning journey. The answer is not in a trendy technique, but in a known one that many of us stop using despite its benefits. Yes, as you are guessing, it is WebQuest .  WebQuest is an inquiry-based lesson format whose main aim is to make the best use of the learners' time.  WebQuest succeeds in   creating an engaging environment for the learner using technological tools. This shifts the role of the teacher from a controlling one to be more facilitating and guiding. It also raises the learner's awareness about his/her active role in acquiring a new language. Thus, through a good creation of the lesson from the ...
Read more

From YouGlish to Fluency

By
Image
  Image credit: YouGlish Most of ESL teachers make use of YouTube as a source of free videos that help their students improve their listening and their pronunciation especially in their online classes. However, not all teachers have heard about YouGlish .  And a few of them know how to use it not only to enhance listening and pronunciation; but to boost their students' fluency as well. This post will open a door to  YouGlish , showing its benefits and possible limitations. What's more, I will show you a  a sample lesson plan, using  YouGlish   to help promote your students' fluency.   Ready to go?! 🤩🧐 YouGlish 's benefits : 1- Discovering the world of  YouGlish   with my peers, we got really impressed with this free source of videos with its simple layout and its rich content . 2- The very first option that attracted my attention was the number of English varieties the website provides, i.e. British, American, Australian, Canadian, I...
Read more

PlayPosit: Posit your Blended Learning Experience on Interactive videos

By
Image
  Image credit:https://techilive.in/ With the onset of 2020 and the advent of the pandemic, e-learning has become a way-out mode of learning that replaces the face-to-face standard for nearly 2 years all over the world. Yet, the procedures started to be updated in educational institutions due to the controlled situation of the virus. This encourages the idea of blended learning to take place in many schools and universities as a step that combines both the face-to-face and the online options for achieving better learning outcomes. But, the story hasn't ended here, it actually starts 😃😂. Not all teachers find it easy to deal with blended learning either because they can't choose the right approach for the two different modes of delivery with the same group of students or as they are not able to link between the material used and the allocated tasks in both cases. I reached to this conclusion after I have been through some discussions with many teachers who said: Teacher A : ...
Read more

Neophobia & Technophobia: A War against Fears Using VoiceThread

By
Image
Image credit: appsonwindows.com We all face some students who suffer neophobia (the fear of trying new things) and technophobia (the fear of technology). Believe it or not some teachers do have the same fears, i.e. I used to be one of them 😃😉😂. In the last post, we explore the role some platforms play to improve collaborative learning in online writing classes, but what about speaking?! Let's remember the old days before COVID-19. You were in your classroom and about to start a speaking activity....How many things do you miss from this scene in your online class?  Oh! Do you have many things to mention?! I think you will have a list like this 👇: Visibility : we can't see our students and students can't see each other and this affects their pair and group work in speaking activities. Also, some shy students do not prefer using the camera. Sometimes, we are not prepared with clear set of instructions for the online speaking activities. Timing : speaking activities take l...
Read more

Nearpod: Keep your Resources Near

By
Image
Image credit: Nearpod Once upon a time, teachers used to have loads of papers with resources for their classes. When they felt busy, they asked their colleagues in their schools for new activities. Their boards were always full of ideas from their school's library...... I think most of you either took part in this story or saw it in reality. I can assume that you are able to complete it with what happened after the spread of mobile learning , am I right?! 😄 As you know, mobile learning or as it's known by m-learning is a learning process across electronic devices especially the mobile ones, such as laptops and the mobile phones. This turning point, in the educational process and in ELT in particular, changes the face of learning. Now, teachers can use e-boards, have e-resources and provide students with code to join an online class through different platforms such as Nearpod . So, if you would like to be updated with new techniques of teaching and preparing for your class an...
Read more

Collaboration Starts with an Idea

By
Image
Image credit: Pixabay  How can you create a learner-friendly environment to improve your students' writing skills in online classes? A big question, isn't it? 🤷‍♀️🤔 If you ask this questions to teachers in different contexts, most of them will say: " let your students work together". By this answer, they simply touch on the  Vygotskian S ocial Constructivism theory (1978) from which Collaborative Learning approach was derived. Collaborative learning approach supports the salient concept of student-centered classroom where the teacher helps in scaffolding, guiding and facilitating steps. Working on learners' metacognitive learning and their mutual accountability is a key condition for collaborative learning. That's impressive, however it is problematic when we think about online learning and about a productive skill like writing. 👌 So, if you seek to promote your students' (especially adults) writing skills using cooperative learning approach in online...
Read more