Friday 10 February 2012

Technology, Entertainment and Design--the Fantastic TED

What is TED?
TED, short for technology,entertainment and design, is a fantastic website which offers free daily-updated speeches concerning a wide variety of interests, ranging from education, science to family and art, etc. This website is dedicated to publicizing the most innovative and stimulating ideas worth spreading.

Click here to access TED:->ted

Why is the content good for language learning?
1.The wide range of topics covered in TED really boosts students' interests
2.The language in the presentation is fairly formal and can cater to enhancing students' command of scientific discourse.
3.The multimedia typed resource could readily appeal to the students
4.Every single TED video is a perfect peace of learning resource for honing speaking and listening skills.

How might you use it in a teaching context?
1.Play a chunk of TED video in class to practise students' extensive listening skills. Ask them to summarize the story.
2.Play a chunk of TED video before starting a certain topic, brainstorm with the students and activate their schemata.
3.Play a chunk of TED video and ask the students to take notes while listening, let them translate the content into their mother tongue. This is especially desirable for English majors.
4.Assign the students to do some homework research using a TED video to help them better illustrate the points.

Limitations:
1.It can be quite difficult for students who find English learning already boring.
2.Subtitles are not available.
3.Students have to cope with various accents.
4.It might be fairly time-consuming.

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