Job Discussion Forums

thelmadatter · Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 4:28 pm Post subject: videos/TV shows

I seem to be the video-monger here at my job. I teach highly-advanced students, so grammar and such no longer really do these guys any good. Over the past two years, Ive brought a number of videos/DVD's from the States for use in my classes. While I know of and have a number of good movies for class, the problem is that it takes almost 3 50-minute classes to show an entire movie before any other kind of exercise can take place. This is OK sometimes but I would like shorter pieces as well. For example, I got lucky and bought a couple tapes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" episodes from the 50's. We can play the entire episode in about 20-25 minutes, allowing for discussion and/or other exercises immediately afterwards. One of the other teachers even found exercises in the Web based on an episode that I have. The nice thing about this series is that it has a "moral" to the story, which is great for discussing cultural values.

I also have one tape of Fawlty Towers episodes as well as "All in the Family" - also good. Ive done an interesting comparison/contrast of Basil Fawlty and Archie Bunker with my students.

The question is, does anyone have suggestions for short videos (TV shows or otherwise) of authentic English (not those corny ones produced for lower levels) and where I can look to buy them online? Country of origin is not an issue, as long as it is originally in English. Closed-captioning is a nice feature too, esp. for dialects my students are not familiar with.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

There's a British show called Connections that ran 20 minute clips. The show is about exploring the evolution of science and man through connections of scientific discoveries. It offers natural 'break points' in the show to stop and talk with the class or to anticipate what's next.

Look for it on eBay or Amazon, or if piracy is not a concern, I could point you to where to download them.

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

gordogringo · Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Posts: 159 Location: Tijuana

Teahing English using the Simpsons?Love it,love it!!!

Perpetual Traveller · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 651 Location: In the Kak, Japan

How about M*A*S*H? That would be particularly good for those teaching in Korea...

PT

Cdaniels · Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 11:10 pm Post subject:

http://www.learner.org/catalog/series71.html
"Connect with English"
"A video instructional series in English as a second language for college and high school classrooms and adult learners; 50 fifteen-minute video programs and coordinated books"

They're a bit expensive: $120 for episodes 1-12 on two VHS cassettes, but they do have streaming video of the episodes on their website for free. I haven't had a real good look at it, although I used a similar "Destinos" to learn Spanish, and Connect with English is based on that series of 'telenovas for teaching.'

I'm sure this kind of educational program was not what thelmadatter was asking for, but the dialogue is actually fairly normal sounding, and there's travel throughout the US with different regional US accents presented. I wish more of these kind of programs were made