On Saturday 8th June 2013, I’ll be giving a talk titled “Photo Opportunities (Using Student-generated Images)” at The Image Conference in Barcelona. The conference is being organised jointly by the IATEFL Learning Technologies SIG and UAB Idiomes and will be the first ELT conference to deal exclusively with the use of film, video, image and gaming in language teaching. Speakers include Jamie Keddie, Ben Goldstein, Graham Stanley, Ceri Jones, Kyle Mawer, Lindsay Clandfield, Kieran Donaghy, Fiona Macauline, Paul Braddock, John Hughes,  Steve Muir, Mark McKinnon, Gerard McLoughlin, George Chilton and Neil McMillan. You can find out more about The Image Conference here.

One of the things I’ll be touching on in the talk is the use of photo collages to provide springboards for language production, afford opportunities for personalisation and act as memory cues to aid the retention of lexis. As a taster for what you can expect – and as a way of doing my bit to promote the conference – here are a few pointers on how to create and exploit photo collages with your students.

Creating Collages

While there are a wide variety of collage apps available for mobile devices, my favourite tool for collage creation is a browser-based application called PicMonkey. This on-line photo-editing and collage creation tool is free, easy to use and does not require setting up an account. Watch the the quick tutorial below to show you how easy it is to create attractive photo collages in less time than it takes to make a cup of tea.

Collage Activities

Here are a few ideas on how you might like to exploit the collages that you and your students create. If you have any other ideas of your own, please feel free to leave a comment at the end of this post.

Photographic Identities
This is an activity I nicked from Ben Goldstein and Ceri Jones‘s intermediate course book “The Big Picture”. The idea is simple: ask your students to make collages featuring people and things which are important to them, or which they think play a part in defining who they are. You might like to suggest photo subjects such as “a place”, “a person”, “a food or drink”, “a treasured possession”, “a hobby”, “a book”, “a pet hate” etc. Students can be asked to denude themselves by giving short presentations in small groups or, more publicly, in front of the whole class.

Picture Stories and Photo Soaps
Ask each of your students to contribute one interesting photo to a collaborative collage, then get them to invent narratives using the different images as prompts to illustrate the different events/scenes in their stories. You could leave the choice of photographic subject up to them or ask each student to provide a specific photo. Here are a few suggestions: “a place”, “a person”, “a form of transport”, “an activity”, “a view/landscape”, “a building”, “an object of value”, “a sign”, “an animal”, “a piece of furniture”, “a room” etc. A further idea for narrative-building could be to ask students to create collages featuring photos of people they know. Once the collages are created, ask them to imagine that the people in their photos are characters in a soap opera. Students should explain the imaginary relationships between the different characters and how they feel towards each other.

Whose is Whose?
This one probably needs no explanation. Students provide photographs on a particular theme and speculate as to which student each image belongs to. If you are a course book user, it might be a nice idea to get students to create collages to accompany the theme of a particular unit or lesson e.g. a whose-is-whose collage of students’ mums or dads to lead into a unit on the family. Other ideas might include: “hobbies”, “favourite group”, “bedrooms”, “treasured possessions”, “boyfriends/girlfriends”, “cars”, “favourite places” etc. By the way, my mum is the beautiful lady in the bottom left-hand corner.

A Day in the Life
Ask students to take a series of photos which they can use as a framework to describe what they did on a particular day. This activity could be done as a one-off class activity or as a running series by nominating a different day-in-the-life-student each week – “Today it’s … A Day in the Life of Cristina“. Students should give a summary of what they did and how they felt on a particular day, then invite questions from their classmates. Similar activities could be set up to get students talking about what they did during a holiday or on a special occasion.

Lexical Chunks
Photos can provide meaningful context for the presentation of lexis as well as provide memory cues to help students retrieve vocabulary and lexical chunks they have seen before.  The example collage on the left features images to illustrate the following expressions: “I’m always in a hurry,”, “I can’t stand it when people leave furniture in the street.”, “It’s well worth seeing Ron Sexsmith in concert.”, “I feel like going down the pub.” Students could be asked to share their favourite vocabulary/chunks by explaining their photographs to their classmates.

Favourite somethings
Organise your students in groups and ask them to create a collage of favourite somethings e.g. a favourite place in their hometown. Students can be asked to give sort presentations “selling” their favourite place to the rest of the class. A vote could then be held to discover which of the places the class would most like to visit. Other suggestions for favourites might include: “a favourite meal”, “a favourite bar/restaurant”, “a favourite view”, “a favourite colthes shop”, “a favourite car or form of transport”, “a favourite weekend activity”, “a favourite building”, “a favourite tourist attraction” etc.

Hope you find these ideas useful!
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The following is not really a full lesson (it should stretch to about an hour), but it should fit in nicely if you’re doing something related to money, wealth, salaries or politics. It’s suitable for higher-level adult learners of English.

Note : If you happen to be teaching in Uruguay, you might like to skip a-d in Step One.

Step One : Video

a) Tell your students they are going to watch a short video without sound. Tell them that it features an elderly man and that you would like them to use their imaginations to guess the answers to the following questions.

1. Where does he live?
2. What does he do?
3. What sort of life does he lead?
4. Is he married? Does he have a family?
5. Why are there police officers outside his house?
6. Why have the BBC made a report about him?

b) Play the video in full-screen mode until 01:00 – it is obviously important to hide the report headline and the news overlay which appears when José Mujica is being interviewed.
c) Give your students time to collect their thoughts, then put them in pairs or small groups to compare their ideas.

d) Now play the whole video with sound. Allow a few moments for gasps of surprise, then ask your students for their reactions.
e) Finally, play the video again with some comprehension questions. Here are a few suggestions.

1. How does international media refer to him?
2. Where exactly is the house?
3. How does José Mujica define poor people?
4. What does he own according to his latest declaration of wealth?
5. What does he do with his salary?
6. What is his political background?
7. What do the people interviewed say about his lifestyle and political record?
8. What do his approval ratings say about his popularity?
9. What does his main political rival accuse him of?
10. What does he hope for in the future?

Step Two : Conversation

Ask your students to discuss the following questions in pairs or small groups (I usually project these documents on the screen in full-screen mode – it saves on photocopies).

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Hope you find these ideas useful!
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Idea One : Video

a) Show your students the still image from the beginning of the video below (make sure you hide the title bar at the top of the video player) and tell them that something unexpected is going to happen. Ask them to guess what happens.

b) Show the video. Ask your students for their reactions to the video and, more generally, for their opinions on mobile phone use in public places (Prompts: How do you think the violinist felt? How do you think the person whose phone rang felt? In what situations can mobile phone use be annoying? etc).

Idea Two : Conversation

Ask your students to discuss the following questions on annoying sounds in pairs or small groups (I usually project these documents on the screen in full-screen mode, it saves on photocopies).

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Idea Three : Record an annoying sound

For “homework”, ask your students to make a mobile phone recording of an everyday sound which they find particularly annoying. At the beginning of the next class put your students in groups and ask them to listen to each other’s recordings, they should try and guess what the sounds are and where they were recorded. The different sounds should then be explained by the student responsible for the recording (what it is, where they were, why they find it annoying, whether other people are equally annoyed, how the sound could be avoided or made less annoying etc).

If you really want to go to town, here are a few more ideas …

1. Students might like to make their recordings using Soundcloud. After installing the app on their phones and making their recordings, they could then embed the Soundcloud player (with a written description) on a blog or wiki.

2. If you don’t have a class blog/wiki, you may like to try out a simple content-publishing tool called Tackk. This click-and-type application enables you to create and share an on-line “poster” by adding headlines, body text and media from a variety of different sources (Youtube, Instagram, Soundcloud). Here’s an example.

3. On a more positive note, get your students to do the activity again, but this time recording sounds that they find pleasant and/or relaxing.

Hope you find these ideas useful!
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The lesson deals with the topics of gadgets, advertising and sales, and provides opportunities to present and practice a variety of adjectival suffixes. It is suitable for use with upper-intermediate and advanced learners of English.

Step One : Spill-proof gadget video

a) Do a little open-class chatting about things that can go wrong when clubbing / going out.

b) Show your students the video below and ask them for their reactions.

Step Two : Vocabulary focus

a) Explain the meaning of proof (resistant, able to withstand) and ask students to think of things which could be: bulletproof, idiot-proof, shockproof, waterproof, childproof, foolproof etc

b) In preparation for the next activity you might like to present/elicit a few other adjectives for describing products e.g. stylish, economical, well-made, portable, foldable, top-quality, robust, reliable, useful, colourful, fashionable, easy-to-use, practical, attractive, elegant, portable, unique, washable, unbreakable etc

Step Three : Conversation + Roleplay

a) Ask your students to discuss the following questions.

1. Has a door-to-door salesperson ever tried to sell you something on your doorstep?
2. When somebody offers you an advertising leaflet in the street do you accept it?
3. How do you react when a shop assistant approaches you and asks: “Can I help you?” or “Are you looking for anything in particular?”
4. How often do you get phone calls from companies trying to sell you products or services?
5. Can you imagine being a salesperson? Do you think it’s an easy job

b) Choose (or get your students to choose) a “strange gadget” for each of your students by doing a Google image search and clicking through to the web page to get more details about the product.

c) Ask your students to move around the classroom and attempt to sell their gadgets to as many people as they can. They should give a detailed description of their products and say why they are so useful. At the end of the activity have a vote on which student gave the most persuasive sales pitch.

Step Four (Optional) : More conversation

Ask your students to discuss the following questions on advertising in pairs or small groups (I usually project these documents on the screen in full-screen mode, it saves on photocopies).
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Step Five : Fotobabble your sales pitch

For homework, ask your students to make a one-minute recording of their sales pitches from Step Three using Fotobabble. Here’s a quick example. If you are unacquainted with this tool, you might like to watch Russell Stannard’s excellent tutorials.

Hope you find this lesson useful!
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Filed under: App Lessons, Video Lessons Tagged: Adverts, Gadgets, Speaking ]]> http://tefltecher.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/t-idea-suffix-proof-gadgets/feed/ 3 hahn-spill-proof-beer-e1334777820486 ij64 Strange Gadgets fotobabble-your-sales-pitch http://tefltecher.wordpress.com/2012/09/27/surveillance-society/ http://tefltecher.wordpress.com/2012/09/27/surveillance-society/#comments Thu, 27 Sep 2012 08:00:00 +0000 ij64 http://tefltecher.wordpress.com/?p=4027 ]]> Your students are being watched! You know it, they know it, but for some reason coursebook writers don’t seem to know it! Here’s a lesson to redress the balance.

Topic : CCTV cameras, surveillance society and the right to privacy.
Level : Upper intermediate to Advanced | B2 to C2
Activities : Video, roleplay, discussion, writing letters of protest, explaining photographs taken by students.

Step One : Lead-in discussion

Show your students the images below and do a bit of open-class discussion on the increasing use of CCTV surveillance cameras in public spaces (Possible prompts: Where are they found? How do you feel about being filmed without your consent? Do they help to reduce crime and unsocial behaviour? Explain the irony in the central image … etc etc). Students will discuss similar questions in smaller groups in Step Four.

Step Two : Camden resident video

1. Explain to your students that they are going to watch a video of a local resident (Jim Jepps) complaining about the installation of CCTV cameras near his home in Camden, London. Ask them to identify how the cameras shown in the video are different from the normal cameras we see in our streets..
2. Think up some comprehension questions and show the video again. Here’s a few suggestions:
   1. What does the camera say? (or gap-fill it: “S___! T___ i_ a r_________ a___ and y___ p_________ h__ j___ b___ t____. W_ w___ u__ i_ t_ p________ y__. L____ t__ a___ n__!” – this is clearer on the manufacturer’s website, see 3 below)
   2. How do the local councillors contradict themselves?
   3. How does Jim Jepps feel when he walks past the cameras?
   4. What worries him about the effect CCTV cameras might have on community life?
3. Your students might be interested in seeing the website of the company that manufactures the camera shown in the video. Ask them for their reactions.

More stuff : Text on the “Jim Jepps versus Camden Local Council case” | Jim Jepps’s website with including his video protest to Camden Local Council | Video of Mansfield city councillors defending speaking CCTV cameras

Step Three (Optional) : Roleplay

Set up a Jim Jepps versus Camden Local Councillor roleplay. I don’t think this needs much more explanation really, just give them time to prepare and off they go!

Step Four : Coca-Cola Video

In this TV advert titled Lets’ look at the world a little differently, Coca-cola cleverly turns the concept of surveillance on its head. Rather than crime and anti-social behaviour, what the CCTV camera footage in the ad captures is ordinary people from all over the world committing horrendous acts of kindness to each other. You may find it either life-affirming or yucky … show it to your students and ask them what they think.

Step Five : Conversation

Ask your students to discuss the following questions in pairs or small groups (I usually project these documents on the screen in full-screen, it saves on photocopies).

Step Six : Writing (with Flickr photos)

1. Ask your students if there are any examples of uncivic behaviour or public authority abuse which particularly annoy them. Give them time to think, then put them in small groups to share their ideas.
2. For homework, suggest they write a letter of protest to their town council or local newspaper outlining their displeasure and proposing possible solutions.
3. Optional idea : If your students have smartphones, why not set up a class Flickr account so that they can share photographs of the things they would like to protest about? Once they have downloaded the Flickr app to their phones you will need to give them the sign-in ID and password in order for them to start uploading. Here’s an example of what a shared class Flickr account might look like, Dear Councillor, I would like to protest about…. The idea is that each photo accompanies either a letter done for homework or an oral presentation given in class. Once your class Flickr account is set up, you can obviously use it for other project work throughout the rest of your course.

A few extra bits and bobs

• Video of journalist Rod Liddle showing what happens if you attempt to film a CCTV camera
• 2-part video of a US citizen detained for taking photos of trains
• Sky News video on CCTV cameras

Hope you find this lesson useful!
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SGI Guest Post (3)

Here’s the third in a short series of guest posts I’m writing for St George International (SGI).

Roleplaying from home

Will keep you posted on future installments!

Of course, my intention was not to encourage students to use English swear words – in fact they spent most of the class talking about using swear words in their own language – but to satiate their natural curiosity and reflect on how taboo words function both linguistically and socially.

Apart from being taboo, profanity can also be beautifully poetic. Fair enough, swear words are rude, obscene and vulgar – well they would be, wouldn’t they? – but when we curse, insult or blaspheme we are often (although not always) at our most morphosyntactically creative. If you don’t believe me, watch this video or go back and have a closer look at your Shakespeare.

What follows is not so much a lesson as a collection of activities which you can pick and choose from. Have fun and just let those expletives emerge! … Needless to say, on your own head be it! I take no responsibility for any offence, distress or awkwardness caused! ;-)

Lead-in video

The video below is a humourous mash-up of the “swearing scene” from The King’s Speech. As a fun lead-in activity, show your students the video and ask them to write down as many of the swear words as they can.

Vocabulary Activity

Use the Wordle below for ordering/ranking activities, e.g. degree of offensiveness, reference (sex, parts of the body, bodily effluvia, religion etc), parts of speech (nouns, verbs etc)

Note : It might be a good idea to use the title of this post (F*ck! The f*cking fucker’s fucked! | example context – somebody whose car refuses to start) to illustrate the syntactical versatility of many swear words.

Conversation Questions

Ask your students to discuss the following questions in pairs or small groups (I recommend screen-projecting this document rather than making photocopies).

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Language Focus

After introducing students to the expression “a four-letter word”, you could go on to focus on other “numerical” compound adjectives. Here’s a quick pairwork activity which involves students translating from their mother tongue. As I work in Barcelona the examples are in Spanish, but the document is downloadable and editable so you can easily adapt it to your teaching context.

Videos On Swearing

• A two-part video of Steven Pinker on the science of swearing (part 2 here)

• Stephen Fry on the joys of swearing
• The Sex Pistols swearing when interviewed by Bill Grundy in 1976
• A toddler mispronouncing frog

Texts for discussion

• Should swearing be against the law? (BBC)
• Kids and swearing (The Guardian)
• The King’s Speech given a 12A rating (The Guardian)
• Guardian opinion article on the Feel Free to Insult Me campaign

Hope you find this really f*cking useful!

A note about the title of this post : In the video the above-mentioned dog attempts to take a nip at the BBC cameraman, hence the title “Don’t dog me!” If you were expecting what I expect you were expecting, you may be more interested in clicking here – then come back, of course!

Step One : Lead-in (humorous video)

1. Ask your students to imagine they were dogs and explain what their daily lives would be like. This is a good moment to input the idiomatic expression “it’s a dog’s life” (there are more doggy idioms here, which you may like to turn into a matching exercise).
2. Show them the video below and ask them for their comments.
3. An alternative approach might be to show them the video first (from 0.16 to prevent them seeing the title), then ask them to guess why the man behaves so strangely.

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Step Two : Discussion

1. Read out the names of the breeds in the collage below and ask your students to identify the different dogs (Greyhound, Chihuahua, Pitbull Terrier, Golden Retriever, Poodle, Great Dane, Ordinary Mongrel, Husky, Alsatian). Write up the vocabulary on the board.
2. Ask your students to discuss what they imagine the owners of these dogs are like. Alternatively, you could ask them to talk about what type of person each dog would be appropriate for.

Step Three : The Video

1. Focus on the photo of the pitbull terrier. Ask your students what they know about this breed of dog and whether they know of any laws to which dangerous dog owners have to adhere.
2. Tell your students they are going to watch a video in which a local politician confronts a dangerous dog owner in a public park. Play the video for general understanding.
3. Play the video again and ask them answer these True/False questions.
   Answers : 1T | 2F | 3T | 4F | 5F | 6F | 7T | 8F | 9T | 10F

Step Four : Conversation Questions

Ask your students to discuss the following questions in pairs or small groups – it’s best to project the document on the screen to save on photocopies.

Extras : Here are a couple of things you may like to show your students before (or after) they discuss the following questions from the above worksheet:

• Question 3 – César Millán (“The Dog Whisperer”) shows a pitbull terrier who’s boss
• Question 4 – Denver the dog looking decidedly guilty after kitty-cat-treat theft
• Question 13 – Dog and owner lookalikes

Step Five : Roleplay

Here’s a few doggy roleplays! Take your pick!

1. A Pitbull in the Park : This roleplay is basically a reenactment of the scene in the video. Roles: the local MP, the reporter and the dog owner.
2. Not on my Doorstep! : Show your students this video and ask them to roleplay the argument between the dog owner and the local resident – you might like to throw in the dog too (“I was desperate!” | “You can’t expect me to pick up my own muck, I’m just a dog” etc).
3. Dog versus Owner : Ask one student to take the role of a dog that is unhappy with the treatment it receives from its owner (not enough walks, bad food, small living space, always kept on a lead etc). The owner must obviously defend themselves from the dog’s criticisms.
4. Dog, Cat, Bird or Fish? : Not very original this one, but it normally works OK. Give your students family roles (grandparent, parent, teeanger, young child) and put them together to decide on which would make the best pet.

Step Six : Writing

No secrets here! Ask your students to write an article, opinion or discursive composition on the question of dangerous dogs. If the following lexis hasn’t emerged during the speaking activities, you might like to feed it in before sending your students off home.

Dangerous Doggy Vocab : to keep on a lead | to bite | a muzzle | to muzzle | to attack | to be banned | to impose a ban on | to keep under control | to feed | people have the right to … without being + partciple | to put down | to train | scarred for life | to fine | irresponsible owners | a breed | to breed dogs | to cause serious injury | to sense fear | to exhibit aggressive behaviour

Hope you find this lesson useful!
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SGI Guest Post (2)

Here’s the second in a short series of guest posts I’m writing for St George International (SGI).

Photo Opportunities

Will keep you posted on future installments!

SGI Guest Post (1)

Just a quick post to let you know that over the coming weeks I’ll be writing a short series of guest posts for St George International (SGI).

Here’s the first installment, which suggests a few ways of how to use on-line maps with your students.

Will keep you posted on future installments!