Simple English Videos: How stimulating it is for ESL learners!

👄Week 4 Simple English videos: An effective platform for various levels of English learners 

🙅Introduction:

In the previous post, I introduced Voki for primary school teachers to use in the classroom. (Link: https://myreviewofictintesol.blogspot.com/2019/01/do-you-know-how-voki-can-motivate-young.html)

In this one, I will present another effective tool called 'simple English videos' which can be used by students to teach themselves  after class. On the site, excellent language learning videos, as well as some short movie trailers are provided. In addition, most videos are made in British and American English, to show students what people say in the real world.

Search for: https://www.simpleenglishvideos.com/

💁What is included in Simple English Videos?

At the top of the site, there are totally a menu bar and a search bar. seven sections are offered as the below shows.

🙍Brief instruction of Home, Videos, Viewer Favourites and What's new?

Home is mainly for registration of the visitors. It is free!

                                     Search for:https://www.simpleenglishvideos.com/

Videos is the main part of the platform. Firstly, in this interface, the students can autonomously select the courses in terms of their own English level from elementary to advanced. Secondly, learners also can choose what they want to learn according to the genres or topics, such as songs and business English.

               Search for: https://www.simpleenglishvideos.com/videos/

Viewer Favourites is very user-friendly! It is rather suitable for those who have no ideas about what English level they own or what topics they prefer. Under such circumstance, they can view others' favourites to learn.

Search for:https://www.simpleenglishvideos.com/viewer-favourites-english-videos/

What's new？ provides students the up-to-date videos in this site. 

Search for:https://www.simpleenglishvideos.com/blog/

💆What is its surprising design that interests me?

On the right of the site, no matter the visitors browse through which interface, there remain two designs: "Recent Posts and "look it up".

💂"Recent Posts" definitely offers students what have been posted recently.

💂"look it up" is a small but my favourite one, since it is just like an online dictionary, by which the students can look words up instantly when they view the videos. Take "can" for example below.

Search for:https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/can

🙆How the videos look like?

In this part, I will take the video uploaded in 4th January: "9 ways to say thank you in British and American English" as an example to illustrate how I can make most use of the video.

💙At first, the visitors are given the abstract about what is included in this video.

💚Secondly, students can decide whether to use subtitles or not, speed, annotations and the quality of the video freely by pressing the two buttons at the bottom.

💛After the video, there are some links for learners to learn more. Also the site provides them a great transcript for students to review. 

💜Here I will give you the link. Have a try!!!

https://www.simpleenglishvideos.com/9-ways-to-say-thank-you-in-british-and-american-english/

👸What activities students can do by using it?

As I have mentioned, Simple English Videos contributes a lot to students' autonomy. As a language learner, students can combine what they learn in class with the resource in this web. For example, if you have learned modal verb 'can' in class, you are encouraged to search     for https://www.simpleenglishvideos.com/pronounce-can-cant-british-american-english/ to get more about this verb after class. 

😏What I like about "Simple English Videos"

• the atmosphere is friendly, relaxing and happy!
• the videos are free! It is important, hhh.
• students from different background and English level can find what they want to learn here. It is user-friendly!
• as I have mentioned before, the dictionary embedded in it is my favourite one. It is so convenient for students searching for words in the videos.

😭What I dislike about "Simple English Videos"

• Even though the designers have make great efforts to cope with various needs of students, I suggest the videos can be divided by more detailed methods. It has two different ways currently: by English level and by topics. In my opinion, it is better to mix the two methods together. For instance, if I am a beginner who want to learn the specific topic:grammar, and I choose elementary videos, then if in this section, the suitable grammar videos are presented for beginners, I think it is much easier for the students to find out what really fits into their needs

🙊Conclusion:

Simple English Videos is an excellent tool for students teaching themselves after class. Just like the owners of it said: " we believe you can learn faster if you see language in action and the way we do that is with conversions, stories and comedy sketches".

🙈Extra material for you 

This is a helpful material for you understanding "Simple English Videos" better.