martes, 30 de octubre de 2012

Real English video series

We have been devoting Tuesday's posts on this blog to educational videos with a view to catering for lower-level students -Básico 1, Básico 2, Intermedio 1- in a more structured and pedagogical way, so to speak, while keeping to authentic materials.

You can check the following tags to gain an overall view of all the stuff we have built up throughout time:

Hong Kong series (The British Council in Hong Kong)
Oxford videos (Oxford University Press)
Vodcast series (Richmond publishers)
Speakout (Longman publishers)

Funnily enough, English learners at elementary (Básico 1 and Básico 2) and intermediate levels have always had at their disposal an invaluable collection of authentic videos created by Real English.

I won't go as far as saying that this latest trend in the EFL publishing world stems from Real English, as I don't really know the ins and outs of the EFL publishing world, but by watching the Real English videos one gets the impression that  Real English seems to have pioneered this trend of interviewing people on the street in unscripted dialogues (vox pops) and use this material in the English class.

This is the way the people behind Real English defines their site:

"It all started over a decade ago when a group of American and British ESL teachers at the Marzio School in the south of France noticed that the traditional materials they were using from The Big Publishers to teach their students simply weren't doing the job they were supposedly designed for.  (...) Michael Marzio and his friends & teachers started interviewing people on the streets of the USA and other countries during his vacations, came back to his school in France, and edited the video according to classic grammar structures and functions, in order to make the spontaneous, authentic, seemingly "fast" speech usable by different levels of students, including beginners."

In the following weeks, we'll be embedding the Real English videos on this blog, We'll be starting out with the first two videos in their collection. But make a point of dropping by Real English and read all the information, instructions, tips, ways of subscribing to  Real English on social media they offer on their webpage which is way bigger than what you can see here.

Lesson 1 deals with names and greetings, and it's suitable for Básico 1 and Básico 2 students.



You can watch the same video clip with subtitles on the Real English webpage here together with some exercises on what you have just watched on the video here.

Lesson 2 deals with introductions and answering the question "where are you from?", and it's suitable for Básico 1 and Básico 2 students.



You can watch the same video clip with subtitles on the Real English webpage here together with some exercises on what you have just watched on the video here.