Posts Tagged ‘english’

Talking comic strips are perfect for language learners

  A mix of colorful visuals, speech bubbles and audio content is the perfect combination for language acquisition. You can use the talking comic strips to teach specific grammar points, introduce a new topic, summarize a unit, the sky is the limit. Students will love creating their own talking comic strips as well. The image that you see here in the left is one panel of  a talking comic strip. Click here  or on the picture to see and hear the full size talking comic strip  My talking comic strip provides a general explanation of how it was created using free web 2 tools Glogster/ Toondoo and Audacity a free open source software for recording and editing sounds.   Be sure to turn up your speakers to hear the sound. If you are interested in learning more about how to create cool content using free web 2.0 tools subscribe CoachENG newsletter at the top right hand side of this page. Thanks!  Read more about teaching with comic strips here.

Did you create a comic strip of your own? You are invited to share links to your comic strips in the comments box below! Thanks, Karen Eini

Everyone is talking about social media  or  using social media to talk!

social media map

Facebook, twitter, skype,  blogging - all of these web 2.0 tools are  hot topics of discussion.  Get your language students talking about it and integrate social media into your language lesson plan! Not only will your clients  practice the art of small talk, they may even learn something new about social media!

Ideas for engaging discussion could include the following:

• definition of social media -ask your student to explain it in their  own words
• ask  about the  types of social media that they use on a personal level, company level
• ask about how their  company uses social media
• discuss the  advantages/disadvantages of social media
• discuss  social media stories such as twitter in the news ( CNN /Oprah /Kutcher)
• discuss social media as an opportunity to earn money!Click Here!
• explore some social media sites (twitter/skype/facebook)  together and language used regarding the different activities.
• open a social media account with your client to familiarize them with the current lingo
• discuss how new words enter English language with the new technology. Example: Google is now a verb! Google it or google me for more information about my background.

Common Craft produces short explanatory videos that are focused on making complex ideas easy to understand. Here is a video that talks about social media in general.

The video below  explains Twitter.

Here is a  free social media worksheet.  I personally hate downloading something without seeing if it is really useful to me. So in order to make it as pleasant for you as possible, I have  embedded into my site.  After reviewing the document, if you like it, feel free to download it here. Download your coachENG file

Talking about Social Media in English - Get more Business Documents
If you have used this lesson plan with a student , or have one of your own please  we’d love to hear back from you.

Comics  are a wonderful source of authentic input for language learning at any level. You can use  comic strips as a lead in to theme based topic, to practice reading between the lines, to discuss cultural humour, review vocabulary and more.  Here are 8 ideas for implementation with your business English client or small groups of learners. Learn  how to make a talking comic strip here!

Ideas for one-one English language coaching

1. Travel Down Comic Strip lane: Trigger your client’s memory and ask them about their favorite childhood comic strips.

2. Comic Convince: Set up a situation for a persuasive argument. Have your client convince you of the benefits of reading comics .

3. Comic Culture: Discuss the different types of comics and what they convey. Point out the humour, cultural issues, politics etc.

4. Comic Critics: Analyse a strip for the content. Discuss vocabulary used and choice of graphics, expressions. Discuss which comics could be used as graphics in a presentation, in brainstorming sessions for for lead in to  a topic . Make this relevant to their place of work.

5. Comic Comprehension:  Have your client read strips related to current events, business, politics  for  a whole week. If possible have them bring the strips they read to your next session.  Discuss the issues raised in the strips in the following session.

Ideas for using comics with small groups.

6. Comic Combinations: This is an engaging activity that can be done in small groups.

1. Print out several different comic strips by the same author. For example 4 different Charlie Brown comic strips.

2. Photocopy the strip

3. Cut the strips up into boxes and put them into envelopes for each group.

4. Have the groups put them back together.

5. Discuss the strategies they used

6. Discuss the main idea of each strip

7. Review vocabulary

7. Comic Comments

1. Photocopy an original comic strip.

2. White out the dialogue in one of the balloons in each strip.

3. Photocopy the new version of the comic and make copies groups of students. Enlarge if possible so that groups can work together on one copy.

3. Have students work in groups and recreate the dialogue.

4. Compare the new dialogues within the groups and with the original.

Here are resources to Online comic strips

• Gocomics.com
• Comics.com
• Garfield
• Charlie Brown

8. Comic Creation: Have students create their own comic strips using these online comic strip creators below. Students can print and bring to class. Or if you have a blog or MOODLE course you can include links or embed your students creations into the Moodle course for everyone to see. Do you need your own website to host a moodle Course? Click here for information on how to get your own website and domain.

Online Comic Strip Creators

• Bitstrips: You can use ready made characters or create your own and place them in the strip and embed into your own website. Fun and easy to use.
• Toondoo: Toondoo has many different features for creation of strips in terms of characters and backdrops. You can also create a flipbook of your comic strip as I have here.
• Pixton : Pixton comic strip creator has created a private learning environment for schools.

Here is a comic strip I created on toondoo. Scroll down to read it.

MOODLE ? What is a Moodle?

 Moodle is actually an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment but ‘Moodle is a course management system (CMS) - a free, Open Source software package designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities’ It is distributed under the GNU General Public License . Moodle can also be called a ‘Virtual Learning Environment’ (VLE) or ‘Learning Platform’. It provides a range of functionality covering content creation and delivery, communication and collaboration and management, including tracking and assessment tools.

• Assignments - for managing homework including the ability for pupils to download/upload homework and for teachers to mark it online

• Resource links - to webpages and files to help teachers/coaches build topics or courses or units of work

• Messaging, Forums and chat for interactive discussion of ideas and concepts

• Quizzes and choices

• Questionnaire

• Wikis

• Content - commercial content can be uploaded  (SCORM packages)

• Calendars

• Comprehensive monitoring of all activity        

If you are a language coach you need a moodle site because:  

• You will look super professional with your branded Moodle site.

• You can provide your clients with opportunities for self-evaluation.

• You can upload materials and link to resources for your clients in your own private space

• You can save your clients work and provide valuable feedback.

• You can create your very own learning community

• You can create moodle courses for global learners and charge a subscription fee

• You can add audio of your voice or other MP3 materials.

Click here to see our CoachENG moodle site.

Language coaches can sign in as guests to the sample course to get an inside look at a course design.