Sunday 25 January 2009

Downloading videos from YouTube

I read in this post about an easy way of downloading videos from YouTube. It allows two formats: flv (Flash Video), and mp4 when that second option is possible.

Thursday 15 January 2009

Fact Monster encyclopedia

Fact Monster site displays a set of resources to look up for information and facts: atlas, dictionary, encyclopedia...

How to say 'espinillera' in English


Spanish: espinillera
Basque: zango-babes, berna-babes
English: Shin guard

Wednesday 14 January 2009

Science in English

The website of CEIP ÁNGEL FRIGOLA school contains a set of units which integrate the English and Science curricula. They are aimed at Primary Year 3 students but can be useful at other levels in schools implementing CLIL approaches for the teaching of English.

Tuesday 13 January 2009

Karaoke

These are some links to resources related to karaoke materials or teaching ideas:


VanBasco Karaoke Player is free software to play MIDI Karaoke files. Lyrics can be displayed in full-screen. It allows to modify the tempo, volume and key of a song. It requires program installation on the computer.

Karaoke Party allows users to record their performance while reading the lyrics. Access to the computer mike is requested. More information.

The British Council site for English learning resources includes many songs accompanied by pictures, useful for sing-along activities. LearnEnglishKids Songs. Some guidelines and teaching suggestions are given in this handout.

This text gives 10 reasons why to use karaoke in the EFL classroom.

Furthermore, many videos with songs and lyrics can be found on the Internet. Thse are several examples:

A Whole New World (from Aladdin film)

Beauty and the Beast (just lyrics and tune)

All My Loving (Beatles, lyrics and tune)

Rainbow Song

Thursday 8 January 2009

Bilingual Education Platform

Bilingual Education Platform is a social network devoted to the teaching of English with a special focus on CLIL approaches. These are the discussion groups created so far:
- Intercultural Competence
- CLIL & Bilingual Education - Theory & General Issues
- Building CLIL Material: Ideas & Resources
- American & European approach to BE
- CLIL Lesson Planning: SDAIE & AL
- CLIL in Travel & Tourism Education
- Educación Bilingüe en Andalucía
- Teachers' Needs in Language Development
- Curriculum Integrado
- Raising Bilingual Children
- Synthetic Phonics & CLIL