In support of parallel texts

Published on by mlapworth1 Comment

Plenty has been written about the benefits for motivated language learners of using parallel texts to help learn a language. (Do a quick google search and you’ll see.)

Much of what is written in support of parallel texts is along the following lines:

  • They allow users to access texts beyond their level.
    Readers can read an L2 text and have constant recourse to an L1 equivalent so that they can check that they are understanding what they are reading.
  • They allow users to directly compare the L1 and the L2, which helps promote ‘noticing’.
    The ability to compare the way vocab and structures are formed and combined in the L2 with reference to the L1 equivalent promotes this noticing of differences which may not happen if students only had access to the L2 text.

Parallel texts can indeed be a powerful tool, if used by motivated language learners who really are using the time with the texts to understand how the Continue reading “In support of parallel texts” →

TeachVid teacher? Why subscribe?

Published on by mlapworth4 Comments

TeachVid users, whether unregistered or registered, can take advantage of the many aspects of TeachVid that are available via the FREE tier, as explained in this blogpost: Is TeachVid FREE?

That seems like TONS of stuff already, I know! So if you are a teacher currently using TeachVid for free, why should you subscribe?

Well, this blogpost talks you through the many advantages and additional features that are unlocked for teachers via a subscription. In no particular order…

Continue reading “TeachVid teacher? Why subscribe?” →

Share from TeachVid to Google Classroom

Published on by mlapworthLeave a comment

We’ve added various Google Classroom share buttons to TeachVid. These allow you to share links directly with your Google Classroom.

You can share…

  1. From your TeachVid Classroom:
Share to Google Classroom from a TeachVid classroom

2. From any TeachVid resource page:

Share to Google Classroom from a TeachVid resource

3. From a temporary LIVE Session:

Share to Google Classroom from a TeachVid temporary LIVE Session

We hope you’ll find this extra time-saving step a useful addition to TeachVid 🙂

Some FREE Covid-related resources in French & Spanish

Published on by mlapworthLeave a comment

This is a short post featuring a handful of free “featured” resources on TeachVid (i.e. freely accessible by all) whose topic relates to the Coronavirus / Covid-19.

There is a quite a range of levels represented here, ranging from beginner to advanced.

Continue reading “Some FREE Covid-related resources in French & Spanish” →

Creating video content with TeachVid in mind…

Published on by mlapworthLeave a comment

This post is aimed at those who may be considering creating TeachVid content based on their own YouTube videos, and it is divided into 2 sections: first, some general principles for producing content that we feel will work best on TeachVid; then, some simple low-tech ideas for the sorts of videos that will work great on TeachVid.

1) What sort of video content works best on TeachVid?

TeachVid is not really about extensive listening. Nor is it primarily about comprehension questions (although that is one of the many activity options available).

Primarily, TeachVid resources are aimed at getting students to engage with the video transcript via a range of interactive text-reconstruction activities, with each activity broken down into several mini-tasks directly linked to the video sections / captions.

(For more about this for those not particularly familiar with TeachVid, see: the methodology page on TeachVid | this “Learn Mode” blog post | this “Activity Mode” blog post | this parallel texts blog post)

Bearing in mind all of the above, the following are some general principles which we feel will help you to produce the sort of content that works best with TeachVid’s interactive activity tools:

Continue reading “Creating video content with TeachVid in mind…” →

TeachVid LIVE sessions extended :)

Published on by mlapworthLeave a comment

One way that all of our FREE registered users can make use of TeachVid is by setting Temporary LIVE Sessions based on “featured” resources (those marked with a gold star in the resource search), or based on their own created resources

What is a Temporary LIVE Session?

A Temporary LIVE Session is a real-time scoreboard competition based on a TeachVid resource. Students score points on the scoreboard by completing activities, with each correct interaction worth 100 points.

Continue reading “TeachVid LIVE sessions extended :)” →

Is TeachVid FREE?

Published on by mlapworthLeave a comment

This is a question that gets asked quite a lot on social media, and the simple answer is: well, yes, and no…

This post looks at what you can do for FREE on TeachVid.


1) FREE, but without registering

Anybody can go to the TeachVid site and do the following, without even registering or logging in:

• Public resources
Browse and search through the many publicly available TeachVid resources via the resources page, using the selectors available to search by video language, translation, category, level, etc. (No advanced search though: this is available to subscribers only.)
See the TeachVid resources page

Search public resources using selectors
Continue reading “Is TeachVid FREE?” →

Duplicating and re-assigning classroom assignments

Published on by mlapworthLeave a comment

Several teacher subscribers asked us if we could add a new feature: the ability to duplicate existing classroom assignments and re-assign to the same classroom or assign to other classrooms. So we did that 🙂

This means that you can easily assign the same assignment to all of your classes, without having to go through the process of selecting resources, selecting activities, setting activity parameters etc.

Simply click on the new “Duplicate assignment” button (see below)…

Continue reading “Duplicating and re-assigning classroom assignments” →

A Festive Selection of Spanish Resources from TeachVid

Published on by mlapworthLeave a comment

This post features a small selection of 🎅 Christmas themed TeachVid resources in 🇪🇸 Spanish.

Some of them are “featured” resources, which are identified on the resource page and in the resource search with a gold star. “Featured” means that anybody can access the following, even without registering:

  • Learn Mode (i.e the interactive video player)
  • Activity Mode (i.e. the many interactive activities)
  • The PDF printables
Continue reading “A Festive Selection of Spanish Resources from TeachVid” →

Clipchat / Movietalk summaries with TeachVid

Published on by mlapworthLeave a comment

Clipchat, or Movietalk (as it is often called, apparently incorrectly), is a technique used by teachers who embrace a comprehensible input approach to language acquisition, whereby they provide students with tons of comprehensible input by asking questions and talking about stills or short sections from a short video.

The short videos used often have no dialogue, which means that they can be used to teach any language, and that the level of the “chat” can be adapted to suit the level of the students in your class.

Good sources of Clipchat videos include Birdbox Studio, and the wonderful Simon’s Cat.

Continue reading “Clipchat / Movietalk summaries with TeachVid” →