The Seven Best Video Websites for Students

seven-best-video-websites-for-students

 

As part of the launch of the website I’m organising a prize draw for my new book Film in Action. Everybody who subscribes to the website in the months of February and March will be entered into the draw.
The Internet now offers students the opportunity to improve their lexical, listening and speaking skills through watching short film clips, videos and short films. Here are my seven favourite sites.
English Central
Possibly the best website for students to improve their vocabulary, listening, speaking and pronunciation. This innovative site provides students with videos with subtitles. The students watch the videos, practise vocabulary used in the video, record themselves repeating what they hear, and then get feedback on their pronunciation. There is both a free and premium version. This video trailer shows you how your students can use English Central.

 

 

English Attack 
A  aimed specifically at young students which uses clips from movies and TV series; music videos, themed visual glossaries; learning games and social networking to help language learners improve their English.
english-attack-kieran-donaghy
Learn English Teens Film UK 
A British Council website which gives students the opportunity to watch innovative short films made by young people, and do a variety of activities designed around the films.
learn-english-teens
 
Go Animate
Students have great fun creating their own animated short films with subtitles and voice-overs. Go Animate’s state-of-the-art animation tools simplify the whole filmmaking process. Students can add a character, swap a background, or start a scene just by dragging and dropping.
go-animate-kieran-donaghy-elt
 
Zimmer Twins 
The Zimmer Twins (psychics Eva and Edgar, along with their black cat 13) is a site devoted to creative storytelling where children to create and share their own animated stories. Learners create short animated clips, add subtitles and voice-overs. Watch this short video to find out how you can use Zimmer Twins with your students.

Bombay TV 
Bombay TV is a fun site which allows students to selct clips from old Bollywood TV series and films, and add their own subtitles and voice-overs to television and film clips. Students can also add their own voices over the videos to practise speaking.
bombay-tv-kieran-donaghy
 
Clip Flair
A site where learners can revoice (dub, do a voice over, do an audio description, respeaking, audio description,  commentate, sing and recite) and caption (add subtitles, , annotations, speech bubbles and comments) video clips. This one-minute videos shows you the Clip Flair basics.

I hope you find these sites useful. Do you recommend any other video websites to your students?

 

photo credit: O for Old via photopin (license)

24 comments on “The Seven Best Video Websites for Students

  1. Maria Rushton says:

    Already bought the book. The thing I like the most is that there are links to videos to suit the lesson plans, but if you are not too stretched time wise you can source your own clip to use with the plans.

    1. Kieran Donaghy says:

      Hi Maria,
      Thanks for commenting. I’m very happy you find the book useful.
      All the best,
      Kieran

  2. Thanks for sharing these useful sites.

    1. Kieran Donaghy says:

      A pleasure, Maria.

  3. Nice list but you missed ‘Wow English TV’ on YouTube from Wattsenglish Ltd 🙂

    1. Kieran Donaghy says:

      Thanks for the recommendation.

  4. I’ve used your Film English site a lot for teaching ESL classes. And I’ve always meant to say “Thanks”. Your work has made a difference! Thank you!

    1. Kieran Donaghy says:

      Hi Achama,
      You’re very welcome. Thanks very much for commenting and for your kind words.
      All the best,
      Kieran

  5. Excellent! very useful resources. Thank you for sharing!

    1. Kieran Donaghy says:

      Hi Virginia,
      Thanks very much for commenting and for your kind words.
      All the best,
      Kieran

  6. Hello.I’m a teacher of English from Tunisia,your books seem to be interesting,unfortunately,I’m unable to purchase them because we have no access to foreign currency.can you be of any help.Thank you.

    1. Kieran Donaghy says:

      Hi Afifa,
      I’m sorry but I don’t know how you can get a copy of the book in Tunisia.
      All the best,
      Kieran

  7. Cristina Cabal says:

    Great selection! Thanks!

    1. Kieran Donaghy says:

      A pleasure, Cristina 🙂

  8. Hi Kieran,

    Just to let you know that we’ve shortlisted this blog post for this month’s TeachingEnglish blog award and I’ll be putting up a post about it on today’s TeachingEnglish Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/TeachingEnglish.BritishCouncil, if you’d like to check there for likes and comments.

    Best,
    Ann

    1. Kieran Donaghy says:

      Hi Ann,

      Thanks for letting me know.

      All the best,

      Kieran

  9. Hello sir,your work is excellent,very useful for all learners.I couldn’t purchase your book so it would be better if you share here few lesson plans and activities.Thanks for your posting

    1. Kieran Donaghy says:

      Hi Manjusha,
      Thanks very much for the kind comments which I really appreciate. There won’t be any lesson plans here. You can find my lesson plans at Film English http://film-english.com/
      All the best,
      Kieran

  10. juliana brignole says:

    Great selection!!! I would like to get your book in Argentina . Is it available anywhere? thanks ! Juliana Brignole
    Bahía Blanca Argentina

    1. Kieran Donaghy says:

      Hi Juliana,
      I’m happy you like the selection. You cn buy the book through Amazon, here’s a link:

      http://www.amazon.com/Film-Action-Teaching-Language-Development/dp/1909783072/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455044882&sr=8-1&keywords=film+in+action

      All the best,

      Kieran

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