Narrow Listening - Dutch

This is for Dutch Learners

An alternative to Vocabulary Lists

What is Narrow Listening?

Narrow listening is listening to lots of material based on the same subject. An example will be watching 10 videos on the weather.

Why?

Listen to lots of material on the same subject will mean lots of repetition of vocabulary. This makes it easier to guess the meaning of words. Also you get to hear the words in context.

How?

Google translate can give you the basic words you need to do a search. I do my searches on Youtube.

For Best Results.

Watch videos on things that really interest you. Also, if you know the subject well in your own language, then it will make it easier to learn in another language. Remember fun (interest) makes you learn faster.

It was much harder finding groups of similar videos in Dutch than it was in English. Anyway, below are a few examples.


Some Examples

Veggiebende is a channel on vegetables. There are several videoes on the life of a plant. I find these very easy to understand. There are 26 videos on the Channel but some videos are not in Dutch - best to skip these.

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RatatouilleTV have 100s of videos online. They have lots on Amsterdam.

Amsterdam Museum

Bruyters is a channel that have makeup demostrations and videos related to Miss Belgium. I've only seen one video in this servies.

http://youtu.be/M2JXXD1sOAo

Other Ideas

To see similar videos - use the suggestions column on the righthand side.

Weather Forecasts

Police stuff and bicycles

Narrow Listening - English

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This is for English Learners

An alternative to Vocabulary Lists

What is Narrow Listening?

Narrow listening is listening to lots of material based on the same subject. An example will be watching 10 videos on the weather.

Why?

Listen to lots of material on the same subject will mean lots of repetition of vocabulary. This makes it easier to guess the meaning of words. Also you get to hear the words in context.

How?

Google translate can give you the basic words you need to do a search. I do my searches on Youtube.

For Best Results.

Watch videos on things that really interest you. Also, if you know the subject well in your own language, then it will make it easier to learn in another language. Remember that fun and interesting stuff makes you learn faster.

Some Examples

Snapfactory Channel on Youtube.

They have a photography channel with 172 videos. They look at different aspects of photography from a photography shooting session to how to use a light meter.

Photography Video

TotalBeautyTV

This Channel is dedicated to makeup and doing your hair. They have 111 videos. Women will probably get more from this as many women use makeup on a daily bases.

Makeup Experts

DIY

This Channel is also dedicated to beauty but uses natural ingredients. They have a 158 videos.

Makeup the natural way

Scotty Kilmer

This Channel is about maintaining and fixing your car. If you’re a mechanic or really interested in cars then this is a channel for you. There are 122 videos in the channel.

Fixing your Car

Other ideas.

With these videos, you can use the ‘suggestions’ on the righthand side of the screen, to see more videos.

UK weather

UK Weather forecast


US weather

USA weather forecast

News earthquakes

News link on Earthquakes

How to play American Football

Learn how to play American Football

How to get a girlfriend

How to get a girlfriend if you're a nerd

Other articles for English Resources

Lingq English Reading Material

Easy English Videos - Watch and Learn

English Reading on Youtube

Videos to watch to help you with English

This is for English Learners

Why watch ‘how to’ videos?

• These videos are relatively easy to understand from just watching.
• It’s real English! This is for English speakers and it’s how they speak.
• There are ‘how to’ videos for most subjects. Pick something you like and you know well and this will make the ‘videos’ even easier.
• ‘How to’ videos can be quite active. If you follow the actions, you’ll learn better.
• Helps you get more use to English

Don’t worry

• You don’t need to know every word.
• You more you watch English TV, especially kids TV, ‘how to’ and stuff that you are interested in, the easier the English is to understand.

When choosing ‘how to’ to watch. Choose ones that you enjoy! If you don’t like ‘how to do a sport’ type of video, DON’T WATCH IT.


Here are some examples





Diethealth is a Youtube channel aimed at women who want to get thinner and improve their health. The videos I’ve seen are American English. Some are good, like the ones above where the language is everyday stuff, there are a few videos that have more ‘technical English’.



This is a video from expertvillage. They have an incredible 138,597 videos online. I guess that they cover all sorts of topics. They also have many videos related to health and diet.



This is from Howcast. They have lots of videos too. The language is fun, easy to follow and it’s something that most adults are familiar with.

Get More Out of Foreign (English) Language TV

Watch TV and learn a foreign language! Sounds good, sounds too good to be true and at the moment it is for most people.

The trouble with most TV is that it’s too difficult to understand so people stop watching. One thing that has worked for me is watching a lot of kids TV in Dutch. I’ve certainly learned a lot of language this way and I’m much more comfortable with Dutch now. The great thing about kids TV is that it’s easy to follow. Unfortunately, many adults don’t like kids TV. Another alternative is to lookup ‘How to’ videos on Youtube.

‘How to’ are good because the subject is restricted, they're usually laid out in steps and there’s some repetition in the language used.

Here is a video for English learners.

‘How to make the perfect cup of tea’

It’s American English and aimed at women who are on a diet. So the language is step by step, on the subject of tea and it’s about health.





1st listening

• How many people do you see in the film?
• What are the two main types of tea?

2nd listening

• What’s the name of the woman who makes the tea?
• First step – do you have to use cold aerated water?
• Which tea (black or green) do you use a kettle to boil the water?
• Do you need to wring out a tea bag?

If you’re really good try these questions – take as many listenings as you like.

• 0:00- 0:15 – woman has started to drink tea this winter. What three reasons does she give?
• What would the ‘tea police’ check, if they came to your house?
• Do green and black tea come from the same bush?
• Can you re-use water in a kettle?
• When the kettle whistles, you need to get to the kettle quickly. Why?
• How is the tea bag protected?
• 3:45 – 3:55 – Why does the woman put a saucer (plate) over the tea cup? 3 reasons.
• How long do you steep: Green Tea
o Black Tea
• What can you use to boil green tea?
• Why don’t you wring out a tea bag?

Easy to Understand Video

Here are two easy to understand videos for language learners. One is for Dutch learners and the other is for English Learners.

Easy to understand video are a great language learning tool, unfortunately, there aren’t that many around. This surprises me because they’re easy to make.
What should ‘Easy to Understand’ Videos be?

• Easy to understand – i.e. talking about what’s around them, what they are doing or telling an easy to follow story.
• Spoken language (real language)
• Only use one language (no translations)

For the learner. Easy to understand, means that you follow what the person says, not that you understand every single word.

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This video is easy to understand because I'm talking about things that you can see and I act out actions I'm talking about

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This video is easy to understand because we can see the context - a market seller doing a performance to sell peelers. He talks about his actions and at the end he talks about what a great offer this is. He also jokes. I don't understand every word but I do understand the general meaning.

Fun Resources for English Learners

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Bored of text books, grammar and the classroom? And yet still want to learn English?

Don't worry! Instead of studying, you can learn better by using games and fun websites.

Lyrics Training

Lyrics Training is fantastic for people who love music! And who doesn't love music!
Also, it'll introduce you to a lot of songs in another language. Most songs are in English but there are six other languages too, including Spanish, Italian and also Germany, which is good for me.

How it works (very easy to use)

• You choose the song you want to play.
• Game option – beginner, intermediate or expert.
• Play and write in the missing word.
• To repeat, use backspace.

Go on, give it a go! It's very addictive! (you'll play again and again)

Ello (Home Page)

This site has lots and lots of English listening material. There are different activities to do and games too. Give it a go! Listening a lot is very important to being about to speak better.

Listening Games

English Yabla

Watch TV and play games. This is not what your English teacher told you but this is excellent. I've used the German version and it's fun (only the free part).

• There are different levels; one star - very easy, five stars – difficult
• Some of the easy videos you can understand by watching and guessing
• There are captions in English and your languages (only for German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish at the moment)
• You can play listening games to help your listening and writing.


Go on, have fun with learning English or whatever language you want. You'll get better results learning this way then by using materials that don't interest you.

Grammar - video and script.

I decided to post the video again, even though it was in yesterday's post, which explains why I'm telling the story in this way. The script is below the video.



The Transcript

Hi, it’s teacher Chris and today we have a short story that will help you understand tenses better. Let’s start.

(the story)

Sam went to Vietnam last year. Did Sam go to Vietnam two years ago? …………….. No, he didn’t. He didn’t go to Vietnam two years ago. He went to Vietnam last year. Who went to Vietnam? ……………. Sam, Sam went to Vietnam. When did he go? ………………. Last year. He went to Vietnam last year. He went to the mountains to go hiking. Where did he go in Vietnam? …………… He went to the mountains. He went to the mountains to go hiking. What did he do in the mountains? ………... Hiking. He hiked in the mountains. He went hiking because he loves it.

Did he go shopping in the mountains? ………………. No, no, he didn’t go… no, he didn’t. He didn’t go shopping in the mountains. He went hiking in the mountains. He went hiking because he loves it. Does he love hiking? …………… Yes, he does. He loves to go hiking, especially in the mountains. He loves the scenery and (the) fresh air you get when you go hiking. Does he love the scenery or the fresh air when he goes hiking? …………………… Mmm, he loves both. He loves the scenery and the fresh air. In Vietnam he felt the mountain scenery was very special. Did he feel the mountain scenery was boring? ………………………… No, no, he didn’t. He didn’t feel the mountain scenery was boring. He felt it was very special. Did he feel it was strange or very special? …………………… He felt it was very special.

What did he feel was very special? ………………… He felt that the mountain scenery was very special. Where was the mountain scenery very special? …………….. In Vietnam. The mountain scenery was very special in Vietnam.

Sam loves hiking so much he said that if he had gone to China last year, he would’ve gone hiking there too. Did Sam go to China last year? …………………….. No, he didn’t. He didn’t go to China last year. But if he had gone, he would’ve gone hiking. Would he had gone sailing in China? ………………………… No, no, he wouldn’t had gone sailing in China. He would’ve gone hiking. If he had gone to China, he would’ve gone hiking. Why would have he gone hiking? …………………….. Because he loves hiking. So, if he had gone to China, he would’ve gone hiking. But did he go to China last year? No, he didn’t. He didn’t go to China last year. He went to Vietnam.

End of Story

English Grammar - a different approach to learning

I made this video last year and it uses an interesting approach to teaching grammar.

It doesn't concentrate on the mechanics of grammar but rather shows you the structure of the language through repeated use.

I read a short story and I constantly ask questions. You should answer the question. After a short pause, I also answer the question, so within the story, you get all the common grammar structures;

Sam went to Vietnam last year. positive structure
Did Sam go to China last year? question structure
No, he didn't. He didn't go to China last year. negative structure

The 'past tense' is the main focus of the video.



I hope you find the video useful. I personally think it's a great alternative to traditional methods of teaching grammar. In my view, people who learn languages ultimately want to communicate well in that language. I believe this approach is more helpful than the book approach.

I will provide a script for the video tomorrow.

English Video - In the Garden

I made this video last year, when I was living in Taiwan.

I describe what you can see or hear in the video. I use spoken rather than book English. The script is also provided as well as some questions to encourage you to listen again to the video.



Exercises for “In the Garden Part One”

1st Listening

What floor do I live on?
What ‘word’ do Americans use for garden?

2nd Listening

There’s a little bit of noise on video. Where does it come from?
Which one’s bigger, a flowerbed or a flowerpot?
What’s wrong with some of the coffee trees?
How many anti-mosquitoes plants are there in the garden?
‘Anti’ in English means against. ‘Anti-mosquitoes’ plants – Are they good or bad for mosquitoes?

In the Garden Part One – The script.

Hi everyone, welcome to the garden, you’ll have to excuse the noise because we’re outside and there’s cars in the street below. Um, I’m lucky enough to live on one, two, three, four, on the fifth floor and lucky enough to have this garden. American would say yard, ok, in this yard, or garden, we’ve got a flowerbed, over here, we’ve got some plants and some weeds.

Hello, eh, over here in the yard, we’ve got some flowerpots, and …. Not very successful here, we’ve got some dead plants. These are dead coffee trees. These are live coffee trees. Ah, we’ve got this plant, this is a, it’s supposed to be an anti-mosquito plant, it’s a kind of pepper. And this is anti-mosquito as well and over here, we’ve got some chili plants. Can you see? This is a chili, and a little rose tree here. So, we don’t only have flowerbeds, but we’ve got flowerpots as well.