YouTube

As a relevant part of language learning

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YouTube is an online platform that provides users with the opportunity to upload and watch all sorts of videos. This website can be a powerful tool to learn a second language since it lets students learn at their own pace, with the type of content they like and from real day to day English. The versatility of this media is enormous, learners can choose from a variety of content. On one hand, they can watch entertaining videos in their language of interest and acquire knowledge from a natural approach at the same time of having fun. On the other hand, they can access several channels focused on language learning, so they can have a more pedagogical and structured learning experience.

Furthermore, learning through videos can be beneficial for EFL since it promotes autonomy through a student centered learning. Finally, YouTube is an international platform, so it promotes not only diversity but also cross-cultural knowledge. In other words, students can learn English from different people all over the world, this means that learners get to see other cultures, realities, perspectives, and pronunciation at the same time as learning a language.

Using it to foster language learning 

YouTube can be a handy tool that can foster the development of the listening skills. The first idea to consider is that YouTube is a worldwide platform which possesses over 2.6 billion users who upload videos every day, thus students have the chance to expose themselves to different English accents around the world. e.g., British and U.S. accent. Following this idea, students can search for different types of videos that meet their interests by the use of hashtags and filters such as length, language, or country which can be applied at the moment of searching a video.

Another way in which this technology can enhance listening skills is the YouTube interface. This interface brings students the possibility to slow down, stop or even rewind the videos to grasp a true understanding of the words that have been said throughout the video. In other words, the video can be adapted for the students´ needs in order to attend the listening levels the student possess.

Also, it must be noted that YouTube provides “YouTube Studio”, a tool which can be helpful at the moment of creating both educational and entertaining videos that can improve student's attention in the classroom as well as their English listening skill level.

Limitiations when using this technology with the purposes of language learning 

What needs to be considered when using YouTube as a resource for listening development…. As we’ve been discussing earlier, YouTube is a fantastic resource to enhance listening skills in students. However, this website also has some disadvantages that need to be considered before implementing it into classrooms.

First of all, not all videos have captions (subtitles) available. This can be a huge problem if we need to incorporate a phenomenal video about a documentary or an interview on a street that uses great and natural language. Thus, using the auto-generated captions is not always the best solution due to the inaccuracy of words generated. Perhaps a solution to this might be to transcript the entire video and then upload it into YouTube for students, but it can take some time as teachers, so that needs to be thoroughly planned.

Secondly, and most importantly, YouTube offers a wide variety of videos about podcasts, conversations, instructions, and even show casts that are in English. But then we ask: Why is that a negative thing? The main reason is that most of those videos use natural language, meaning that people there speak naturally, without a transcript behind, with their own accents, making it difficult for students of all level of English who are not used to listen to real-life English.

If listening activities have always been made by using book audios, then students might struggle to understand what native speakers are saying. A possible solution to this issue might be the use of real English from the very beginning of the student's English development

Here you have a video on how to listen better 

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