Category: subtitles

I once more had the pleasure of presenting at Language World, the annual conference of Association for Language Learning (ALL).
My presentation was entitled Take One Book and was the sequel to the presentation I did at PHOrum in November (you can read about it here) this time choosing a book that was originally written in Italian and has no English translation.

I really enjoyed sharing my ideas of how to use ¡Ojo Oso! and was pleasantly surprised that I managed to finish in time and have time for questions. I experimented with using subtitles/captions during my presentation after comments by Helen Simpson on LiPS made me think about accessibility. I need to watch back the recording of my session (which has just been made available for those who registered for the conference but missed the session) to see exactly how accurate they were but I know that when I spoke Spanish they definitely had trouble as they were set to English! For example un agujero became ‘all alcohol’ and una madriguera became ‘mother together.’

Below you can find a PDF of my presentation. I’ve removed the story slides due to copyright but you can find links to versions of the story read online, as well as to where you can purchase a copy.

At the end there is a link to my Pinterest where I collected together materials for the talk, some of which I didn’t use! You can also access it via this QR code.

Perhaps you have ideas that spring to mind? Or you have a book that you could use in a similar way? If you have any comments or questions, do leave a comment below.

Postscript – you can watch the ‘standby/rehearsal’ recording of the session here.

This year at Language World I was invited to present some ideas for using technology for collaboration in language learning. I teach primary so the focus was on that age group but there are many ideas and tools that are equally applicable for young and old! In spite of some technical hitches and running out of time as there was so much to share, the ideas were well received and I hope that this will serve as a reminder/update for those who attended, and a snapshot for those who didn’t.

Below is my presentation. Whilst all the links work, the videos don’t I’m afraid but you’ll find some below to give you a taster.

Inspired by ideas from Jan Lewandowski and Sandra Longden on the CFBT Primary forum for snow related songs, I was reminded of a previous post in which I shared a song about Un muñeco de nieve that I had subtitled using Amara (previously called Universal Subtitles.)

Below is the unsubtitled version – subtitled version is available here (can’t embed it on my WP blog)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gb-KU3awXw

Then there’s this simple song to the tune of Frosty the Snowman – Mi hombre de nieve

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sESUMaLl2o

I particularly like this song too about winter becoming spring – Es invierno

httpv://youtu.be/ACvLQL0WqTk

La letra –

ES INVIERNO Y HACE FRÍO.
EN INVIERNO, NO CALIENTA EL SOL.
ES INVIERNO Y CAE LA LLUVIA
Y EL PAISAJE PIERDE SU COLOR.

EL INVIERNO
EMPIEZA EN DICIEMBRE
EN MARZO SE TIENE QUE IR.
EL SOL CALIENTA,
LAS FLORES YA SALEN.
ES PRIMAVERA POR FIN.

And finally, here’s a simple story about a sad snowman- El Muñeco de Nieve está triste.

httpv://youtu.be/UuhuJJKKBCU

I also wrote a post back in 2008 about using The Snowman by Raymond Briggs using resources from HGFL.

Finally, it reminded me of this post from way back about snow!

Thanks to Pat Sweeney on the Yahoo MFL Resources group for pointing out this group.

If you like Hi5, and you love a bit of 90s “cheese”, you’ll love Nubeluz.

As Pat writes –

“Many of Nubeluz’s songs seem to be innocent good fun and definitely have catchy tunes that make you want to dance and sing along.
However, some “carry a message “. For example “Papi, deja de fumar!”
( Daddy, give up smoking!) or “Cuidado ” ( Be careful!) which warns of being mislead by friends to get involved in things that are not right or good.”

She goes on to pose a question –

“I would be very interested to know what people think of the songs and whether they would deem them suitable for using as teaching aids..and if so..with which groups..how?”

So…here are some ideas for how to use  Yo quiero ser

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm1ZqJel8-c

I think this would fit well with the topics People who help us or Jobs people do that are part of EYFS and KS1. I think that the chorus is the most useful part.

Activities you might do:

• ask learners to identify the jobs they hear in the chorus. They are repeated at the very end so there are 2 chances to catch them. You might provide a tick sheet with pictures for younger learners or the names in Spanish for older ones.
• make a pelmanism game with job images and names in Spanish for matching first then for playing.
• cut the lyrics (chorus) into strips. Ask learners firstly to see if they can match the jobs with the description of what they do. This uses their LLS as they will look for cognates, make connections between the word for the job and words in the description and so on. Then they can check their answers by listening and watching again.
• I might use Amara (was UniversalSubtitles) http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/ to put Spanish subtitles on the video too. (See this example and also this post about how and why)

• I might use other video clip such as Los oficios which features a famous song, or this version with the words.
• This clip Cuando sea grande would be a good step onto using the future tense. Seré dentista/artista etc. I also like the final lines – “Cuando sea grande, haré mil cosas/Porque estoy seguro que podré. Y mientras tanto llega la hora/Solamente niño quiero ser”
• There is a whole unit of work on Udicom on Los oficios. These resources are intended for ‘alumnos de compensatoria’ or learners needing extra help in Spain so many are very simple exercises on copywriting, phonics, matching and writing words and short phrases. I particularly like the phonics sections and the use of little rhymes too.
• This interactive site is useful for learning the names of jobs by hovering over the people, and clicking to see/hear a short sentence about what they do. Further forward (click on arrow bottom right) it talks about “profesiones” – professions as opposed to “oficios” – jobs.
• Here’s a free poster that you can download – I believe you need to purchase the other posters tagged Los oficios but you can look at them for ideas!
• I also found this blog with an image and short descriptions for 6 jobs/professions.
• And this is a wonderful site with lots of ideas and materials for a wide age range. There are a number of stories at a variety of levels (primary and secondary) as well as comics and ‘information books’, all presented online. As this resource is aimed at social studies for Spanish learners, so you need to bear that in mind e.g. Look at the complexity of language rather than going by the age indicated. I looked at a few stories – Alejandro el canguro pintor (basic) is a lovely tale about a kangaroo that draws all the time, and Maria auxiliar de ayuda a domicilio is more complex and a home help who makes Grandma’s life better. There’s a teachers guide that includes ideas and some activity sheets. Well worth an explore if you’re looking to work cross curricularly at primary or secondary level!

So, Pat. Does that answer your question? 🙂

Perhaps this one will prove more useful at the moment!

A very catchy Christmas carol about the Wise Men arriving at the stable in Bethlehem.

Click the image to access the song with subtitles, or go here for the lyrics.

A bit late for Halloween this year but ready for next… another subtitled song!

Click the picture to go to the video.

Last one – for now anyway!

A Colombian Old MacDonald called Tío Ramón.

You know the drill – click the picture and it’ll take you to the song!

And thank to 123SpanishTogether for the wonderful songs!

Another subtitled video – for those of you still hanging on to Autumn!

Hojas, hojas, again from 123SpanishTogether, is a lovely simple song about falling leaves and colours.

Click the photo and it’ll take you to the subtitled video.

I’ve just had a go at sub titling one of my favourite Spanish kiddies song – La Vaca Lola.

What do you think?

I used a tool called Universal Subtitles that allows you to subtitle videos in a variety of formats.  Looks rather interesting – and useful!

I can’t seem to make it embed in WordPress so here’s the link!

30 minutes later – I’ve done another one – here’s Juguemos en el bosque.