Video sites for learning English

There’s never been a better time to learn English. You can connect with other learners on community sites like English Club and Livemocha, and there’s so much good video content around. I’m a big fan of sites like English Central, and englishyappr which have stacks of entertaining videos that are bound to motivate. And then there’s the glorious TED site with riveting talks by international experts.

Now there’s something interesting about TED talks that my students often don’t know about. Many have interactive scripts, so if you click on the transcript button, you can control the videos. It’s a powerful tool for a language learners because it lets them jump forward and back and choose what sections they want to hear again.

It recently became possible to do a similar thing with youtube videos if they have captions, but it’s a bit of a fiddle there. I prefer the elegant TED layout better and for a good while I’ve hankered after having such a tool for videos I make or use.

Well, guess what! After a good deal of trial and error, we’ve worked out how to do it! So watch this space for news of my latest project. We’ve been building a cool new website for learners with engaging videos, opportunities to connect and yes, clickable transcripts!

Does it sound appealing? And what video sites do you and your students enjoy?