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EDGAR & EVA, THE ZIMMER TWINS

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It is believed that language lessons can be supported easily with images and animations. Today, with the help of technology in educational settings,  teachers and learners are provided with the opportunity to create animations and comic strips to make  lessons more interactive and interesting. Zimmer Twins, is one of the websites that allows both teachers and students to  engage in language learning. Therefore, get to know this website and use the tool in your classroom!


WHAT IS ZIMMER TWINS?


It is quite similar to a tool that I have introduced before-Dvolver. Zimmer Twins helps you to create an amazing movie maker by using animation. 


HOW TO USE ZIMMER TWINS?

  • This website allows you to create stories or animations based on flash. You can click on the item “Make a movie” on the main menu. Then, you will be directed to the page below where it
     provides several story starters that allow you to create your own movie endings or  create a movie from scratch.
    (Screenshot 1)




    Screenshot 1:  Choose either to make a movie from scratch or make up an ending to an existed story.




    The website focuses on three main characters: Eva and Edgar, the 12-year-old twins, and their adopted black cat named 13. You can create animations using these three characters( Screenshot 2).Zimmer Twins also allows you to piece together clips of the twins interacting and speaking through thought bubbles. You may start your movie with call-outs, actions, emotions and finally with the transitions.



































Screenshot 2: Choose the character(s)

  • Start your animation after choosing the characters and the rest is based on your imagination. For more details,click here to listen to a video tutorial on how to get started with your movie.
  • Watch the video below if you want to know how the Zimmer Twins' characters are produced.









HOW CAN TEACHERS USE ZIMMER TWINS?

Zimmer Twins is suitable for all levels of students especially for young learners. What is so speacial about Zimmer Twins is that it is restricted to certain vocabulary items only for free members. This is an advantage for beginners who have limited knowledge of vocabulary to maximally  use all the easy and simple vocabulary items by contextualising them through animated movie-making. In this way, it will be helpful for the students to use language naturally in suitable contexts.

 There are several other ways that teachers can use Zimmer Twins in classroom. First, teachers can ask students to watch a starter video and predicting the ending of the story by making a video. This activity will be great as students will be able to stimulate their brain and think imaginatively in creating their creative story.

Considering the language learning and teaching activities, the possible use of Zimmer Twins is to focus on grammar practice activities in which learners try to come up with some stories using the newly learnt structures and lexical items. However, teachers should carefully conduct this activity by keeping in mind that language should be used naturally in order for one to acquire language easily. Instead of requiring the students to use a particular grammar structure or vocabulary items(e.g, sports) when writing the dialogue for the movie, teacher could ask the students  to create a story of sports day on their own. This indirectly trigger students who have the background knowledge of sports before to automatically include  the vocabulary items in the dialogue even not all but at least. This is more natural way of using a language as students are not restricted to use any form or lexical items. This in turn, will  also help students to remember and know how to use the words  better in longer term. 

Teachers can also ask students to write dialogues for specific topics such as "my adorable cat" or "my twin". Although the teacher choose the topic for students, they still have freedom to write whatever they want. Another way is that teachers can use Zimmer twins  for students' formative feedback. What can teachers do is asking the students create their own soap opera and add different scenes each week by the same learners or different learners and send them via email. Give them a constructive feedback on how they can improve their stories. Peer feedback may also be done sometimes to sparks a difference in giving feedback to the students. 


ADVANTAGES

  • Autonomous learning-  In one sense, students are becoming more autonomous as they use this tool as they are the one who is going to decide what is the best for their movie.
  • Fun and motivating- Students will enjoy use this tool as it is simple and easy to handle even if it were to be used for young learners. It uses many animation and pictures that helps students to visualise the verb(e.g, angry, yells, surprised and sings) provided in the website. Once the students engage  in the activity, their affective filter will reduced and  thus, ease them for language learning.
  • Sense of ownership- Zimmer twins allows students to personalise their own movie as this site offers loads of actions and expressions that students can choose for their movie. This makes students to think creatively and feel that they are entitled to their own movie.
  • Free lesson plans- This site includes free lesson plans that help you to use Zimmer twins with your students in classroom. However, you may need to sign for a VIP membership if you want to look for more lesson plans suggested in this site.


DISADVANTAGES

  • Unsaved work- It does not save your work unless you sign up an account with Zimmer Twins. 
  • Irreversible- No changes can be made once the movie is saved, which means it could not altered anymore. There is also a limited number of words that can be typed in the bubbles which only allow students to write a short sentence.
  • Time consuming- Using this tool for classroom activity will take up a long time, therefore, teachers should know how to make sure learners will never carried away with those attractive cartoons and animations.
  • Cannot be embedded- the video produced cannot be embedded onto  your blog or other websites which make it a bit difficult everytime you want to watch it directly from your blog.
  • Subscription- Users have to purchase a VIP membership in order to share the completed movies or view other movies. 




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CLICK & LEARN IT!

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"Education is not the filling of a bucket but the lighting of a fire" -William Butler Yeats


 The quotation above is true to some extent that learning solely out of a sense of obligation is less effective than learning for one's self. Nothing is more fulfilling than to help instill a sense of joy in students in their learning process. Therefore, ClicknLearn, which also hold the same principle of education above, may be helpful to make the process of teaching and learning  filled with a lot of joys and fun!


WHAT IS CLICKnLEARN?
ClicknLearn is an interactive website that provides many interesting lessons and exercises for  learners. it is an educational language website developed in Spanish and specially designed to meet the needs of modern language learners.  It is interesting site which provides four different language versions -English, French, Spanish and Valencia. 





 HOW TO USE CLICKnLEARN?
  • Go to the ClicknLearn's homepage. Then, click 'Enter site' and the tool will come out in a Flash version.
  • Then, choose a language that you want.
  • Shoot at menu and then choose your level at the top left of the side.(Screenshot 1)



Screenshot 1: choose your level and topic

  • Choose a topic that you want and start learning!

 HOW CAN TEACHERS USE CLICKnLEARN?
This website accommodates all students' needs as it provides exercises ranges from easy to advanced. Therefore, it can be used for all learners   ranging from beginner to advanced. In general, students will have interest in learning if there are a lot of colours and images included. Taking this advantage on the ClicknLearn's website, it can act as a'catalyst' that trigger students' to learn better. Teacher can use the illustrations in the website to pre-teach the beginner students about new vocabulary items that is used on the road for example. Visual is helpful in such activity as brains capture word better if the words are contextualised through images.  

Teacher can also use this website for what we called as a 'blended' learning, which means the lesson in the classroom is integrated with the use of technology. Here, teachers can use this website as a supplement activity, for instance, teachers may ask students to spend twenty minutes on the site, doing the exercises after introducing a topic such as clothing or aneroxia nervosa in the classroom. 

 Since the exercises in the website are printable, teacher may print them out and give them to students as an extra exercise for them. However, teachers should bear in mind that it is not worth and may be wasteful to give students a lot of exercises to do as they may become demotivated and may even end up not doing it. Therefore, give only a few exercises(two sheets would be good) that you really think are good for their comprehesion. 

Teacher may also use the website as online test. What can teachers do is get the students to do a test on the topic given in the website in the class by taking about one  and half hour for students to complete the test. By doing this, teachers can give summative feedback about the students' performances and evaluate between weaker and smarter students. 


ADVANTAGES
  • Interesting-level of interactivity might be a bit interesting as students need to deal with kinesthetic  learning style (click and learn).
  • Multi-skills- The website includes different exercises that integrate different skills such as problem solving, reading, analysing that helps students to develop these different skills in their learning process.
  • Printable handout- The exercises on this website are printable for teachers as classroom activities or students if they prefer paper rather than on screen exercises.
  • Various topics- this website provides various topics that are categorised asccording to students' level for example, child labour for advanced students.

DISADVANTAGES 
  • Less thinking- Some of the activities in the website rely too much on memorising which eventually impedes the language learning process as students do not really think to find the answers.
  • Instructions- Instructions in this website are mostly in Spanish, thus, it might be quite difficult for other language learners. 
  • Unnecessary sounds- There is a lot of sound included in unnecessary places, such as the starting of the website, and some odd noises added into the games. This may be distracting to some language learners when doing the exercises.
  • No assistance- There is no assistance if the students find it difficult to answer a question and there is no button to go back to the previous page. The absence of such important aids for language learning will eventually degrade such a high potential language teaching-learning website.
  • load of texts- Students may get bores or demotivated with all the texts presence on the website. Not all students prefer to read such an overload of visual texts. There are not many pictures included, taking language learning to the old days of drilling and grammar focused.

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PODCASTING WITH VOCAROO

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Getting students to make an impromptu speech is something that is quite difficult as some may find it nerve-breaking. Thus, give them the opportunity to record their own voice without having their face recorded may be helpful in encouraging students to talk more confidently. This can be done through a podcast tool called  Vocaroo.


What is Vocaroo?

It is a tool that helps you to share voice messages over the interwebs in a quick and easy way. 

How to use Vocaroo?

  • First, you need a microphone. You may use a microphone built on your laptop for recordings if you have it. 
  • Then, go to Vocaroo's webpage, click record and start talking.
  •  After finish recording, you can either choose to publish it or try it again until you satisfied. 
  • You can then click "save" and share your recording with your friends, embed onto your blog or even download it.
How can teachers use Vocaroo?

Vocaroo is suitable for all levels of students from beginner to advanced. Teachers can use Vocaroo to record students speaking while they work to correct speech errors. Other than that, teachers can use this tool to record a student reading and play back to listen for fluency.

Vocaroo can be used in class for speaking activities. What can teachers do is letting students work with a learning partner and ask them to record an interview between them,for instance, one person can be a reporter and another person becomes a minister, talking about the issue of flash flood. The BreakingNewsEnglish's website may give the idea on the issues that are interesting for this activity. 

 Furthermore, teachers can ask students to record a procedure of doing something. An example would be a cooking procedure such as "how to make coleslaw, sandwiches, and scrambled eggs". In this case, selecting a suitable topic is really important as it may encourage students to speak confidently if  they are engaging to the topic chosen.Below is the example how i use vocaroo for a classroom activity.




Vocaroo can also be used for a peer-assessment activity. Teacher can ask students to work in pairs, record their own voice about any interesting topic for example, my favourite idol. Then, let the students exchange their recording with their partner and give a comment and a feedback on their oral discourse.


Advantages

  • Free- Vocaroo is a free service that allows you to create audio recordings without the need to install any software. You don't even have to create an account to use it.
  • Easy- It is a fantastic tool for technophobes as it is very easy to use.
  • Downloadable- Recordings are available for download which allows teachers to store content.

Disadvantages

  • A Microphone is needed- the recording is not successful without a microphone.
  • Time- It only allows for five-minutes recording.
  • Under-development- Vocaroo is still being developed, tested, and tweaked. Therefore, messages may get lost or corrupted. So, avoid using it for anything that is too important. 







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CLOUD THE WORDS

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Reading is one of the ways to improve vocabulary. The more texts that you read the better your vocabulary will be. The tools that I'm going to introduce today will help you to learn vocabulary  found in online text.  The tools are Wordle and Wordsift.


What is Wordle?


Wordle is a tool that creates word clouds. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different colour schemes, layouts and fonts.



Screenshot 1: Wordle's example



How to use Wordle? 

  • You can watch the tutorial video below if you want to know how to use Wordle. 





What is Wordsift?
Wordsift is a tool that allows us to insert text and play with the result. It is a bit similar to Wordle where it clouds the words out of a text, but it can only show up to 50 most used words in the text.


Screenshot 2: Wordsift's example


How to use wordsift?


  • Follow few simple steps shown in the tutorial video below to help you sift the words.





How are they relevant in language learning?

Wordle and Wordsift are convenient to all levels of students, which means they are suitable for students as low as beginner to as high as advanced students.

Teachers can use both tools for pre-reading activity. Based on Aebersold & Field's (1997) model, pre-reading stage should aim at activating students' schemata. Therefore, what can teachers do with Wordle and Wordsift is giving each student a word cloud and get them to guess what the text is all about.  By doing this,  students are likely to remember the vocabulary in the long  term as such activity can raise students' awareness of the text that they are going to read later.

Furthermore, teachers may use Wordsift to introduce vocabulary to students  by involving students into class discussions about the relation between the vocabulary and the words in Visual Thesaurus.Teachers can also use Wordsift by asking students to work in groups to construct sentences in Workspace. Teachers can make it as competition where which the group that comes up with the most sentences will be the winner.

Teachers can also use Wordle and Wordsift to expand students' talent in creative writings. Teacher can make copies of word clouds and give them to students. Ask students to use the word clouds to write an essay, a poem, or a song. This can develop students' creativity  and visual intelligence in writing different genres. Allow them to continue their work at home and send it to you via email once they finished doing it. You can then give them feedback  and embed  their work onto the class blog. This definitely make them feel proud of their own piece of work. You can even do it as competition and make the students vote for the best writing.


Advantages

  • Arrangement- Wordsift helps words to be sorted  from 'Common to Rare' or 'Rare to Common' and 'A to Z' and 'Z to A', which will be helpful for the teachers to introduce vocabulary to students according to such arrangements.
  • Detect words and meanings- Students can check meaning of the words by using the visual thesaurus. The synonym and antonym of the word will also come out.  Wordsift also helps to identify where the word is found in the text, which students can see how the word is used in the text. 
  • Art and brain - Wordle allows you to choose different layout, font and colours which make your words clouds beautiful. By looking at the beautiful Wordle art will help students to learn vocabulary better because brain tends to capture the words better if  they appear in  different colours and shapes and store them in memory.
  • Free- You don't have to sign up an account in order to create your word clouds

Disadvantages
  • Unnecessary words-Wordle  and Wordsift will take out unnecessary words, such as linking words(e.g. after, before,& and). They do not also notice the subtle differences in the same word, thus, treat the word as two separate subject, for example, presentation and presentations (Screenshot 1). You can still remove the words that are not wanted from Wordle in the language setting.
  • Requires Java-  It requires you to download and install plug-in in order for you to cloud the words which make it a bit fussy.
  • Public-Your cloud will go into public view and you cannot make it private.

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O MY BRAINSHARK!

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O Mybrainshark! O Mybrainshark!  It is a solution for those shy students who want to present their work but feel worried that they may make a  mistake!




What is Mybrainshark?
A web tool that enables users to create, store, and share multimedia presentation(powerpoints, videos & photos albums). What makes it different from the usual powerpoint presentation is that you can give your voice to it, which means you can turn it into an audiovisual presentation.
How to use Mybrainshark?
Screenshot 1: Mybrainshark homepage

  • Go to Brainshark homepage, click on "Try it for free" button and you will be directed to the a sign-up page. Then, create your own Brainshark's account.
  • Choose a type of presentation that you want for your presentation:(1) add voice to powerpoint; (2) narrate a document; (3) upload a video; (4) make a photo album and; (5) produce a podcast.
  • You can then start uploading your content. You may add a voice to your content as well, if you wish to. 
  • Finally, embed your presentation onto your blog or email it to your friends!
  • Click here and you will be directed to Russell Stannard's tutorial on how to use Mybrainshark in details.
  • Below is my audiovisual presentation that I made using Mybrainshark.




How can teachers use Mybrainshark?

Mybrainshark is suitable for secondary school students  and adult learners as it requires high knowledge in handling the tool. Teachers can also combine traditional face-to-face classroom methods with more modern computer-mediated activities bu using mybrainshark, which encourages a 'blended learning'. 

 This tool can be used for an ice-breaking activity.  For the teacher who enters the class for the first time, he or she may ask students to create  a powerpoint presentation about themselves by using Mybrainshark and send it to him or her via email. By doing this, it helps the teacher to get to know his or her students better especially for further interaction. 

 Furthermore, mybrainshark can also be used for formative assessment. Teacher may give students a task where which they need to produce five audiovisual presentations on any topic, for example, child labour or bulimia nervosa or a balanced diet before submitting the best one to the teachers. Along the process of making the presentations, teachers can give feedback and suggestions on how students can improve the quality of their presentations. The Feedback is really important as it helps in developing students' progression in language learning. This is because it is the process that counted in the formative assessment not the end-product. 

 Other than that, teacher can use Mybrainshark to handle shy students who feel inferior of speaking in front of the class. Brainshark can help to lower students' affective filter  as students can speak in the language without having anyone watching them and reduce anxiety. To them, speaking alone might be nerve breaking.Therefore, teacher can utilise this tool by asking students to create powerpoint presentations on selected topics (e.g my holiday & my favourite movies) and narrate it. Teacher may then share the movie in the class and give students a few question based on the presentation. This will not only help those shy students but also develop students' listening skill as they have to pay attention and listen carefully to the presentations in order to get correct answers for the questions.

Advantages

  • Recording aids-  This tool does not allow you to use microphone but it also gives you a number to be dialed so that you can record your own voice via phone. 
  • Motivating- Mybrainshark could motivate students to speak comfortably using the target language as they can practice and do the narration on their own without any interference from others. 
  • Autonomous learning- Students can upload their own presentations at home and get feedback or comments from real audience.
  • Free - You don't have to pay to own a Mybrainshark's account.
  • skills - It develops students' speaking and writing skills.

Disadvantages

  • Internet connection-It can only be viewed online and cannot be downloaded to your computer. Internet connection may be needed every time you want to view the presentation.
  • non- authentic-It may not be authentic spoken activity as students may have written their  script and just read and record it.
  • Time consuming-The students who are not fluent may take double or triple times to narrate what they are going to say for the slide presentations as compared to the one who are fluent. Therefore, it would be quite difficult for them to complete a task if it were to be conducted as classroom activity.  In this case, teacher may ask students to finish at home..

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COLLABORATIVE STORYTELLING

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Do you  love to spark the creative talents of your students? The web 2.0 tool that i'm going to introduce you today will help you to do so.  It is an artful  digital storytelling tool called Storybird.(Screenshot 1)




Screenshot 1: Storybird homepage



What is Storybird?


Using art contributed by some of the world's best illustrators, students can quickly choose pictures and write a story by using Storybird. What so interesting is, the illustrators that the site provides are what make it stands out from anything similar to it. This tool also allows you to create a story collaboratively with other people without you and your partner being in the same place.



How to create a Storybird?
The slide presentations below show how to create a Storybird. Follow the ten steps below and  publish your own story!






Below is the example of a story that I made with a friend of mine by using Storybird. Click here for a look!

screenshot 2:  my Storybird




How can teachers use Storybird?

The site can work with any level of students from as low as elementary to as high as advanced students.This site works great on an interactive whiteboards. The pictures are colourful and superbly illustrated. You can ask students to work in groups and write a story collaboratively. You can ask each group to come to the board and add the next picture. 

You have to bear in mind that writing is not for all students. It is also not a product but is a process. So, you should help students with the process of writing. For instance, if you are going to get your students to write a story around the topic "zoo", you might help students to brainstorm ideas about the topic. What can you do is providing your students with the topic-related vocabulary. You can then show them a few pictures of zoo and get them to work in pairs and brainstorm some ideas of what they normally do and see when they go to the zoo. Once you activate their schemata, it will be easier for them to enjoy using Storybird and start writing their unique story!

If there are students who are not interested in writing a story, you can use Storybird as a reading tool. You could send one of the stories a week to your students to read at home and  ask them to share what they like or dislike about the story that they read in your class. In addition to that, you can ask them to write a summary for any story they love and send it to you for your feedback.



Advantages


  • Fun and Free- It's a website that allows you to sign up for free. It's fun and engaging as students can write factual instructions, directions, explanations or even a mad fantastical story in their own creative way!
  • Easy and accessible-It's so easy. on one simple interface, you drag over the picture and then type your story in the box. No saving, that's automatic. The simplicity of the interface makes the tool accessible to everyone.  Students can  also work on this site in school or at home because this is a web 2.0 tool. 
  • Creativity-  This site  provides a wide range of pictures. Students can select the pictures and illustrations that they like and be creative in  choosing and arranging the pictures, and typing their own story.
  • Collaboration- This website allow students to collaborate with their friends in writing a story. This provide them opportunity to get more ideas for a better story as two heads are better than one!


Disadvantages


  • Co-operation- It's really hard to get all students to collaborate with their friends in creating the story as there might be a person who does not want to give full co-operation.
  • Inadequate facilities-  It will be a problem for the schools that have insufficient computers and poor connections to the internet.

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LETS PIM PAM PUM!

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Students in this era are seeking for more interesting and interactive ways of learning English compared to the old-fashioned methods such as drilling  and grammar translation. In this case, visual learning seems to be one of the preferred learning approaches  for the students as it makes them to be highly motivated in the learning process. Therefore, today, I would introduce you to new tools that you will find helpful for the visual teaching and learning. The tools are the projects of PimPamPum.net based on Flickr images, which are called as Bubblr and Bookr. However, the focus for this entry will be on Bubblr.
What is Bubblr?
Bubblr is an excellent tool to create a presentation generated from images you can find in Flickr. You can either use a tag to search for photos or access photos from a single user's account.



Screenshot 1: Bubblr homepage

What is Bookr?

Bookr is a tool that allows us to do slide presentations or photobook by using pictures that grabbed from the Flickr. You can visit Ozge Karaoglu's blog if you are interested to know more about Bookr.




Screenshot 2: Bookr homepage


How to use Bubblr?
  • Search for a topic in the tag column(e.g monarch). An array of photos will come out in a horizontal way beside the tag column.
  • Choose the pictures that you would like to use for your presentation and drag the pics to the blank presentation page. (Screenshot 3)

Screenshot 3:  choose a topic and select photos


  • To make your presentation more interesting and visible to all spectators, you can insert bubbles onto your slides by choosing any three different bubbles that you like at the bottom of the website. Then, you can type suitable dialogues or sentences in the bubbles to describe the pictures. ( Screenshot 4)




Screenshot 4: add bubbles and dialogues 

  • After you have done your slide presentation, you can publish it for public view or for your own. You can also email your presentation to your friends!
  • Below is  one of the examples of Bubblr presentation.
























How can teachers use Bubblr?

 Bubblr is suitable for students in secondary school students and it may also be useful for adult learners. It is also suitable for students who have low level of English to advanced students. This tool is great for the classroom because it is simple to navigate and easy for young children or learners to publish their own unique story.

 Bubblr  supports the  Krashen's affective theory of learning in which students will be highly motivated in language learning when they are enjoying and engaging with the task. In this case, Bubblr  is definitely a fantastic tool that  allows students to engage and show their creativity by making a powerful presentation. This will lower their affective filters and make the language acquisition become easier.

It is an excellent tool that you can ask your students to use for presentation in order to check their understanding of certain concepts(e.g global warming) or vocabulary in a chapter.Other than that, you can also use Bubblr for Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT). What you can do is giving your one TBLT task, for example, they will be going to a trip in Paris. Therefore, in groups,  you can  ask them to find interesting places and attractions in Paris and they have to present them by using Bubblr. 

You can also use it to teach idiomatic expressions or proverbs. You can ask your students to work in pairs or group and create picture or comic strips that portray expressions in the target language.
Advantages

  • Free and no copyrights - It is a free tool which does not require you to register an account. Bubblr also allows you to 'steal' pictures  without breaking copyrights as it locates public images from Flickr.
  • Autonomous learning-Students can work on their own and this not only will encourage autonomous learning, it will create personalisation and develop creativity.
  •  Fun and motivating-A very fun way to create variety in terms of activities in class or topics.

Disadvantages

  • Inappropiate pictures- Students may search for or come across inappropriate pictures. Therefore, teachers should monitor the process of learning. 
  • Time consuming- It may take few hours for students to select suitable photos to fit into their slides since there are a wide range of choices provided.
  • Internet- It will be problematic for schools that are difficult to access to the internet  and have insufficient computers for students and teachers.

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FOREIGN LANGUAGES THROUGH MUSIC

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Learning a foreign language does not have to be that dry and boring memorisation (a traditional way of learning a language). It is found that listening to songs is a great way to help students in learning a language. Since youTube is one of the most recogniseable and widely used resources on the web, Lyrics Training seems to be the first dedicated language learning website that realises the popularity of youTube and use it in educational context. Therefore, I would introduce you to this useful website today!

What is Lyrics Training?

It is a website  that uses current popular youTube music videos to give learners a fun way to practice their language skills. It sorts videos by fluency levels and language. The site offers six languages(Dutch, English, France, German, Italy and Spanish) currently.



Screenshot 1: Home page
How to use it?

Screenshot 2: Select the level
    • Search for a youTube-hosted music video and select one of three mastery levels: (1) Beginner; (2) Intermediate and; (3) Expert. (Screenshot 2)



    Screenshot 3: Fill in the blanks


      • Lyrics appear underneath with several words missing as you play the video. Therefore, your job is to fill in the missing words. (Screenshot 3)





      Screenshot 4: See translations in your own language


      • You can also select your own language if you want to see translations of the lyrics in your own language. (Screenshot 4)
      • The video stops playing if you get stumped and continue to play as you come up with the word. Don't take too long because the tool keeps track of the time that you take to fill in the blanks. 
      • You can press 'backspace' key to replay the line  if  you don't really catch up the missing words. Click 'withdraw' button to see the words that elude you.
      •  Your score will appear after you finish playing the songs.


      How can teachers use Lyrics Training?
      Teachers  may find the Lyrics Training is more helpful and exciting for a spelling quiz rather than using the traditional dictation.  It is also suitable for teaching vocabulary and pronunciation. This is because lyrics training applies the concept of behaviourism that believes repetition is important for language acquisition. The more the students repeat, the better they are in grasping  the  language.  By repeating certain vocabulary items through songs it  helps students to memorise and remember  better and store them in their memories in the long term. Thus, lyrics training would be a good tool for teachers to teach vocabulary!

      Other than that, teachers can use Lyrics Training  for a listening activity in classrooms. What can you do to make the lesson interesting is getting the students to work in pairs and they have to compete each other by listening to the song that they choose on their own and fill in the blanks. The students who got the highest score is the winner for the activity.




       Advantages
      • Free and Fun- It is fun as you can sing along and choose the song that you like.  It is  also free and does not require registration, but it is better to sign up for an account so that you can save your score marks.
      • Skills training- It helps to train listening and writing skills as you have to listen carefully to the song to write the correct words in the gaps.
      • Autonomous learning- This  website helps students to practise their listening skill, spelling as well as pronunciation during their own free time. This may encourage autonomous learning among students.

      Disadvantages

      • Colloquial Language-  Some of the lyrics use colloquial language such as 'gonna' and 'wanna' and that can be confusing to the students that are in basic levels.
      • Inaccurate Translations- This website does not have dictionary and the simultaneous translation is not very accurate.

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