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10 Ted Talks Every English

Student Should Watch
By Christopher Pell 18 Comments

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This article shows you how to use TED Talks to improve your English, how they can be
used in the classroom and suggests 10 great talks to use in the English classroom.

TED is a series of informative, educational, inspiring and sometimes jaw-dropping talks

that present Ideas Worth Spreading. Ted has attracted many of the worlds most
important thinkers such as Larry Page, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Ken Robinson, and a
few winners of the Nobel Prize.

There is an emphasis on informing, educating and opening peoples eyes to new ideas,
making them perfect for the classroom. Students love these talks and really appreciate it
when you take the time to make a lesson out of them. Teenagers, being the YouTube
generation, also find them highly engaging and motivating. They come with
transcriptions in most common languages, allowing students to read what they have
listened to in English or their native tongue.

This post will list 10 TED talks I have found work particularly well in the classroom. I
will also outline how students could use TED to improve their English at home and how
teachers can use them in class.
How Students Can Use TED at Home

TED Talks for students provide an engaging context from which they can autonomously
improve their English at home. There are thousands of videos to choose from, so there
should always be something of interest. They can help students improve, not only their
listening skills, but also improve their pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and writing.

1. Listening

This is the obvious one, but students should be encouraged to listen actively. Ask
students to look at the title before they listen and try to predict what they are going to
hear. They can also pause at different points and try to guess what they will hear next.
Another useful exercise is micro-listening where they rewind and listen again and
again to any sentences they didnt quite get until they fully understand, thereby getting
used to connected speech and any other barriers that might prevent comprehension.

2. Pronunciation

Micro-listening can also be used to help students produce sentences. Identify a few
sentences that caused the listener trouble and identify elements of connected speech,
weak sounds and or difficult phonemes. A comparison with the transcripts should
highlight important differences between written and spoken English. Students can then
practice reproducing these features at home.

3. Vocabulary

Learners listen for unfamiliar words and then try to guess the meaning from context.
They can also look at the transcripts for extra help. Students can then note down their
new words together with definitions, synonyms, antonyms and example sentences.

4. Grammar

Students could be encouraged to think about the grammar used. What verb tenses were
used and why? How did the speaking use sequencing words? How did they use
discourse markers? What phrases did they use to make their points or persuade the
audience?

5. Writing

Below every TED video is a comments section where people discuss the video and the
issues that came up in the video. Students can enter these debates and practice their
writing at the same time.

How Teachers Can Use TED Talks in

Class

Every TED Talk is different and they can therefore be exploited in a variety of different
ways. Below are a few suggestions:

1. Pre-Listening Task

Ask some questions about the title. What do you think the speaker is going to say?

Example: Ken Robinson- How Schools Kill Creativity.

Do schools teach creativity?

Which subjects are creative and which are not?

How do schools kill creativity?

Is it the teachers fault?

Alternatively, you could give them some key vocabulary from the talk and ask them to
predict what is going to be said based on the key words.
2. First Listen

Ask students to listen and check if their ideas match those in the video. If not, how are
they different?

You could also give them the transcript with the keywords missing and ask them to
insert them as they listen.

3. Focus on Lexis, Grammar or Functional Language

I normally ask students to note down any words or phrases they dont understand and
then either watch again or read the transcript to try to guess the meaning from context.
Students should then discuss their unknown words and expressions with other students
to see if anyone can help them and the teacher clarifies at the end.

This approach can also be used for verb tenses or functional language. For example,
how did the speaker use sequencing language? What phrases did they use to try and
prove their point? How many times was the present perfect used and why?

4. Post Listening Task

Give students a task that encourages them to use the language you focused on in the
previous stage. Here are some examples:

Interview the speaker think of questions you might ask the speaker based on
what you have heard. Role play as a journalist and speaker. Students should try to
use phrases used to persuade the journalist or make a point.
Explain what you mean give each student the definition of a difficult word or
concept brought up in the video and students mingle asking each other to explain
what they mean.
Debate Write a few controversial statements of the board and divide students in
to for and against teams. They should work together to think of how they are
going to justify their points and then have a debate.
Write a review What did they think of the TED talk? Did they agree or
disagree with the points made? Was the speaker convincing? Did they find it
inspiring?
Presentation Write and present your own talk on a similar topic.
Explain to a lower class How would you explain the ideas in simple terms to a
class a level below you?