Integrating and Curating TED talks for EAPSLauren ScheelLauren.Scheel@oregonstate.edu Randy RebmanRandy.Rebman@oregonstate.edu

Context

Overview

• Goals of our action research project• About TED talks• Analyzing TED talks• Curating• Activities• Reflections• Discussion

Goals of our Action Research Project

• Find a way to include more speaking activities in our high-intermediate Listening/Speaking class.

• Create/curate a list of TED talks that are level and/or topic appropriate.

• Create and pilot activities that integrate listening, speaking, and notetaking skills.

• Reflect and revise the activities used in class.

Discussion

• Have you used TED talks in any of your classes?• When you select a TED talk, what criteria

do you use?

About TED Talks

• “Ideas Worth Spreading” • Topics of global issues, societal challenges, scientific

questions• More than 2,000 videos available with new talks everyday• Ordered by topics, language, duration, ratings, event,

speaker• http://

www.ted.com/talks?event=ted+conference&sort=newest• Some have transcripts, English captions, and have been

translated

Benefits of Using TED talks in the Classroom

• Promote comprehension skills• Provide examples of effective presentation skills• Show pronunciation in context• Introduce new vocabulary• Provide authentic presentations• Expose learners to different voices in English• Provide great discussion starters• Springboard for further language practice

What does curating mean in the context of English Language Learning?

• Curator’s role for language learning• Collect content• Organize/sequence• Provide language level information• Add pedagogical supportReference: Phil Hubbard

FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING THE RIGHT TED TALK FOR YOUR CLASS.

Speech Rate

• Shawn Anchor: “The Happy Secret to Better Work”   • 2:05-2:40 min.

http://www.ted.com/playlists/137/shawn_achor_work_happier

• Kenneth Cukier: “Big Data is Better Data” • 7:26 - 8:01min.

http://www.ted.com/talkskenneth_cukier_big_data_is_better_data

**approximate words per second range 2.21 – 3.55

Examples of Speech Rates

• Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity?3261 words / 19:05 (1145 seconds) = 2.84 words / second

• Brene Brown: The Power of Vulnerability3176 words / 20:07 (1207 seconds) = 2.63 words / second

• Amy Cuddy: Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are3678 words / 20:42 (1242 seconds) = 2.96 words / second

•  Mary Roach: Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Orgasm2419 words / 16:28 (988 seconds) = 2.44 words / second

• Shawn Anchor: The Happy Secret To Better Work2593/ 12:10 (730 seconds) = 3.55 words / second

• Kenneth Cuckier: Big Data is Better Data2323 words / 15:51 (951 seconds) = 2.44 words / second

Evaluation of Top 10 most watched TED talks

Vocabulary Load

• How can you better determine if a talk is level appropriate?• Word and Phrase• http://www.wordandphrase.info/

• Evaluate level of difficulty of the talk based on the percentage of words in the different word frequency ranges.• Pre-teach the academic words

Word and Phrase

Transcript Vocabulary Profile

Contemporary Topics 3 Unit 9– Animal Communication

Lingorank.com

Curated TED Talks Portal

SAMPLE ACTIVITIES

Activities…Moving away from basic comprehension questions

• Goals• Provide students with extra opportunities to practice their

listening and note-taking skills, as well as include some speaking practice.

Example Activity

Speaking Activities

• One minute presentation of TED talk• Students share the main ideas of the TED talk and comments/

thoughts on the talk.• Goal:• To give students a low stakes way to practice speaking in front of

the class• Give feedback on what to work on for future presentations

• Audio Journal• Students record their summary and thoughts of the TED talk

• Group Discussion (3-4 students)• Students prepare a discussion question relating to their talk, give

their group a summary of their talk, and facilitate a short discussion

Lessons Learned/Suggestions

• From the implementation of these activities we learned…• Students need to be aware of basic notetaking strategies

first.• Provide enough context for the material being covered in

talks.• Preteach difficult/academic vocabulary.• Familiarize students with TED talks in class before

assigning them to choose their own.• Students enjoy choosing talks based on topics they are

interested in.

Quotations for Reflection Journal

• “One positive thing about the summaries was that when I asked them to share their summaries with the class it gave me a chance to ask students what they thought the speaker’s purpose was (inform, persuade, or entertain). This is a skill that often gets overlooked in the adapted course lectures from Contemporary Topics.”

• “In general, I feel like this activity was a success. Students were able to practice both listening and speaking.”

CLOSING DISCUSSION

Discuss

• How can TED talks be used to promote other language learning skills?

• How would you curate TED talks for your own teaching context?

References

• Hubbard, P. (2013). Digital Content Curation for CALL. 4th WorldCALL Conference Glasgow: July 13, 2013.

• Floyd, M. and Jeschull, L. (2012). Teaching with TED talks: Authentic and motivational language instruction. November 15, 2012.