Use Wildlife movies to improve the teaching of Foreign Languages

Students are fascinated by animals of all types, even a little video clip may teach you a lot. Weather, climate, habitats, verbs, animal vocabulary, food, ecosystems, environment ...the list goes on depending on the clip used and the level of students.

Ideas for applying a wildlife movies in the education process

Watch a short clip

Rather than the entire video. Given your time limits, the teacher may decide that showing a section of a film is preferable to offering the whole thing. Even a 2-3 minute clip can be prolonged depending on what you do with it.

For elementary students

Depending on the clip, the instructor might direct students to listen for specific words and raise their hands when they hear them.

Q/A

The most straightforward approach to watching a wildlife/nature documentary with students is to preview it ahead of time, make a list of questions the teacher may ask students, and then click the pause button each time the teacher wants to ask a question.

Watch then discuss

Similar to the 'Turn and Talk/discuss' activity, the goal behind this activity is to display a brief segment of a video, then have youngsters turn to a partner and discuss something about what they have seen. For novices, especially Novice Low pupils, this might be as basic as identifying what they've seen, but students with greater competence could explain using sentences. 

Which do you prefer?

Create a voting chart after the video to practise the statement 'I like ___ the most.' Write the names of some of the creatures depicted in the clip/video in columns, then ask children to choose their favourite/most favourite. In the end, total the responses to identify the most popular animal from that clip!

Show primary pupils no films of animals hunting or devouring other animals. Even though we all know it's just a part of life, it can upset particular youngsters. It is preferable to refrain from utilising it, or at least not in that portion of the movie. -Another no-show is animals fighting or mating. Again, it is scary and strange for small children. This is not something you want them to tell their family about.