Learning English with YouTube has become so popular these days. In this time of the pandemic, almost all parents have switched to digital learning for safety, not to mention schools are closed, and learning English abroad is currently on hold.
Today, YouTube is getting so popular since everyone has gadgets and easy access to the internet. Because of this, people often use YouTube for several purposes; education, entertainment, politics, news, etc. Moreover, the very popular social media platform has ultimately become the avenue where learners – especially English learners – have relied on in learning English. And regardless of age and class, people favored learning English with YouTube since it’s for free.
For instance, QQEnglish student’s now have been enjoying watching educational English videos about grammar and vocabulary for years. This alone has been so beneficial to countless ESL learners worldwide because it’s for free. Those who want to learn basic English no longer need to pay even a dollar to learn English.
With over a billion users across the globe, YouTube has become the go-to place for finding, watching, and sharing videos. After being bought by Google in 2006, the very popular social media platform welcomes 300 hours of video every minute. Subsequently, the growing number of people using smartphones made it easier for people to create and upload YouTube videos.
Generally, almost all the Youtuber and the viewer upload and download YouTube for countless reasons. However, some failed to recognize that YouTube is not just for fun, but an impressive site for learning English too.
Ever since before the pandemic, learning English with YouTube has already been proven beneficial to learners of different ages. And with the coronavirus infection rising in almost all countries, access to education has become more digital.
Unfortunately, learning English in this time of pandemic is becoming more limited. Parents and teachers are in absolute trouble providing quality learning to all learners. As a result, learners’ progress declined and their competency dwindles since they receive inadequate guidance and poor assessment.
It is a sad thing to note, but there are things we can still do to support the continuous improvement of our learners. We have books available on our shelves and we have the internet. So, if you’re stuck at home now, why not try learning English with YouTube?
In this article, I’ll be guiding you through for you to learn the most important things when learning English with YouTube. Ready? Let’s begin with…
Learning English with YouTube can be so meaningful if you know how to maximize it. But how? The answer is simple – using it’s very important features and how to learn each learning material effectively. Normally, we just watch the videos right away, hoping that we grasp and understand everything in the end. However, it is otherwise – we end up getting confused, disappointed because the speed’s too fast, the accent’s strange, etc.
When learning English with YouTube, you need to learn to know the most important tools first. You’re no longer a stranger to these ‘strange buttons’, I know. However, when you miss out on some of these tools, learning English on YouTube might become distressing for you.
Now, let’s learn these three basic yet necessary tools are essential for you to achieve that maximum learning capacity.
One essential tool which you need to be familiar with is the Closed Captioning button. This button is located at the bottom of the screen.
Normally it’s called the subtitles. When you click the CC button, we enable those words to appear underneath so that we know the lines of the video.
Why do we need to know that? The answer depends on what kind of student you are.
I personally don’t recommend using subtitles if you are an intermediate/advanced level student. This is because it handicaps you and makes you more dependent on reading it rather than listening to it.
On the other hand, if you’re a beginner, using this can be helpful. It’s a good thing to have subtitles you can understand and read along with the speaker.
This button is the funny-looking thing you see next to the CC button. It is the thing you see in watches and cars that join and they move. This button has several operations and one of these is the speed setting. The speed setting allows you to choose the most suitable speed for your level.
Although there are speed choices available, I still advise you to challenge yourself.
When learning English with YouTube, try listening with a faster speed so that the normal speed will just come more comprehensive to you the next time. But if you think, it’s way too fast, stick with the normal speed. Don’t worry, you’ll be used to it in no time.
Let’s go to the third button – the full-screen button. For some people, this may seem not important but listen. When learning English with YouTube, doesn’t it look way better if the video’s bigger and the texts are more visible?
With a much wider screen, reading and writing are easier and learning will less hard. So this the button you might want to use when it’s hard to read anything the Youtuber has written on the board.
Now that you already knew the necessary tools, I bet you are now ready to dive into the next stage.
Let’s go to the third button – the full-screen button. For some people, this may seem not important but listen. When learning English with YouTube, doesn’t it look way better if the video’s bigger and the texts are more visible?
With a much wider screen, reading and writing are easier and learning will less hard. So this the button you might want to use when it’s hard to read anything the Youtuber has written on the board.
Now that you already knew the necessary tools, I bet you are now ready to dive into the next stage.
When we watch YouTube videos, chances are, we suddenly pause to understand what it is about. Yes, I understand, several English learning videos on YouTube are difficult to understand. But I advise you to just finish watching the whole video first.
This to achieve that what we call global comprehension, or to understand the video, basically. You may not get everything, but you’ll get the idea of what the video is generally about. And when you already get what the video is all about, you need to this…
This time, write the most important details and the things you have questions about. You need to do this because this will serve as your information basis and guide questions to understand the video. And when you already have the list, you are now ready to start for the third step.
If you still have questions, refer to some English educational websites and checking related books. English books, e-learning materials, and other YouTube videos are great mediums for finding answers. You’ll be surprised to find out that these things will provide you several answers and you can even compare them.
Besides, you can also go back to the YouTube channel and post comments there. The comment section is also great for finding immediate answers since everyone is free to reply and comment there. So wish yourself luck.
After you finished doing the first three steps, you need to do an assessment. This step is vital so you’ll know if you have fully understood what you’ve watched and researched.
If you are worried about where and what site, worry no more because questionnaires are cropping over the internet. And the good thing is, it’s for free.
To make things more challenging, try to consider having a benchmark of maybe 70% or 80% if you’re level’s high already. If you got less than the required benchmark, re-watch the video until you get the passing score.
Being one of the most popular websites, YouTube provides amazing and beneficial videos from all around the world. Clearly, everyone knows this site and people have been using these for entertainment and educational purposes. Because of its popularity, teachers and students have been maximizing it in the teaching and learning process, including in English. Although there are other sites available, many preferred the YouTube application.
Here are some advantages of learning English on YouTube.
The advantages of YouTube can be gotten because of its authenticity and can increase students’ motivation in learning English.
YouTube videos are a combination of both visual context with spoken language and develop learners’ ability to enjoy and understand English lessons. Most of the students in the study strongly agreed that they use YouTube in their classrooms for learning new vocabulary. Additionally, these videos provide an attractive and interesting learning environment, and that it motivated them to learn faster and better.
Amongst all social media platforms, YouTube tops the list in terms of content packed with different authentic materials. From movie clips, cartoons, podcasts, speeches, stories, tips, health, music, etc. – YouTube has all of them.
Another significant advantage of using YouTube is motivation. When a student learns English with YouTube, they get exposure to the actual language of real people. As a result, they can learn the English language as native speakers, which makes them more motivated and enthusiastic to learn English.
Learning English with YouTube is way better than learning using books. This is because students’ can hear and watch someone explaining or doing the action clearly. Besides, it appears that learning pronunciation is way better when using YouTube rather than using a dictionary. For example, you want to learn English homonyms, wouldn’t it be confusing to just see words and not hearing someone pronounce the words correctly? Or what if you want to study English in the Philippines and you’d like to see more about the country? I bet you’d like to see real video footage of its beautiful white beaches and attractive tourist spots, right?
In this internet-powered world, more students are also seeking a fresh and entertaining way of learning English. Generally, students of the Net-generation became easily frustrated and bored with the traditional methods of learning the English language. Therefore, using learning English with YouTube videos and teaching English can stimulate students’ attention and interest.
YouTube videos are authentic in nature since it shows videos created by people from around the world which was designed for teaching and entertainment. These videos can allow learners “to learn to communicate effectively in a foreign language by experiencing the language as we use it for real communication by native speakers” (Rogers & Medley, 1988 cited in Lin 2002).
Also, using authentic videos can enhance students’ listening skills. With this, learners can prepare themselves on how to hear and speak the English language in the real world. With all the authentic materials, learning English with YouTube can motivate people since people find it interesting to understand real things.
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