Using Famous Personalities and Celebrities in Content-Based Language Learning

Evel Knievel Isn’t Dead

Whenever a famous entertainer, celebrity or historic figure becomes newsworthy, don’t let the opportunity to motivate and involve your learners pass you by. Instead, use it to delve more deeply into the cultural elements and language hat spawned that person. Then watch as your learners begin to grow and develop their English or other foreign language skills almost as if by magic. The late motorcycle stuntman extraordinaire Evel Knievel isn’t “dead” and neither are hundreds of other celebrities, personalities, news-makers of our recent and distant past. Let them help you and your learners to develop communicative skills in the English language. Don’t forget, these same principles can be easily applied to the teaching and learning of many other foreign languages as well.

Using Famous Personalities and Celebrities in CBL

Using famous personalities, historic figures and celebrities in Content-based Learning (Richards and Rodgers,1993) is a way to lower the Affective Filter (Krashen Terrell, 1983) of your learners and truly get them highly motivated and involved in English or other foreign language acquisition. Let’s consider the late Evel Knievel as an example then.

Are motorcycles popular and frequently used where you are? What are some well-known makes and models? What kind of bikes did Evel Knievel use? (Can you say Harley-Davidson?) Not only can your learners investigate his life, his stunts and his bikes, but they can look for and watch videos on YouTube and additional video archive sites, read news clippings of his exploits and view photos from the various stages of his life along with related articles and clips online. Have learners explain how to ride a motorcycle too.

To start you all off try the several historic videos of Evel Knievel online at YouTube or his official website at: http://www.evelknievel.com/. And don’t just blindly accept the blasé “book report” type of presentation either. Ask for and demand better for these and future assignments or expositions by your learners.

Try Multi-format or Multi-modal Presentations

Have them try some different or multi-format presentations like:

• Posters
• time line graphs
• audio-visual presentations
• video clips
• collages
• power point slides
• dialogues
• interviews
• scrap book presentations

Only the imagination and ingenuity that you and your learners apply will limit the English as a foreign language or other foreign language teaching and learning possibilities for you and your learners.

Again, whenever a famous entertainer, celebrity or historic figure becomes newsworthy, don’t let the opportunity to motivate and involve your learners pass you by. Instead, use it to delve more deeply into the cultural elements and language hat spawned that person. Then watch as your learners begin to grow and develop their English or other foreign language skills almost as if by magic. And while they’re at it they’ll a bit of fun too.

Be sure to let me know of any comments, experiences and special results that you may have.


For some great tips, tricks and techniques for quickly and easily learning virtually any of the world’s 6912 living languages just click HERE

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. For more information on entering into or advancing in the fascinating field of ELT send for his no-cost pdf Ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know”, send an e-mail with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. For comments, questions, requests, to receive more information or to be added to his free TESOL articles and teaching materials mailing list, e-mail: lynchlarrym@gmail.com

Evel Knievel Isn’t Dead

Evel Knievel Dead at Age 69

On November 30, 2007, the legendary motorcycle stunt performer Robert Craig “Evel” Knievel died at age 69. Many of you may remember his exploits from the 60’s and 70’s as he jumped his motorcycle over rows of cars, Mack trucks, Greyhound buses, London double-decker buses and the fountains at Cesar’s Palace in Las Vegas in 1968, among many other increasingly spectacular daredevil feats. Often his stunts left him with broken bones and assorted injuries.

Indeed, he is reported to have said, “I’ve broken every bone in my body at least once.”

A Newsweek magazine tribute reported though, that he’d suffered 88 broken bones. He had more than a dozen major surgeries and broken bone repairs to his skull, pelvis, ribs, collarbones, hips and shoulders. This never stopped him though. He appeared on the cover of Newsweek magazine and was the focus of a full-length, semi-autobiographical feature film “Viva Knievel” starring George Hamilton in 1977. One of his last and arguably most publicized stunts was his failed “jump” over the Snake River Canyon in Idaho in 1974. He was forced to retire in 1980 saying, “he was nothing but scar tissue and surgical steel”. But his stunts didn’t finally kill Evel Knievel. In the end it was complications from Diabetes and Pulmonary Fibrosis that ultimately stole this stunt legend from the world.

But what, you might ask, has any of this got to do with English as a Second or Foreign language?

Simply this: A language is inseparably linked to the cultural aspects of the country or countries where it is spoken.. Using Content-Based Learning (CBL) then, becomes an excellent, highly efficient and interesting way of teaching or learning virtually any foreign language. Evel Knievel and a seemingly endless parade of other celebrities, famous or infamous, historic and notable personalities offer a detailed glimpse into frequently un-taught intricacies of the English language. For example, if you haven’t heard of him, you’re likely either well under 30 or so years old, or do not have English as your first language or grew up in a foreign cultural setting.

Evel Knievel Isn’t Dead

Whenever a famous entertainer, celebrity or historic figure becomes newsworthy, don’t let the opportunity to motivate and involve your learners pass you by. Instead, use it to delve more deeply into the cultural elements and language hat spawned that person. Then watch as your learners begin to grow and develop their English or other foreign language skills almost as if by magic.

When you read that Evel Knievel has died, don’t you believe it. Evel Knievel isn’t "dead". He’s just waiting for you and your learners to make him come alive in their hearts, minds and imaginations yet again.

In our next segment, “Using Famous Personalities and Celebrities in Content-Based Learning”, we’ll go into more depth on using newsworthy celebrities, historic and other famous persons to motivate and engage our English or foreign language learners in and out of the class room.

In the meanwhile, check out this Evel Knievel career over view video at: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=CAzLPEiA8a0

For some great tips, tricks and techniques for quickly and easily learning virtually any of the world’s 6912 living languages just click HERE.

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. For more information on entering into or advancing in the fascinating field of ELT send for his no-cost pdf Ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know”, send an e-mail with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. For comments, questions, requests, to receive more information or to be added to his free TESOL articles and teaching materials mailing list, e-mail: lynchlarrym@gmail.com

How to Explode Your English Language Teaching Online Presence in Less Than 48 Hours

Instant Exposure to Millions of Web Surfers
Whether you’re selling a product or service, job hunting, exploring or just surfing the net for pleasure, teaching English online, providing foreign language learning content on the internet or other reasons, you can explode your online presence and be seen or known by hundreds of thousands or even millions of persons. It needn’t be a lengthy process to do so either. The very nature of the internet allows for views to me made by hundreds of thousands or even millions of people in a matter of days or hours, in many cases. So how can you ramp up your online exposure forthwith without spending your inheritance in the process? Read on.

The Internet’s Top Five
Essentially, you’ll need to get exposure on the internet’s top five websites. This will almost automatically expose you to views from millions of online views from web surfers worldwide. Once exposed on these sites, in a matter of a few hours, you can be seen and on the lips and minds of literally millions of people. How does that sound? Here are the internet’s top five sites and what they offer.

YouTube
www.youtube.com
The internet’s newest online mega-site player, you can post screen captures and videos here for free. Setting up an account takes only a few minutes. Uploading a video can be done within an hour or so and be available to millions of viewers. You can also link to your video’s individual site using hypertext and back links to speed the viewing process along.
Videos are rapidly snatched up by search engines so your video’s presence will be noted sometimes in a matter of minutes.

Blogger
www.blogger.com
Blogs are all the rage from business and technical to personal thoughts and insights on virtually any topic. The top two are Blogger.com and Wordpress with no-cost Blogger being more widespread at the moment. Again you have the potential for millions of viewers almost instantly and they can come fast and furiously too depending on your blogging topic. Since blogs are picked up quickly by the major search engines too, your exposure can skyrocket in a matter of hours.

My Space
www.myspace.com
Another people-to-people biggie, you can create your own personal site here and post to your heart’s consent on any topic or theme of your choosing. Add photos, graphics and sound clips to round out you space, making it more interactive and you can easily wind up with a winner on your hands. Network like crazy to your other online presence sites and you’ll get checked out by hundreds of views per hour if your topic and theme are hot. Even if they’re not, you’ll still have massive exposure potential.

EBay
www.ebay.com
You’ve heard of the mega-site EBay for sure unless you’ve been living on another planet, the ozone layer or a desert island somewhere. So get yourself a posting here to garner at least a piece of the internet’s millions of viewers and surfers. Be it a product, service or information offer, this is a site you need to be on as part of your web presence explosion process. Payments are managed through PayPal which reaches globally to more than one hundred countries. Now you can offer services and products just as easily in Hanoi, Hong Kong or Hoboken.

Craigslist
www.craigslist.com
The place to advertise globally for free, this vast site allows you to reach potential clients, customers and other interested parties in a global market of your choice. You can hawk your wares and information by continent, country, or city area. Want to become known in Mexico, Malaysia, Madagascar or Mongolia? Then this site is definitely the place for you.

Summary
Yes, you can certainly explode your online presence in 48 hours or less by posting to these top five internet websites with your information, voice, videos, products and services, among other options. Only you can set the limits as to what you can achieve. Think up your campaign and get your posts and materials ready. Then set up your accounts at each of these massive exposure web site mega-sites and then just watch as your online presence soars through the roof.


Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on the lucrative, fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign Language, get your copy of his no-cost, full multi-media, hypertext-linked pdf ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know” by sending an e-mail to lynchlarrym@gmail.com with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. Need professional, original content and photos or images for your blog, newsletter, e-zine or website? Want more information, have a comment or special request? E-mail the author for a prompt response.

How the Guinness Book of Records Can Help YOU to Learn any Foreign Language

Meet Jorge Fernandez Gates

At only 18 years of age, Jorge Fernandez Gates can speak, read and write in 11 foreign languages. They are not all related languages either. Some already under his belt include Mandarin Chinese, Catalan, Galician, English, French, German, Swedish, Romanian, Italian, Portuguese, and Dutch.

Not only that, but Jorge only started learning foreign languages a little over 5 years ago, which means he’s been “picking up” a foreign lingo at the rate of two foreign languages per year. His goal is to get into the Guinness Book of Records by mastering at least 25 foreign languages.

Already recognized as the “youngest polyglot in Peru”, in several interviews given primarily in his native Spanish, he discusses some techniques he (and you) can use to develop fluency in whatever foreign language you’re striving to acquire.

He says, “For me, foreign language learning is a hobby, I can’t control it, at any moment I could open a dictionary to look up a new word for my vocabulary.”

His principal ally in the quest to master enough foreign languages to make the Guinness Book of Records is the internet which he credits with up to 70% of his foreign language learning success.

He cites in particular Radio Bucharest online at: (http://www.multilingualbooks.com/online-radio.html) that features both live and pre-recorded radio programming in 38 European and Asian languages as well as 18 African continental languages, and online language courses as aids in helping him to familiarize himself with foreign languages.

Other tactics he has frequently employed include:

- Talking with the staff in ethnic restaurants
- Watching television programs in or about target languages
- Using the radio as a key listening and comprehension development resource “to help accustom your ear to the pronunciation of the language”
- Using the internet to listen and study foreign languages

A major concern he has had was that “one day his brain would explode” from the constant linguistic input or that he would linguistically get “his wires crossed” and become totally confused. A neurologist he consulted assured him that “there are no limits” to the brain’s capacity to take in and store knowledge.

Jorge Fernandez gives these “keys” as essential to his linguistic accomplishments:

- Learn the foreign language grammar “forwards and backwards”
- Acquire a basis vocabulary of high-frequency words and phrases
- Never stop augmenting new vocabulary in your new language – He tries to learn at least two new words each day
- Practice your new language with friends, language teachers or whomever you can regularly

And just what started it all?

“I’m not a good student and as punishment my Mother decided to take away my cell phone and prohibited me from chatting online. I couldn’t go out, so to keep from spending the entire day sleeping I enrolled in a French course.” Then things began to change for him. “I liked it and decided to take Italian too.” He later discovered a course in Romanian on the internet and “loved it”.

To “prove” his language abilities, family members have gone with him to Chinese restaurants to have him converse with the cook and contacted TV programs and foreign language professors to verify his linguistic skills in other languages.

So began the linguistic journey of Jorge Fernandez Gates. So as not to create a “Babel” in his brain, he restricts himself to “calmly learning only two languages” at a time per year. You can listen to journalist Rosa Maria Palacios do a 26 minute video interview with him (in Spanish) on his language-learning adventures at: http://www.youtube.com/

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on entering or advancing in the fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language send for his no-cost pdf Ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know”, by sending an e-mail with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. For comments, questions, requests, to receive more information or to be added to his free TESOL articles and teaching materials mailing list, e-mail: lynchlarrym@gmail.com