1. The Basics & The New Lessons www.real-english.com An introduction to

5. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of ESL – EFL learning sites on the web. What makes Real English different? The Basics Part 3

6. The originality is in the nature of the 2 types of content: 1 - We will look at part of a Real English video to illustrate the aspect of spontaneity which permeates Real English. 2 - Beginning in 2005, I began to change the exercises for the videos. All the lessons now have unique characteristics, as we shall see in a few minutes…

7. The Real English videos do not include any actors. I suppose pedagogical arguments can be made for slow, artificial speech, but our first keyword is spontaneity , with all the difficulties which it creates in practice.

8. Traditional Site becomes " Social " thanks to G oogle F riend C onnect

9. Our street interview campaigns are always fun, but they are also complicated affairs which deserve a separate presentation. Beginning with slide 11 we will look at some of the final results of these interview campaigns.

11. Example of a Lesson Index Page : http://www.real-english.com/reo/29/unit29.html

12. Example: What do you like to do for fun? (like to do/like doing): http://www.real-english.com/reo/29/29-1.htm : Let’s look at lesson 29, Exercise 1 As you can see in this example in Exercise 1, Joe speaks normally. So, he’s hard to understand. We want to facilitate oral comprehension. We don’t want to test students, especially not at this point. Therefore, the additional audio file is a summary of what Joe says, i.e., Joe’s first and simplified reply to What do you like to do for fun?

13. Example: What do you like to do for fun? (like to do/like doing): http://www.real-english.com/reo/29/29-1.htm : Let’s look at lesson 29, Exercise 1 Note that this audio file, a summary of the essential part of his reply in the video, begins to present the student with New Vocabulary in a casual way. Joe’s last words are "[I like] sitting around with folks, talking ." On the other hand, " sitting around with folks, talking " is not included in the exercise as a correct answer. Instead, the student can choose the answer including socializing , which of course is a synonym. He might begin to learn new vocabulary by a process of elimination in this MC exercise. If not, he will learn socialize in exercise 5.

14. 29 - What do you like to do for fun? An example for this presentation Link : http://www.real-english.com/reo/29/29-1.htm Let’s look again at the video only on the same page lesson 29, Exercise 1 Joe’s interview, the first one in lesson 29, is 32 seconds long. However, a total of 6 exercise pages (including 19 "questions") are necessary to cover the new vocabulary and grammar he uses during those 32 seconds. Therefore, in the next 7 pages of this presentation, we will look only at the exercises necessary for understanding Joe’s 32 seconds. The entire video is over 6 minutes long, but of course we are not going to cover the entire lesson during this presentation.

15. Next Exercise : What do you like to do for fun? Link to Exercise 2 http://www.real-english.com/reo/29/29-2.htm : We want to be sure the student understands the more difficult, natural language that Joe uses during his interview, in addition to the lesson’s key structure like to do / like doing. He begins with this reply: That’s a great question. I was just asking myself that the other day. Since this is the first time we hear a reflexive pronoun in Real English, we include a relevant grammar page . (link to Exerci s e 2b) http://www.real-english.com/reo/29/29-2b.htm

16. Next Exercise : What do you like to do for fun? Link to Exercise 2 http://www.real-english.com/reo/29/29-2.htm : Another interesting point about Exercise 2 concerns the possibilities offered by Hot Potatoes. This particular HP exercise is called a Hybrid JQuiz. If the student is wrong typing X number of times, then the exercise transforms itself into a Multiple Choice. The student is never lost if he tries to answer. Also, there are multiple correct answers when the answer is typed . In this particular case, there are 6 correct answers, such as " What do you like to do for fun?" or "Joe, what do you like doing for fun?". I think motivation increases when the student has to carry out the more difficult job of typing. For some exercises, there are as many as 100 possible typed, correct answers.

18. Next Exercise : What do you like to do for fun? Link to Exercise 3 : http://www.real-english.com/reo/29/29-3.htm In the third part of his interview, Joe introduces us to a lot of new vocabulary. What’s the best way to teach vocabulary online? I prefer to combine a traditional, but simplified dictionary type of definition , along with pictures , and audio , as we see in this exercise illustrating 6 of Joe’s vocabulary items. Pictures are used in the videos and on the exercise pages in order to convey meaning. This one is from the video: Notice that the picture shows Joe doing what he says he likes to do. This technique of cutting out interviewee’s heads, and putting them in relevant situations, is used in almost all the lessons. (We met Joe on 57th St. in NYC, not while hiking in the woods).

19. Next Exercise : What do you like to do for fun? Link to Exercise 4 : http://www.real-english.com/reo/29/29-4.htm Lesson 29, Exercise 4 : Finally, in this particular case, the picture in the video helps define movies . I also added an audio file so that the student can hear a love doing sentence without Joe’s “mistake” or false start (I do, uh... I love…).

20. Next Exercise : What do you like to do for fun? Link to Exercise 5 : http://www.real-english.com/reo/29/29-5.htm Lesson 29, Exercise 5 : In Joe’s final exercise, we define Joe’s favorite activity i.e., " sittin’ around with folks talking " with pictures in both the video and integrated into the exercise page, but we also introduce the verb " socialize ", and we define “folks". This HotPot exercise is also hybrid as we saw in Exercise 2. There are 36 correct answers for what the student can type , including socializing and sitting around talking , etc.