Mr. Dang Thanh Nhon delivered a presentation at the 34th Annual Thailand TESOL International Conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand
Mr. Nhon Dang, an ESL teacher from the Department of Humanities and Languages, Tan Tao University in Long An
In his talk, he touched on challenges in listening that have faced EFL learners, Vietnamese EFL learners included. One way that the learners have used to improve their listening is they turn to YouTube videos available online as Youtube videos offer automatic caption. However, the automatic caption is found inaccurate since the automatic captioning software program sometimes fails to recognize the speakers’ intended words. Also, difficult words and lack of cultural knowledge also challenge the learners in decoding the spoken English. Therefore, it would be ideal to have all the features, namely audio, visual, correct subtitles, annotations, interactive questions and answers in one single technology to facilitate listening comprehension. However, Mr. Nhon said that while we were waiting for a stand-alone technology, one of the possibilities that teachers could do was integrate authoring tools that have such functionalities. After comparing and analyzing common online video players and host webs, he proposed integration between YouTube and Teachem as well as between YoutTube and ESLvideo.com. Participants left equipped with free authoring tools and ways to integrate and use them effortlessly and efficiently. Also, pedagogical implications are provided to help teacher users employ the tools with an expected outcome.