The last 3 weeks, when I could spare a moment, I’ve been learning how to make a Kinetic Typography style video.   I think this technology offers great “power” for contextualizing and presenting language for learners.   For a long number of years – I’ve been a karaoke fan, producing thousands of karaoke files for learners/teachers. Not anymore! It’s going to be all KT. The world moves on and I must with it…..

What is it? – in a nutshell, it is “moving type”. However, it is a lot more. It allows one to control the display of text and even insert images.   Here’s an example.  Or try the original and what started it all – The Girl Effect.

How do you make one? – well it ain’t easy! You’ll need Adobe Illustrator and After Effects and a lot of time! This tutorial and also this one – are both good places to start.  However, many have been made already so you don’t need to make one, just borrow one.

Where do I “borrow” one? Do a search on video sites. But I’ve really done the curation work and have two pages of what I consider the “best” out there.  Go HERE or HERE on EFL Classroom 2.0. Or just search some examples with materials in our video player.  You can even download these examples for use offline (through our supporters A/V player – click the arrow).

How do I teach with this? Well, many of the KT made videos are songs (see my fav. example below with foldem lyric sheet). So use them as you would any song.  Lastonestanding is a great game. As a listening activity (cloze). Etc …..  Also, many of the pre-made KT videos are movie clips. Dialogues from movies. Students could try to reproduce the dialogue and use it as a script to learn the intonation/pause/voicing of the speech.  Give separate videos to different groups and have them perform the dialogue.

Vocabulary/Grammar: Find a video that highlights a grammar point or vocabulary set you are teaching. Use it to illustrate the usage, “in situ”, in action.

For the most part, KT videos will be used as “engagement”. Meaning, at the beginning of a lesson to prime the students minds about a topic and grab their attention.  They work wonders this way – introducing a lesson topic/focus.

This example is over the top! What’s your favorite KT style video?

Ok its alright with me – Eric Hutchinson lyric sheet.

Find more videos like this on EFL CLASSROOM 2.0