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LoMasTV -
Learn Spanish by watching Spanish TV in an online video player designed for language learners.
This is an incredible site that I stumbled across about a year ago and decided to get a trial subscription. I love it because it is the best online immersion program I have found. Everything is by native speakers and the videos are rated for difficulty level and labeled with the country of origin. There are music videos, lessons, commercials, clips from TV shows, etc.There are free demos available, and if you like it, you can subscribe on a monthly basis for around ten dollars. There is no contract or commitment for individual users.
If you want to use this wonderful program with your classes, I recommend their YABLA version, which is specifically for students through grade twelve. They basically do not give access to any videos with any questionable content.
Yabla.com
This is the Spanish version. However, you can also sign up for German, French, Italian and English.
Yabla is the same as LoMas TV, but it is edited for K-12 use. In other words, they have eliminated the videos with any questionable content.
With Yabla, you can get a school subscription and the price goes down according to the number of students signed up. This year, I have 160 students. I collected ten dollars per student for the year and that covered it.
I personally assign two videos per week. It is the beginning of the school year and for my Spanish II students I am still mostly sticking with level one (difficulty rating) videos and for Spanish III, level two. I have found some inconsistencies in the rating system, however. Sometimes I find the video is much harder than they perceive it to be. I like to assign one music video and one lesson (check out "aula azul"). I set the points at 300. I find it takes them much longer to do than what Yabla estimates.
While I do not have any concrete data to support my findings, I observe an increase in comprehension and speaking ability. I have noticed less resistance when I lead a discussion in Spanish, and when I vary the subject matter they are able to follow. My students come up with little sayings they have learned from the videos and they talk about their favorites.
I am very happy incorporating this tool into my curriculum. I predict that it will help students score higher on the National Spanish Exam listening section.
