Introducing Lingopie - Use TV & Movies to Level Up Your Students’ Learning

Lingopie: engaging pop culture content you can use to teach. Photo by Ketut Subiyanto.

As language teachers and tutors, the fact that 1.5 billion people are actively learning languages these days is exciting news. However, it also raises the bar for us to deliver truly engaging and effective instruction that resonates with today's learners.

Gone are the days when basic vocabulary drills and textbook dialogues about ordering at a cafe or meeting new people sufficed. Our students are now more eager to experience authentic communication - the real-world slang, humor, and cultural nuances that make language learning genuinely engaging.

So, how can we give our students that immersive, culture-rich experience? Well, the solution might be closer than you think: Engaging pop culture content like TV shows and movies!

Imagine the excitement of your Spanish students as they analyze slang from 'Money Heist', or your English class improving listening skills through 'The Big Bang Theory'. Exciting, isn’t it?

That's where Lingopie steps in! 

Lingopie offers an extensive library of authentic video content from popular shows and movies in different languages, transforming it into interactive lessons with advanced tools to customize learning and monitor progress. 

And the best part? Integrating this powerful platform into your language lessons is incredibly simple. Read on below to find out more!

How Teachers Can Use Lingopie In Their Lessons

With Lingopie's comprehensive library of authentic multimedia content, language teachers have an incredible resource to create truly immersive and engaging lessons. The platform provides a vast array of foreign TV shows, films, and music videos - content that native speakers themselves enjoy. This includes titles from major platforms like Netflix as well as exclusive Lingopie Exclusives across 10 languages: Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and English.

By tapping into this rich selection of culturally relevant videos, you can expose your students to natural language use, expressions, slang, and the real contexts in which every word and phrase is spoken. To help you get started, below are some ways to integrate Lingopie into your lessons.

Use Video Clips for Warmup Activities

One effective way to utilize Lingopie is by incorporating short video clips from popular shows and movies as warm-up activities. These bite-sized clips can serve as attention-grabbing hooks to activate students' prior knowledge and provide context for the day's lesson. 

For example, before a Spanish class on making polite requests, you can log in to your Lingopie account and show a scene from the hit series Cable Girls where characters are politely interacting. Depending on the level you’re teaching, you can also adjust the playback speed of the scene as needed. 

While watching the clip, have students discuss what they understood from it and identify any new vocabulary words or expressions. Not only does this engage learners right from the start, but it also exposes them to how native speakers speak and authentic language usage in context.

Build Lessons Around Specific Scenes 

Go beyond just using clips as warm-ups by planning entire units that analyze language usage in a few key scenes from shows or movies. For example, if teaching the subjunctive mood in Spanish, find an emotionally charged argument scene from the popular series Money Heist. Play the scene for students, using Lingopie's interactive transcripts on the right side of the screen to follow along with the subtitles in both languages. Pause at key moments to dissect how and why the subjunctive tense is being used to express emotions, hypotheticals, or uncertainties.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio.

If your students have their own Lingopie account, they can also click on sentences in the transcripts to see word-for-word translations and get instant Grammar Coach explanations about the grammatical structures. This immersive method turns each compelling scene into an engaging micro-lesson. 

Assign Movies Or TV Show Episodes for Homework 

Keep students motivated and accountable by assigning them to watch full movies or TV show episodes on Lingopie for homework. For example, have your German students watch an episode of the popular historical drama The Empress. As they watch with Lingopie's dual subtitles, new vocabulary words automatically get added to their personalized video-based flashcard decks for review.

Students can click on any subtitle line to see word-for-word translations, making it easy to decipher context and commit new terms to memory. After watching, they'll be prompted to take a quiz, to track learned words. 

Facilitate Cultural Immersion 

The best reason to use Lingopie is that it enables you to go beyond surface-level lessons by using popular shows and movies as launchpads into the rich cultures behind the languages. For example, assign students to watch an episode of the global phenomenon Squid Game while taking note of the idioms, colloquial phrases, and manner in which characters express themselves. Pause at key moments to analyze not just the literal meanings, but the deeper cultural implications and societal norms portrayed through the dialogue and character interactions.

Have students discuss questions like: 

• What do these expressions suggest about Korean values or customs? 

• How do the mannerisms and communication styles differ from your own culture? 

Guiding this analysis will help learners recognize that language and culture are inextricably linked - the way something is said often has deeper roots in traditions, beliefs, and ways of thinking.

Create Multimedia Viewing Guides 

To ensure students are actively engaged while watching videos on Lingopie, design interactive multimedia viewing guides. These guides combine the platform's authentic video content with a variety of supporting activities to structure and enhance the viewing experience.

For example, you can include:

• Priming questions to activate prior knowledge before watching

• Comprehension questions to check understanding at certain timestamps

• Pausing prompts to analyze cultural references or slang usage

• Post-viewing exercises like writing summaries or discussions

These purposefully crafted guides transform passive video-watching into an actively immersive experience. Students are consistently prompted to engage with the language and content in meaningful ways. Plus, you can use the guides to seamlessly incorporate formative assessments throughout.

Build Confidence Through Live Practice

After studying vocabulary and grammar concepts through engaging video content, students can reinforce their skills in Lingopie's LIVE virtual classrooms led by native-speaking instructors. These small group settings provide a safe environment for learners to practice conversing, ask questions, and receive personalized feedback in real time.

In addition to classes, students can continue honing their skills through Lingopie's lively Discord server connecting language learners from around the world. Here they can meet fellow students, join study groups based on interests or levels, and even connect with native speakers willing to practice conversations.

Over To You

Entertainment and technology are big parts of our daily lives, so it’s time for language learning to catch up. As we’ve learned in this article, Lingopie is leading this change by making it fun and engaging to learn with its unique approach to teaching languages.

So why stick to boring, old-school ways of teaching a foreign language? Grab some popcorn, get comfy, and see for yourself how Lingopie can transform your classes today! 

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto.