Little Charo

[jim]

I've been given a DVD of the NHK kids educational show "Little Charo" and asked to find ways of incorporating it into lessons.

On one hand, it may be useful as listening is one area that I think I should feature more in my lessons, but my school is a (nearly) all male Technical SHS of 16-18 year olds. The students are quite low level in their English but to be honest I'm worried I'd be patronising them by showing them an elementary school TV show.

Has anyone used this show in class before? I'd be especially keen to hear from anyone who has used it with older kids.

[Antonath]

I've never used it, but the trick might be to present it in a satire or parody way. When I was at high school, me and my friends used to watch kids TV all the time during our free periods, taking the piss out of it. Encourage them to comment on it, rather than just sit and watch in silence. Get the class clowns doing impressions, pointing out the obvious "plot" twists, etc. That way they'll be looking forward to seeing it, and listening closely for the next thing they can comment on.

[Siyris]

I haven't used a show as a teaching method, though when I was in high school and was learning Spanish, we did watch children's shows to learn -- veggietales, disney, etc -- because they speak more slowly and clearly and are easier to understand in a second language.

That said, if you're worried about using a show that your students might recognize, you might try asking your school if it would be okay to use a kids show from your home country for the same purpose.... Dora the Explorer, or Sesame Street... some kids show used for preschoolers in your home country.

[Eigen]

I wouldn't worry too much, we use Charo in our academic SHS every week. It's used across all the competency levels, but we primarily use it in the advanced grade 2/3 LL classes. It's surprisingly fun to watch! And beats the heck out of reading from a book.

It might actually be awesome for classes with lower comprehension as the book and accompanying quizzes or papers you can get with it are very easy to understand and follow, and maybe watching a movie or tv is the avenue some need to focus on English more. I always loved movies in high school, regardless of the content, purely because then I wouldn't have to study King Lear or Macbeth. *grin*

[jim]

So you can get specific activities to accompany it? That would make my job a lot easier doeas anyone know where to get them? My school has all the DVDs in a rather stylish boxset but no workbooks etc.

[NiigataPAKatrina]

It might seem childish, but I know several adults who are interested in studying English who watch it. A few have even said it's their favorite show. It may seem childish, but perhaps they will still find it interesting. Also, I've seen it once or twice on TV late at night, so I'm not entirely sure it's a kids' show.

[nisenihonjin]

While I really dislike the Little Charo storyline (the plotl is ridiculously corny and I really dislike the over-used-and-cheesy "believe in yourself and you can do anything" moral), it has good low-to-mid level English. I use it with my adult eikaiwa students and they seem to love it. So as long as you can get over the sometimes nauseating dialogue I'd say go for it!

[jim]

Cheers for the replies.

The only problem is we don't have any of the accompanying workbooks / study materials at school, and I can't seem to explain this to my supervisor without a bit of confusion. does anyone know where I can find these materials online?