English Language Project

English Language ProjectWelcome to Next Vista's English Language Project! We are working to build a collection of hundreds of very short videos to supplement the language learning efforts of people around the globe.

Most videos are a minute or less and are grouped by topic, with each video covering a vocabulary term connected to that topic. Each video also has a subtitled partner, as we believe many will want first to practice listening while they read the subtitles, before moving to the versions without subtitles to develop their ear for the terms and sentences.

Some sets are more appropriate for younger learners, and others are more appropriate for adults. Within some sets, videos are divided into easier and harder versions, and it should be noted that they are relative to each other, and not aligned to levels of difficulty with other sets.

If you are interested in helping develop this collection, please let us know via our contact form. More information on how to help is further down this page.

Sets

These are the sets we have posted so far. If there are specific sets you would like to see, please let us know.

Examples

Some sets are geared toward older students studying in colleges or adults focused on developing a more sophisticated vocabulary. This video from our Discussion Terms set is a good example:

Other sets are for students who are newer to learning the language. This video from our Days of the Week set is an example:

Helping Build the Library

The development of these videos requires several steps, any or all of which can be done by individuals or teams focused on helping with the effort.

Vocabulary Sets and Scripts

We need topics with lists of words, and scripts for each word. These scripts are typically three to five sentences, and must be free of any grammar or punctuation errors. The easiest ways to share these with us are via email or a shared Google Doc.

Visuals

The videos are made using simple visuals, such as artwork, photos, or footage. Any photos or other media not created by the one making the video must be Creative Commons-licensed and cited. We use the following model for citations:

name of work
by name of person responsible for the work
from name of website
CC info

For example, this photo from Flickr would be cited at the end of a video in this fashion:

Road
by bhisawa
from Flickr
CC by-nc-sa 2.0

It is best for those making the videos to identify when some or all of the visuals are the work of the video maker. A sentence such as, "All photos by ." is an acceptable way of doing this.

Videos

Because these videos are designed to help those with a limited grasp of English, it is important that other audio (music or ambient sounds) not interfere with one's ability to hear what is said clearly.

Additionally, please try to make all subtitles in the subtitled versions of videos easy to read. This means choosing the color of text carefully relative to the background, having the text be large enough, and keeping the text stay on the screen as long as possible.

We expect that the majority of videos we consider for this collection will not be ready when we first review them, and ask that you be prepared for feedback we provide to improve your piece before we can post it.

Support This Project

We welcome your support of this effort to help English language learners around the world, either by taking part in building the library as described above, or through a financial donation via our PayPal account, below.

Comments or Questions

It is our hope that the video sets in this collection will be helpful to many people in many different settings. We welcome feedback and ideas, so if you have any thoughts to share with us, please submit them via our contact form.

Thank you for your interest in Next Vista and this project!