Creating Dialogue: Drive and Listen

Drive and Listen is an old favourite amongst teachers. It transcends traditional subject boundaries, making it a versatile tool for interdisciplinary learning. Whether it's combining language learning with geography, social studies with cultural exploration, or creative writing with media literacy, this platform allows educators to create meaningful connections across various subjects.

Drive and Listen takes students on a virtual journey through various cities worldwide, offering a glimpse into different cultures, languages, and lifestyles. By combining visual and auditory stimuli, this tool creates an immersive experience, enabling students to observe and understand the daily lives of people from different regions. Whether it's the bustling streets of New York or the tranquil alleys of Kyoto, students can gain a deeper appreciation for global diversity and develop cultural empathy.

Listening to local radio stations on Drive and Listen offers an opportunity for students to encounter captivating stories, dialogue, interviews, and discussions. These real-life narratives can inspire students to explore their own storytelling abilities and improve their writing skills. By exposing students to diverse voices and perspectives, educators can encourage them to develop a more nuanced understanding of the world and become more effective communicators.

Exploring new cities and regions can be a powerful way to teach geography and social studies. Drive and Listen provides a dynamic visual experience, allowing students to virtually navigate through streets, landmarks, and neighbourhoods. Educators can leverage this tool to illustrate concepts like urbanisation, historical significance, or socio-economic diversity. By integrating Drive and Listen into lessons, teachers can transform abstract concepts into tangible experiences, fostering a deeper understanding of the world.

One practical exercise is to ask your students to choose a location to display on the board at the front of the class. Set up four chairs facing the screen, to represent a car. Ask for volunteers from your class to get into the car. They should then choose their roles.These could for example, take the form of a taxi driver and passengers. The students should decide on the purpose of their journey and start role playing the conversation in the taxi. This could include, talking to the taxi driver, discussing what they are going to do on their holiday or pointing out landmarks that they see on the screen in front of them. A number of other students in the class can act as scribes and write down the dialogue or take note of what can be seen from the car window. What other ideas can you come up with?