Virtual tour of Stirling Castle
Here's the latest in my series of posts about virtual tours. For our most recent one, I took my students on a trip to Stirling Castle. Because I'm based in Scotland, they had requested something Scottish. Stirling Castle, which is located between Glasgow and Edinburgh, has undergone complete refurbishment at a cost of £12 million. It is a lavish and spectacular building and the interior is a feast for the eyes. It is the ideal location for a virtual tour, as there is so much detail to see and describe.
This virtual tour gave the students reading, listening and speaking practice in a variety of interesting activities in which they were able to experience all that Stirling Castle has to offer in the company of a group. The resource I used can be found at Stirling Castle
After a lead in, where we had a group discussion of any castles we had heard of, or perhaps even visited in Scotland, the students were shown an image of the exterior of Stirling castle and were asked to write any words that came to mind in the chat box.
The students were then shown some introductory information, describing a variety of interesting facts and figures about the castle and its history from the past to the present. Then I stopped sharing the screen and asked them to listen carefully to the questions and race to be the first one to write the correct answer in the chat box. I read out ten simple comprehension checking questions such as: Name a famous queen who lived in Stirling Castle during her childhood (Mary Queen of Scots); How many times did it change hands during the wars of independence? (eight times). The students enjoyed the competitive element and the answers were all quite easy to remember. We then looked again at the information and some new vocabulary was explained to each other.
For the next part of the tour, the students watched a short video where a tour guide was describing the refurbishment project which had been completed at the castle. Before watching, I dictated three gist questions, which were discussed as a group after the viewing. This video gave the students practice in listening to three different accents spoken at a normal rate. This gave an authentic experience, as it is exactly what they would have heard in a face to face tour as a tourist. The students discussed how they had been unable to understand every word of the speakers, had found that they were speaking very fast and had panicked at first. They named the things that had ultimately helped them, such as the pictures, the body language and facial expressions of the speakers, prior knowledge of what was going to be talked about and the realization that they could still get the gist of it. We talked about how this is important in everyday life and how we frequently do not need to understand or hear every word to know what is going on and to participate in a discussion.
For the final part of our virtual tour the students read the names and saw pictures of some of the highlights of Stirling Castle, such as Queen Anne Gardens and The Great Kitchens. They each chose a different highlight that appealed to them individually (there are eleven to choose from) and read the information to prepare a summary to tell the rest of the group. The link was shared in the chat box and the students were given some time to work on their own. They were told to type any unknown or interesting words in the chat box for us to have a look at afterwards. This was successful, as it involved lots of discussion as well as many new words, such as scavenging, bustling, straw-colored and burial.
I would really recommend this venue for a virtual tour . The students not only increased their English skills but were also able to learn many interesting and important fact about Scottish history. They were told that they should look again at the website and explore some of the other fascinating pages.
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