BrainPOP ESL coordinates English grammar and vocabulary into cohesive, level-appropriate lessons. Each lesson contains an animated, three-part movie, composed of a story, an introduction to the new vocabulary, and an illustration of the relevant grammar topics. Eight engaging features accompany each movie, accommodating each student from the first steps of English language learning and beyond. The program acknowledges differentiated learning styles as each of the components works to teach a discrete topic, while reinforcing the fundamental concepts taught in the lesson, and continually broadening the English language base. This self-contained program expands the student’s knowledge of grammar and vocabulary in a systematic and linear fashion, constantly building on previously taught elements to reach designated assessable goals.

BrainPOP ESL is the creation of Naomi Prawer Kadar, Ph.D. (1949-2010). Naomi was a dedicated language teacher who received her certification in ESL from the Hebrew University in 1973 and her Ph.D. in Yiddish Children's Literature from Columbia University in 2007. She was a passionate student and teacher of languages for over 40 years. Naomi’s extensive experience as a classroom teacher, curriculum strategist and teacher trainer culminated in her development of BrainPOP ESL.

The program brings together the best of language-learning pedagogy and the most innovative interactive media. At the core of BrainPOP ESL’s approach is the recognition of the needs of the language learner. Sensitive to the importance of contextualized language and content for the new learner, BrainPOP ESL couches its lessons in the familiar exchanges of an often-amusing interpersonal relationship that reflects everyday situations. Idiomatic and cultural nuances are incorporated through animated visuals of endearing characters that model social cues and demonstrate appropriate use of language, enhancing meaning by tapping into the universal appeal of humor.

BrainPOP ESL addresses the needs of divergent learning styles by engaging students on multiple planes. The animated story that begins each lesson presents the new vocabulary and grammar in a contextualized fashion, activating the student’s intuitive comprehension. Following the story, the new words and structures are highlighted, directing the student to the focus of the lesson. The eight additional features help the teacher provide repetition while maintaining a sense of play.

BrainPOP ESL continually challenges students with new material that expands the (learner’s) knowledge base. This paradigm of repetition and expansion, coupled with appropriate content, maintains the students’ comfort zone while constantly moving them forward in the self-paced progression of the learning sequence. In addition, BrainPOP ESL allows for both formal and informal self-assessment by the student, either through You Can Do It! (the quiz), or through fun exercises and games, providing the student a sense of satisfaction and ownership of his own learning process. The assessment tools also assure the teacher and parent of objective means to gauge the student’s progress.

BrainPOP ESL creates a comprehensive language-learning program that employs all the necessary language skills for comprehension—listening, speaking, reading and writing—the building blocks of language. As the student makes progress in language skills, BrainPOP ESL introduces more content-based topics, thus expanding not only comprehension of English but also adding concepts and ideas that, by introducing essential principles for future study, will provide a basis for exploring and understanding the world.

Everyone! BrainPOP ESL is a versatile language-teaching tool that functions as a self-contained ESL curriculum. In the classroom, teachers may use BrainPOP ESL as the core language-learning program or as a supplement to vary an existing course of study. Language learners can utilize BrainPOP ESL in an after-school program or in a customized supervised school setting, and can also work independently at home, for further review. Individual students can benefit from using BrainPOP ESL at home with the help of an adult.

BrainPOP ESL is organized into levels of increasing difficulty. Each level is divided into six units; each unit is comprised of five lessons, four presenting new material, and one review lesson called Flashback! (Only the very first unit has no review lesson.) The Flashback lessons review the grammar presented in the previous lessons, but continue to introduce new vocabulary.

A lesson encompasses a three-part movie and eight features. Each movie is composed of three sections. The movie begins with an animated story featuring Ben and Moby, which integrates new vocabulary and grammar into the conversations of these two friends. The next segment, Words to Know, explains the new vocabulary from each movie, and the last segment, Facts to Know, highlights the grammar points introduced in the movie. During any portion of the movie, the teacher may use the controls at the base of the movie screen, pausing, or repeating a segment for emphasis or additional review. Additionally, at the end of the movie, links appear to each of the segments for ease of repetition of each individual section.

Each lesson is accompanied by eight features, which explore and reinforce the topics introduced in the movie.

Closed captioning is available for all BrainPOP ESL movies, as an aid to hearing impaired learners. It may also be used to benefit students who already know the alphabet, and who wish to read along with the dialogue. This option can be activated as the teacher wishes.