You may know that there are more than 600 long-form videos in Ellii's Media Gallery, but were you aware that we also have a lot of short-form videos? We recently released our 150th short on Ellii's social media channels and app, so what better time to discuss how you can make use of all this bite-sized content in class?

Where can I find Ellii's shorts?

YouTube

Have you seen Ellii's YouTube channel for students? We post weekly shorts on YouTube—usually one or two per week. We make shorts on all kinds of topics, including grammar, vocabulary, idioms, phrasal verbs, pronunciation, listening, and speaking.

Go to the Shorts tab from our home page (or just click on the following image) to see them all.

We also have our long-form videos organized by playlists on our channel, as well as a community posts area where we regularly pose questions to students about grammar, vocabulary, idioms, etc.

In case you missed it, we also have a YouTube channel for teachers!

Instagram

We also regularly post reels to our Instagram channel for students, @elliienglish. Reels are often shared as stories as well so that students can easily find our new content.

Go to the Reels tab on our home page to view them all.

Looking for our Instagram account for teacher? Find it here: @esllibrary

Ellii Solo/English App

Did you know we have a self-study add-on to Ellii called Ellii Solo that schools or libraries can purchase for pre-enrollment programs or computer labs? We also have a self-study app (called English App) that students can purchase on their own. Both Ellii Solo and English App offer mini-courses, study packs, and a vocabulary bank for self-study along with videos and shorts for extra learning.

Once you're inside the app (when using Ellii Solo or English App), go to Videos on the bottom menu, and then select "View all" to scroll through our library of shorts.

How can I use Ellii's shorts in class?

Now that you know where to find them, what can you do with them in class? Here are a few ideas you could use them for:

1. Introduce or review a target

Use a related short as a fun introduction to a grammar, vocabulary, or pronunciation target or to do a quick review of it the next day. For example, if you're about to start a unit on Travel English, you could use our Airport Vocabulary short to introduce the topic and elicit vocabulary. You could also assign it as homework.

Curious how you can search for the topic you want? Never fear! We'll cover how to search for a specific topic in the next section of this post.

2. Expand on a target

No matter what skill you're teaching, we probably have a short (or five) that expands on that topic. For example, if you're teaching your students how to pronounce the /m/ sound, you could use our short comparing the three nasal sounds to see if they can distinguish /m/ from the other nasal sounds in English.

3. Answer questions that come up in class

We often cover tricky topics such as commonly confused words or grammar exceptions in our shorts. We all know students love asking the tough questions about exceptions to a rule, so why not answer these in a fun, visual way? Check out this example that compares "compliment" and "complement."

4. Use shorts as a basis for a pair activity or presentation topic

Get your students to scroll through our shorts for homework and pick one that they didn't know about. The next day, have them teach a partner, group, or even the whole class about what they've learned. After all, the best way to learn something really well is to teach it! Here's an example with "prefer" and "rather" that would work well as a presentation topic.

5. Use them to keep faster students from getting bored

In any class, there will always be students who complete an assignment more quickly than others. Having them watch shorts while they wait for their peers to finish up is a fun, engaging task they'll enjoy. If they don't have earbuds or headphones at hand, you can have them mute the audio because all of our shorts have closed captions on YouTube and Instagram. (Captions on our app and Ellii Solo are coming soon!)

For example, they might enjoy this popular short on "especially" and "specially."

6. Use them for extra practice

Shorts are also great for extra practice on a topic a student is struggling with or is asking about. For example, if a student keeps making mistakes with articles, you could have them watch one or all of our shorts on articles.

7. Use them as a review before teaching

Sometimes we all need a little refresher, especially when it comes to more advanced grammar targets. Our shorts might even inspire you to teach or present something in a new way. As an example, here's a good way to teach students how to use "however" in writing.

Can I search through Ellii's shorts by topic/target?

If you want students to do one short per day or random shorts during a study break, there may be no need to search for a specific topic. But if you're looking for quick teaching tips on something specific, such as a particular pronunciation or grammar target, what's the best way to search through Ellii's shorts?

The easiest way is to use our student YouTube channel. Instagram doesn't show titles, which makes searching more difficult (though we've tried our best to make the topic clear in the thumbnails). And though there are filters on English App/Ellii Solo for long videos, our shorts are not filtered just yet (that's coming in a later phase, though). That's why YouTube is your best bet for search, followed by Instagram.

YouTube

To search for a topic on YouTube, go to our channel's home page and look for the search bar in the tabs on the home page (below the banner). Enter your keywords there, and YouTube will display results only from our channel. Don't be confused by the main search bar at the top of the page (above the banner)—that search will give you results from all of YouTube, not just Ellii.

Instagram

While you can't search for a specific target as well as you can on YouTube, you can filter by general topic (grammar, pronunciation, idioms, etc.) in the highlights area on Ellii's Instagram page. Within these highlights are all our reels from 2025 grouped by topic that you can quickly flip through or watch one after the other. Note that the story highlight cuts off after a certain amount of time, but you can select "watch full reel" within any story to see the whole thing.

Conclusion

With Ellii's short-form videos, you have a lot of quick and easily digestible content at your fingertips. We hope our shorts and reels will be useful for both you and your students!

How have you used Ellii's shorts in class? Share your experience with us in a comment below, or let us know if there's a target you'd like us to cover in a short. We love taking requests!