Ryan Spring (ATEM East, Tohoku University)

There is a YouTube channel called “As Easy As Pie.” It has a nice collection of various phrases and idiomatic expressions that appear in popular American and British TV shows. Each video contains an explanation of what the phrase or idiomatic expression means and then shows at least one clip from a television show where it is being used in context. Some video contain multiple examples. This channel is potentially useful for use either in the classroom (i.e., showing specific examples to students) or for guided study outside of the classroom. Students could also use the channel for self-study, as it includes definitions, explanations, and practical examples of the phrases and expressions in use. 
Here are the benefits and drawbacks to this particular channel:
Benefits:
1. Being a YouTube channel, you can search for specific phrases or expressions WITHIN the channel. Any videos will follow the same easy-to-use format. 2. There are a wide range of phrases and expressions.3. There are explanations, definitions, and practical examples created from authentic video materials 
Drawbacks:1. The channel has a limited number of phrases and expressions, so teachers may have to plan their lessons/quizzes/etc. around what exists on the channel.
2. There is no way to add your own
Overall, this can be a powerful tool either for encouraging students to study, or to provide easy to understand examples when one of the phrases or expressions that you want to teach appears within the channel. Here is the channel link:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfG86_GaWYrGZlj05TArkrg

An interesting future study could be to link this to corpus studies, or to create our own ATEM channel that would be based on the expressions and phrases that we think are important or that might supplement or compliment this channel.