Video in the Classroom

The Magic Window

If you look out of the window of your classroom, you can see the world outside with people moving around. You cannot enter the world you see through the window, because the window glass creates a barrier. Video provides a magic window in your classroom which allows you to choose and control the image seen through the glass.

Young children have a remarkable skill to understand situations even when they do not understand all the language used. This visual comprehension skill, which is so strong in young children, tends to weaken as linguistic comprehension becomes more important in our lives. When our students enter the world of the foreign language, they need to become children again. We need to re-activate the childhood visual comprehension skill. Video technology provides a valuable medium for re-activating visual comprehension skills.

Visual comprehension

If we look at a situation, we can see:

·         the number of people involved

·         the age and gender of the people

·         from their clothes, we can estimate the wealth, power and possibly the role of each person

·         from their clothes, we can also guess the time of year and the climate

·         from their position – standing, sitting or lying, etc. – we can estimate the relationship between the people

·         their proximity (closeness) to each other will also be a clue to their relationship

·         from what they are holding or carrying, we can guess what they are doing or going to do

·         from their way in which they move, their gestures and facial expressions, we can guess the mood of each individual

·         from the setting (e.g. a clothes shop, a bank, a kitchen, a police station, a tennis court, a mountainside) we can begin to guess what they might be talking about

·         If we can also hear their voices, we can guess their mood – angry, happy, bored, tired, sick or healthy

·         from their intonation, we can probably guess if they are asking questions, giving answers, apologising, explaining, persuading, denying, expressing affection or sympathy, etc.

·         if one person is speaking much more than the other, this will also be a clue to their relationship at that time

This is a long list, but I include it to illustrate how much we can understand before we have understood a single word of what they are saying. This is the magic of video.

The skills of the non-native speaker

A non-native speaker, in the world of the foreign language, needs to be able to read all the non-linguistic information which is available in order to make up for their lack of proficiency in comprehending the foreign language. The students we teach are, and always will be, non-native speakers of English. They need these child-like skills of understanding situations by reading non-linguistic information.

During my career I have visited and worked in more than sixty different countries. I am not an expert on foreign languages, but I have learned to be a very good non-native speaker.

To be a good non-native speaker, you have to learn to observe, listen and speculate about conversations which you do not understand, or only partially understand. You also have to learn that your speculations may be incorrect. You also need to learn not to switch off when the foreign language is being used. You should continue to listen carefully, smile at suitable moments and, through your gestures, show that you are interested and friendly.

How does video help non-native speakers?

Video brings foreign language situations into the classroom. By asking appropriate questions, the teacher can guide their students to read the non-linguistic information described above. In this way, the teacher can guide the students to observe, listen and speculate.

If students use these skills, they will start the work of linguistic comprehension with a lot of ideas already in their brains. They will discover that they can understand much more than they would from the language alone.

If we compare video and audio recordings, we can quickly see that video comprehension is much easier than listening comprehension because, with video, we are listening with our eyes.

Different types of video material

1)      Tailor-made video drama: Some coursebooks have tailor-made video dramas, usually presented in short, 4 minute episodes which tell a story involving a small group of characters. These videos often have a workbook of exploitation exercises. The script for these dramas will be linked to the syllabus of the coursebook but will take students beyond what they have learned in their classroom lessons. When using these video dramas, we should encourage our students to see the characters as new friends. When we meet new friends for the first time, we will know very little about them. When we meet for the second time, we will already have the experience of the first meeting. During the third meeting, we have the experience of the two previous meetings. As we develop a relationship with the characters, comprehension becomes easier because we bring so much previous knowledge to the situation. The typical stages of a lesson using an episode from a video drama could be:

a.       Rapid review of the episodes so far. The teacher would probably do this by asking questions to elicit ideas and language from the students.

b.      Silent viewing of the new episode with questions which focus on visual information and encourage students to speculate on the language they will hear.

c.       First viewing of the whole exercise with sound, followed by questions on gist comprehension of the episode.

d.      Intensive viewing/listening of a key scene, perhaps giving students a gapped version of the video script to be completed. We might also ask students to act out the scene when they have completed the dialogue.

e.      Second viewing of the entire episode with sound, followed by questions highlighting cultural or other aspects of the episode.

f.        Discussion about how the episode might be different if …

                                                               i.      characters made different decisions

                                                             ii.      characters were in the students’ home culture

                                                            iii.      characters were older or younger or of a different gender, etc.

g.       Questions which the students would ask the characters

h.      Third viewing of the entire episode with sound, followed by any remaining comprehension questions.

i.         Quiz view watch the episode and find six objects beginning with ‘t’, or three animals, or four types of food

j.        Silent listening: by this stage the students will almost have memorised the dialogue, so invite them to watch the episode again, without sound, and hear the dialogue in their heads

k.       Role-play writing: ask the students to write the diary of one of the characters, or a letter to another character, describing what happened during the episode and how the character felt about it.

2)       Tailor-made documentary video: these videos are usually about aspects of culture; food, sports, schools, holidays, history, geography, etc. The language of the video script is simplified and speech patterns will be slightly slower than in authentic videos. Once again, there should be a video workbook with the video. Lessons will involve Before Watching activities, While Watching activities and After Watching activities.

a)      Before watching tasks will focus on introducing the topic and possibly teaching some key language items. The aim will be to re-activate the students’ knowledge of the topic and arouse their curiosity before they view the section. Many teachers will give students a list of questions which will be answered by the video. This can be a long list, with groups of students each focusing on one or two questions. This is a useful technique because the documentary videos are often very rich in content. After the first viewing each group will share their understanding with the whole class.

b)      While watching tasks will focus on language or information within the video. As with video dramas, they might include gapped extracts from the commentary or dialogue for completion.

c)       After watching tasks may include further reading on the topic or writing activities. Many teachers like students to relate the topic to their own culture and possibly prepare presentations or short videos describing their own lives.

3)       Authentic video: TV extracts: when students are exposed to authentic video, they will usually find the language is faster, less clear and more complex than the audio recordings with their coursebook. This presents students with a considerable challenge. Teachers should ensure that their comprehension questions focus first, on visual information, and then lead the students towards a gist comprehension of the whole sequence. Beware of focusing on details before building this gist comprehension.

4)      Authentic video: Movie extracts: Students may already have seen these movies dubbed into their mother tongue so they can bring this experience to their comprehension. They may be shocked to hear the authentic accents of the actors. When we use movie extracts, the main focus of the lesson is usually on events rather than language. Movies are a valuable source of cultural information and usually prompt useful discussions.

5)      Authentic video: Interviews: These are often the most challenging video comprehension tasks because an interview provides the student with very little visual information to support their linguistic comprehension. It is usually a good idea to spend some time reviewing the ideas and language of the topic before students attempt to comprehend the video. Interviews used in English language classes are of two different kinds: Simple questions followed by short answers – often not complete sentences, or questions which lead to long, complex, multi-sentence answers. This second type of interview is usually only used with upper intermediate or advanced learners.

Exploiting video

It is a mistake to use video materials only for comprehension. Good video will build the students’ competence and confidence in understanding spoken English, but will also be an important stimulus for speaking and writing. With the new technology in the classroom and in the hands of students, they can not only view video from many different sources but also make their own videos in English to share with their friends.

Author: Nick Dawson

Courtesy: US Embassy

Collected by: Mr. P. K. Jayaraj & R. Gangadhar, RIESI, Bengaluru