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Karen's Linguistics Issues, November

2006 | Previous Months

Using Video in the EFL Classroom

by Dr. Samir M. Rammal

Assistant Professor of English, Department of Languages & Translation, Birzeit University, Palestine

CDELT 25th Annual Symposium, April 12-13, 2005

Ein-Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

This research project provides teachers of English as Foreign Language (EFL) with

insights into developing materials and teaching methods that can be incorporated and thus

practically implemented in their classrooms. Emphasis will be on approaching the identity

and culture of the native speakers of English through diverse authentic teaching materials.

Video has been proven to be an effective method in teaching English as a foreign/second

language (EFL/ESL) for both young and adult learners. Video can be used in a variety of

instructional settings - in classrooms, on distance-learning sites where information is

broadcast to learners who interact with the facilitator via video or computer, and in self-

study and evaluation situations. It can also be used in the teacher’s personal and

professional development or with students as a way of presenting content, initiating

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conversations, and providing illustrations for various concepts. Teachers and students can

always create their own videotapes as content for the class or as a means to assess learners’

performance.

In this project, I have videotaped a number of situations which foreign students are

expected to use to communicate with native speakers. These include opening a bank

account, mailing materials at the post office, asking for directions, lining up for lunch in

the college dining room, and talking to a professor. These “slices of living language”, as

Lonegan (1992) calls them, can be brought into the EFL classroom with the help of video

equipment to teach language and cultural concepts that are usually associated with it, both

verbally and non-verbally, in a real communicative setting.

Stempleski (1987) states that, “a rich and exciting source of video software for EFL/ESL

classes is authentic material.” Authentic video material, especially that which represents

what goes on in a non ELT environment, designed for its entertaining value rather than

language teaching, is a rich and exciting source of video software for instruction in English

as a second language (ESL) classroom.

Using the aforementioned situations, I have devised a language teaching lesson with

activities aimed at helping EFL learners get oriented both in language use and in cross-

cultural interactions with native speakers of English. The lesson and the accompanying

activities are intended to improve EFL learners’ communicative language skills (i.e.,

listening, speaking, reading, and writing). Finally, by using the videotaped segments, I aim

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at focusing on developing the learners’ fluency in the process of language acquisition in a

natural ongoing day-to-day interaction with native speakers.

Method:

In order to create effective teaching materials to be implemented in the EFL classroom by

using video equipment, I adopted the following method, taking into account three factors

including: language, content, and production (Sherman, 2003).

1. As a basic step in the creation process of the teaching material, I acquainted

myself with the video equipment. For example, I studied the functions of the

hardware, and then practiced using it for some time until I got used to it.

2. I asked a native-speaker colleague to help me complete this task by playing

the major role in most of the videotaped segments.

3. I explained, in advance, the purpose of the videotaping to the people who

were directly involved in the actual shooting process, and obtained prior

permission in each situation from those people.

4. I videotaped short segments that could be viewed and reviewed so as to allow

longer time for students’ classroom activities and participation.

5. I focused on the language, content, and production so as to meet the

objectives of the project. For example, I chose situations whose medium was

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“transferable to real life situations, which students are likely to come across”

(Stempleki, 1987). In order to make it real, I chose native-to-native interaction.

Moreover, I asked the actors involved to speak at a considerable speed and

natural enough to be easily understood by students who were going to use this

teaching material. Finally, I also asked the characters to maintain pauses in the

course of the dialogue. This would give the students enough time to

comprehend the language patterns that they were expected to use in classroom

activities.

As for the content, I tried to choose situations whose content was of great value and interest to

the students. Besides this, the content was also chosen to project some cultural aspects of the

native speaker’s life that was of interest to the EFL learner. Finally, I realized that I had very

little experience with the camcorder, but I tried to produce clear, steady, and focused picture

and sound in each of the segments.

Objectives:

This project aims to achieve the following:

1. Videotape authentic material representing non-EFL environments to give examples of

particular language functions in operation. These are situations that EFL learners are likely to

encounter through their day-to-day socio-cultural interaction with native speakers of English.

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2. Intrinsically motivate students by presenting authentic language interaction, providing

an authentic look at the culture, aiding comprehension, and providing students with a

medium such as the videotaped situations that I chose for this purpose.

3. Expose, as explicitly as possible, the nonverbal components of the language (i.e. body

language) or what is technically called language paralinguistic features.

4. Develop the concept of ‘acculturation’ and the pragmatic rule of the ethnography of

speaking that go hand-in-hand along with the explicit verbal message a native speaker employs

in language interaction.

5. Teach English in EFL classes by designing lessons and activities that students will

implement as individuals or in groups, with the aim of developing their language competence and

performance, and to use English, perhaps, in similar situations to those included in each videotaped

segment. Once we implement the videotaped material with the above-mentioned objectives, we

will provide students with opportunities to practice using the language skills in an authentic

communicative setting.

Rationale

The project serves a two-fold purpose: (1) the pedagogic, and (2) the pragmatic. It also

incorporates English language teaching with the teaching of cultural values that an EFL

learner is likely to encounter once s/he is stationed in an English native speaking

environment. Thus the following justifications have been incorporated into this project:
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1. Using video material in a non-English Language Teaching (ELT) environment can

motivate students. They will undergo a special experience of real feelings of

accomplishment when they understand what is going on in a situation where native speakers

use English. Thus, an EFL learner will realize that “with a bit of extra effort and practice,

along with some help from the teacher, ‘real English’ is not beyond their comprehension”

(Stempleski, 1987).

2. Videotaped material in a non-ELT environment presents real language. The

language is real in the sense that native speakers use it in real daily life interaction.

Therefore, the EFL learner is exposed to language use in a communicative setting from

which s/he can learn the real spoken discourse including sounds, and utterances, and their

underlying messages, which are, in most cases, hinted at through the non-verbal explanatory

body language.

3. Viewing provides the learner with an aesthetic look at the culture. Through

viewing native speakers in real language interaction, the EFL learner is exposed to the

cultural aspects that accompany language use in communicative settings.

4. Using videotaped material facilitates better comprehension of the intended

messages. Besides this, it provides an authentic pattern which, when carefully copied by

EFL learners, can save them any kind of embarrassment while communicating with people

from the target culture. Moreover, it is obvious that visual clues clarify the meaning since

the speaker is going to use language patterns both verbally and non-verbally.

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Lesson Plan and Classroom Activities

Milli Fanzy of Kentucky Educational Television (KET, 1999) suggests that teachers should

think of using as a three-part lesson, including pre-viewing, viewing, and post-viewing

activities.

 Before presenting the video, the teacher must engage the learners’ interest in

what they will be doing, and prepare them to do it successfully.

 While learners view the video, the teacher should remain in the classroom

with the learners to observe their reactions and see what they do not

understand, what they are intrigued by, and what bothers them.

 After the viewing, the teacher should review and clarify complex points,

encourage discussion, explain, and assign follow-up activities.

 It is also important to ensure the suitability, length, clarity, and completeness

of the videotaped material. Tomalin (1991: 50) believes that “the ideal video

clip … tells a complete story or section of a story”.

The videotaped material that I produced can be used to teach an EFL sixty-minute lesson.
The following are suggested activities that can cover the class duration at beginning and
intermediate EFL levels.

Previewing Activity

A. Rationale:

A previewing activity is meant to acquaint students with the material that they are going to

view and facilitate easier and better comprehension, thus achieving successful results in

language teaching. Consequently, the teacher may design this activity to help students with
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their language skills. Indeed, it is obvious for both the teacher and students to work

cooperatively, deliberately, and simultaneously with the intention of developing the four

skills (Dublin & Olshtain, 1991).

B. Procedure:

Use the following sample brainstorming questions and hints about what students expect to

view:

Teacher: What are we going to do now? (Fixing video equipment)

Student 1: I think we’re going to watch a video.

Teacher: Good, what would you do when you lose your way?

Student 2: I use a map.

Teacher: O.K. But what if you don’t have a map?

Student 3: I’ll ask somebody in the street.

Teacher: Very good. Now we’re going to watch a woman asking somebody in the

street to find her way. Please, watch and listen carefully as the next activity

going to be based on the videotaped material.

(The teacher half-darkens the classroom, turns on the TV and video equipment, plays the

first segment while everybody

watches and listens carefully).

While-viewing Sample Activity:

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(Sound off) Teacher asks these questions:

1. Where does this conversation take place?

2. Who do you think the woman is?

3. What do you think is she looking for?

4. Where do you think the man is going?

Post-viewing Sample Activity:

(Sound and Picture)

Circle the correct number. Your answers should be based on the viewing and listening:

a) The man was… 1. angry 2. pleased 3. cooperative

4. in hurry

b) The man looked… 1. old 2. young 3. middle-aged

4. sick

c) The woman was… 1. polite 2. smiling 3.

panting 4. scared

d) The questions were 1. direct 2. formal 3.

informal 4. funny

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While-viewing Activity:

The teacher plays the video again and asks the students to work on the following ‘while-

viewing’ activity:

While viewing and listening to the following segment, please write the

directions that will help the woman find her way to the place she is asking

about. It is preferable to draw a sketch to the destination on a sheet of

paper.

Post-viewing Discussion Group Activity:

After the students have already viewed and listened to the segment, the teacher will ask

them to sit in groups of four or five and discuss their reaction to the man’s and woman’s

interaction. For example, they can discuss the woman’s behavior when she stopped the man

to ask for directions. Was her behavior culturally and linguistically appropriate? How did

the man react? Was he helpful? What verbal and non-verbal language behaviors were

employed? Etc.

Post-viewing Activity: Writing Task

The teacher can ask his students to write an outline description of the man’s and woman’s

use of phrases in the course of the interaction. For instance, what polite expressions,

compliments, and accompanying non-verbal gestures are expected to be employed in

similar situations?

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Post-viewing Activity: Writing Task Combined with Role-Playing

The teacher can ask two students to role-play similar situations to the ones they have just

viewed and simultaneously the rest of the class to write down an outline direction like the

one presented in the video segment.

Video material can be a very useful source and asset for the language teaching-learning process because it

combines both fun and pedagogic instructions in authentic material that reflect real interaction. By employing

videotaped material, teachers can always create an indefinite number of language teaching activities. The

devised activities above are mere examples based on one short segment and each focuses on a different

language skill that EFL students need to acquire.

Stempleski and Tomalin (1989) point out a recent trend in the use of the medium to stimulate oral and written

communication among students. Another trend in the use of video language teaching, readily apparent to

anyone who has surveyed the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) annual convention

programs since 1986, is the use of authentic material - video and television material designed for entertainment

rather than for language teaching. Likewise, articles on video in second language teaching reflect a central

concern with the use of authentic material (Brinton & Gaskill, 1987; Griffin, 1980; Hill, 1987; Kerridge, 1982).

Finally, I would like to comment that this mild attempt at revisiting the use of video equipment and material in a

non-ELT environment to give examples of particular language functions in operation gave me the opportunity to

explore more relevant material in the field of “video in action”, and made what has previously ‘sounded Greek

to me’ a language that I understand and use.

References
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Brinton, D., & Gaskill, W. (1987). Using news broadcast in the ESL/EFL classroom.

TESOL Quarterly, 12. 403-413.

Dublin, Fradia & Olshtain, Elite. (1991). Course Design: Developing Programs and
Materials for Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Franzy, Milli. (1999). Kentucky Educational Television. Kentucky. USA.

Golebiowska, Aleksandra. (1990). Getting Students to Talk. New York: Prentice Hall.

Griffin, S. M. (1980). Video Studios: The language labs for the 1980s. Cross Currents, 7.
(1). 45-48.

Hill, J. K. (1987). The recording and use of off-air French television programs with
advanced learners. Audio-Visual Language Journal, 16. (2). 81-84.

Kerridge, D. (1982). The use of video films. In M. Geddes & G. Sturtridge (Eds.), Video
in the Language Classroom (pp. 107-121). London: Heinemann.

Lonergan, Jack. (1992). Video in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.

Nunan, David. (1992). Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.

Shareman, Jane. (2003). Using Authentic Video in the Language Classroom. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.

Stempleski, Susan. (1987). Short takes: Using authentic video in the English class. Paper
presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Association of Teachers of English as a
Foreign Language (21st, Westende, Belgium, April 12-14, 1987).

Stempleski, Susan & Tomalin, Barry. (1990). Video in Action: Recipes for Using Video in
Language Teaching. New York: Prentice Hall.

Tomalin, B. (1993). Teaching young children with video. In Stempleski, S. & Arcario, P.
(Eds.).

Cell Phone Reviews

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©Dr. Samir M. Rammal and Karen's Linguistics Issues 2006. All rights reserved.

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©Dr. Samir M. Rammal and Karen's Linguistics Issues 2006. All rights reserved.