As technology develops, written materials tend to get ever less popular for learning Enlish lanuage. Algerian young learners seem to no longer find pleasure in reading books. The art of applying the new technology to practical language learning problems is very well demonstrated here with rewarding and motivating results.
As teachers agree, both songs and videos play an important part in teaching and learning English language, as they employ real-life situations with real-life expressions and other particularities. The main difference between songs and videos is that in the latter, there is another sense involved: that of seeing. However, simply watching TV does not account for too good a means to teach English, because it's all there, the pictures, the characters, the script, leaving very little left for our imagination.
There are plenty of ideas to use when trying to teach English with the help of videos. One suggestion might be to turn off the sound and ask students to make up a dialog from a scene they've just watched.
Another idea would be to simply let just a part of the class watch a video, then have them describe to the others what they've seen and understood.
The teacher can also freeze certain moments of the video, by watching and pausing at very exciting moments, then ask students to predict what may happen next.
The main functions of using videos during the English classes are that of motivating and helping students to understand this language, but still, there are some rules to follow in order to get good results:
First of all, the movie part or video should not be longer than 5 minutes, in order to help them understand properly what it is about and what their tasks are.
Secondly, it is advisable to make a correct prediction of the time students might take to perform the tasks.
Thirdly, one should also mind the context in which the video is used, the video should be part of the whole lesson management. An essential element is to have a clear aim for using the video and also to be able to understand students' needs like: vocabulary explanations, guessing words from context or from using gestures and facial expressions.
Here are some activities that can be done during class after viewing the video.
A.One of them could be role-playing, for example having students act out the dialog and lines from the video, stressing the correct intonation and pronunciation.
B.Another idea is that of interviews. The teacher asks students to move around the classroom and interview one another using questions that can be found in the video. Then students can make a report to the whole classroom about those interviews.
C.One can also resort to a sort of information gaps. The teacher divides the class in two. Half of the class watches the video without sound, and the other listens to it without image. Then the teacher can put students in pairs from each half, to have them discuss the situations and characters and perform the scenes in front of the class.
D.Still another post-watching activity might be that of randomly handing out written fragments of the video dialog and ask students to put the lines together in order to recreate the scenes.
E.However, the most classic type of activity is discussing before or after watching the video. There are plenty of topics for students, like those referring to the general plot, the feelings, actions, thoughts of the main characters in the scene. One may also ask students to tell which character they like best and why, or which they identify with and why, or to think about the things that the characters in the scene are thinking, but not saying out loud, and give reasons for the characters' attitude. Students may create such inner monologues and then present them in front of the class, in order to discuss their ideas regarding the video.
These are a few suggestions about the use of videos during class. Those who have used videos are of the opinion that students greatly enjoy such a method, because it motivates them to try to express themselves in a different language from their mother tongue, get a perspective on the cultural aspects of the English speaking world, and so on.
As teachers agree, both songs and videos play an important part in teaching and learning English language, as they employ real-life situations with real-life expressions and other particularities. The main difference between songs and videos is that in the latter, there is another sense involved: that of seeing. However, simply watching TV does not account for too good a means to teach English, because it's all there, the pictures, the characters, the script, leaving very little left for our imagination.
There are plenty of ideas to use when trying to teach English with the help of videos. One suggestion might be to turn off the sound and ask students to make up a dialog from a scene they've just watched.
Another idea would be to simply let just a part of the class watch a video, then have them describe to the others what they've seen and understood.
The teacher can also freeze certain moments of the video, by watching and pausing at very exciting moments, then ask students to predict what may happen next.
The main functions of using videos during the English classes are that of motivating and helping students to understand this language, but still, there are some rules to follow in order to get good results:
First of all, the movie part or video should not be longer than 5 minutes, in order to help them understand properly what it is about and what their tasks are.
Secondly, it is advisable to make a correct prediction of the time students might take to perform the tasks.
Thirdly, one should also mind the context in which the video is used, the video should be part of the whole lesson management. An essential element is to have a clear aim for using the video and also to be able to understand students' needs like: vocabulary explanations, guessing words from context or from using gestures and facial expressions.
Here are some activities that can be done during class after viewing the video.
A.One of them could be role-playing, for example having students act out the dialog and lines from the video, stressing the correct intonation and pronunciation.
B.Another idea is that of interviews. The teacher asks students to move around the classroom and interview one another using questions that can be found in the video. Then students can make a report to the whole classroom about those interviews.
C.One can also resort to a sort of information gaps. The teacher divides the class in two. Half of the class watches the video without sound, and the other listens to it without image. Then the teacher can put students in pairs from each half, to have them discuss the situations and characters and perform the scenes in front of the class.
D.Still another post-watching activity might be that of randomly handing out written fragments of the video dialog and ask students to put the lines together in order to recreate the scenes.
E.However, the most classic type of activity is discussing before or after watching the video. There are plenty of topics for students, like those referring to the general plot, the feelings, actions, thoughts of the main characters in the scene. One may also ask students to tell which character they like best and why, or which they identify with and why, or to think about the things that the characters in the scene are thinking, but not saying out loud, and give reasons for the characters' attitude. Students may create such inner monologues and then present them in front of the class, in order to discuss their ideas regarding the video.
These are a few suggestions about the use of videos during class. Those who have used videos are of the opinion that students greatly enjoy such a method, because it motivates them to try to express themselves in a different language from their mother tongue, get a perspective on the cultural aspects of the English speaking world, and so on.
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