MASARYK UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ARTS
Department of English and American Studies
Video as a Motivational Factor in Teaching and Learning English
Diploma Thesis
Bc. Zuzana Bzonková
Brno, 2018
Declaration
I, Zuzana Bzonková, hereby certify that this thesis has been written by me, and I properly cited and listed all the sources, references and literature I used.
November 30, 2018 Bc. Zuzana Bzonková
Supervisor: Ailsa Marion Randall, M.A.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my supervisor Ailsa Randall for her kind guidance, quick responses and good ideas she provided me with during the process of working on the thesis. I am also grateful to my family for their psychological support, and to Tasnim Hussain Brunecká and especially to Stephanie Owens, who generously agreed to proofread some chapters. And last, I would like to give a ‘thank you’ to Nicola Catherine Fořtová whose online course “ICT in ESL” was a source of inspiration and useful material and online tools not only for this thesis.
Abstract
The objective of the thesis was to examine how audio-visual material is utilised by Czech language teachers in public primary and secondary schools and how it is used by students themselves outside the classroom. General guidelines and ideas have been provided for incorporating video content into the classroom. Another aim was to provide readers with online resources of audio-visual material suitable for use in the classroom, as well as software for editing and creating audio-visual material. The research questions were: How frequently do Czech language teachers use video clips in their lessons?, What are the barriers to teachers using video more often?, Are learners motivated by video in English and capable of finding appropriate audio-visual learning content online? and What strategies do successful students undertake for learning an L2? The research showed that there is a strong influence of YouTube and YouTubers on students’ intrinsic motivation, in some cases integrative. The variety of strategies young learners employ is broad, but video is the most popular. The vast majority of Czech language teachers include video clips in their lessons several times a month. Major obstacles that stop them from using it more often are lack of time for preparation, overloaded curricula and insufficient technological equipment.
Keywords
Czech school, classroom, English teachers, successful learners, motivation, audio-visual material, video, video content, clip, authentic video, film, sitcom, teaching, learning, English, foreign language, ESL, YouTube, YouTube channel, YouTuber, guidelines, online resources, lesson plans, activity, technology, software
Table of Contents
Introduction ...... 1 1 Motivation ...... 2
1.1 Intrinsic, extrinsic, integrative and instrumental motivation ...... 4 1.2 How to augment students’ motivation ...... 5
2 Benefits of using video in the classroom ...... 6
2.1 Communicative competence ...... 9 2.2 Authentic video material ...... 10 2.3 Conclusion ...... 12
3 Guidelines for using video in the classroom ...... 14
3.1 Possible drawbacks ...... 18
4 Ideas: What to do with video in the classroom ...... 19 5 Research ...... 32
5.1 Research questions ...... 32 5.2 Experimental group 1: Teachers ...... 33
5.2.1 Questionnaire ...... 34 5.2.2 Teachers’ responses ...... 35 5.2.3 Second phase of research - interview ...... 46 5.2.4 Conclusion ...... 49
5.3 Experimental group 2: Successful learners ...... 51
5.3.1 Interview ...... 52 5.3.2 Learners’ responses ...... 54 5.3.3 Conclusion ...... 64
6 The use of video in the classroom ...... 66
6.1 Lesson plans including video clips ...... 67 6.2 Locating lesson plans with video content ...... 68 6.3 More video material ...... 69
7 Online resources with audio-visual material ...... 74
7.1 YouTube channels ...... 74 7.2 Other websites with video content ...... 88
8 Tools and software for audio and visual material ...... 117
8.1 Programmes for creating and editing video ...... 121
8.1.1 Free video programmes ...... 121 8.1.2 Paid video programmes ...... 122
Conclusion ...... 124 References ...... 126 Summary ...... 132 Appendix ...... 134
Lesson plans including video clips ...... 134
Lesson 1: Impasse ...... 134 Lesson 2+3: What is love? ...... 138 Lesson 4: Bluebird ...... 149 Lesson 5: Bootlegging and speakeasies ...... 154
Introduction
I have decided to focus on the topic of audio-visual material in teaching and learning foreign languages because I feel that the use of video to support language learning is worthy of further attention. Many teachers may feel the need to implement it into their lessons, whether or not they are prepared. Even the young generation of teachers may not feel well prepared for teaching with video, partly because universities have not adapted their curricula to meet current needs, and they still teach with out-dated methods which depend largely on the text book. Since English is my field of expertise and most teachers who participated in my research taught English as well, the results I obtained are related to teaching and learning English as a second language (ESL). I have been interested in trends at Czech public schools, both primary and secondary (including grammar, high and vocational schools), and lessons delivered by Czech teachers, i.e. non-native speakers. A big part of my interest lies in the experience of the learners themselves and thus half of the research was focused on how they receive video in the English classroom, how they work with it outside of school and how it motivates them to learn foreign languages, above all English. I also inquired about their learning strategies and the nature of their motivation to learn English. The thesis is divided into eight chapters. The first four chapters are: Motivation, Benefits of using video in the classroom, Guidelines on how to use video in the classroom and Ideas: what to do with video in the classroom. The fifth chapter describes the design, procedure and results of the research. There were two experimental groups that were questioned: language teachers who worked in Czech public schools and learners from the age of 10 to 18 who were more successful at acquiring English than their peers. I was interested in their learning strategies and resources and how they used video in their language learning process. Since some teachers admitted they did not feel prepared to use video or they were not familiar with enough resources, chapter six provides the readers with online video material and the lesson plans that I developed and tested on learners. All these lessons are built around a video clip and are listed in the appendix along with all the other material that is necessary for teaching them. A list of online resources with audio-visual material can be found in chapter seven. Brief descriptions and links are provided, and screenshots are inserted in order to 1 enable the readers to imagine the websites before they visit them. The chapter is divided into two sub-chapters: YouTube channels and other websites. The last chapter focuses on tools and software designed for editing existing video material and creating new video clips. The software is divided into free and paid video programmes. I imagined that most of the readers of the thesis would be English teachers and I wanted to make their work a little easier. Therefore, there were two main aims of the thesis. The first one was to explore 1) the reality of teaching with video in ordinary Czech schools where pupils with various capacities, motivations, skills and from varied social and economic backgrounds can be found (often in one classroom), 2) how students themselves use video for language learning in their free time, and 3) what other learning strategies they undertake in order to improve. One of the research questions was whether their motivation increases with the use of video. The other main objective was to create a list of ideas on what can be done with a video clip and to create a database of, mostly free, online resources with video content.
1 Motivation
It is generally recognized that no learning happens without motivation. It is one of the key factors and preconditions for any kind of learning. The domain of foreign languages is no exception. As Zoltán Dörnyei says: “Motivation provides the primary impetus to initiate learning the L2 and later the driving force to sustain the long and often tedious learning process“. (Dörnyei, 1998, p. 117) It is also agreed upon that “motivation can make up for considerable deficiencies in both one’s language aptitude and learning conditions”. It determines our behaviour and it gives us direction. (ibid.) But what motivation exactly is has not yet been agreed upon. It is a widely used but complex term and researchers struggle to find a generally accepted definition. The definitions also differ based on the field of psychology one is working within. Dörnyei (1994, cited in Dörnyei, 1998) wrote on the topic of human behaviour:
“Motivational psychologists tended to look for the motors of human behaviour in the individual rather than in the social being, focusing primarily on internal factors (e.g. drive, arousal, cognitive self-appraisal); 2
in contrast, social psychologists tended to see actions as the function of the social context and the interpersonal/intergroup relational patterns, as measured by means of the individuals social attitudes.“
Robert C. Gardner researched and wrote about motivation. His most quoted finding is that motivation consists of three elements: effort, desire and affect (Carrió-Pastor & Mestre, 2013; Norris-Holt, 2001). Affect is how emotionally involved a person is, desire expresses how proficient the person wants to become in the L2/L3 and effort represents the time the person is willing to spend on the subject. Without discipline and time devoted to study no great accomplishments happen and the desire or affect are not enough to lead to satisfying results. Therefore motivation is not merely a wish to achieve something and we must bear this in mind when investigating motivation and when examining the results of the learning. However, since motivation is such a broad theme, I will not dwell upon differences in approaches as this is not the main objective of the thesis. Instead, I will outline a few practical ideas related to motivation that may help teachers to understand better what is happening with their students when they study a language. A motivation to learn a foreign language is, in Dörnyei’s words, a “multifaceted construct“. Some see it rather as a mental or emotional state which does not change very much over the course of time, whereas others see it as a goal. Dörnyei provided this definition: Motivation is “a process whereby a certain amount of instigation force arises, initiates action, and persists as long as no other force comes into play to weaken it and thereby terminate action, or until the planned outcome has been reached“. (Dörnyei, 1998, p. 118) Like intelligence, motivation cannot be directly observed, but it is reflected in people’s actions, behaviour, work results and accomplishments. It seems to me that motivation has a direct impact on accomplishments, but accomplishments also affect motivation, which can increase after reaching a minor goal or success. In relation to goals, Harmer (2007) says that when we find a goal appealing and worth achieving, we are pulled by an “internal drive“. He categorizes goals in language learning as short-term and long-term goals. An example of a short-term goal could be passing a test, obtaining good grades or being accepted into a university. Long-term goals include, for instance, an ability to communicate with people from the community whose language they study, or a better job as a result of speaking the language. However, an attractive goal is not 3 enough. One must feel the goal is attainable as well. One of the most interesting findings from motivation psychology is the concept of “expectancy-value framework“. This means that people’s motivation to act depends on two key factors: “the individual’s expectancy of success in a given task and the value the individual attaches to success in that task“. (Pintrich & Schunk; and Wigfield cited in Dörnyei, 1998, p. 119) In other words, the positive motivation directly depends on the value of the goal and how likely it seems to the student that he/she can achieve this goal. If one of these factors is missing, it is improbable that energy will be spent on a task. Since the student’s belief as to whether or not the goal is achievable is largely a question of self-confidence, encouraging our learners, praising them and enabling them to taste success from time to time is an essential part of keeping them motivated. Locke and Kristof reviewed hundreds of studies on goal setting and motivation and discovered that people tend to perform better when their goals are both specific and difficult. Too general goals or goals that are specific but easy to achieve do not have a similar effect. (Locke and Kristof (1996) cited in Dörnyei, 1998) This is an interesting finding worth bearing in mind when encouraging the students to set goals and find suitable learning strategies.
1.1 Intrinsic, extrinsic, integrative and instrumental motivation
Two generally accepted divisions of motivation are extrinsic and intrinsic motivation and, in language teaching, integrative and instrumental motivation. Integrative, as can be deduced from its name, is characteristic of those learners who like or admire the target language’s culture and wish to “integrate into the society in which the language is used“. (Falk, 1978, cited in Norris-Holt, 2001, “Integrative motivation”, para. 7) As will be seen in the practical part – research results – many students possess this kind of motivation. Instrumental motivation means that the language is seen as a means (instrument) for practical gains, such as being more successful at school, being accepted at university, receiving a better or better-paid job, or being able to read and write in the language. (Carrió-Pastor et al., 2014) Most students from the research claimed to possess instrumental motivation, because they realized the world is multicultural and globalised and the ability to speak at least English is essential. Carrió- Pastor et al. observed in their study on Spanish university students learning English that those with preference of instrumental motivation did not use English to communicate
4 collaboratively and did not interact with members of the target group, unlike students with integrative motivation preference who did interact with native speakers, often on the internet. Nevertheless, instrumental and integrative motivation are not mutually exclusive. Brown points out that people hardly ever choose one form of motivation when they learn a language; it is rather a combination of both orientations. (Brown, 2014) While many researchers and theorists conclude that integrative motivation is more likely to sustain long- term determination (Taylor, Meynard & Rheault, 1977; Ellis 1997; Crookes & Schmidt, 1991, cited in Hamza, n.d.), instrumental orientation is highly useful when there is no English- speaking community around and the learners are not exposed to authentic material produced by native speakers. Instrumental motivation may then serve as a springboard for learning an L2. So it is the circumstances and social situation that often determine what kind of motivation the learner adopts. Related to integrative motivation are linguistic and non-linguistic outcomes. According to Rod Ellis (2003), linguistic outcomes are concerned with language skills (reading, listening, writing and speaking) and the knowledge of the language itself, whereas non-linguistic outcomes concern one’s attitudes towards the target culture and language community and their values. He stated that those who want to and will integrate both types of outcomes in their learning experience will achieve a higher degree of L2 proficiency.
1.2 How to augment students’ motivation
As stated above, student’s motivation depends on their expectancy of success and the importance of the task or skill. Thus it helps when we manage to teach what is relevant to our students’ needs (and therefore it has a value for them) and when we manage to find material that is slightly above their current level so that the students are not discouraged by the difficulty. Introducing appealing material is always a benefit, and there is a broad range to choose from. We can enhance their motivation by using a variety of approaches and activities that fit our students’ needs, or by setting an example; we should not underestimate the fact we ourselves have learnt a foreign language well enough. Also, we can share our learning strategies and tips, difficulties and how we overcame them, and funny or embarrassing situations we found ourselves in. Speaking of funny and embarrassing situations, humour is a
5 powerful tool. It brings us closer to the students, and the closer we are the more trust we can build. The more trust there is between us the better chance the students will be motivated. It is believed that laughter enhances learning and retention. It is easier to recollect a piece of information when it is connected to a positive emotion or an amusing situation. Hložková in her diploma thesis on Sitcoms as a Tool for English Language Teaching says: “From a social and psychological point of view humour helps to relax, relieve stress, create a comfortable classroom atmosphere, bring enthusiasm and optimism, evoke positive feelings, create bonds among students, support student-teacher relationship, break the ice, raise student interest, motivate and engage students, improve student attention, enhance and activate learning, and make learning more enjoyable.” (Hložková, 2013, p. 15) I believe teachers have an impact on students’ motivation and sometimes can increase (or decrease) it, but I also believe it is primarily them, the students, who are responsible for how they feel about a subject, and how much effort they invest into learning. The teachers should not reproach and punish themselves for not having highly motivated students; some will become more motivated as they grow older, whereas some will never be, no matter how hard their teachers try.
2 Benefits of using video in the classroom
“Why should we use video at all when there are so many other valuable audio and text resources?”, this is a legitimate question. I am not trying to convince any reader that video is the best or most suitable learning material, nor am I convinced it is. However, it does offer a great deal of benefits that I would like to mention in this chapter. It may not suit every learner or every language teacher, but I believe most teachers and learners can benefit from video material significantly, and where the use of video material is authentic the benefits are even greater. It is obvious that there is little escape from technology in the 21st century. It is all around us and our young students are immersed in it. Therefore, it is inevitable that a relevant and useful education curriculum must at least partly follow the progress of technology by adopting key technological developments. Since young people and even children spend a significant amount of time watching and interacting with screens, it is quite clear they are 6 attached to them in some way. We can use this attachment to increase their interest for learning an L2 and make them more involved. Videos are, if incorporated well into lessons, very suitable for generating interest, promoting student autonomy and creating stimulating lessons. They help to increase the exposure to authentic English, and to create a more autonomous and student-centred learning style. (Watkins & Wilkins, 2011) Furthermore, it has been proven that “immersion teaching and techniques to increase L2 input have generally positive effects on the language acquisition process”. (Mangubhai, 2005, cited in Watkins et al. 2011, p. 114) With internet and computers at home, children and students may want to search for video material in English and acquire the language in an almost effortless and enjoyable way. As will be shown in chapter five, the majority of successful students already do so. Video watching also has a significant positive impact on incidental vocabulary learning. Arndt in her thesis on ‘English vocabulary learning through watching YouTube video blogs and reading blog posts’ stated that watching videos with subtitles in L2 is generally more effective than watching without subtitles, especially regarding the knowledge of form. Based on Neuman and Koskinen’s research from 1992, it seems that incidental vocabulary learning is more effective when the learner engages with video materials rather than reading materials. (Arndt, 2014) “Using YouTube both inside and outside the classroom can enhance conversation, listening and pronunciation skills. Videos can also be utilised as realia to stimulate cultural lessons, enhance exposure to World Englishes, and promote authentic vocabulary development. Even reading and writing activities can be structured around YouTube videos.” (Berk, 2009, [Abstract]) There are two types of video that can be used in the classroom: authentic and non- authentic. Even non-authentic video feels closer to real life than most coursebooks and CD with recordings do, and students’ responses to video in the classroom tend to be more enthusiastic. Authentic video is often a rich source of information about the target culture (or any other culture) and the people. Besides the language, there is a lot of visual information about the physical environment and people’s appearances, which are important aspects of life in another country. Aspects of people’s behaviour, body language, communication strategies and speech acts are also visible in authentic video material and constitute its integral part. As
7
Lonergan (1984) emphasises, “paralinguistic features1 form an important part of communication. Through arm movements, facial gestures, and eye contact speakers convey meaning to their dialogue partners. For language learners the ability to recognise, understand and perhaps use these features of the target language is an integral part of achieving communicative fluency. Furthermore, prosodic features – such as pitch, rhythm, tempo and loudness – are also apparent.” (p. 41) Audio-visual recordings have “the phonetic and prosodic advantages of audio, as well as the paralinguistic information provided by the visual element. This means that at any given level of language competency, the learner’s potential for comprehension is greatly increased if the visual information is included in the presentation.” (ibid.) As a result, the learners often feel more motivated. Despite low levels of language competence they understand more than they would from hearing the same discourse on an audio tape. Lonergan further adds that “visual cues are often most meaningful as indicators of mood, emotions, or temperament. An appreciation of the psychological aspects of communication is an integral part of language learning.” (ibid., p. 42) There are learners who remember things better when these things are linked to an emotion and to a particular situation. Films, series and sitcoms are generally rich in emotions and because everything that the characters say is set into context, learning vocabulary items or intonation patters requires less effort. Another “outstanding feature of video films is their ability to present complete communicative situations. The combination of sound and vision is dynamic, immediate, and accessible.” (ibid., p. 4) When watching films, the learners are aware of the environment in which action or communication is taking place, this may help the students to determine the formality of the situation and the used register. When vocabulary is learnt in context, recollection is generally easier. Another feature of audio-visual material is the range of images and tricks that present a vast array of learning opportunities, some of which may never have been conceived of by the teacher alone. (ibid.) Thanks to the surplus of audio-visual material in today’s world, the current young generation is believed to be more visually inclined than the previous generations. Image and video content tell them more than plain text or audio. I myself have learnt a great deal of language – both English and Spanish – from video materials. I have observed that what
1 Paralinguistic features include, for instance, pitch, loudness, tone, silence, eye contact, or facial expressions. 8 helped me can assist many other people in their learning process. Video helps both auditory and visual learners to remember a vocabulary item when it is set into a context and accentuated by a visual aid. If a video clip is followed by a role play or used for (not only oral but also body) imitation, it will aid kinaesthetic learners. It is in the students’ best interests to take advantage of the opportunities video has to offer and learn independently of the teachers and classmates. YouTube and other streaming websites are especially helpful to those students who “innately crave self-guided education”. (Watkins et al., 2011) In the end, I believe it is the student who should be more responsible for the direction that he/she takes in language learning.
2.1 Communicative competence
According to the Czech Framework Education Programme, one of the objectives of education is to promote communicative competence. However, communicative competence is a term that embraces five other competences: linguistic, pragmalinguistic (sometimes called socio-linguistic or illocutionary), sociopragmatic, strategic and discourse competence. (Gilmore, 2007) In Gilmore’s words, the “linguistic competence refers to a speaker’s lexical, morphological, orthographical, syntactical and phonological knowledge of the language. In other words, how to build up morphemes into words and words into clauses and sentences, how to spell them in the written form or pronounce them in speech. It only deals with the literal meaning of utterances.” (p. 15) This competence has been emphasised in traditional ESL classes and although it has not been neglected, it is now “seen as only one aspect of language proficiency”. (ibid.) Pragmatics is concerned with how meanings depend on situational context, so pragmalinguistic competence involves “a speaker’s ability to understand or convey communicative intent appropriately in a given context based on a knowledge of phrases typically used by native speakers to express speech acts such as apologies, requests, refusals and so on”. (ibid., p. 16) It includes an ability to sound natural and an ability to choose the right register in each situation. Sociopragmatic competence refers to “a speaker’s knowledge of what is socially or culturally appropriate in a particular speech community. This might include an appreciation of politeness and social conventions, taboo topics and non- verbal factors such as kinesics and proxemics.” (ibid., p. 16) A lot of these skills can be learned
9 from authentic video material such as films and sitcoms. Strategic competence includes various strategies that enable the speaker to “exploit verbal or nonverbal communication strategies when communication problems arise”. The examples are miming, requesting the speaker to repeat themselves or clarify, and employing ways to ‘buy time’ while keeping the parole. (ibid., p. 17) Last, the discourse competence is connected to “a speaker’s ability to produce unified, cohesive and coherent spoken or written discourse of different genres”. (Halliday & Hasan, 1989, cited in Gilmore, 2007) Although many modern coursebooks include material and exercises and suggest activities that cultivate some of these competences, authentic video remains irreplaceable when there is no personal interaction with other English speakers that would compensate for that. Pragmatic competence is not included in most coursebooks. Learning pragmatics should be a priority in language courses, however, it is rather neglected. Coursebooks typically contain too simplified and direct dialogues that have little in common with real life conversations. Watching native speakers or speakers with a native-like fluency has one more benefit I have not yet mentioned. As Hložková (2013) remarks, students may realize (or be shown) that a natural dialogue, unlike a coursebook dialogue, is full of interruptions, repetitions, pauses, hesitation, fillers, overlaps, false starts and back-channels. It could be a relieving realization for the students. By observing that, they could learn how to naturally take turns and keep the floor in a multiparty conversation.
2.2 Authentic video material
It is believed that being exposed to authentic material significantly accelerates student’s language acquisition process in terms of vocabulary, comprehension and spoken production. (Weyers cited in Hložková, 2013; Gilmore, 2007). Gilmore’s findings from a 10-month quantitative/qualitative classroom-based study carried out at a Japanese university show that the experimental group that worked with authentic material instead of a coursebook outperformed the control group in most communicative measures. The authentic materials they were exposed to contained more discourse features that most coursebooks did. The research showed that the Japanese students themselves preferred authentic materials because
10 they had considered them “more interesting, varied and challenging, and better able to meet their perceived future language needs”. (Gilmore, 2007, [Abstract]) Some teachers might have already observed that people who never stayed in an English-speaking country for a longer period of time or have not communicated with English speakers often enough, struggle to sound natural in English in spite of studying it for years. “When asked to role play or script a dialogue, they frequently produce strange scholastic language, inappropriate tone, distorted idioms, unlikely collocations and a limited repertoire of functional language and colloquial phraseology." (Sherman cited in Hložková, 2013, p. 19) Feature film is a big and very popular topic in the authentic video material category. Many successful learners claim they watch films in other languages in order to improve their language skills.
“The value of film as a language teaching and learning resource is self- evident. It is motivation, and it provides a source of authentic and varied language. Many films are well known, and some are recognised worldwide as a common frame of reference. The medium of film is excellent at communication cultural values, attitudes and behaviours. It is very effective at bringing the outside world into the classroom and providing a stimulating framework for classroom communication and discussion.” (Stempleski & Tomalin, 2001, p. 1)
Series and sitcoms are related to films. Hložková, in her diploma thesis on using sitcoms in ESL, recommends that teachers use sitcoms as a source of authentic English. Through sitcoms, she says, “learners become familiar with collocations, phrasal verbs, means for expressing functions, idiomatic expressions, lexical phrases and acronyms used in nowadays English”. (p. 19) Besides everyday English, authentic video material is a source of culture-related content and the students will better understand the target language once they have developed certain understanding of the culture. Through ‘teaching’ culture in English classes, the teacher can also develop other key competences assigned by the Framework Education Programme, especially the social and personal competence. The students can, thanks to suitable video material, develop their 11 understanding of cultural differences and of the globalised world and can then learn to accept people of different backgrounds, races and religions. Being exposed to video content displaying people from different cultures can enhance students’ comprehension of and acceptance towards them. In relation to the communicative function of language and to communicative competence, authentic video material enables students to develop the ability to obtain information from the media. Being able to obtain information and work with it further is a crucial learning competence, and is one of the six key competences from the Framework Education Programme. Sal Khan, a Bollywood actor, went even further with the use of video in education. He “humanised” the classroom by using video, which may sound paradoxical, but it makes sense if one imagines a standard old-school classroom where children sit with their lips sealed and listen to the teacher. More about his project can be read in chapter seven Online resources or in a TED talk ‘Let’s use video to reinvent education’. His online classrooms have become a popular phenomenon in America and have helped many pupils.
2.3 Conclusion
Audio-visual material may be employed for a great variety of purposes and activities. Many of them are listed and described in chapter four. I believe that if teachers incorporate video content into their classes, they can teach their pupils how to become more autonomous in the learning process. They can also help them become more successful not only in English learning but in life in general. For older learners, it is enriching to be exposed to speakers from all around the world – may it be in song clips, interviews, short stories, vlogs2, sitcoms or films. It means being exposed to world Englishes, a variety of cultures, ethnic groups and lifestyles, as well as to different sets of values and linguistics specifics. In his article from January 2009, Berk stated these 20 potential learning outcomes of using video in the classroom:
2 Vlog (video blog) is an online diary in video form. 12
1. Grab students’ attention; 2. Focus students’ concentration; 3. Generate interest in class; 4. Create a sense of anticipation; 5. Energize or relax students for learning exercise; 6. Draw on students’ imagination; 7. Improve attitudes toward content and learning; 8. Build a connection with other students and instructor; 9. Increase memory of content; 10. Increase understanding; 11. Foster creativity; 12. Stimulate the flow of ideas; 13. Foster deeper learning; 14. Provide an opportunity for freedom of expression; 15. Serve as a vehicle for collaboration; 16. Inspire and motivate students; 17. Make learning fun; 18. Set an appropriate mood or tone; 19. Decrease anxiety and tension on scary topics; and 20. Create memorable visual images. (Berk, 2009)
Selecting an appropriate video clip is essential. If the video is boring, most of the outcomes mentioned above will not happen. However, as Lonergan (1984) points out, “many learners have difficulty relating to video as a valuable teaching aid. Domestic television has such strong connotations of entertainment (...) that it is essential, therefore, that learners are introduced gradually to video in the classroom and guided to an understanding of how valuable the medium can be.” (p .6) Guidelines on what to do and practical ideas on what can be done with a clip will be provided in chapters three and four. As mentioned earlier in the chapter, the advantage of video is that it is accompanied by picture and if students do not understand a certain sequence, they can rely on the visual support, as opposed to audio that only offers paralinguistic features such as intonation, 13 melody, tone, stress, accent and pitch. Thus the level of language competence required from the learner is lower. This makes video material accessible even to those who would not understand the audio recording. Video also enables the introduction to the classroom of “a wide range of objects, places, and even concepts, in an easy way, without straining the resources of the average language teacher.” (ibid., p. 55) If incorporated and used properly, video material can help to develop some key competences. There are basically two types of video that can be used in the classroom: authentic and non-authentic. The advantages of the authentic video to the learner have already been described above in a great detail. What makes it suitable for the teacher to use? It is normally cheap, original, realistic and contemporary, unlike non-authentic material that ages quickly, can be sometimes boring or unrealistic and is quite expensive. However, the non-authentic material has advantages that the authentic often lacks: It is adapted to level, it focuses on practising a specific topic or issue and it can be accompanied by coursebook exercises. Authentic material is often very stimulating, but typically suitable only for higher levels of proficiency and it requires teachers to prepare all the worksheets themselves. (Geyser, 2006, p. 88)
3 Guidelines for using video in the classroom
In this chapter, I would like to provide language teachers with some guidelines on how to effectively incorporate video into a lesson or how to design a lesson around a video clip. A list of ideas for activities on what can be done with a video clip is to be found in following chapter four. I would like to emphasise that I do not hold the opinion that there are rules on how video must and must not be used in the classroom. I believe the way it is used depends mainly on the lesson’s or activity’s objective, students’ level of proficiency and maturity, and the teacher’s personality. Sometimes, the objective can be reached with a 15-second video, sometimes 15 minutes is required and it will not be too lengthy. In order to benefit from audio-visual material, one should be aware of several (un)written rules and incorporate them into the process of selecting clips and implementing them into the classes. I presume that the majority of language teachers with university degrees from teaching, TOEFL or CELTA certificates or those who have years of experience will 14 already be familiar with most of these guidelines. The guidelines below are applicable to teaching any language. The process of language teaching should reflect that the very purpose of any language is to communicate (Lonergan, 1990), and video can contribute to reaching this goal. However, we must be aware of the difference between playing videos and teaching with them. As Brandon Harville emphasises in the article ‘7 Awesome Video ESL Resources, and How to Use “’Em!’, we should realize that the purpose of video is to educate and not entertain3. She recommends to choose videos depending on and fitting the topic we are teaching. It is a good practice to ask a few questions before choosing any kind of material, not necessarily only audio-visual one: Is it related to what we have already covered? How can the learners benefit from this? Is it appropriate? (Regarding students’ age, level and culture.) What tasks can be done before, during and after this activity?
Another important issue is timing, in other words – at what stage of the lesson use it. Harville suggests using very short clips as a break between two different activities (e.g. moving from grammar to reading). “You might consider longer videos to either introduce or wrap up a unit. Alternatively, you can show excerpts from a long video across several class sessions; this is often preferable to one long viewing session, which can tempt students to space out or nod off.” (Harville, 2018) Video may sometimes be a good means of getting students’ attention again. According to Stempleski and Tomalin (2001), successful use of films is conditioned by “film selection, activity choice and implementation”. (p. 6) It is generally accepted and recommended not to use long sequences, as learners tend to lose their concentration soon. It is also generally recommended avoid interrupting video sequences and explaining or questioning the content. Comprehension activities should be done before and after watching,
3 I would say that there is always an exception to the rule and if the teacher needs their students to relax or laugh, or to mark an end to an activity before starting a new one, it can be fine or even desired to use the video for such purpose, as long as it is done with the awareness of the procedure and desired outcome. 15 but there are exceptions to every rule and there are certainly situations in which pausing a video can work better than waiting for the end of the sequence. For language acquisition, it is essential to “provide a learner with an input that is slightly above his current level”. (Chen cited in Hložková, 2013) An idea worth trying is to start with short extracts of authentic English and move towards longer ones when the students are ready. The general rule is to adjust the task, not the material, therefore it is advisable not to exclude interesting material just because of the language difficulty. The task given to the students in relation to the video clip can be very simplified. If there is a worksheet going with it, it can also be simple (e.g. students only tick options). Lonergan emphasises that students need to be “guided, helped and reassured. To achieve this, teachers choose viewing tasks within their range of ability”. He recommends providing students with ‘viewing guides’, which are not meant to test the students, but rather ease the process and encourage them. (Lonergan, 1990, p. 16) Scott Marsden, a teacher from American Canyon High School, recommends to “hook the audience by the video”. Selecting interesting videos is essential, because the students will not respond well to boring ones. He also recommends to keep them short, watch them first and always give the students a task. It is important to make the students responsible for doing something productive so that watching videos in the classroom is not viewed as a passive activity. (How to Use Video in the Classroom, 2016) Video can be used for 1) telling a story, 2) presenting new vocabulary, grammar, or a pronunciation issue, 3) introducing a new culture or different environment, 4) revision and reinforcement, and more. The methodology that applies to reading tasks is often applicable to watching tasks as well – in general, we should think about and design pre-watching activities, assign a while- watching task and include post-watching stage. It is advisable not to omit follow-up exercises, as it is time to “get students thinking critically about the material and assess what they have learned”. (Harville, 2018) The pre-watching activities are designed to prepare the learners for the task and make it easier. The teacher’s desire is to get students’ attention and motivate them with the video, not to discourage them. There may be no while-watching tasks. If there are, the recommendation is to keep the “reading and writing load to minimum”. (Lonergan, 1984, p. 11) Lonergan calls the while-watching activities ‘viewing guides’. They help the learners to anticipate what will come next in the conversation. As mentioned earlier in the 16 chapter, their function is to guide the learners, not to test them, so their construction should reflect this purpose. “Learners must feel at ease working with this medium, and be assured that it is a positive gain for learning.” (ibid., p. 16) The range of possible post-watching tasks is broad and some inspiration can be found in chapter four. And last, but not least, when designing lessons with video clips, the teacher must consider the physical conditions, possibilities and limitations of the space, so whether to use a clip or not will, in many cases, depend on whether or not the teacher has access to a projector, an interactive whiteboard, a computer and loudspeakers. Sometimes, the teacher would like to use the clip on Monday afternoon, but they only get access to an equipped classroom on Wednesday morning. Not every school has enough equipped classrooms. Seating arrangement may play a greater role than we imagine. The teacher must ensure that all the students can hear and see the screen well. There are teachers who include a video sequence in almost every lesson and there are others who warn against “too much of it” as students could later refuse to do “normal” activities, supposedly less interesting. It is hard to tell where the balance is. Here is a final note on using authentic video material for teaching, namely feature film:
“When selecting films and implementing tasks, we must never forget that the prime reasons for watching film are entertainment and wonder, which provide the motivation for watching a film clip over and over again. We must be careful to preserve the delicate balance between appreciating a film more because we understand the language, the culture, and the technique behind it, and killing the magic of the experience because we overdo the grammar, the vocabulary, or the pronunciation in the language and comprehension process; or we may simply play the clip too many times or spend too much time in exhaustive exploitation.” (Stempleski et al., 2001, p. 9)
17
3.1 Possible drawbacks
Besides obvious drawbacks such as that the technology can expectedly or unexpectedly fail the teacher in any moment, the video itself, especially authentic material has a few weak parts. A great deal of interesting material the teacher finds online and considers perfect for teaching vocabulary, intonation or a certain grammar point, may be actually inappropriate for their group from several reasons: 1) Colloquialism, fast speech and unfamiliar accents add a difficulty 2) The clip is complex and requires knowledge and life experience the learners do not have (e.g. of a cultural background) 3) The content is sexualized, vulgar and racist or deals with issues the learners are not prepared for. It is, of course, possible that the pupils watch this or even worse content at home, but this is out of the teacher’s control (unless they recommend this kind of video to their learners). Even Extra, the British sitcom made by BBC Learning English for teenagers, does not lack sexual allusions and might not be proper for every class.
Incorporating video into lessons may require a lot of time for preparation, especially if one must prepare transcripts of dialogues, provide scripts, view the sequence a few times and analyse it. It is not a bad idea to consider whether or not the same clip and same or similar activity could be repeated with another group either at present or in the future. If so, the time dedicated to the activity will probably not be seen as wasted, which will help to keep the teacher’s motivation. To save time and work, it can be a good idea to keep film and video logs, i.e. to create a database of suitable films and film scenes, (music) clips and other audio-visual material that could be or already have been implemented in classes. The log could include titles and details about the films used in certain activities and it could be shared by more teachers who use video in their classrooms. Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets are particularly suitable for this purpose. In order to learn how to integrate a film in language learning, one may need more help. As far as I am aware, courses and trainings on this topic are not commonplace, but
18 luckily there are books to consult. One of them is Film by Stempleski, Tomalin & Maley that I can recommend.
4 Ideas: What to do with video in the classroom
The purpose of this chapter is to offer the readers ideas for using video sequences in the classroom. Some of the ideas presented below reflect my teaching experience, others come from observing other teachers, some come from my imagination and many were found in these three books: “Film” (2001) and “Video in Action” (1990) by Susan Stempleski and Barry Tomalin and “Video in Language Teaching” (1984) by Jack Lonergan. Despite being written quite a long time ago, they all offer an extensive range of interesting video activities for classroom use. Videos can be used: to generate an interest at the beginning of the lesson or a new topic (so a called ‘lead-in’) to stimulate students’ imagination to revise vocabulary to introduce a different culture or an aspect of it to train the ability to read and interpret body language and gestures for controlled, semi-controlled or free practise of grammar issues (among others comparatives, reported speech, relative clauses, tenses,...) as a springboard for writing and speaking
The activities listed below fall into all these categories and the choice as to which ones to use will depend on the teacher and their students’ abilities and needs. They aim at pronunciation, vocabulary practice, listening comprehension, speaking and writing, and some of them combine more skills at the same time. The learners should be always given a task to do while they watch a video so that they do not associate it with mere entertainment, but see video as a learning tool instead.
19
Repetition and imitation Similarly to audio, video can be used for imitation and repetition. The learners should imitate intonation, loudness, facial expressions, gestures and body language. This task will be probably more appreciated and better received by younger children than by teenagers who are often insecure and may feel ridiculous. However, it is worth a try and the success will very much depend on how attractive the clip is for the students.
Sound search In order to raise students’ awareness of English sounds, this activity can be introduced, even to elementary levels. Individual students or groups within a class are given a particular sound to focus on, for instance /i:/, /ɪ/, /e/ and /æ/ if the selected sequence contains them. As they watch the video, they notice and try to remember the words that contained the given sound. The sequence should not be too long. After watching, the learners tell the others what they heard; words can be written on the board in categories and then checked. For the second or third viewing, when checking the words, it is useful to pause the clip after each word where the given sound is heard.
True and false, yes and no questions This activity can be done with any sequence and with any level. The pupils watch a clip and after decide on what is true about the clip, or answer closed-ended questions. It is the teacher’s decision as to whether the students should know the statements/questions prior to watching or not. Both strategies work and the application of one over the other will depend on the nature of the clip, statements/questions and the group’s needs and abilities.
Naming the clip This activity can be used to introduce the class to a new topic. Pupils watch a short clip and decide on its title. The clip and its title then serve as a springboard for a new topic, such as “the importance of forests”, “what it means to be friends”, “bad habits”, or “daily routine”. The original title of the video can be different from the one pupils invent, but it does not matter. However, there is a ‘risk’ that pupils will not see in the video what the teacher does, and they will form a title not related to the topic.
20
Teaching vocabulary Video clips can be convenient for teaching vocabulary. For instance, What do we have in our pockets?4, a short animation based on Etgar Keret’s story, contains many items that teachers do not have to bring into the classroom. This story is suitable for more advanced learners, but there is plenty of material slower in pace and more explicit that will serve the purpose for less advanced pupils.
Name it! Almost any clip can be used for this simple vocabulary revision activity. It is an activity that does not need to be planned into the lesson structure in advance; it can appear in the lesson when there are a few minutes to spare. For the activity, the teacher pauses a video clip from time to time and the pupils label in English everything they can see on the screen. In case the pupils already write in English well and in case there are too many of them in the classroom, they can be asked to write the items down instead of calling them out.
Specific information Students are assigned various visual or auditory cues to take note of within the provided video. This activity can be adapted to make suit a wide range of capabilities. For example, it can be made far more challenging by selecting more complex cues. Lonergan (1984, p. 17) suggested: “Learner A: As you watch the sequence, note down examples of: displeasure, disappointment, optimism. Learner B: As you watch the sequence, note down examples of: agreement, disagreement, pessimism. Learner C: As you watch the sequence, note down examples of: direct commends, indirect commands, resignation.”
4 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qrwwM1Hgwk 21
Mixed sequences There are various possibilities of how to approach the task: 1) Students may be shown several sequences from a clip with the order of the sequences switched around. The students must then put the sequences back into their original order. This alternative requires more time for preparation. 2) Students may be shown only the beginning of a sequence and they are given the description of the rest in text format. The text is not ordered, though, and they must predict the rest of the sequence and order the sentences chronologically. 3) Similarly to sorting and ordering paragraphs of two different poems (to be found in the appendix, Lesson 2+3), students may be shown sequences from two or three different films and they must first separate them and then order the sequences. This is the most time consuming version of this activity in terms of preparation.
Timeline This task is similar to ordering sequences. Students watch a film clip with a series of events. After that they complete the timeline: event 1 ► event 2 ► event 3 ► ... For the purpose of speaking, they can afterwards describe each event (possibly in small groups) and provide some more details. “Disney•Pixar’s Coco presents “Dante’s Lunch - A Short Tail”5 is especially suitable for this task, as it is full of action and the children are likely to be captivated by this scene. Since there is no narrative, it can also be used in Spanish lessons and it is a suitable scene for introducing the topic of “El día de los muertos” (the Day of the dead) and how it is celebrated in Mexico.
Match the lines The teacher should select a sequence in which three, four or five characters appear and give the students the lines that the characters say in a different order to how they are said in the clip. The scene is played with the sound off and the students’ task is to match the lines to the characters. This activity will work better with series or films with characters that the students are familiar with.
5 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GCzyZexnNE 22
Split viewing In order to create an information gap, the class is to be divided into two groups. There are two main alternatives: A half of the students see the video, the other turn their backs to it. The students who could see the video then explain to their “blind” partners what the clip was about. They work in pairs. The “blind” classmates are encouraged to inquire about the content in case they are not given sufficient information. No one hears the audio. The other alternative is that one group watches the clip without sound and the other hears it without the visual part, which means only one group is present in the classroom at a time and the other must leave for a while. The viewers and the listeners then share what they know about the scene. Together, they reconstruct it.
Trivia quiz This is a simple activity that requires little preparation by the teacher. It can be practiced with almost any video and it teaches the learners to be attentive and active while watching. Even those whose level of English is lower and who do not understand as much as others can score highly. Students watch the clip and pay attention to as many details as possible, typically visual cues. After watching, they make questions for their fellow students about the clip. For instance: “What was the lady drinking?”, “What color was the cup?”, or “What time was it when she arrived at the station?”. The questions can be oral of written. The complexity will depend on the class’ level. If the students enjoy competition, the quiz can be done in two teams, each asking questions to the other.
Test your memory This is another activity that will encourage the students to pay closer attention to visual details. After watching a clip, students will have a few minutes to note down everything they remember. Depending on the level, they can be asked to focus on objects, people’s appearances, but also processes and actions or emotions. “Focusing students’ attention on visual details rather than spoken language has the dual effect of decreasing their anxiety about the language of the soundtrack and increasing their general understanding of the story as a
23 whole.” (Stempleski et al., 2001, p. 45) A suitable clip for this activity, and also the trivia quiz, could be the clip Christmas presents6 with an inspirational message.
Culture comparison Similarly to the previous activities, the students need to pay attention to visual cues and the less explicit details that reveal cultural differences. The teacher needs to choose a clip that is from a different environment and culture and make sure the differences are visible. Depending on the clip, students may notice that people drive on a different side of the road, have different buses, dress differently, open Christmas presents in the morning, use different gestures than we do, and so on.
Adjective match This activity comes from Video in Action (1984). The teacher chooses a sequence that features a few characters with different personalities. Students are given a list of adjectives (pre-teaching vocabulary may be needed) that describe them, and the students’ task is to match each character with one or more of the adjectives.
Point of view This activity suggested by Stempleski and Tomalin (2001) also requires a lot of attention from the viewers, as they will develop a description of the situation from one character’s point of view. It is advisable that the situation features two or three characters who all play some part in the scene. The students can write it in present or past tense, but they should use first- person narrative. Depending on the class, students can work independently or in small groups and at the end of the lesson some of them can read their point of view out loud. Comparable to “test your memory”, the task helps to develop one’s ability to observe and read character’s mood, emotional state of being, and understand their reactions.
6 Uploaded on YouTube by Forest Hill Church Charlotte NC in 2016. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSxPWpLPN7A 24
Inner monologue For this activity, one needs a group of advanced and imaginative students. It is very similar to “point of view” but this time the students write about characters’ inner processes and thoughts. I chose the opening scene from Once upon the time in the West directed by Sergio Leone. It is available on YouTube under the title “Charles Bronson; You Brought Two Too Many”7 There are three tough men waiting for someone to arrive by train (which the students should be told). No one speaks for a long time, but next to long shots there are many face shots and close-ups that allow for identification with the characters. The class could be divided into four groups and each group could describe one man’s thinking process.
Prediction For this task the prediction cues can remain very general: What will happen next?, What will be said next?, How will he react?, Who will appear in the room? Or it can be narrowed down if the scene leaves few clues or if the learners lack language skills or imagination to develop a follow-up scenario. In order to limit the range of options, the teacher can ask yes/no questions, write true/false statements, or let the students choose from a range of objects/situations/words to determine which ones are expected to appear later. The students can also be asked to write a continuation of the story for the purpose of writing practice. They may be asked to think about the continuation in relation to certain words given by the teacher, i.e. words that play a certain role in the rest of the sequence. Once I used the clip Riptide Official Video8 by Vance Joy to elicit words that were likely to appear in the song. I played the music video with sound off and at the same time I played the karaoke version without words in another tab of the internet browser. The students were writing all the words that were coming to their mind while they were watching the clip. This activity works well with music videos that visualise the content of the song and especially with songs that the students do not know. A similar activity would work with this animation based
7 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XkHsinz7oU 8 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ_1HMAGb4k, published by ‘mushroomvideos’ in 2013 25 on Charles Bukowski’s poem Bluebird9, which I used for a different purpose (to be seen in the appendix – Lesson 4).
Speculation Students view a scene and speculate what events might have led up to the scene and what might have happened before. If they are not advanced enough to use modals in past, they can simply express their assumptions in past tense. Or, alternatively, they can be shown two separate incidents from the same drama and write a story that connects them. (Inspired by ‘Fill that video gap’ by Stempleski et al., 1990, p. 56)
If I were... Students can speculate on how they would act in the character’s position. This activity is designed for practising second conditional, possibly third conditional if the speculations are made about the characters’ decisions in the past. A suitable clip for this activity can be a short film called Impasse10, a topic that may feel close to many teenagers. It is about two young people meeting on a night train. I utilised it in my Lesson plan 1 (included in the appendix) for prediction, reflection and short writing, but it offers, like most video material, more possibilities. I recommend stopping the scene at 4:18 so that the students do not see the ending. Conditional sentences can be produced during the scene (paused by the teacher from time to time) as students are asked what they would do in different instances of the clip. Some students may imagine themselves in the man’s position, others in the woman’s position. It could be interesting to compare how boys would act in the woman’s position with how girls would, and how girls would act in the man’s position as opposed to the boys.
Complete the story Students are given a synopsis with missing information. Their task is to watch a short video sequence and fill in the missing information. Alternatively, they can read and write first and
9 “Bluebird animation based on Charles Bukowski's poem”. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsc3ItAKSLc 10 Uploaded by steveymcdonald in 2009. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjcqpUwpP1U&t=5s 26 watch and check their answers later. (Stempleski et al., 1990) Which order the teacher prefers, will depend on the learners and the type of missing information.
Read the emotions I feel emotional intelligence is not usually developed in classes at schools. Asking the students to identify and describe the emotions of the characters can be an effective way of helping the students become aware of these emotions. The aim of the activity is to show the students that communication does not consist only of words. It is a chance for those learners who do not excel at English as such, but may prove skilled at reading human emotions. The task can be made easier for young learners by giving them basic emotions to choose from, by letting them complete a chart in their mother tongue or by giving them only one character to focus on. These two famous consecutive scenes from Friends, both available on YouTube, provide plenty of valuable material for identifying emotions: “Friends - Will hates Rachel [Brad Pitt]”11 and “Friends - The "I Hate Rachel Green Club" [Brad Pitt]”12. The chart suggested by Stempleski and Tomalin (2001, p. 53) includes: 1) Who? Which character displays the emotion? 2) What? What emotion does the character display? 3) How? How does the character display the emotion? 4) When? What is happening at the time the character displays the emotion?
An alternative to reading the emotions can be the sound off and picture on. Adult learners will probably be entertained by the scene “Friends - Mona finds out about Rachel's pregnancy, Part 113” (the interesting part starts at 1:37) when they finally hear the dialogues after they complete this activity. For the “read the emotions” activity, it is necessary to explain that at 3:04 the phone rings and nobody picks it up so the answering machine speaks. This particular clip is also useful for teaching some colloquial and slang American English after the students have identified the emotions.
11 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ0yqOavyPo 12 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AhdomqJJ2w 13 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1edY5Plsu0 27
Dubbing Muting the clip and asking the students to dub the scene will probably work very well with imaginative learners. It is not necessary for the students to have a high level of proficiency, as children are, in my experience, willing to do these things despite significant limitations in grammar and vocabulary. Students create a script based on their readings of the actors’ facial expressions, gestures and body language. Depending on the maturity and level of proficiency, the students can be given absolute freedom, or they can be supplied with the overall topic of the conversation. They can also be given a few lines to order and include in the conversation. This scene is very complex and not suitable for children and teenagers, but I can imagine it would work very well with adult learners, intermediate level and above, who are familiar with Friends: “Friends - Dinner Ross & Elizabeth, Rachel & Paul [Bruce Willis]”14.
Commentary Another idea is to ask the learners to provide a commentary for a clip and record it. An example could be the Impasse and Bluebird mentioned in this chapter, but the task is applicable to almost any video with action or a plot. When done, the clip could be played accompanied by the commentary. Active knowledge of present tenses will be necessary for fluent commentary, but if done with little children, the commentary could be limited to individual words that are not connected to sentences. To use the clip The Note as an example: “There is a young woman standing on the platform. A young man is coming to the station and he sees her there. They look at each other. He sits down on a bench. Suddenly the woman takes a book out of her bag and a piece of paper falls down. The wind carries it to the man.(...)” If no-one is willing to read the commentary, the learners may take advantage of “text-to-speech” software (more information in chapter eight).
Subtitles If the teacher does not oppose subtitles in a mother tongue, the students can be asked to translate the dialogue and create subtitles. Interactive white boards should enable the subtitles to be displayed on the screen as the video is played.
14 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySGY2kNFEYQ 28
Role play / Act it out Certain scenes are so attractive that they invite a role play. Students are provided with a script that accompanies the provided video content, they then memorise the script and watch the clip several times before being asked to perform the scene from the video. From my experience, the lines stay with the students for a long time after performing the scene. An alternative to this could be “act it out”: Students read and act the script out without having watched the original scene. It is only shown for comparison after the students have acted out their interpretation. There is an alternative worth considering if there are learners who do not feel confident enough to play a role while speaking in English. One or more narrators could narrate the whole scene and the other actors just act without speaking, as shown in these clips: Christmas According to Kids - Southland Christian Church15 and Original | A Christmas Story According to Children16, both available on YouTube. I believe these original narratives could inspire the shy pupils to attempt the role play.
Dialogue fill-ins The activity proposed by Stempleski et al. (1990) consists of selecting a scene with 10-15 lines of a dialogue, featuring two main characters and providing the learners with a transcript with missing words or lines. The learners first read the transcript, complete it and read it out loud in pairs. This is similar to the “act it out” activity above, but more challenging because some information is missing. According to the students’ level, teachers may ask them to fill in vocabulary or grammatical items or whole lines. When the students have practised their dialogues, the original dialogue is played and they can compare it with their own version.
Summarise the story Summarising is a skill that needs to be taught or learnt. This activity can serve this purpose. At the beginning of the practice, students can be given an outline in order not to forget anything important. It may look like this: Plot (What are the main things that happen in the story?), Characters (What are their names?), Setting (Where does the story take place?), Point of view (Who is the narrator?), Mood of the film and Theme of the film. (Stempleski et al., 2001,
15 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suowe2czxcA 16 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmvygIUcyjg 29 p. 55) Depending on the length and complexity or simplicity of the clip, some categories may be omitted.
What is it about? Students are shown a few pictures from a clip or a movie (screenshots will suffice) and they are asked to write a paragraph on what it is about. The task can be simplified by answering questions like “Who are the people?” and “Where are they going?”, according to the nature of the images.
Wh-questions: What, who, where, when, why and how? What is needed for this activity is a video with sufficient content to ask at least five or six open-ended questions. Clips of the evening news are particularly suitable. In chapter 7 Online resources I recommend websites for English teachers and learners where News adapted to lower levels can be found. The questions should be displayed on the board or given to students on a piece of paper before they watch the video. The video should be played twice so that the students can note their answers during the second viewing. (Stempleski et al., 1990)
Debating Some videos can provoke thinking and can serve as a springboard for debating (controversial) issues. I can also imagine presenting the issue from one point of view, letting the students discuss it and only after the discussion or towards its end playing a video that shows things from a different angle. I would recommend that the teacher imagines the discussion before it happens, think about the possible directions it could take, write down a few key ideas and open-ended questions that could be asked in case it does not proceed smoothly or in case the debate is not productive. Also, one must take the topic into consideration in relation to the group and individuals in it, and make sure it is appropriate and not offensive.
Note taking This essential academic skill requires successful integration of a few other skills and like summarising takes time to develop. For intermediate and upper-intermediate levels, Watkins and Wilkins suggest the students share their notes with a partner verbally before they write a final summary. (Watkins et al., 2011) This way, note taking and summarising are combined 30 and the process includes all the skills: listening to the video, writing notes, reading them, speaking or listening to a partner, and finally writing again.
Writing a review Short films, feature films, sitcom episodes, commercials and music videos can be used for writing reviews. However, this is a skill that takes time to learn and since the level of language that is required is also rather high, it may only be suitable for older learners.
Last, but not least, the learners can produce their own video material. It may be a role play, an ‘act it out’, summarising a story, or altering a story that they have watched. Also, the teacher can freeze a story at some point and ask the students (provided they are independent enough) to finish it and record their version. An idea worth trying may be to ask the pupils about what video content they watch at home, examine it, and provided it is appropriate and suitable, include it in a lesson. The pupils are sure to be surprised and most likely motivated.
I normally stumble upon interesting video material first (typically on YouTube and Facebook), and then I build a lesson around it. It is the video material that serves as the inspiration for ideas on what could be done with it. Normally, I do not use this material immediately as it often does not fit into any of the classes’ syllabi, but I keep a database of interesting audio-visual material for future use. YouTube and Facebook enable users to organise their favourite content in categories and playlists. (Chapter 7.1 contains more details.) All the ideas shared in this chapter build on the teacher’s knowledge of the video material. It is thus essential that the teacher be familiar with it, contemplate its possibilities and choose an activity suitable for his/her class and syllabus. For those who wish to work with feature films more in the classroom and include it in more ways, there is the book Film by Susan Stempleski and Barry Tomalin that does not focus only video clips themselves, but also on other skills, always in relation to feature films. It contains “a collection of ready-use film- based classroom activities for teachers working with learners at all levels, from elementary to advanced”. (Stempleski et al., 2001, p. 1) All the activities are well described and most take between 15 and 60 minutes, with only a few exceptions that require more time.
31
5 Research
As someone who responds to practical learning, I was interested in issues directly connected to my work, which would reveal a part of language teaching I was not yet familiar with, and thus help me grasp the reality of the field. Technology is all around us, sometimes there is too much of it, but sometimes there is a significant gap between what young learners experience inside the classroom and outside the school environment. Video is a phenomenon teachers cannot ignore. So much has changed in just fifteen years: almost every child has access to the internet these days and watching videos, films, series and playing games has become their reality, if not daily bread. A large amount of that content is only available in English and it is known that children and teenagers are surrounded by English more than previous generations were. I was interested whether those of them who outperform their peers in English intentionally choose to watch videos in English and whether they have a conscious and active approach to language learning. This is why I approached some of my current and former pupils and students from the Czech Republic. I was also interested in other teachers’ methods, and since there is almost never time to share and exchange the experience, conducting research gave me an opportunity to learn what I otherwise would not. I had a chance to look under the lid. The chapter is divided into three main parts: 1) research questions, 2) research on how teachers use or do not use audio-visual material in teaching and 3) research on learners’ experience and approach to learning English. (The emphasis was placed on their motivation, learning strategies and the kind of material they tended towards.) Two subchapters are further divided into sections concerning the stages of the research: design, procedure, results and conclusion. All the data was treated confidentially and all the names were changed in order to respect the respondents’ privacy.
5.1 Research questions
Prior to writing the thesis and conducting the research, I formulated these research questions:
32
1. 1.1 How frequently do Czech language teachers use audio-visual material (mostly video clips) in their lessons? 1.2 Does this differ based on the age and level of the groups they teach? 1.3 Does it differ based on their own age and length of teaching experience?
2. Is lack of technological equipment in schools one of the main reasons that stops teachers from using audio-visual material in classes more often?
3. Do learners find video material stimulating and are they more motivated to learn languages if video clips are incorporated into the lessons appropriately and often enough?
4. Are learners (aged 10-18) capable of finding appropriate and suitable video content online, and do they use it on purpose in order to improve at English/another foreign language?
5. What other strategies and technologies do young learners use in order to improve at English/another foreign language?
Since my research questions are concerned with both teachers and students, both parties were interviewed. An online questionnaire was designed for those who teach languages, and oral interviews were conducted with those children and teenagers who are successful at acquiring them.
5.2 Experimental group 1: Teachers
First, I designed a questionnaire consisting of 22 questions for Czech language teachers who work with children and teenagers in public primary and lower-secondary schools all around the Czech Republic. The questionnaire was distributed by email and the teachers were invited to fill it in on Google platform from several reasons: Google questionnaires are
33 easy to create, edit, manage and share, they are secure, user-friendly and highly convenient for collecting and displaying data. 53 language teachers from the Czech Republic were addressed in summer 2018, only 31 of whom completed the questionnaire and seven of whom were further interviewed for additional information. The additional semi-structured interview of those who are experienced video users was conducted in the second round of the research, based on the responses gathered in the first round. I assumed, based on my recent teaching experience in a primary and lower-secondary school in the Czech Republic, that the access to technology or the lack of technological equipment in schools would be one of the significant obstacles language teachers face with respect to using audio-visual material in classes. I also assumed that the other significant barrier would be a packed curriculum. I expected the teachers to know where to find suitable material. Some of the questions in the questionnaire reflect these assumptions.
5.2.1 Questionnaire
The Czech language teachers working in Czech public schools were asked these questions, translated from Czech into English for the purpose of publishing them in this thesis. In some of them the respondents checked boxes, some were a multiple choice and twelve questions were open.
1. I am a man/a woman. 2. How old are you? 3. What language(s) do you teach? 4. Do you have qualification for the language(s) you teach? 5. How many years of teaching experience in primary, lower-secondary or secondary school do you have? 6. What age group(s) do you work with? 7. Do you use video for teaching the target language (or culture) in your lessons? 8. If you answered "yes", what do you use video for? 9. How often do you use audio-visual material? 10. Would you like to include audio-visual material in your lessons more often? 34
11. Should you use video more often, are there any obstacles? 12. Do you also use video clips to entertain or relax your pupils? 13. How well do you feel prepared for working with audio-visual material (from your studies, former teaching practice and training courses)? 14. Do you know where to find suitable audio-visual material? 15. If so, can you please share some resources with me? 16. Do you feel pressure (from society, school management or students themselves) to use video material more often? 17. Have you observed that students' motivation increases when you incorporate video clips into your teaching? 18. Have you observed that frequent video watching in the classes could have a negative impact on learning, in any respect? 19. Are your pupils/students capable of finding appropriate video material on their own when needed? 20. Can you say, from your own experience, whether some students use audio-visual material for language learning outside of school INTENTIONALLY? 21. Are you familiar with their sources and the results of the approach? 22. How well do you manage to edit existing video content and create your own audio- visual material for class purposes?
5.2.2 Teachers’ responses
The answers I was provided with are analysed in this chapter, and for a better understanding some are visualised as well.
1+2 Gender and age of respondents As commonplace in Czech educational system, most teachers were women (84%). Men were the minority with only five representatives. The age was quite equally distributed between 20 and 60 years of age: there were ten respondents from the 20-30 age group, five from 31-40 age group, ten from 41-50 age group, five respondents were between 51 and 60 years old, and only one female respondent was older than 61.
35
3. What language(s) do you teach?
Only two of the responding educators did not teach English (two females teaching German and Spanish); the rest all taught English as a second language. Six of them taught one more foreign language, and one male respondent taught five more foreign languages (including Italian) besides English.
English French German Spanish other Russian
4. Do you have qualification for the language(s) you teach? Only three teachers were not qualified for teaching English at university level. I dare to say they are qualified by solid knowledge of methodology, long teaching practice and other skills. One of these “unqualified” teachers has excellent methods and results; I have observed her teaching and I have been teaching some of her former pupils. I do not believe that a missing degree from university makes a person less of a teacher, but since one of the following questions concerns how well prepared to incorporate audio-visual material into their class the teachers feel, I needed to know whether the lack of preparedness could be attributed to the absence of training at a university level.
36
5. How many years of teaching experience in primary, lower-secondary or secondary school do you have? I was not interested in the total length of teaching experience, but only in experience with educating children in public schools, as working with heterogeneous groups of students with a range of capabilities is very specific and differs significantly from working with motivated adults or from courses in language schools. The pie chart below shows how nicely the experience was distributed – each category being represented by four, five or six respondents, except for one: only one female teacher had more than 31 years of teaching experience in public sector. Perhaps it comes as a surprise that this long work experience cannot be attributed to the oldest respondent.
37
6. What age group(s) do you work with? More than half of the respondents taught at lower-secondary level (in Czech “druhý stupeň ZŠ”), and eight of those also taught at primary level at the same school (in Czech “první stupeň”). Some teachers ticked two boxes – “8-year study programme at Grammar school” and “secondary”, and two teachers worked in two schools, which is why the numbers in the chart below do not comprise 31 in total.
7. Do you use video for teaching the language (or target culture) in your classes? Only one English teacher, a female aged between 51 and 60 negated using video in language teaching. The rest used it, but the frequency varied.
8. What do you use video for? This was an open question in order not to influence and limit teachers in their responses. The most common reasons were: 1. to teach facts about the target culture (geography, culture, customs, feasts, literature, etc.) – 11 responses 2. to make lessons more attractive – 9 responses 38
3. to train listening skills – 4 responses 4. to model situations (in situational language teaching) – 3 responses 5. as an extension to the course book material – 3 responses 6. as a lead-in – 2 responses
As seen in the answers, nine teachers used video for making classes more appealing. I suppose this shows they believed that video is, in general and if used wisely, appealing, motivating, or both.
9. How often do you use audio-visual material?
Almost never (2 responses) A few times a month (18 responses) In 30% of lessons (2 responses) In 50% of lessons (3 responses) In 70% of lessons (2 responses) In almost every lesson, although shortly (4 responses)
10. Would you like to include audio-visual material in your classes more often? Six teachers were not sure, six said “no”, but nineteen teachers answered “yes” to the question. So if more than 60% wished to work with video more; I wanted to know what the obstructions were. This leads to the next question.
39
11. What are the obstacles to using video more often? (Please tick all the boxes relevant to your situation and should you have any other reasons, please specify it in the last box.) Seventeen teachers ticked only one reason, ten of them had too main reasons and four of them identified three major obstacles.
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 Lack of time for preparation, e.g. searching for suitable material and creating worksheets 2 Packed curricula 3 Limited access to technology at school or poorly equipped classrooms 4 I do not know where to find suitable material 5 “Increasing numbers of pupils with learning and behaviour disorders in the classrooms. They have problems with paying attention to anything.” 6 “There is plenty of material, but not everything can be used at school. So it’s a question of searching.”
12. Do you also use clips in order to entertain and relax your pupils? Sixteen teachers denied playing video just for entertainment. Ten teachers admitted they occasionally did it, and the remaining five responses were: “Yes, often.” “Before Christmas and at the end of the school year.” “Sometimes I do.” “I may play a video when I substitute for another teacher, am given a large class and do not know the students. I play it without any introduction or warm-up, but I am writing interesting words and phrases while they are watching, and sometimes I pause it.”
40
13. How well do you feel prepared for working with audio-visual material (from your studies, former teaching practice and training courses)? This was an open question. It is interesting that the results did not reflect the era in which the respondents studied. Only five claimed to be prepared and surprisingly this was not only the young respondents. Many young respondents (aged 21-30) did not feel prepared to incorporate audio-visual material effectively into their teaching. Ten responded as what could be categorised as “not at all”, six said “partly/a little”, but most of those who feel at least partly prepared said it should be attributed to a training course, an ICT course or learning on their own and being recommended things by their colleagues. “Even after attending a training course I grope in the dark. Sometimes the technology fails.” “I’ve learnt everything in my teaching practice.” “University didn’t prepare me. I choose courses according to the lecturers and content, and I discover most of the material by myself when I try to make the lessons more attractive and motivating.” One respondent mentioned an online course offered by the Masaryk University in Brno, the Faculty of Arts, saying that this one-semester “ICT in ESL” course was the only thing that partly prepared her. “I believe the course should spread over two semesters and offer more,” she wrote. I have participated in the same course taught by Nicola Fořtová and must agree that it was one of the most useful courses offered by the faculty to future English teachers.
41
14. Do you know where to find suitable material?
Nearly a quarter of the responding teachers did not know where to find appropriate material. The positive finding is that more than three quarters of them do know where to search. I asked them for recommendations (question 15), but I was not recommended many websites. This was one of the reasons why I decided to include a longer list of online resources with video content as part of the thesis. Those who do not know where to access more video material or those who wish to broaden their database of resources, please go to Chapter 7 “Online resources with audio-visual material”.
The next four questions were open. I did not want to limit the respondents with categories to choose from, because it is not a black-and-white issue and because I find more richness in answers to open questions when each person uses their own words reflecting their perspective and experience. Analysing the answers, I did not find patterns or differences based on gender, age or years of experience.
16. Do you feel pressure (from society, school management or students themselves) to use video material more often? Only five teachers answered “yes” or a sort of yes. (To cite one of them: “Yes, I do, but I do not give in.”). Two observed that it is considered the right thing to do, and twenty-four of them did not feel any pressure. In fact, the answers surprised me, as I presumed more teachers would perceive some pressure.
42
17. Have you observed that students' motivation increases when you incorporate video clips into your classes? Sixteen teachers believe or have observed an increase in students’ motivation, five said that it is partly true/it depends/sometimes the motivation increases, three did not know and one young Spanish teacher has not observed anything like that. Here are some more responses to the question: “It livens the lesson up, but it does not increase the motivation.” “This is hard to say. They tend to love video, but mostly because they, stereotypically, believe it’s an easier way of learning.” “Yes, but only temporarily.” “This is individual. It certainly works for some of them.” “It depends; some are not moved at all and some are capable of doing amazing things with it.” “Certainly. The pupils themselves confirm this at the end of the school year when they complete an anonymous form in which video, along with other “non-coursebook” activities we prepare for them (such as English theatre, native speakers and guests giving lectures, language shows), appears as a big motivational factor.”
18. Have you observed that frequent video watching in classes could have a negative impact on learning, in any respect? I wonder whether it is likely that learners tend to pay less attention to the audio itself as the message can be more easily understood thanks to the image that accompanies it, and whether this may result in laziness and thus poorer comprehension skills. However, since this is a matter of a proper long-term research with at least two test groups, I had to settle for less this time. I asked the teachers whether they observed any negative side effects, and these are the responses I obtained: Thirteen teachers have not observed any negative side-effects, some of them because they do not use video in teaching often enough. Many are convinced that too much of everything is always counter-productive. Some are not able to evaluate the issue. These are some of the responses I consider worth publishing: “I am convinced that if it [video] is in the lesson for its own sake and the teacher doesn’t work with it more, it can become a time-killer, anti-productive and a de-motivating factor.”
43
“If video is used too frequently, the pupils quickly lose interest and in hindsight they see is as a waste of time.” “There is this negative approach of public, thinking that the pupils are not doing anything. Plus it can be that the pupils are just passively consuming it.” “Too much of anything is bad and kids get lazier.” “It can be enlivening for some fidgety and absent-minded pupils, but when the video’s over, it’s a struggle to get their attention back.” “If video watching becomes the standard format of the lessons, students get used to it and refuse to work in a classic way.” “Video does not oblige them to think so much. It entertains and motivates them, because they find out they already understand a lot. However, I prefer audio recordings.” “Watching video, even with objectives, is still a rather passive activity and I believe students should spend more time on active learning and practice.” “If you miss the right level and present the learners with something too difficult it could be demotivating.” “Video becomes commonplace and learners are not so excited about it anymore. Moreover, it sometimes happens that the learners can be demotivated when they 1) do not understand well enough and 2) assume that they will never be as proficient as the speakers in the video are.“
19. Are your pupils/students capable of finding appropriate video material on their own, when needed? This was also an open question, to which thirteen educators replied “I do not know”, ten believed that the students were capable, and the answers of the rest oscillated between “rather yes” (three) and “probably not” (five). I believe most teachers – and the responses confirmed my assumption – have not asked their pupils to find certain information or video material, so they cannot judge their capability. It has not been tested often enough. “I’m not sure, I haven’t asked them.” “I haven’t asked them to do it yet.” “Some pupils are fairly good at navigating the web but sometimes they cannot assess the appropriateness of the material.”
44
20. Can you say, from your own experience, whether some students use audio-visual material for language learning outside of school intentionally? Sixteen teachers answered “yes”, ten “I do not know” and only five “no”. The responses were surprising as well, as they did not coincide with my findings presented in the second part of the chapter. The word intentionally was highlighted, so I believe the teachers correctly understood the question. One would think that the gap could possibly be caused by the different ages of the students, but looking closely at the responses, there is not a higher occurrence of positive answers among those who work at secondary schools. The findings of my survey among 30 successful learners clearly showed that the majority of them did not use video for learning intentionally. The teachers might not have known and assumed, just like I did before I interviewed them, that the learners were more purposeful and goal-oriented in this respect.
Next question was only for those who answered “yes” to the previous one: 21. Are you familiar with their resources and the results of the approach? Answers were given mostly by teachers who worked with older learners (lower-secondary and secondary). The most frequent resource was YouTube as such, including “YouTubers”. Reportedly, they watched series in English (Friends, Big bang theory, Futurama and The Simpsons) and played computer games. This very much coincided with my findings that are to be seen in the following pages. Some teachers observed that thanks to this, the learners’ vocabulary and pronunciation improve.
45
“While films and PC games are without a purpose, passive learning still takes place.” “Watching films and sketches has a positive impact on their vocabulary bank.” “Some pupils watch series and films at home, and as a result their vocabulary bank significantly broadens.”
Last question was: 22. How well do you manage to edit existing video content and create your own audio- visual material for class purposes? Only two teachers out of 31 claimed to have the know-how. (“I could manage, but it’s a lengthy process, so I avoid it.”). Three said they knew something, not much, and 26 had no idea. Some would appreciate a training course, but most just work with the material that is already available. One teacher expressed disappointment with quality of training courses focused on this skill.
5.2.3 Second phase of research - interview
Seven teachers who worked with video material quite regularly and who were willing to do an interview with me were addressed in the second phase of the research. The interviews were done over the phone or in person, and in one case via email. Two interviewees were male and five female. The two male and one female teacher fall into 31-50 years old category, while all the other women are between 26 and 30 years old. Their real names were replaced by English ones. They responded to these questions:
1. How do you incorporate video clips into lessons? 2. How do you deal with technical obstacles? (Do you prepare back-up plans in case something fails?) 3. Do you assign video watching, with or without tasks, as homework? 4. How do your students respond to video in the classroom? 5. Would you say that video generally motivates students to improve at foreign languages?
46
6. Have you observed or do you think that frequent video watching may have drawbacks, such as actually lower motivation to learn English? (I.e. Students are aided with the visual part and, as a result, they put less effort into listening comprehension.)
As to incorporating video clips into the lesson(s), the usage differs according to its aim. As Liz and Carol say, the video can be used at the very beginning of a lesson, in the middle or at the end. It can be used as a lead-in when a new topic is presented, during the practice time or at the end for revision. They say video can be used to spark an interest, to present something new, to revise, and to serve as a springboard for writing or a debate. Three of the interviewed teachers always make an effort to interconnect it with the rest of the lesson(s). Lauren is one of them, but she also uses audio-visual material as a break or in order to increase enthusiasm in her pupils who are primary pupils. Lauren needs to include a variety of short activities in order to keep her pupils focused. She makes monthly plans, which enables her to see how much time she can devote to playing with audio-visual material. Similarly to others, Aaron uses video according to the topic. “I either use video clips from the coursebook or from YouTube. I sometimes play a movie or series as long as they are related to the topic. Occasionally, I play news from Spanish television [in Spanish classes] if there is something really unusual or interesting. I mostly use video for listening or vocabulary practice and teaching facts about countries. Generally, I try to entice the students with video so that they watch the rest of it at home. As to tasks, sometimes I let them just watch and sometimes they have worksheets to complete.” The teachers claimed they did not have back-up plans for cases of technical failures. They all tend to think about what they would do in case of a failure, but their schools are mostly well-equipped, so it does not happen often. They said that if a lesson does not proceed smoothly, they improvise. It would be very interesting to observe how exactly teachers react when this happens. It may be a topic worth further research. Liz would like to work with video content more often, but she must move from a classroom to classroom and although all the classrooms are equipped with data projectors, teachers must carry laptops and the risk that the image or sound will not work is quite high, she stated. Her strategy to technical failure is to go back to the coursebook and postpone the activity for the next class.
47
The teachers do not assign video watching as homework. “I always recommend watching it more times but it’s not compulsory.“ (Stanley) “Video as homework? Very rarely, but I always try to motivate them to play something at home.” (Aaron) Lauren did it once or twice last school year with fifth graders, but since she is now working with younger children, like Dona, they both avoid it. Alice recommends specific video content to her pupils, but there is no-homework policy at her school, so it is only a recommendation. In her experience, many pupils follow her advice and watch the videos. Liz does not assign video content as homework either, as she is afraid some would make excuses and she does not see means of checking whether the students have done it. As to students’ responses to video in the classroom, the answers are similar: “It is very well received; they enjoy it. Moreover, they appreciate when the activities change and they can move.” (Lauren, who uses smart boards for interactive games, such as playing pairs.) “It depends on how captivated they are by the video.” (Aaron) “At first they had to get used to it as a part of work, not leisure. They are mostly happy now.” (Stanley) All seven teachers agreed that video generally motivates students to improve at English/Spanish. Stanley says: “Some of them look up the foreign videos, for example YouTubers, by themselves.” Alice only uses video at the beginning of her Spanish lessons. It is a part of an episode of The Simpsons with Spanish dubbing. It has become a ritual and when she omitted it, the students requested it. They enjoy it very much despite the dubbing sounds awful and she says there is a trend among her learners to try to understand and remember as many words as possible. “The more they say at the end the ‘cooler’ they are”. This way they are learning to differentiate words in a discourse and ask about those they are not yet familiar with. Alice says that despite knowing very little Spanish, the students manage to understand some words and are enthusiastic. They apply the same strategy in the city where they can overhear conversations in Spanish quite often, e.g. on a tram. Liz also confirmed that her pupils listen, pay attention to and participate in the activities, and they are generally captivated by the video. She noticed, however, that watching video is no longer as exciting as it used to be in the 20th century, so sometimes a different activity to video or coursebook may impress them more. Learners tend to appreciate what is new or unusual. Surprises are always welcome. Question six already appeared in the online questionnaire, but I asked it again because this time I was interviewing teachers with more experience in teaching with video. Alice has 48 not observed any drawbacks as she keeps the clips short. Lauren, Dona, Carol and Liz have observed that if the audio part of the video is too difficult, the pupils rely only on the visual part. It is important to find a video that is challenging enough but not demotivating, which is really hard in mixed-capability classrooms. Liz has noticed that it is usually the more advanced students who are motivated more by the video. She also pointed out that video is really close to real life in that there are visual clues the pupils can rely on. She does not see it as a drawback that would weaken listening comprehension. Instead, she says it helps the general comprehension and the pupils can even learn new words thanks to the context and visual part. Four teachers believe that the attractiveness of video is lower these days as it has become commonly accessible, but they do not think that students’ motivation is lower as a result of that. In answer to “Do you think that frequent video watching may result in lower motivation to learn the language when leaners are aided with the visual part and as a result they put less effort into listening comprehension?”, Stanley wrote: “Also the opposite is true: I have a mentally handicapped student who achieved very good English for her age (11) by only watching cartoons with no subtitles for she is not capable of reading so quickly, and with no specific articulatory mimic movements of the figures. Let’s call it a wonder but such things happen.“
5.2.4 Conclusion
The purpose of the research was to find answers to these questions: 1. a) How frequently do Czech language teachers use audio-visual material in their lessons? b) Does this differ based on the age and level of the groups they teach? c) Does it differ based on their own age and length of teaching experience? 2. Is lack of technological equipment in schools one of the main reasons that stops teachers from using audio-visual material in classes more often? 3. Do learners find video material stimulating and are they more motivated to learn languages if video clips are incorporated into the lessons appropriately and often enough? I have obtained responses from a diverse group of 31 language, mostly English teachers representing 20 Czech schools. There were teachers of all ages and with teaching 49 experience ranging from 1 year to more than 31 years, 26 women and 5 men. However, it is important to bear in mind that the research sample was rather limited in number and therefore I would like to avoid generalising the findings. They are interesting, but not necessarily applicable to other educators. The answer to the first question 1a is not definite as the responses varied significantly. Interestingly, there are no striking differences between age groups or between more and less experienced teachers (1c), but there seems to be one influential factor: those eight teachers who claimed to embrace video in 50% of their lessons and more did not complain about lack of or problems with technological equipment. Their reasons for not including even more video clips were lack of time for preparation and packed curricula. 71% of the teachers included video material in their classes a few times a month, approximately once a week on average. As to question 1b, to my surprise, those who taught primary and lower-secondary pupils tended to use video more than those working with older students. This is confirmed by the primary English teachers who were interviewed in the second phase of the research and claimed to use video clips/songs on www.lyricstraining.com or interactive games in almost every lesson, although sometimes only for short periods. Regarding the second question, the technological equipment in schools – or rather a lack of it – is perceived as one of the major obstacles as claimed by 29% of the respondents. However, it came third on the list, as the teachers felt more limited by insufficient time to prepare activities with audio-visual material and by overloaded curricula that did not allow time for other activities. Five teachers did not know where to find suitable material. Five may seem a low number, but given the total number of responses (31), it is not negligible. That is why I created a database of possibly useful resources with suitable video material for those who may feel lost. The resources are to be found in chapter seven. There is not a sole answer to question three “Do learners find video material stimulating and are they more motivated to learn languages if video clips are incorporated into the lessons appropriately and often enough?”. Since many teachers did not work with video often enough, they were sometimes unable to say. Those who did work with it on a more regular basis, state their students enjoyed working with video content and many of them do it in their free time. In general, there seems to be an agreement that too much video in teaching can cause more harm than good, but also that it is indeed a motivational factor if used properly. Proper conditions include: The video clip matches the students’ level, it is well 50 incorporated into the lesson and syllabus, there are tasks to go with it and the students realize that video watching is an active, not a passive task. Some teachers pointed out that video has lost something of the appeal it used to have, because nowadays it is available at one or two clicks of a mouse. As most pupils and students have a computer with an internet connection at their disposal at home, their need to watch video is often saturated and there is less necessity to include video in language classes at school. During my interviews with 30 English learners, I realized that audio-visual material is a significant motivational factor for most of them, but that is mostly used in their free time. The following sub-chapter describes the process and results of the research. It is most probably not only the video itself that motivates them and makes the classes enjoyable. Learners may be motivated by the teacher’s approach and methods that include more than writing and doing exercises in a book. Video is often a part of it, but it does not have to be. As one experienced teacher said: “The pupils themselves confirm this [video is motivating for them] at the end of the school year when they complete an anonymous form in which video, along with other “non-coursebook” activities we prepare for them (such as English theatre, native speakers and guests giving lectures, language shows), appears as a big motivational factor.” I would like to add that this teacher, limited by lack of data projectors at her workplace and packed curricula like many others, does not include video clips too often, but when she does, she has a clear objective in mind and she knows how to work with it. Perhaps this is the key.
5.3 Experimental group 2: Successful learners
Since two of my research questions17 were concerned with learners, I wanted to discover what they thought of using video material in and outside the classes and how they worked with it at home. In other words, I was interested in their learning strategies and the use of technologies, especially outside the classes. Being interested in their strategies and resources for language learning, I decided to interview a number of learners who have achieved a higher or significantly higher level of English than their classmates. I am convinced
17 “Are learners (aged 10-18) capable of finding appropriate and suitable video content online, and do they use it on purpose in order to improve at English/another foreign language?” “What other strategies do young learners use in order to improve at English/another foreign language?” 51 that their success can be attributed to their intelligence, dispositions, faculty for languages, parental support and a family background where education and ability to speak foreign languages are considered crucial. However, examining all these factors and taking them into consideration would be too big a topic for research and a diploma thesis, so although I believe they do play a certain role in language learning, I focused only on their motivation to learn an L2 and their learning strategies. After all, there are many rather intelligent students coming from stable and economically well-established families, yet they do not master any foreign language. Since the first foreign language taught in the Czech Republic is English and only a few of these learners can speak another language, I focused on their attitude towards and motivation for learning English. The learners I chose to address were children and teenagers I teach or used to teach. In total, 35 learners were chosen, but only 30 eventually interviewed, 18 of whom were female and 12 male. The youngest interviewee was 10 and the oldest 18, all of them were pupils and students of these local public schools: Primary and lower-secondary school in Studénka (“ZŠ Tomáše Garrigue Masaryka”), Primary and lower-secondary school in Bílovec (also “ZŠ Tomáše Garrigue Masaryka”), and Grammar school in Bílovec (Gymnázium Mikoláše Koperníka). None of them had a parent from an English-speaking country and none of them had learnt English until taught at school. Some of them take or used to take English classes as an after-school activity, but many of them do not, and yet they are ahead of their peers. I wanted to discover what contributes to their success. I expected them to be highly motivated and rather independent in their learning process and I assumed they would find, in general, audio-visual material in English stimulating. I also supposed they would be using technologies, especially video, in their free time and independently of the classroom.
5.3.1 Interview
The interview was conducted in Czech in order to avoid misunderstanding and was recorded on a voice recorder so that I could fully focus on the interviewee during the conversation and later access the original responses they provided me with. The children had been informed of the recording prior to the interview. Some students, mostly the older ones, chose to do the interview in English, which shows their motivation and engagement with the language, as well as one of the strategies they employ: to use the language as often as possible. 52
Each child was interviewed alone in order not to be influenced by what others say. Seven students I no longer teach answered these questions via email. Some of the students who responded via email chose to do so in English as well. The interview proved to be more effective than a written questionnaire would be, especially with younger children as their answers tended to be short and only by nudging them I elicited more relevant information. Each interview took between 8 and 22 minutes, and the longer interviews gave a clearer picture of learners’ motivations and strategies. Most 10, 11 and 12-year-old children do not have the capacity for self-reflection required to answer the questions in an in depth manner, so asking, so asking the same question in different ways during the interview proved useful.
The students were asked these questions: 1. What's your age? 2. On scale 0-10 (10 being the highest), how motivated are you to learn English? 3. Why do you want to learn English at all? 4. What learning strategies do you have? What helps you to improve? 5. Do you intentionally use video* for learning English? If so, what kind? How often? 6. Do you actively search for material and sources to improve your English? If so, where and what sort? (On the internet, in books, in people, etc.) 7. How much extra time, besides classes at school and compulsory homework, do you spend on English per week? *video includes films, series, shows, documentaries, music clips, vlogs, DIY and other manuals, etc.
Three additional questions: 8. If you watch YouTube videos in English, what channels or YouTubers do you follow? 9. If you regularly watch series in English, which ones? What games in English do you play? 10. What language do you have your Facebook/Twitter/Instagram, phone and computer set in?
53
5.3.2 Learners’ responses
After all the data was collected and put into a table in an Excel sheet, it was analysed. I will display some of the data in figures for easier comprehension. All the respondents have been assigned random English names.
The age 21 respondents (70%) were younger than 15. Only 3 respondents were 17 and 18.
Figure 1 Respondents' age.
Motivation and reasons to learn English It is not surprising that all the successful learners are highly motivated. The most common number from 0 to 10 was 9. Two learners ranked their motivation as 7, seven of them as 8, fifteen of them (50%) as 9, and six of them as 10. There were no significant differences in motivation levels between males and females, as the charts below show.
Figure 2. Learners' motivation to learn English in numbers.
54
Girls’ motivation Boys’ motivation
Figure 3 Differences in motivation between sexes.
The reasons for learning English were somewhat predictable too. Ten respondents (30%) provided two main reasons for learning English, seven of them had four important reasons, five of them three, another five of them only one big reason and one person had five reasons worth sharing. I did not offer any reasons to the respondents as I wanted them to identify them on their own, without any influence from me; however, parental or societal influence could not and cannot be eliminated. The wording I received was different, but after putting all the information into a table and analysing the responses, I identified these:
The most common reasons were: 1. “English is spoken all around the globe and thus essential for communication.” English as a lingua franca – 18 responses 2. “English appeals to me and I like it (more than Czech).” – 11 responses 3. “English will help my work career and give me more job opportunities in the future.” – 11 responses 4. “English is important for travelling and I want to travel.” – 9 responses
Followed by: 5. “I may want to work, study or live abroad later.” – 7 responses 6. “I want to have access to information and material (text, video, audio) that is not available in Czech.” – 7 responses
55
7. “I want to be able to communicate with interesting people or make friends with people who do not speak Czech.” – 4 responses 8. “I need English for playing computer games.” – 4 responses 9. “My dream is to live in an English-speaking country.” – 2 responses
And a few original ones: Kylie (age 12): “I would like to work as a presenter and do interviews with famous people.” Noah (age 12.5): “I want to be able to communicate with my relatives who do not speak Czech and live in Australia.” Charlie (age 13): “I want to be an English and History teacher.” Harry (age 13): “I want to be a doctor and able to examine and help foreign patients who do not speak Czech.” + “I think learning a foreign language improves functionality of the brain.” + “I will need English when I need to make written complains about some defective goods I purchase online from abroad, for example.” Victoria (age 14.5): “I want my child to be exposed to English from an early age and I want to speak it to him/her, besides Czech.” Audrey (10): “There is this very cool Canadian YouTuber I really like. I think I want to live in Canada too. I fancy her, winter, snow and maple syrup.”
In the first chapter, I wrote about motivation. It is a complex term that can be and often is interpreted in a variety of ways. I did not specify it when I asked the first question because 1) many learners were too young to understand the concept, and 2) asking the learners to reflect on their level of motivation showed me how important English was for them in their life at that stage. When designing the questionnaire, a doubt arose – how much are the learners influenced by the family members they feel emotionally close to? Is the motivation they claim to have really theirs, or could it be a desire projected by their parents, for instance? Question number 2: “Why do you want to learn English at all?” was designed to clarify where the students’ motivation was coming from and what motivation meant to them. Upon thinking about and giving their reasons, I could see what their desires were and get some idea of their emotional involvement to the subject. They were all intrinsically motivated, I did not receive any extrinsic reasons for learning English. The motivating factors identified
56 by the students were both instrumental and integrative. Questions 4, 5, 6 and 718 helped to determine the strength of their motivation – above all the effort. In Chapter 1 Motivation, I spoke about short and long-term goals. All the respondents have set themselves long-term goals. These goals were in fact their reasons for learning the language. Except for Zoey, who besides long-term goals sets herself short-term goals and rewards herself, no-one mentioned short-term goal setting strategies. Perhaps because they have not been asked about it.
Intentional and unintentional learning Do young learners use YouTube and other streaming websites for more than mere entertainment? Do they use it intentionally for learning? Before I summarise the responses, I should say a few words about intentional and unintentional learning (sometimes called incidental) learning. Intentional learning can be both formal (in an institution) and informal (outside a classroom). Speaking of languages, we can imagine the process of intentional learning as similar to studying when the attention is on the language itself, whereas incidental learning is rather a language acquisition, a process similar to that of a child learning an L1. Incidental learning happens as a result of being engaged with texts, audio and visual material or with conversations with other speakers. In these cases, the language is not the main objective of the activities. The survey showed that 80% of the respondents do not use YouTube intentionally for language learning. They search for or select material that promises entertainment or is in line with their interests. However, since a substantial amount of the audio-visual material they watch on YouTube is in English, improving at the language (in terms of listening comprehension, pronunciation and accidental vocabulary learning) comes as a by-product of this pastime. The effectiveness of unintentional English language learning and its comparison with intentional English language learning could be a topic worth examining in further
18 4. What learning strategies do you have? What helps you to improve? 5. Do you intentionally use video* for learning English? If so, what kind? How often? 6. Do you actively search for material and sources to improve your English? If so, where and what sort? (On the internet, in books, in people, etc.) 7. How much extra time, besides classes at school and compulsory homework, do you spend on English a week? 57 research. Those six learners (both boys and girls) who claimed to visit YouTube for language learning do it only occasionally, and they usually watch anything they like, but they pay special attention to the language use. Rarely do they watch English lessons.
Time spent with English I prefer to use the preposition “with” to “on” English, as in many cases a great deal of this time is unintentional learning when the respondents are exposed to English while watching something entertaining, listening to songs or playing games, and English as such is not their focus. They do not do it in order to learn anything specific about the language. Most respondents spend between two and ten hours a week doing something in English, either playing games, watching video clips, reading, listening to songs or speaking it outside the classroom. Some learners were not able to assess how much time they spend on/with English and that is why they are not included in the chart below. The figures may be imprecise as the learners did not measure the time over a period of time prior to the interview and they only provided an estimated, average number. The highest number I heard was around 50 hours a week. Oliver said: “Very often I have nothing to do, so I just watch films and series in English, listen to songs every evening and play games in English, sometimes the whole weekend.” He chooses to watch the films and series with Czech subtitles. Another high number came from Grace, who – just like Oliver – wants to live abroad: She claimed to spend almost all her free time engaged with English in some way – either by listening to something, watching videos or talking to other family members or to herself out loud in English. Altogether it is about 30 hours a week, she said. Her approach is more conscious in comparison to Oliver’s, but since Oliver spends more time on being exposed to English, their levels match19. The amount of time spent with English and the results do not always correlate. It is the effort that counts and time does not always equal effort. I have observed that those students who are more aware of their strategies, are able to learn approximately the same amount of language in much less time. Whether they enjoy it to the same extent is a question I do not have an answer for.
19 in speaking skills and communication strategies, vocabulary, grammar, writing and also reading and listening comprehension 58
Figure 4. Estimated hours the pupils spend with English a week.
Active searching This is closely related to the intentional learning mentioned above. Similarly to the former two issues, very few learners actively search for online material unless they face a task that they need extra resources for or unless their approach to learning English is so conscious that they push themselves to learn even more. Most are satisfied with the material they already have or stumble upon and their current level which is already higher than their peers’.
Learning strategies One of the questions concerned other strategies young learners employ in order to improve at English. The complete list of them is be found at the end of the section. Some young learners benefit from good memory or great exposure to English and not much attention is paid to the learning process, while others have effective strategies and achieve the same or higher results in less time. Based on the data I obtained, I dare to say the more aware the approach is, the more effective the process is and better results are achieved. Isaac (11) is in the 5th grade, but he surpasses most 7th graders when it comes to pronunciation and the ability to understand and express himself in English. He is intelligent, of course, but certainly not the most intelligent of the class. So how has he achieved this level of fluency at the age of 11, having English classes only three times a week with a group of 20 other students operating at a level of English significantly below Isaac’s level? He is one of
59 those pupils that welcomes every opportunity to speak in English outside of classes. He makes an effort to improvise and maintain a conversation in this language, despite limited vocabulary. Isaac claims to revise vocabulary and grammar from his notebooks (even from past years) and to spend about 7 hours on English per week, on average. This is not that much in comparison with some other students, but the difference is that he puts more emphasis on English itself and is concerned with learning the language even when he plays computer games. His strategy for watching films in English is that he first tries to view it without captions and only when he is lost, he pauses the film, rewinds the scene and sees it again with captions. He searches for unknown words in a dictionary. When playing games, he prefers those that make him communicate in English directly with other speakers, typically teenagers from other European countries. Equipped with headsets, they communicate in order to develop a strategy and win the game. This way, Isaac (and other learners with similar experience) can be exposed to a variety of accents and levels of fluency, which prepares them better for life in a setting in which most people they interact with are non-native speakers. There is no time to prepare a speech so the discourse is improvised, authentic and happens naturally; the emphasis is placed on fluency and communication. The children learn how to divide the attention between speaking, listening and directing the online character. The world of computer games the teens play is worth examining, but for the purpose of this thesis I only asked my pupils to name the games they play and YouTube channels they follow. They will be listed near the end of the chapter. Grace, 14 years old, is strongly driven by her dream to live in an English speaking country. The desire inspired by a few relatives from her mum’s side who live in Ireland, England and New Zealand. She devotes as much as four hours to English every day, practically all the afternoon. English forms a part of her life. She tries to make it fun, and since she enjoys music and singing, lots of this time is dedicated to music in English, searching for lyrics and singing them. Moreover, she has the habit of talking to people around her in English and talking in English to herself, out loud, sometimes in front of a mirror. I have been interested in learning strategies for a few years and have always asked the more successful people what they do in order to acquire a language efficiently. They often shyly admit that talking to themselves, either in their head or out loud, and imagining various situations and what they would say in them is what they (used to) do. I believe it really helps the brain to gradually switch into English, to actively maintain the ‘English mode’ in the brain, and have 60 quicker responses when there comes a situation in which they must use the language. In the past, Grace used Duolingo, an application for learning languages that is freely available and quite popular with language learners of all ages. She also spends a significant amount of time on watching YouTube videos, films and series in English, either with captions or without (depending on the level of difficulty). It is obvious that she likes English language as such, which is an important factor, but not necessary, in order to master the language. One more thing I would like to highlight about her is that she consciously keeps her motivation high by choosing appealing and stimulating content to watch or read in her free time. “I only do what is fun for me in order not to put myself off,” she said. Claire is also 14 years old and some of her strategies are similar to those of other learners (watching Extra, a sitcom made by BBC for English learners, talking to herself in English, translating lyrics and singing songs). However, some differ, such as re-writing vocabulary until she remembers it, writing down all the words she hears when she listens to songs, and having one 60-minute private English lesson a week with her younger sister. However, she goes further: when she met an exchange student from Georgia who came to her school last school year to deliver a few lessons, she asked for her phone number, and they had phone conversations on WhatsApp until recently. The exchange student has gone back to Georgia, but she was willing to talk to Claire in English once a week for about an hour when she saw how motivated Claire was. Oliver is 15 and in the future he sees himself living in one of the big cities of the USA. He claimed to spend as many as 50h a week being engaged with English. He watches lots of video content, plays computer games in English and listens to songs and translates their lyrics. The amount of time he spends on English does not come from the motivation itself, but rather from boredom as he explained that he has little to do at home. Zoey, 14, is a very ambitious young woman who has learnt a great deal of Spanish by herself, until we met and started Spanish classes together. She already thinks in English and she is one of the students who chose to do the interview in English. We discussed her motivation and strategies for learning English, as it is the foreign language she has mastered the best. Unlike Oliver, she does not spend so many hours on being exposed to English, but her strategies are more deliberate and effective. Instead of watching series, films and playing online games, she spends time on extensive reading, studies from grammar and vocabulary books, broadens her vocabulary on Quizlet, practises speaking out loud and pronunciation in 61 front of a mirror and she sets herself goals. “For example, when I complete certain chapters in my book [for self-learners], I can buy myself something new”, she explained. The reward she buys herself is sometimes a bilingual book. Jake, 13, admires his sister who now lives in London. He takes advantage of her ability to speak English and every time they have a phone call, they communicate in English. He stated it is twice or three times a week, for about an hour each time. However, except for having his phone, computer and social network sites set in English, his approach to learning English is rather “relaxed” – he plays games in English and watches video but learning the language is not the goal. Entertainment goes first and if he learns anything, it is simply a by- product. This attitude is the most common among young learners, I have observed. Only 6 out of 30 respondents claimed they searched for video content and other material in English intentionally in order to improve their language skills. This is only 20%. 80%, watch what they enjoy and what correlates to their interests and there is little or no focus on the language itself. Three other respondents (10%) say they occasionally watch video with the intention to learn English. They were not able to specify, though, how frequently this happens. Another interesting discovery is that only 6 out of 30 (again 20%) read in English. All the other respondents said they hardly ever read in English in their free time. It is clear that audio-visual sources are much preferred over material that requires straight reading such as books or online articles. Only one respondent replied that she learned new vocabulary through reading. These are the strategies I was given when interviewing the learners. They are listed according to the frequency with which they were employed:
1. I spend a lot of time on watching YouTube videos in English. 2. I talk to myself in English out loud. 3. I play video games in English. 4. I pay attention at school. 5. I revise grammar and vocabulary from my notebooks/books. 6. I look up words I do not know in a dictionary. 7. I look up lyrics and I translate them. 8. I try to speak English with a friend/relative/someone else. 62
9. I tend to imagine situations I could find myself in, and how I would react in English. 10. I take notes of what the teacher says but does not write on the board. 11. I sing songs in English (after I learn the lyrics). 12. I read books/magazines/comics/articles in English. 13. I teach English to my grandma/someone else. 14. I talk to myself in English in front of a mirror. 15. I listen to podcasts. 16. I view English lessons online.
Very few learners admitted reading in English and learning new vocabulary thanks to that. Other strategies were: Dylan (15): “Every time I come across an unknown word, I look it up, including its synonyms.” Zach (18): “I imagine phrases I’ve read or heard somewhere and I try to include them in my discourse. I also try to think in English instead of Czech. Like most of my peers, I watch series and films in English either with subtitles or without.” Claire (14): “Writing new words several times helps me remember them.”
YouTube is definitely the number one resource of audio-visual content for all the learners I interviewed, besides computer games played by boys. Only two of the girls interviewed said they played them too. Below are the most popular YouTube channels, games, series and apps the respondents shared with me.
Popular YouTube channels and “YouTubers” I asked those children and teenagers who regularly watch YouTube videos in English for a list of the channels and people they follow. Some are more popular than others. The most named channel was PewDiePie, clearly a number one among children, followed by Dude Perfect, Liza Koshy, The Ellen Show and a teacher from Brno Bronislav Sobotka. Others were: Lele Pons, Rudy Mancuso,Hannah Stocking, Sarah Betts, Natalia Outlet, RiceGum, Because Science, ItsFunneh, LaurenzSide, JT Music, Dead Meat, EmilyKitty, Flying Kitty, The Living Tombstone, Nightcore Lab, Dinosaur Girl, The Odd1sOut, Jaden Animations, Let me explain 63 studios, Scott Redding, Jake Paul (music), Glamour Magazine, The Late show, MsMojo, and Madelaine Petsch.
Popular games and YouTube gaming channels Only two girls out of 18 admitted playing games and named a few, whereas all the boys under the age of 15 said they play computer games regularly. The most played are: Minecraft, Fortnite and Borderlands. Three respondents told me they frequently use gaming site Roblox. Other games children play nowadays are: Clash Royale, Far cry, Just Cause, PickCrafter, osu!, For honor, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), MegaMogwai, The Witcher, Metro 2033 (Redux), Plants vs Zombies 2, Cheeki Breeki IV Damke, Overwatch, Subnautica, Gacha life Most of them are first-person shooter video games. One of few exception is MotoGP, played by Hannah (12), who is interested in motorcycles. The most frequently watched YouTube gaming channels are Ninja and Viral Erik (both followed by three of the respondents). Other gaming channels known among the children are: Tofuu, Yode, Lazar Beam, Jacksepticeye, Muselk, Dakotaz, TFUE, BookOfKen, and Fandroid GAME!.
Popular series Only learners who are 14 and over watch series. The most popular are The Walking Dead and Riverdale. Other titles I was given are: Supergirl, Superstore, The 100, Glee and the sitcom “Extra BBC Learning English” I had recommended to them earlier.
Apps Regarding the apps pupils and students use, there are not many. The most spread is Duolingo, which is typically used only by the younger ones (10-13 years). I have introduced Quizlet to many of my classes, so some learners mentioned it as well. Claire uses BBC Learning English
App and “Jiki anglická slovíčka” and Audrey recommended Animo.
5.3.3 Conclusion
One conclusion that can be drawn from the research is that all successful learners have high levels of intrinsic motivation. They all realize the importance of being able to 64 communicate in English and they all want to master it. Some of them aspire to become fluent in other languages as well. Their motivation is in most cases instrumental (“English is a lingua franca.”) and in many cases both instrumental and integrative. One third of the students are fond of English language, several are open to the possibility of studying or working abroad temporarily and some are even determined to move abroad. Most of them would like to travel abroad at some point and avoid the language barrier. As seen above, watching films, series and YouTube videos is very popular. Children spend a significant amount of time watching videos on the internet and they do it, in majority of cases, for entertainment. We can observe the strong influence of YouTube on their intrinsic motivation, in some cases integrative. I believe the research showed that video is indeed a motivational factor for children and teenagers and since its content is often appealing to them, it pushes them to learn the language. Several of them expressed admiration for some YouTubers and this emotional attachment nurtures their interest in English and as illustrated in Audrey’s case, it can even provoke a desire to integrate with the culture. One of the research questions was “Are learners (aged 10-18) capable of finding appropriate and suitable video content online, and do they use it on purpose in order to improve at English/another foreign language?” All the respondents are more successful than most of their peers and based on the responses I collected, it hardly ever happens that they have the need to search for video content related to a specific unit of language. Being the best in the classroom, they are not pushed to work harder by the circumstances at school, and that is why they do not tend to search for specific material related to language learning. The material that is in course books, given to them by teachers or available at home in form of books, for instance, is usually sufficient. Therefore, this question cannot be answered with certainty. They may be capable of that, but they do not normally do it. However, there are a few exceptions. Whether or not a person tries hard, it is undeniable that today the exposure to English – both written and spoken – is significantly higher than two decades ago. Most teenagers have an Instagram account; besides Facebook or Twitter that rank lower in popularity among the young. Using YouTube and having one or more of these social network accounts results in higher exposure to English. A considerable amount of attractive content is not available in Czech, so the children are pushed to watch videos in English, and thus they have higher chances of acquiring the language, often unintentionally. As explained above, most language is 65 acquired, i.e. learned unintentionally, during an exposure to the English material or interaction with other speakers in English (e.g. when playing computer games).
6 The use of video in the classroom
Until I started teaching at a primary and lower-secondary school, I had mostly worked with intermediate and upper-intermediate learners and thus most of the plans I can provide have been tested on these levels of proficiency. In my experience, using video is generally easier with students who have already achieved at least a B1 level, as the range of material that is accessible for them is broader than the one for beginners and pre-intermediate level. However, following the generally accepted guidance “adjust the task, not the material“, even a complex and challenging video material may be used with less skilled learners if the task set by the teacher is proportionate to their level. For C1 comprehension level, the database of audio-visual material is practically infinite, but most of teachers tend to teach lower-level students.
One of the very core principals of ESL methodology is to elicit information from students instead of giving everything to them straight away. Eliciting can be a part of “lead- ins”, in which the topic of the lesson is typically introduced. Using a picture or illustration is often a convenient way of a lead-in, when the students guess the lesson’s topic. Many teachers go to Google images or Pinterest for such material, however, the issue of copyright may arise. Therefore, I dare to suggest the website Pixabay20, where one can browse and download, for free, thousands of photos, images and videos that are free of copyright. The site has a very user-friendly layout and simple and effective search engine supported by tags each picture or video is equipped with. The videos can be scanned in a preview, tags can be seen and clicked on for more of a similar content. It is more efficient and easier to navigate through than Google Imagines or YouTube, although the database is, of course, limited.
20 https://pixabay.com/ 66
6.1 Lesson plans including video clips
I will provide the lesson plans I have already tested myself and which worked well. I make them freely available for use or modification and adaptation in the classroom. What I always try to apply, if possible, is a topic that goes beyond the language. It may be at times quite challenging for the students, as they need to think not only about the language itself, but also about another issue, and reflect on beliefs, set of values, behaviour, or life experience. As the Czech standard is 45 minutes, all the plans are adjusted for 45-minute lessons; however, most of them are suitable for a double lesson with some modification (see the details in the appendix). Since I taught these lessons prior to writing the thesis and knowing they would form a part of it, I did not have the chance to ask the students for immediate feedback that I could provide here. Instead, I will write a short reflection on them at the end of each lesson plan. The template I use is a simplified version of the template I was taught to use at the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University by a very experienced teacher Nicola Fořtová during Internal teaching practice. It includes recommended age and level, material needed, lesson type, main and subsidiary aims, expectations of what students should already know, stages, timings and procedures. In some lesson plans, I mention problems I anticipated, and all the lessons finish with a short reflection in which I look back on my experience when I delivered that particular material. Missing from the original template are “personal aims” (e.g. reduce my TTT21, speak louder), in some case “anticipated problems and solutions”, “interaction patters” for each stage of the lesson (e.g. student -> student, teacher -> students), and “lexical/grammatical issues” (depending on the lesson’s objective). Obviously, a full-time teacher does not have time to plan every lesson in such detail; however, it is a good practice to think about these issues before walking in the classroom. A tip I was given by the above- mentioned teacher during a class in 2017 is to plan for less time (e.g. 35 or 40 minutes instead of 45 minutes), and have an extra activity prepared.
21 TTT = teacher talking time 67
All the video material used can be found on YouTube under the title I provide. For readers reading this thesis online, by clicking on the title they will be redirected to the clip. For those reading the printed version, more details about the clip are to be found in footnotes. The estimated timing may be very different for different students, so some changes may be necessary in order to adjust it to another group, even splitting the lesson plan into two lessons in order to have enough time to cover all the essential parts. The lesson plans and all the additional material (e.g. texts) for the lessons are to be found in the appendix.
6.2 Locating lesson plans with video content
The plans I provide are few. My objective was to inspire the teachers, introduce them to something new and show material other than what they normally find in coursebooks. There are more lesson plans freely available on the internet, by other and far more experienced teachers. One of them is Kieran Donaghy who publishes new lesson plans including video clips on his website FilmEnglish22 a few times a year. He has received a great deal of recognition and positive references. Each plan starts with a brief, overall description and has a simple structure (including language level, learner type, time needed, activities taking places, topic, what kind of language is being taught and the material). Instructions are in steps, well arranged and clear, and the material as such is downloadable. If the lesson plans are of use, there is a possibility of donating financially to the work, as it helps to run the website free of charge. Another teacher providing her own lesson plans for others free of charge is Gosia Kwiatkowska based in Warsaw, a Polish English teacher delivering most of her classes online and working mostly with adults, which does not mean she does not provide a few plans for lower levels and for younger learners. I personally have not used any of them yet, however, I can imagine using some of them with teenagers, for instance this Facebook lesson plan23. Not all her lesson plans contain video, though, and they are not so descriptive and detailed as the
22 Link: http://film-english.com/ 23 “Facebook lesson plan” posted on May 15, 2015 by Gosia Kwiatkowska. Link: https://www.lessonplansdigger.com/2015/05/15/facebook-lesson-plan/#more-27 68 ones provided by Kieran Donaghy. Gosia’s plans can be browsed based on “Activities“ search or “Levels“ search. Her blog is called LessonPlansDigger24.
6.3 More video material
In this section, I would like to share some of the best videos I have stumbled upon, either lately or many years ago and I saved them for future use.
Video quizzes Writing these chapters, I was exploring the web looking for more audio-visual material and I came across iSLcollective. The site offers printable and projectable lessons and, most importantly for the purpose of this paper, video lessons. Teachers can upload their plans and worksheets as well. There are plenty of filters to use, so searching for the perfect material should be fairly easy and efficient. However, the database of material there is not infinite, so it may happen that when a request is very specific (e.g. practising articles for beginners), nothing may be found. The video-quiz clips found on the website are generally very appealing to young learners. They are often animated and either witty with surprising endings (such as “A snack attack”25), well-known and popular (Mr Bean) or full of action. To show one example for all, I chose “Past tense review”26. As the title says, it is a revision of past tenses (with one exception of past perfect it only includes past simple and continuous) and after each quiz question a brief explanation of the rule is given. From my experience, students appreciate this kind of homework more than a written gap-fill exercise. These video clips are generally only suitable for homework, unless a teacher can access a computer room once in a while and give each student a computer to work with. I can also imagine using certain clips for revision or extra practice in the classroom and projecting them, but that requires all the students working more or less at the same pace, otherwise it would get
24 Link: https://www.lessonplansdigger.com/category/lesson-plans/ 25 Link: https://en.islcollective.com/video-lessons/snack-attack 26 By “ironhippo” from September 2018. Link: https://en.islcollective.com/video-lessons/past-tense-review 69 lengthy and boring for the faster ones. Even if one does not use this site very often in the classes, it is still worth introducing to the pupils. We never know how many of the more independent ones will work with it in their free time. Based on my judgement and on what I have examined, sometimes the characteristics given do not match the actual level (the tasks given during the video watching), so we shall not rely on them and always watch the clip before. Some pre-teaching of a few vocabulary items can solve the problem and we may assign the clip for homework anyway. Just like YouTube, the site offers immediate download27. The quality is not outstanding, but it is sufficient. However, after downloading the clip, the quiz questions disappear. The teacher can use it without them, for a different purpose, or create their own quiz video. For those who need more help with making quizzes, there is the video “How to create an autoquiz28“.
Countries of the world I have received a very positive feedback from my pupils on an old song “Nations of the world”29. It could be used by primary teachers teaching English in the fifth grade (with the coursebook Project 1). The pace is crazily high and the students do not stand a chance understanding more than a few countries, especially when we consider they are only fifth- graders, but they can be given a simple task so that the video is not a mere entertainment. I asked my pupils to listen for the Czech Republic. They did, spotted Czechoslovakia instead and were even able to explain why. Before they watched the video, they were guessing how many countries (excluding the countries of the USA) existed in the world. We wrote a few guesses on the board and while listening to the song, some of them were counting them. This idea actually came from the children. Another task that occurs to me is to divide the pupils into a few groups and give each group two or three countries they do not know (write them on the board) and ask them to remember their locations.
27 Place the cursor on the clip and a green button in the right upper corner that says “download“ appears. 28 “How to create an autoquiz (computer-generated quiz)” uploaded by “iSLCollective Video Quiz Tutorials” in Sept 2018. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtXLEBSswi4 29 “Nations of the world – with lyrics – Animaniacs“. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pOFKmk7ytU 70
Months of the year For teaching months of the year, I have repeatedly used Boney M’s Calendar song30 and children loved it. Long after the lesson I heard them singing it. It is very old, but they do not seem to mind at this age yet. Even more popular than Boney M was this calendar song31 by The Singing Walrus. It is more interactive as the children are asked to sing along 1) quietly, 2) really loudly (very popular) and 3) fast. They surprised me with their request to sing even during a break and then again in the following class.
#WhatMakesUsHUMAN I cannot help but share these two very concise clips that say it all. John in “Death is not the end of everything”32 and a beautiful Jewish lady in “Kindness can come from anywhere”33, suitable for the topic of losing a significant one or judgement and human kindness, in a one-on-one class with an adult. There are many more short and longer wonderful testimonies at teachers’ disposal.
Original commercials (and short films) Some years ago I fell in love with Born to create drama aiming at young talents and my two favourite clips are “Double life”34 and “That’s not my mummy”35. I recommend to stop them before the purpose of the commercial is revealed and let the students speculate. They can be also asked to invent a slogan. To make it easier, perhaps both clips can be played and
30 Version with subtitles and pictures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm2F7MRpT_Y&t=44s 31 Months of the Year Song | Song for Kids | The Singing Walrus, published in Jun 2015. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe9bnYRzFvk 32 “HUMAN - clip #2: Death is not the end of everything” published by HUMAN the movie in Sept 2015. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWKNwzGL8C0 33 “HUMAN - clip #1: Kindness can come from anywhere” published by HUMAN the movie in Sept 2015. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIhAsV4t6Nk&list=PLEgA6bEeal3ze5Ugq8LPC-uigROvLIvyi 34 “Double life”, published by Young Director Award in May 2011. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qLe9OKCxTQ&list=PLDMIr4L6VRKVebHcNCsLxyXaY0sNw5R5I 35 “YDA: For those who are born to create drama” published by Amsterdam Ad Blog in Mar 2010. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzl86IjTpHI 71 the students can know that they advertise the same thing. This is a great material to use when talking about films, actors, directors and awards. Another short film worth watching by Young Director Award is “Poverty tells many stories”36. Just like the commercials above, this short film has been one of my very favourites for many years. One of possible activities to do with it is an information gap: one student in a pair faces the screen, the other listens to his/her classmate’s description of what is happening. Since it is narrated in German, the sound does not have to be muted (as long as the students do not understand German). Alternatively, only the sound can be played and everybody tries to imagine what is happening. The title can be either revealed before playing the video, or concealed until its very end, depending on the teacher’s intention. I suggest using this clip for lessons whose topic is children’s imagination, possibly lying (Does the poor boy lie at all?) and poverty. Staying on the topic of imagination, one might consider this video clip called Geri’s Game37. It is animated and it features an old man hero. Retelling what it is about is an option, pausing and predicting what comes next or who eventually wins is another. Depending on what we teach, we can apply a wide spectrum of vocabulary and grammar issues. Now that we know how, we can also create a quiz and let the students work with it at home. For the topic of outstanding commercials as such or the topic of finances and insurance, there is an excellent commercial made for DnB NOR, The Norwegian bank, “Some People Have All The Luck”38. However, the students must know George Clooney and the fact he was, for quite a long time, a bachelor considered one of the best Hollywood catches. Another original TV commercial is “Dirt Devil – The Exorcist”39 (to be played only until 1:11). It could be used in one lesson on advertising along with a few other commercials. Students could first guess the products of each and then identify the key features of an
36 “European Filmschool - Poverty tells many stories” published by Young Director Award in Aug 2010. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSRMeiLljnw
37 “Pixar – Geri’s Game (original audio) published by Vera Korblet in Jan 2013. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLQG3sORAJQ 38 “DnB NOR – Some People Have All The Luck - TV Commercial” published by thwartd in Feb 2012.. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcZItyTEmC8 39 Published by MrPrice2u in Apr 2011. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGb8pMIeY6w 72 outstanding commercial. In case we can afford to spend even more time on the topic, the students could apply the new knowledge and attempt to create (in teams) their own advert. When teaching older learners the vocabulary topic of flying, commercials by Air New Zealand are a must. “The most epic safety video ever made”40, “An Unexpected Briefing”41 (both integrating the Lord of the Rings characters/actors) or more challenging “Air New Zealand Hilarious flight safety video”42 with All Blacks rugby players are excellent. The last one should be only played once the students are confident at understanding and using air safety instructions. An additional value of these instructional videos is the Kiwi accent, hardly ever represented in teaching materials in the Czech Republic. However, as a starting point for teaching air safety vocabulary, I recommend this cute, much more comprehensible video by Thomson Airways “In Flight Safety Film”43. I would include the Kiwi commercials afterwards, rather for the purpose of revision. Watching and analysing adverts and commercials, one can learn quite a lot about cultures. Recently, I have seen a lot of Asian commercials on YouTube and could observe a different style of narration and emphasis on different issues than in the West. Since it portrays people in their surroundings, it is a valuable realia. For those who work with adult learners it can be worth showing and analysing. The last video I will share in this chapter, is this 15-minute long jewel called Crush44. It is only for older, mature and rather advanced students, as the actors have quite a specific accent and mumble, and the clip is fairly long. Even upper-intermediate and advanced students may struggle with understanding, so perhaps the lines could be presented beforehand or the film could be subtitled. Generally helpful auto-generated captions are highly imprecise in this case and thus useless. The video is excellent not only for the topic of platonic love.
40 Published by Air New Zealand in Oct 2014. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOw44VFNk8Y 41 Published by Air New Zealand in Oct 2012. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBlRbrB_Gnc&index=4&list=RDiO5BFhWdgk4 42 Published by Aizad Sayid in Sept 2010. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO5BFhWdgk4&list=RDiO5BFhWdgk4&start_radio=1&t=178 43 Thomson In Flight Safety Film 'Alice The Chief Steward' published by MrVideoposter in Aug 2009. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syozl4DAPs4 44 “The Crush 2010 Oscar Winning Hollywood Short Film” published by YouTube Movies in Aug 2016. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvXFHRWlE5g 73
7 Online resources with audio-visual material
The objective of this chapter is to provide the readers with websites and other resources with audio-visual material. I started to gather these resources in 2013. Some of them, however, were shared with me by teachers who participated in my research. I wanted to make sure they were all accurate in terms of English and well designed in terms of methodology so I have been through them carefully to check before recommending them. First, I will list YouTube channels and then other online websites. For those reading the thesis online, the relevant websites can be accessed by clicking the name of the site.
7.1 YouTube channels
Based on the responses I obtained in the research, YouTube is the number one site regarding the search for audio-visual material, both among teachers and learners. Therefore, I will start with the channels worth seeing and examining. There is a tip for those searching for video content there: When one opens a certain channel, related channels are sometimes displayed on the right and some of them might suit the teacher’s needs. Searching in categories may be also fruitful and subscribing to relevant channels will save one’s time on finding again what once have been found. The most efficient way to keep interesting content is to create playlists. It takes only a few seconds to click on “Save” button under the video and add it to one of the playlists, for instance “pronunciation”, “teaching vocabulary to beginners”, “food”, or any other category one may need. The playlists are by default set to be public, but at one click of a mouse they become private or unlisted (i.e. only visible to those who are given the link). The order of video clips on the playlists can be changed any time and the clips can be easily removed. This way, one avoids copying links or downloading video clips and storing them on a hard drive in folders, and, most importantly, the video is accessible from any device upon a log-in. Some teachers are inspired by material they stumble upon on Facebook. The feature to save content for future use or reference is probably well-known, but some may not know that the saved items can be organized into “collections”. Collections are like folders. Having clips and other material in these collections makes the access easier in the future. 74
Exciting English Exciting English45 contains nearly 70 video clips46, excerpts from popular films and series, often animated, but also acted. It is a source of authentic informal and unsimplified language. There is no umbrella topic; it can be used for vocabulary extension (learning new vocabulary in context) and improving comprehension. The benefit of the channel is that all clips are divided into four parts: In the first one, the scene is shown without captions, in the second the learner is given a subtitled viewing of the same scene, then comes the third part with (new) words and expressions with their definitions or synonyms, and at the end the original clip is replayed for revision. All at once, it becomes fairly easy to understand what was challenging or almost impossible before. Watching these clips may be assigned as homework.
Figure 5 Sometimes “Related channels” that are displayed on the right are worth examining too. Exciting English. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0SW6B8NNOE6O0iaJfhn6uA. Screenshot by author.
45 Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0SW6B8NNOE6O0iaJfhn6uA 46 Accessed on 13th Oct 2018. 75
Book Box stories
Book Box retells stories for children and equips them with subtitles that change colour in order to allow viewers to hear and see the narration simultaneously. The stories are uploaded on YouTube (a channel with 35 videos), but it is also hosted on its own website, https://www.bookbox.com/. The advantage of playing the stories on YouTube is that by clicking on “Subscribe” one can follow the channel, along with others, and this way all the content is linked to one’s Google account on YouTube.
Figure 6. Book box stories. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL88394447554B79CA. Screenshot by author.
76
Akbar Birbal Stories (English Animated Stories For Kids) This channel is similar to Book Box. The animation is not very attractive, but watching the stories may be enriching from the cultural perspective: learners can compare the Indian clothes, houses and position of men and women in the society. Moreover, the channel strives to “inculcate moral values and virtues in them” (Akbar Birbal Stories, n.d.). The subtitles do not form a part of the videos, unfortunately, but the automatic captions can be activated and are fairly accurate (except for Indian names), as far as I am aware.
Figure 7. Akbar Birbal Stories. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR22sCPCRx3J9nfCUV4htGw. Screenshot by author.
77
Fractured Fairy Tales Fractured Fairy Tales does not have its own channel, but over 60 tales may be found on YouTube. Many of the old well-known tales were rewritten to apply to modern life and feel fresh. The narrative is fast and challenging for levels lower than C1, but the task can be adapted to lower levels. With some creativity, some of the clips can be used even for 6th graders learning past tense. For instance, muting the sound of Cinderella, Snow White or The Fisherman and his wife and asking the pupils to reconstruct the story may motivate them to use their imagination and past tenses in a new context, in a story that is known, and at the same time unknown to them.
Figure 8 Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/results?sp=EgIQAQ%253D%253D&search_query=fractured+fairy+tales. Screenshot by author.
Fixed fairy tales There is another kind of fairy tales that may entertain students in their free time, provided they are advanced enough. Only auto-generated captions are available; they are fairly accurate, though. Three little pigs can be compared with the classic version. Fixed Fairy tales 78
Compilation contains several stories in one longer clips. The students can benefit from this channel because it offers different and fresh versions of well-known stories and the students may be inspired by them when they approach imaginative writing exercises on similar topic.
Khan Academy Salman Khan created his non-profit organization in order to provide free online education for people around the globe (Khan, 2011). Khan Academy’s videos are suitable for more advanced learners. English is used here as a medium to teach a variety of subjects such as Math, Science & Engineering, Chemistry, Biology, Arts and Humanities, Economics & finance, Computing & Test preparation and Medicine. It is therefore beneficial for schools where English is used as the language of communication (CLIL). It also contains videos on historical events, but the connection is mostly to the USA as it was primarily designed for American pupils and students. The videos are between 10 and 20 minutes long.
HUMAN the movie The film and its parts were recommended in the previous chapter. The channel includes all the published material (extended versions, portraits and stories), freely available for use and download.
Figure 9 HUMAN the movie. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/user/HUMANthemovie2015. Screenshot by author.
79
Tom Thumb
Tom Thumb is a storyteller who travels the world and lives in a new country every year or two. While he does not have a huge following and his videos have not received many views, I found his stories fresh and charming. They are a combination of magic and realism. The auto- generated captions make the understanding considerably easier, however, the stories generally use language suitable for B2 level or higher.
Figure 10. Tom thumb. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/user/tomroadjunky/videos. Screenshot by author.
80
Learn English with Steve Ford The author himself describes it as “high quality English lessons from basic to fluency levels” (Private English Portal. (n.d.)). The range of topics is vast – it ranges from tips on learning to cultural differences, from pronunciation to vocabulary and phrasal verbs, and from grammar to travel and business English.
Figure 11. Learn English with Steve Ford. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/user/PrivateEnglishPortal?feature=watch. Screenshot by author.
81
Elemental English The author of the video lessons, Larissa, is a New Yorker who graduated in Applied Linguistics and her lessons are practical with attention to English grammar and especially to pronunciation. Pronunciation issues are clearly explained, demonstrated, visualised and repeated. Her videos can be very beneficial to teachers who want to revise teaching terminology with her and gain some inspiration on how to teach these topics to the students in a comprehensible way.
Figure 12. Elemental English. Rhythm Practice: Stress + De-Stress [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtTLEAA0Sbc. Screenshot by author.
82
Window on Britain Older people will remember Window on Britain. The material is of high quality but in my opinion it is not appealing to the learners of today as it is very dated. Despite this, there remain a lot that could still be used. Another advantage of this site is the slow and clear pronunciation, making the educational videos suitable even for beginners. There is no official channel on YouTube for Window on Britain, but the videos can be easily found upon its title, having been uploaded by a few different users.
Figure 13. Window on Britain [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I- f6WlbQc5U&list=PLZwUC1tATQdwe83S5d7nQM5vSLleiLJa-. Screenshot by author.
83
Extra BBC Learning English Unlike other sitcoms that tend to be difficult to understand, Extra is designed for teenage English learners and all the episodes are available on YouTube with English subtitles. What is more, the same story can be watched in Spanish, German and French. The story is quite simple and the language represents everyday English. However, flirting and soft sexual allusions are frequent, so the teachers should watch it before presenting it to their classes. It may not be suitable for very young learners.
Figure 14. Learning English: Extra English BBC. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdYSWqTrWP2jyqWIdjsATbrb11uN_BMrF. Screenshot by author.
84
BBC Earth
This is not primary designed for learners, but if the task is adapted, the short clips could enrich the classes, for instance in the 6th grade where the topic of animals is part of the curriculum. More resources by BBC are presented at the end of the chapter. BBC does not only produce full-length documentaries, but also clips around three minutes as can be seen in the figure below. They all feature Received Pronunciation, high-quality image and exceptional camera work.
Figure 15. BBC Earth. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/user/BBCEarth. Screenshot by author.
85
The Teachers’ Room This channel run by BBC Learning English is made by teachers for teachers, and in each clip there are tips to be found on how to improve or enrich lessons. All the ideas are practical and touch issues such as using songs, how to teach new vocabulary and grammar in a variety of ways, how to practice collocations, how to engage students in reading and collaborative writing, how to do dictation activities, and many more.
Figure 16. The Teachers' Room. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcetZ6gSk96_hBP8SRx02wg3H3xAwqjXu. Screenshot by author.
86
Illustrated video Some TED and other talks on interesting topics may be found on YouTube with hand-drawn illustrations. (See the figure below.) When accompanied by such an illustration (or animation) they become easier to comprehend and more attractive to watch, even for adult learners.
Figure 17. Where good ideas come from. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugRZGDbPFU&t=30s. Screenshot by author.
Unfortunately, they are not easy to find unless one searches for a specific video with title. Nevertheless, I found a YouTube channel called RSA ANIMATE that publishes talks with innovative ideas accompanied by illustrations and animations. There are many illustrated or animated video talks, but they are mixed with others, so it takes time to filter them and find suitable ones.
Figure 18. The RSA. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/user/theRSAorg. Screenshot by author.
87
7.2 Other websites with video content
TED, TEDx Some years ago, I provided a list of TED and TEDx talks I found enriching on my blog47. They are more suitable for adults, but some of them could be understood by high-school students as well.
Figure 19 TED Ideas Worth Spreading. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/recommends#/. Screenshot by author.
47 https://englishwithzuzi.wordpress.com 88
TED lessons The website https://ed.ted.com/videos is a goldmine of interesting and thought-provoking topics that a teacher could utilise in the classroom. Whole lessons can be built around any TED-Ed Animation, TED Talk or YouTube video. (Lessons Worth Sharing. (n.d.).) Those wishing to try these may click on a clip, add questions and then share it with their students and track their progress.
Figure 20. TEDEd. Retrieved from https://ed.ted.com/. Screenshot by author.
89
Learning English VOA48 Learning English is a highly elaborate site that offers both video and audio programmes. “Learning English is VOA’s multimedia source of news and information for millions of English learners worldwide.” (VOA Learning English, n.d.) The video programmes are following: English in a Minute (an idiom or proverb is taught) English @ the Movies Everyday Grammar TV Learning English TV News Words Let’s Learn English – Level 1 Let’s Learn English – Level 2 Let’s Teach English News Literacy (educating people at critical thinking) “’Let's Learn English’ programs are designed for beginning English learners by certified American English teachers. (...) The programs are read one-third slower than normal English speed.” (ibid.)
The audio programmes include following: American Stories America’s Presidents America’s National Parks Arts and Culture As It Is Ask a Teacher Education Everyday Grammar Health and Lifestyle Learning English Broadcast Science and technology
48 Voice of America 90
U.S. History (covering also recent events) What’s Trending Today (covering world news) What It Takes (conversations with famous people in many fields that were recorded over the past 25 years) Words and Their Stories (explanations of origin and usage of common phrases and expressions in American English). All the audio programmes resemble a radio49 or podcasts with scripts provided.
Figure 21. VOA Learning English. Retrieved from https://learningenglish.voanews.com/. Screenshot by author.
49 Similarly to This American Life and Radio Praha: This American Life is “a weekly public radio program and podcast. Each week we choose a theme and put together different kinds of stories on that theme. Mostly we do journalism, but an entertaining kind of journalism that’s built around plot.” (This American Life. (n.d.)) Radio Praha is a Czech radio with long history offering news from or related to Czechia. It is available not only in English, but also in Spanish, French, German, Russian and Czech. Some news are accompanied by an audio recording, i.e. a person reading what is written below on the website. This way, the learners are given an opportunity to work on their listening comprehension and pronunciation. The quality of recordings is very high and also the variety of accents is broad enough.
91
EngVid EngVid is a Canadian website for learning English grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, writing, slang, formal and business English, and it contains lessons on culture, IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC and learning strategies as well. The website is equipped with a sophisticated search engine that enables searching based on various criteria, such as the skill, lesson topic, level of fluency and teacher. Downloadable and printable resources can be found there too, but the list is limited to 33 items.
Figure 22. engVid. Retrieved from https://www.engvid.com/. Screenshot by author.
92
LyricsTraining LyricsTraining helps to improve listening skills by listening to songs and completing the lyrics. This is a standard gap-fill exercise, however, it requires no time for the teacher to prepare it. Students can choose one of 13 languages and level of difficulty (the higher the level is the more words will be missing and the faster one needs to type). The songs can be searched for based on a genre. If a particular song is not uploaded yet, it is very easy and quick to upload lyrics and provide a link to the video clip on YouTube. The registration is not required, but it is free and it brings certain advantages, such as keeping track of exercises, uploading own lyrics and adding songs to one’s favourites. Now it is also available as an application for smartphones.
Figure 23. lyricstraining. Retrieved from https://lyricstraining.com/en/. Screenshot by author.
93
FluentU This website is not free of charge, but it offers a free trial period. It provides authentic video material in nine languages. Brandon Harville recommends the site for all levels and ages.
“FluentU transforms native English videos such as movie trailers, news clips, music videos and more into engaging language learning experiences. There are interactive captions to help students learn new vocabulary in-context; simply clicking a word will bring up definitions and example sentences, and students can also discover how words are used in other videos to broaden their understanding of context and multiple meanings. FluentU’s quiz mode also provides activities to encourage and assess learning. Educators will appreciate that they can track student progress, assign homework and design curricula entirely from the FluentU platform.” (Harville, 2018)
Figure 24. FluentU. Retrieved from https://www.fluentu.com/. Screenshot by author.
94
Easy English In Easy German and Easy English – Learning English from the Streets, young people walk around London, Manchester, Sheffield, Sydney, Washington DC, New York, Windhoek (Namibia) and some other cities and ask ordinary citizens they meet series of questions such as “What do you like most about London?”, “What do you know about Germany?”, “What do you think about the British royal family?”, “What was the worst date you have ever had?”, “Is climate change an issue?”, “If you could say something to the entire world, what would you say”?, “What are your views on diversity and culture in Namibia?”, “What gives your life meaning?”, etc. The variety of accents that appear in each video is spectacular and all the responses are captured in subtitles, so it is comprehensible even for less advanced learners.
Figure 25. Easy English - Learning English from the Streets! Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA5UIoabheFM281dIr4ojw9xOVoo9dOtw. Screenshot by author.
Figure 26. Talking to people in London Easy English 4 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDjWTWHHkpk&index=30&list=PLA5UIoabheFM281dIr4ojw9xOVoo9dOtw. Screenshot by author. 95
English Club The amount of material to be found on English Club is really vast. The site is free to use and features all language skills – listening, reading, writing and speaking, as well as vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation lessons. The grammar is further divided into word grammar and sentence grammar, and the pronunciation lessons cover a great deal of topics. The page is designed for both learners and teachers of English. There is audio-visual material, podcasts, lists of vocabulary, reading and writing exercises, worksheets, tests, matching worksheet, sorting worksheet and scrambled words worksheet maker, and also games and e-books which are to be purchased, unlike the rest that is available for free.
Figure 27. English CLUB. Retrieved from https://www.englishclub.com/. Screenshot by author.
96
ESLvideo
Another website worth noticing is ESLvideo50, probably already known to many teachers. The quizzes and resources it contains are for both teachers and learners. There are four levels of difficulty. A function that is not available on other websites is a “quiz builder”, an easy way how to create a quiz for class-, home- or group work.
Figure 28. ESLvideo.com Retrieved from https://www.eslvideo.com/. Screenshot by author.
50 Link: https://www.eslvideo.com/ 97
Learn English Learn English by British council is another top website with learning and teaching material. Describing its content in detail would be too lengthy, so I will limit myself to saying that it includes high-quality material on all skills, on grammar (further divided into two levels and English grammar), vocabulary (also divided into basic and intermediate), business English, general English (with sub-categories Video zone, Games, Jokes, How to..., Overcooked, I wanna talk about..., Shakespeare and UK culture). Teachers will appreciate that majority of topics is staged into preparation, the video clip itself, transcript and tasks. Everything except for the video can be printed. In some categories, the video clip is absent and there is audio or a text instead. There are three more websites run by British council one can visit from Learn English by clicking on buttons in right upper corner and these are Teaching English, LearnEnglish Kids and LearnEnglish Teens. They all offer a great deal of material for teaching and learning adapted to the target ages. There is no obligation to register; it is possible to download learning resources even without it.
Figure 29. Learn English. Retrieved from http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/general-english. Screenshot by author.
98
BBC Learning English
Figure 30. BBC Learning English. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/. Screenshot by author.
“As part of the BBC World Service, BBC Learning English has been teaching English to global audiences since 1943, offering free audio, video and text materials to learners around the world. (...) Many of our materials are delivered as full length courses but each component of the course is standalone and can be studied on its own. This means the learner can choose the best way to study for them; by following a full course or by following the individual materials most appropriate to them.” (About BBC Learning English. (n.d.)
As can be seen in the figure above, the courses are designed based on levels and fields/topics (such as the grammar, news or Shakespeare speaks). There are full syllabi developed for lower- intermediate, intermediate, upper-intermediate and “towards advanced” courses. The syllabi are divided into 30 units, consisting of grammar, vocabulary and news and drama. They include activities, listening, reading and video. All the material is provided under a link. For an illustration, the last unit of a lower-intermediate course is displayed below.
The available features are English at University, English at work, News report, The English we speak, Lingohack, 6 minute English, Pronunciation, Drama and Words in the news.
BBC Learning English places emphasis on effective communication, and develops communicative and situational types of syllabus. 99
Figure 31. BBC Learning English: Syllabus: Lower-intermediate. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/hygiene/lowerintermediate-syllabus. Screenshot by author.
Two of the features are Drama and Retold stories. They require Flash Player to function. The stories (including Alice in Wonderland, A Christmas Carol, Gulliver's Travels, The Importance of Being Earnest, Jamaica Inn, Frankenstein, and The Race) only exist in an audio format, there is no animation created.
100
Figure 32 BBC Learning English. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/. Screenshot by author.
However, among those classic stories, there are 30 episodes of “The White Elephant” for intermediate level and above. These are acted video clips from a restaurant environment, full of colloquial language and common idiomatic phrases. Transcripts are provided, as usual.
Figure 33. BBC Learning English. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/drama. Screenshot by author.
101
One of the popular features is English at University. Each episode consists of a short introduction into the episode, a video clip, a list of useful phrases and vocabulary (“language focus”) and at last a full transcript.
Figure 34. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/english-at-university/ep-160921. Screenshot by author.
102
Breaking news English
The site51 contains 2,630 free English lessons in seven levels, ranging from elementary to upper-intermediate. Most news are available in three or four levels. The topics of the news are usually both attractive and educative. The variety of exercises designed for each news is broad and the exercises provide so much material for practice that a teacher does not need to create his/her own.
Figure 35. Breaking New English. Retrieved from: https://breakingnewsenglish.com/index.html. Screenshot by author.
51 Link: https://breakingnewsenglish.com/index.html 103
Let’s take a report on posting photos on social media and narcissism as an example. As can be seen in the screenshot, there are as many as 40 exercises that accompany the report. Not all of them will be suitable for each group, but the choice is broad. The exercises are divided into language skills, but also into pre-listening (pre-reading) and post-listening (post-reading). All the news are available in various speeds in order to suit at least three different levels (from slow to medium to fast). Most news offer both American English and British English version of the report. The formats include dictations, multiple choice, drag and drop activities, crosswords, hangman, flash cards, matching activities, gap fills, true and false statements, comprehension questions, quizzes, role plays, surveys, discussions and writing exercises.
Figure 36. Breaking News English: Lesson on social media. Retrieved from: https://breakingnewsenglish.com/1811/181113-social-media.html. Screenshot by author.
6 Minute English – podcast and archive The episodes are published weekly and are available for only 30 days. Subscribing and listening to them on the phone is possible. However, there is also an archive52, no longer updated, where 6-Minute-English episodes from 2014 and earlier years are stored. It is one of the best sources of attractive material one can find online. It is mostly audio, but in some categories there are video clips instead of audio files. Despite not being updated anymore it contains a great deal of relevant and interesting material worth including in the classes from time to time. Everything is downloadable, and related BBC links to material with the same or similar topics are displayed on the right side.
52 Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/sixminute/ 104
Figure 37. BBC Learning English: 6 Minute English. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/sixminute/. Screenshot by author.
105
Figure 38. BBC Learning English: How to... Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/howto/. Screenshot by author.
106
The figures on previous pages display the archive of BBC Learning English materials. This site is not easy to access unless one has the direct link53. All the lessons are divided into categories and subcategories. Most of them are scripts and audio, some of them are video clips. For instance, the category Grammar, Vocabulary and Pronunciation comprises of 12 subcategories (as seen in the figure above) and one of them – “How to..” – includes 7 more subcategories (also above), and one of them – “Conversations” contains 16 topics (see the figure below). The number of little treasures to be used in the classroom is high indeed.
Figure 39. BBC Learning English: How to... Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1210_how_to_converse/. Screenshot by author.
53 Direct link to BBC archive: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/ 107
108
Figure 40 BBC Learning English: How to... Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1212_how_to_instruct/page7.shtml. Screenshot by author.
109
Speaking of archives, there is one for Czech leaners. It contains courses on a variety of topics:
Figure 41. BBC CZECH.com: Anglicky s BBC. .Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/czech/learningenglish/index.shtml. Screenshot by author.
110
Some older teachers may be familiar with “A Phrase a Minute”, alias “Angličtina s Jitkou”, an excellent programme by BBC English. However, the audio and scripts are no longer available for any of these courses. The only thing that is possible to obtain from the archive is to copy the phrases and create your own written document. Still, having the expressions both in Czech and in English may be useful.
Figure 42 Figure 30. BBC CZECH.com: A Phrase a Minute. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/czech/specials/1237_phrase_minute/page32.shtml. Screenshot by author.
111 iSL Collective iSL Collective offers free printable and projectable lesson plans, but for the purpose of the thesis, I will examine the video lessons. They are mostly short video quizzes, i.e. video clips complete with questions build around grammar and vocabulary topics. See the screenshot below in order to become familiar with the design. Most of them have a short description so that other teachers can see what it is about. Some of the clips are well-known (such as Mr Bean or Friends), but others are not and can therefore bring an element of excitement and surprise54. Nonetheless, this is not BBC, nor British Council; the video quizzes are made by (mostly) teachers with various levels of proficiency. Some of them are of high quality, some mediocre and some are not error-free. One should always check the quiz first, before presenting it to the students. When an interesting piece of is found, there is an opportunity to create a new video quiz, which is quick and easy. A video manual for that is displayed on the top of the website, and also on YouTube under the title “How to create an autoquiz (computer generated quiz)”.
Figure 43. iSL Collective. Retrieved from https://en.islcollective.com/video-lessons/. Screenshot by author.
54 Such as the quizzes I recommend in chapter 6.3: “A snack attack” and “Past tense review” – a story about two Greek octopi in love. 112
National Geographic KiDS This website is actually not designed for English learners, as the language is very colloquial and the pace of speech incomprehensible for most primary school pupils, but it could be utilised with teenage pupils, or schools in curricula in English (CLIL). The videos are short and full of action, the way teens tend to like it. The topics they touch are in line with values of National Geographic, so we can find there nature, wildlife, animals, science, experiments, universe, geography and a little of history. The advantage is that all the content is well arranged and organized into categories and made attractive for young learners.
Figure 44. National Geographic KiDS. Retrieved from: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/videos/. Screenshot by author.
113
Film English This website was already mentioned in chapter six The use of video in the classroom, in which I provided lesson plans with video clips. Kieran Donaghy’s online project offers a great deal of downloadable 90-minute lesson plans for various levels, nicely explained in steps, including ideas for post-watching tasks. The plans may be searched based on topics and/or levels.
Figure 45. Film English. Retrieved from http://film-english.com/. Screenshot by author.
114
Bombay TV This website hosts very short clips from Indian films, in a language that no one in the classroom will understand. Therefore, inventing subtitles is quite amusing. The site is made for that, so adding the subtitles is really intuitive. Students can subtitle the same clip and then compare their version with versions of the others, or each student can choose their own clip to work on.
For more online resources, whether or not with video content, there is a list of “Web Resources for English Language Teaching and Learning, 2018”, free to download from https://americanenglish.state.gov/55, and a document created by Bronislav Sobotka, an English teacher from Brno, with 222 websites, applications, material and tips on learning English. This document is written in Czech and can be obtained by subscribing to his mailing list at https://brona.cz/newsletter/. After reading this chapter, one can claim that the resources are plentiful. The challenge for many teachers is, however, to find the time to examine the resources and choose the appropriate material. This is sometimes further complicated by the fact that the teachers tend to teach various ages and levels, so what is suitable for one group cannot be recycled and used for another one. Then, there is another challenge: to include these materials in an already packed curriculum. The third obstacle, just before we can finally present it to our learners, may strike when we least expect it – the power goes off, the computer decides it is time to update or the projector and loudspeakers are not working the way they should. Teaching with video is not always simple.
Finally, there is one more resource of valuable material worth sharing despite not containing video. It is the above-mentioned American English that offers free downloadable resources for teaching the four skills (see the figure below), the U.S. culture, music and games. There is a coursebook available in PDF format on the history of the USA consisting of worksheets, or a book on Holidays in the U.S.A., which contains texts about each of 20 important days and four recognition months, followed by glossaries with advanced vocabulary
55 https://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/web-resources-english-language-teaching-and-learning-2018 115 that is explained. This site could be of a benefit to Grammar-school teachers who prepare their students for the school leaving exam (in Czech “maturita”).
Figure 46. American English. Retrieved from https://americanenglish.state.gov/resources. Screenshot by author.
“The board games are part of the Activate - Games for Learning American English collection. Each game shows the path that the players must follow and the English phrases that the players must produce orally. Each board game has a theme that requires the students to produce certain types of expressions, so they practice a variety of vocabulary, grammatical patterns, and functional meanings.”
(Activate Games for Learning American English: Board Games. (n.d.))
116
8 Tools and software for audio and visual material
This chapter will briefly introduce a few programmes for creating and editing video. The research showed that a vast majority of teachers are not familiar with any of them and very few have experience in editing existing or creating their own video material. Since the range of readily available video material for classroom use is so broad, one could ask: “Why to learn how to create my own?” Well, we might ask our students to make a video as a result of learning process and therefore we should be able to help them or recommend programmes. Or there are situations in which we will not find a suitable material. Also, many teachers go on trips with their pupils and must sometimes present them to the parents, and this is where basic skills and knowing where to find an appropriate programme might be beneficial Before I list the programmes for creating new video clips out of photos and video files, let’s see some free software available for downloading video, making quizzes and creating other visual or audio material. aTube Catcher There is now a new feature on YouTube: a download-button in the right upper corner of the video, so it is no longer needed to have an extra programme for downloading audio or video format. But the feature is not available for all the videos and the quality is reduced. For those wishing to obtain a higher quality or a different format that offered by YouTube, there is a free programme called aTube Catcher. It enables the user to download material from YouTube in a variety of formats, but also converting video and audio, resizing video, downloading whole playlists at once, audio recording, screen capturing and creating CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays. It works on Windows and Mac; Linux is not included. More details could be found at https://youtubedownloader.com/.
117
Figure 47: aTube Catcher, desktop version. Screenshot by author.
Computer-generated quizzes Another possibly useful feature for teachers could be creating video quizzes around existing YouTube/Vimeo videos that is available on iSLCollective. At the moment it can only be used with videos subtitled by humans; the feature is not available yet for auto-generated captions, but reportedly they are working on it. In this short manual56, Jen Bremer explains and demonstrates (using screen capture) how to create such a quiz.
EdPuzzle Https://edpuzzle.com is free of charge for teachers and students. It is designed for self-paced learning; already existing video is made interactive by adding voice or written questions. It
56 How to create an autoquiz (computer-generated quiz): Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtXLEBSswi4 118 resembles iSLCollective quiz, but this one is more sophisticated and enables to track the students’ understanding and progress.
Quizlet Https://quizlet.com is a well-known website and application for learning almost anything with flashcards and games. There are currently 289,259,000 study sets on a broad scope of fields and topics. Most sets for learning English vocabulary include pronunciation, which makes it very suitable for home study, even for weak and generally dependent students.
LyricsTraining The website https://lyricstraining.com/ was already introduced in chapter sever Online resources.
WordClouds Www.wordclouds.com is a free online word cloud generator, intuitive and easy to use on a computer, tablet or smartphone. A word cloud may be inserted into a presentation or video, or used on its own.
Simple Booklet Https://simplebooklet.com is a page for making engaging presentations and booklets. A basic version is for free, however, many functions (such as sound or PDF conversion) are only available for paid membership.
Prezi Another website for creating presentations different from the well-known PowerPoint presentations is https://prezi.com/. Similarly to Simple Booklet, it offers a free membership with limited functions and for those who wish to add voice-overs, download the presentations or have an offline access and video-upload storage must pay. There are discounts for teachers and students.
119
Text to speech Sometimes one may need to substitute their own voice in the video or presentation by somebody else’s. This is the time for “text to speech” software. TTS Reader57 is online, free, very simple, easy to use and offers both American and British English and male and female voices. One can also choose from six speeds of reading. The limit for one recording is ten minutes, but one can do as many recordings as they wish. Quotation marks, brackets, colons, dashes and hyphens are not read, but slashes in the text should be avoided because they are pronounced. The quality is reasonably high, given the fact it is a robotic voice. Nevertheless, one would not use this in a phonetic class unless they want to show what connected speech does not sound like. Additionally, it is not desirable that the students hear this kind of narration very often, for it lacks linking, an important feature of natural speech. NaturalReaders58 is another programme of the same lines, also for free in its basic version. The advantage of Natural Readers is that there are more speeds to choose from and many “premium voices”, including other languages: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish and Dutch. Within the free version, one can use these premium voices up to 20 minutes a day. The use of free voices (the same as in TTS Reader) is unlimited. However, unlike in TTS Reader that enables to create mp3 files without paying, Natural Readers offer this only to paid-membership users. In order to obtain unlimited access to premium voices and in order to create mp3 files, one must register and pay $10 USD a month. Still, even without creating mp3 files, the software can be of great help to self-learners: they paste a piece of text59 and can listen to a native-like pronunciation. FromTextToSpeech60 is the third site I will present here. There are many more, though. Different to the softwares above, the text may be heard only after an mp3 file is created and downloaded, but this function is, like in TTS Reader and unlike in Natural Readers, free of charge. It takes rather long, though. Only pasting plain text is supported. It offers more languages than TTS Reader – one can obtain audio version of texts in four speeds and in
57 https://ttsreader.com/ 58 https://www.naturalreaders.com 59 supported formats: pdf, txt, doc(x), epub, ods, odt, pages, ppt(x), png, jpeg 60 http://www.fromtexttospeech.com/ 120
British and American English, but also in Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, German and Russian.
8.1 Programmes for creating and editing video
There are many programmes and software for creating and editing audio-visual material; I will mention a few I was recommended by people who work with video on almost a daily basis.
8.1.1 Free video programmes iMovie iMovie is designed only for products of Apple (macOS and iOS) and it can be used on iPhone or iPads. It is for free, but it has certain flaws: some users complain about having difficulties with video longer than two or three minutes (Apple, 2011). One of its languages is Czech and it can be downloaded from https://www.apple.com/imovie/.
Windows Movie Maker/Photos Microsoft warned on its website that since January 2017 this popular programme can be no longer downloaded and the sites that promise so may contain malware or viruses. They recommend to use application Photos that is included in Windows 10 pack and later and that enables to edit and create video with music, texts, filters and 3D effects. (Microsoft, (n.d.))
VirtualDub I do not know how intuitive and elaborate this programme is. For teachers who create a video only a few times a year, its greatest advantage is the price – zero. It can be downloaded from its home page http://www.virtualdub.org/. It will save time to watch “How to use VirtualDub” tutorial on YouTube before launching it.
121
Avidemux Avidemux was recommended to me by one teacher who participated in the research. It is “a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It supports many file types, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF, using a variety of codecs.” (Avidemux, (n.d.)) It is available for Linux, BSD, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. To be downloaded from http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/download.html.
Avid Media Composer For starters, there is a free version with limited functions. It will probably still be enough for making classroom video. The three media composers can be compared here61. The “industry standard” with the price starting at $19.99 USD/month is not worth paying for unless it is taken a full advantage of.
8.1.2 Paid video programmes
Some of them may seem costly, but installing the programme on a school computer and thus enabling all the teachers and students use it could be a solution to that.
Final Cut Pro Final Cut Pro is an advanced and elaborate programme designed by Apple. The free trial period is 30 days. More information and purchase to be found on https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/.
Adobe Premiere Pro The free trial period is only seven days, however, students and teachers are entitled to receive a discount when purchasing the programme. The trial version includes all the functions. This programme runs on both Mac OS and Windows 10 or later, and is available in ten languages (Czech is not included).
61 https://www.avid.com/media-composer-ultimate/comparison 122
Animoto Animoto offers three pre-paid programmes: Personal, Professional and Business. Currently, there is a two-week free trial period for Animoto Professional. Unlike Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro, it is designed for laymen with little or no experience with video making; it could be compared to creating a website with WordPress. Animoto provides pre-built storyboards, templates, styles and fonts. It is fairly intuitive and easy to use.
Other programmes – either paid or for free – worth testing may be: OpenShot Video Editor (for Windows Vista/XP, 7, 8, 10), Sony Vegas Pro (for Windows Vista/XP, 7, 8, 10), Moviestorm Filmmaker or Moviestorm Education Unlimited (for Windows and Mac), Debug Mode Wax (freeware for Windows), and Blender (one of very few available freeware for Linux, besides Windows and Mac).
123
Conclusion
I was interested in the potential of video in the ESL classroom as a motivational tool and how it was used by teachers from ordinary public primary and secondary schools in the Czech Republic, as well as by learners themselves out of school. A group of 31 language teachers from 20 public schools and 30 successful English learners from three schools were questioned and interviewed. The results showed that video is indeed a significant motivational factor for the majority of students and pushes them to acquire English. Today exposure to material in English is greater than a decade or two ago, and this is reflected in some children’s ability to understand everyday English. Most of the responding learners said that they watched videos in their free time, some of them spending as many as 40 hours a week interacting with audio-visual content in English. In the majority of cases students watched video media for entertainment, choosing to interact with material that was in line with their interests. However, a substantial amount of language was learnt incidentally and all these students had a much broader vocabulary bank than their peers did. All the responding learners had high levels of intrinsic motivation to learn English. Most learners had a strong instrumental motivation, while some learners had also a strong integrative motivation, i.e. they wished to live in an English speaking country. Watching YouTube videos, series and films contributed to their motivation to master English. Due to the limits of the research (in number of respondents and in depth), further research would be necessary in order to determine the long term motivational effects the use of video can have on students. I was also interested in the learner’s learning strategies concerning English. Watching videos was the number one strategy. The other two most common strategies were playing online games in English while communicating with other (international) players and talking to oneself in English (often out loud). The teachers’ responses showed that most teachers were very open to using video in the classroom, utilising it several times a month on average. It was revealed that the reasons for not including video as a teaching resource more often were the insufficient time for preparation and already full curricula. For a third of the teachers, the lack of technological equipment was a major obstacle too, and 18% of them did not know where to find suitable audio-visual material. I did not find meaningful correlations between the age or length of the
124 teaching experience and the subsequent utilization of video in the classroom, although teachers aged from 20 to 40 seemed a little more inclined to using video for teaching languages. The most decisive factor for incorporating video into lessons seemed to be sufficient and functioning technological equipment at school. The research showed that video was used more often with primary learners. Most teachers agreed that video is a motivational factor if used properly, so long as it was not used too often. The selected video clips should match the students’ level, they should be well incorporated into the lesson and the syllabus with a clear objective and purpose, and there should be tasks to complete or activities to perform. Perhaps the most important thing is to introduce and incorporate the video into lessons gradually and make students realize that it is a valuable learning tool. It is crucial to break the tendency to associate video with mere entertainment and leisure. Students must realize that video watching is an active, not a passive task. Provided the video is used properly, it can serve to foster students’ independence, various language skills and critical literacy skills. Authentic audio-visual material is often irreplaceable when learners lack the opportunity to stay abroad or be in close contact with an English speaking community. Students who are not exposed to authentic video or authentic English from its speakers normally lack a natural feel for the language and struggle with fluid interaction. A major part of the thesis was dedicated to presenting online resources with audio- visual content that could be used in an English classroom. Basic principles of and guidelines on successful and effective incorporation of video have also been presented. The appendix contains five ready-to-use lesson plans for 45-minute lessons that can be extended to 60 or even 90 minutes. Since video content out-dates quickly, I want to encourage the teachers to use all the material I provided here before it becomes obsolete.
125
References
[Air New Zealand]. (2012, Oct 31). An Unexpected Briefing #AirNZSafetyVideo [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBlRbrB_Gnc&index=4&list=RDiO5BFhWdgk4
[Air New Zealand]. (2014, Oct 22). The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made #AirNZSafetyVideo [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOw44VFNk8Y
[Aizad Sayid]. (2010, Sep 4). Air New Zealand Hilarious Flight Safety Video [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO5BFhWdgk4&list=RDiO5BFhWdgk4&start_radio=1 &t=178
[Amsterdam Ad Blog]. (2010, Mar 19). YDA: For those who are born to create drama [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzl86IjTpHI
[HUMAN the movie]. (2015, Sep 11). HUMAN - clip #1: Kindness can come from anywhere [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIhAsV4t6Nk&list=PLEgA6bEeal3ze5Ugq8LPC- uigROvLIvyi
[HUMAN the movie]. (2015, Sep 11). HUMAN - clip #2: Death is not the end of everything [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWKNwzGL8C0
[HUMAN the movie]. (2015, Sep 4) HUMAN - clip #13: Love from the most unlikely place [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afvN6se3Yug.
[ironhippo]. (2018, Sep 17). Oktapodi (2007) – Oscar 2009 Animated Short Film [Video File]. Retrieved from https://en.islcollective.com/video-lessons/past-tense-review
[iSLCollective Video Quiz Tutorials]. (2018, Sep 24). How to create an autoquiz (computer-generated quiz) [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtXLEBSswi4
[mermaid72]. (2018, Sep 21). Snack Attack [Video File]. Retrieved from https://en.islcollective.com/video-lessons/snack-attack
126
[MrPrice2u]. (2011, Apr 29). Dirt Devil-The Exorcist [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGb8pMIeY6w
[MrVideoposter]. (2009, Aug 7).Thomson In Flight Safety Film 'Alice The Chief Steward' [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syozl4DAPs4
[Rachel Young]. (2013, Jun 1). Nations of the world – with lyrics – Animaniacs [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pOFKmk7ytU
[Reading Through History]. (2015, Jun 8) History Brief: Speakeasies [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqsAMJEIQ8I&t=188s
[saturnitis]. (2014, Jan 27). The Great Gatsby (2013) Speakeasy scene [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgY0bDfz6XA
[Schmachnus]. (2011, Jul 23). Charles Bukowski – Bluebird [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyMS4qJ8NXU
[sidewalkgazer]. (2009, Jul 15). Bluebird animation based on Charles Bukowski's poem [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsc3ItAKSLc
[SteveyMcDonald]. (2009, Aug 3). Impasse [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjcqpUwpP1U
[SteveyMcDonald]. (2009, Jul 2). The Note. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g28O0NhTWbE
[The Singing Walrus – English Songs For Kids]. (2016, Jun 15 ). Months of the Year Song | Song for Kids | The Singing Walrus [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe9bnYRzFvk
[thwartd]. (2012, Feb 7). DnB NOR – Some People Have All The Luck - TV Commercial [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcZItyTEmC8
[Vera Korblet]. (2013, Jan 21). Pixar – Geri’s Game [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLQG3sORAJQ
[Young Director Award]. (2010, Aug 24). European Filmschool - Poverty tells many stories [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSRMeiLljnw
127
[Young Director Award]. (2011, Mar 29). Double life [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qLe9OKCxTQ&list=PLDMIr4L6VRKVebHcNCsLx yXaY0sNw5R5I
[YouTube Movies]. (2016, Aug 29). The Crush 2010 Oscar Winning Hollywood Short Film [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvXFHRWlE5g
[Ольга Валериевна]. Feb 27, 2017, Feb 27). Calender January, Febuary, March Boney M [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm2F7MRpT_Y&t=44s
A quote from Factotum. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/39207- if-you-re-going-to-try-go-all-the-way-otherwise
About BBC Learning English. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/hygiene
Activate Games for Learning American English: Board Games. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/activate-board-games
Akbar Birbal Stories. (2015, Aug 7). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR22sCPCRx3J9nfCUV4htGw
Apple. (2011, January 05). iMovie. Retrieved from https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imovie/id408981434?mt=12&ls=1&v0=www-us-mac- imovie-app-imovie
Arndt, H. L. (2014). English vocabulary learning through watching YouTube video blogs and reading blog posts (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Oxford. Retrieved April 27, 2018, from https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:35291287-b08c-4b6a-8355-e4be02a19b60.
Avidemux - Main Page. (n.d.). Retrieved November 25, 2018, from http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/
Bakutyte, J. (4404, January 01). 21 Kids Were Asked To Describe Love. What They've Come Up With Will Leave You Speechless. Retrieved from https://aplus.com/a/kids-describe- what-is-love?no_monetization=true
128
BBC Learning English. (2017, August 03). The Teachers' Room: Using video in the classroom. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=- gPwJBtMoHc&list=PLcetZ6gSk96_hBP8SRx02wg3H3xAwqjXu&index=26
Berk, R. A. (2009). Multimedia teaching with video clips: TV, movies, YouTube, and mtvU in the college classroom. International Journal of Technology in Teaching and Learning, 5(1), 1–21. Retrieved April 26, 2018, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228349436_Multimedia_Teaching_with_Video_Cl ips_TV_Movies_YouTube_and_mtvU_in_the_College_Classroom.
Bremer, J. (n.d.). Create a video quiz around any Youtube/Vimeo video. Retrieved September 14, 2018, from https://en.islcollective.com/video-lessons/
Brown, H. D. (2014). Principles of language learning and teaching: A course in second language acquisition. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.
Bzonková, Z. (2015, July 15). English with Zuzi. Retrieved September 14, 2018, from https://englishwithzuzi.wordpress.com/
Carrió-Pastor, M. L. & Mestre, E. M. (2014). Motivation in Second Language Acquisition. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.201
Common Sense Education. (2016, Jul 12) How to Use Video in the Classroom [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSKHcevI8EQ
Donaghy, K. (2014). Film-English. Retrieved September 14, 2018, from http://film- english.com/
Dörnyei, Z. (1998). Motivation in second and foreign language learning. Language Teaching, 31(03), 117. doi:10.1017/s026144480001315x
Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based language learning and teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Emily Dickinson. (2018, July 13). Retrieved from https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/edgar-allan-poe
Geyser, J. P. (2006). English to the world: Teaching methodology made easy: A practical overview. Retrieved September 14, 2018.
129
Gilmore, A. (2007). Getting real in the language classroom: Developing Japanese students communicative competence with authentic materials (Doctoral dissertation, University of Nottingham, 2007). Retrieved October 27, 2018, from http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11928/1/478936.pdf
Hamza, A. (n.d.). Motivation in language learning. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/31860553/Motivation_in_language_learning
Harger, W. (1973). Of a poet. Millbrae, CA: Celestial Arts Pub.
Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English language teaching. Harlow: Pearson Education.
Harville, B. (2018, August 04). 7 Awesome ESL Video Resources, and How to Use 'Em! Retrieved from https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/esl-video/
Hložková, M. (2013). Sitcoms as a Tool for English Language Teaching (Unpublished master's thesis). Masaryk University in Brno. Retrieved July 05, 2018, from https://is.muni.cz/auth/th/oeijn/DIPLOMA_THESIS.pdf
Ken, S. W. (2018, October 21). How to Write a Poem. Retrieved from https://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Poem
Khan, S. Let's use video to reinvent education. Speech presented at TED 2011 in Long Beach, California. Retrieved September 16, 2018, from https://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education
Khan, S. Let's use video to reinvent education. Speech presented at TED 2011 in Long Beach, California. Retrieved September 16, 2018, from https://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education
Kwiatkowska, G. (2017, September 11). Facebook lesson plan. Retrieved from https://www.lessonplansdigger.com/2015/05/15/facebook-lesson-plan/#more-27
Lessons Worth Sharing. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://ed.ted.com/
Lonergan, J. (1984). Video in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Magazine, S. W. (2018, August 22). 5 Books That Will Change Your Life. Retrieved from https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/5-books-will-change-life
130
Microsoft. (n.d.). Windows Essentials. Retrieved from https://support.microsoft.com/en- us/help/18614/windows-essentials
Murano, G. (n.d.). 8 Most Amazing Acts of Love. Retrieved from https://www.oddee.com/item_98698.aspx
Norris-Holt, J. (2001, June). Motivation as a Contributing Factor in Second Language Acquisition. The Internet TESL Journal, VII (6). Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/Articles/Norris-Motivation.html
O‘Callaghan, D. B. (2004). An illustrated history of the USA. Harlow: Longman.
Private English Portal. (2007, Oct 28). Learn English with Steve Ford. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/user/PrivateEnglishPortal?feature=watch
Sheko, T. (2018, February 08). Charles Bukowski: "Bluebird" – Poem of the day – Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/poem-of-the-day/charles-bukowski-bluebird- f4e80e5000ef
Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). The Fall of the House of Usher Summary. Retrieved from https://www.shmoop.com/fall-of-house-of-usher/summary.html
Stempleski, S., & Tomalin, B. (1990). Video in action: Recipes for Using Video in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Prentice Hall International.
Stempleski, S., Tomalin, B., & Maley, A. (2001). Film. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
The Poetic History of Arkansas. (2014, March 11). Retrieved from https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/how-read-poem-0
The Velveteen Rabbit Quotes by Margery Williams Bianco. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1602074-the-velveteen-rabbit
This American Life. (1995). Retrieved from https://www.thisamericanlife.org/
Voice of America - Learn American English with VOA Learning English. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://learningenglish.voanews.com/
Watkins, J., & Wilkins, M. (2011). Using YouTube in the EFL classroom. Language Education in Asia, 2(1), 113-119. http://dx.doi.org/10.5746/LEiA/11/V2/I1/A09/Watkins_Wilkins
131
Summary
This thesis deals with video in language learning and teaching and its impact on learners’ motivation. The theoretical part details the benefits of using video material in and outside of the language classroom, it includes guidelines on how to effectively use video in teaching, and examples of activities that learners can perform when they interact with video material. An extensive list of online resources with audio-visual content is provided with a brief description of each, and there is also a section on software for creating and editing video clips. The last component of the theoretical part is a collection of lesson plans built around video clips. These plans have already been tested in lower secondary and secondary schools. The practical part of this thesis focuses on how Czech language teachers work with video in the classroom, how successful learners use it in their free time for the purpose of learning English and what other learning strategies are employed by the learners. The students who participated in the research were interviewed and their responses show that the vast majority of them have a very positive attitude towards audio-visual material in English and that they spend a substantial amount of free time interacting with such content. The video material often contributes to their already high level of intrinsic motivation.
132
Shrnutí
Tématem práce je využití audio-vizuálního materiálu ve výuce cizího jazyka s důrazem na jazyk anglický a motivaci k učení. Využití bylo zkoumáno jak ve škoním prostředí, tak v domácím, žáky a studenty samotnými. V teoretické části jsou představeny základní pojmy motivace, výhody využití videa ve výuce, obecné zásady pro vhodné a efektivní zařazení videa do lekcí a soubor nápadů k doprovodným aktivitám. Práce rovněž obsahuje rozsáhlou databázi online zdrojů audio-vizuálního materiálu a doporučené programy k vytváření a úpravě videa. Přílohu tvoří podrobně rozepsané lekce pro dospívající žáky postavené na video nahrávce, jež už byly vyzkoušeny ve výuce. V praktické části bylo zkoumáno využití videa ve výuce českými učiteli základních a středních škol a také to, jak video využívají ke svému učení žáci nezávisle na škole, a jak je motivuje se učit jazyk ještě více. Dále byly zkoumány jejich strategie k učení se cizímu jazyku. Z výsledků vyplývá, že všichni úspěšní žáci mají vysokou vnitřní motivaci k učení se angličiny a aktivně video materiál v angličtině ve volném čase využívají. Mnozí velmi cíleně. Velká většina českých učitelů ve výuce video používá několikrát do měsíce. Častějšímu využívání brání nejčastěji zaneprázdněnost učitele, plné osnovy a nedostatečná technická vybavenost škol.
133
Appendix Lesson plans including video clips
Explanatory notes: T = teacher Q(s) = question(s) S(s) = student(s) A(s) = answer(s)
Lesson 1: Impasse (An encounter between a white boy and an African girl on a night train.)
Figure 48 [SteveyMcDonald]. (2009, Aug 3). Impasse [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjcqpUwpP1U. Screenshot by author. Recommended age: 14+ (Lower Secondary, Grammar school, High school, University) Recommended level: A2+/B1 Material: Video “Impasse” by Bram Schouw62, your notes of thoughts and ideas
62 A short film published on Aug 3, 2009 by SteveyMcDonald. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjcqpUwpP1U 134
Find yourself suitable pictures depicting a train compartment with its components to facilitate by pre-teaching vocabulary items. For copyright-free imagines, go to www.pixabay.com. Apart from the video and your own notes and questions there is no other material you need.
Lesson Type: Speaking Writing Listening Reading Functions Grammar Pronunciation Vocabulary X X X
Main Aim(s): Ss practice orally the use of present simple and continuous tense. They revise and use vocabulary related to travelling by train.
Subsidiary Aim(s): Provoked by the video, Ss think and express their viewpoints on human rights, (self-)limitations, fears, sense of belonging, laws and regulations,...
What I think the Ss will already know in terms of language or skill (relevant to my lesson) before the lesson: Your group is unique. In my case I expected them to be able to use, without much thinking, present simple and continuous tense correctly and have sufficient vocabulary for describing simple scenes of everyday life.
Stage Timing Procedure
Show them a picture (a part of train compartment – cut out, not the Lead-in 4 min whole thing) and let them name the topic of the lesson. Qs to discuss in pairs for a couple of minutes: Do they travel by train? Where? How often? etc. Using pictures – elicit the vocab related to travelling by train they Vocabulary already know – prep for 10 min (luggage/baggage – uncountable!) watching (Show them an illustration with more expressions – can be found on Google Images, Pinterest, Pixabay)
Focus on ways of expressing looking – elicit what they are already familiar with: to look (at), watch, stare (at), glance (at), look away, to avoid eye 135
contact, etc. – write them on the board (for the rest of the lesson) and let them explain the differences. Or explain if they do not know. If needed, a brief revision of simple X continuous tense use. Ss say if they prefer to talk now (describe a video) or be on the listening Pair division 2 min side. Two equal groups must be formed. Then Ss either pick up a partner or are divided into random pairs (possibly one group of three), based on their preferences to speak/to listen. One S in each pair doesn’t see the screen. The other watches and Watching and describes what’s happening, using simple and continuous tense + the describing the 10 min vocabulary that was introduced. video Video is showed only from 0:52min to 4:21min (!), being paused from time to time to give Ss time to describe it. The “blind” S is encouraged to inquire about details. Now they all watch the video again, 0:52 - 4:21. Is it how they imagined Watching the clip 7 min it would be? again + Ss are asked to predict what could happen next (possibly first in pairs, if prediction there’s enough time/they’re too shy). We elaborate on that, using the imagination and modal verbs (they should be familiar with some). Encourage the group to go wild and play with their imagination. Discussion 10 min We watch the last seconds and debate the message this video clip carries. Possibly, depending on the debate, you can ask the Ss to write a couple of paragraphs, contemplating the video clip and its message. What is it Follow-up about? What does it try to say? What can I personally take from that? What issues arise from the encounter? What is (in)visible? (Home assignment) If possible and if Ss are intrigued, I recommend to have a longer reflection (better in a circle) on the video in one of the following classes, perhaps even better after they do the writing. What they wrote could be brought into the circle.
It is a good practice to anticipate problems and consider solutions. When I prepared this lesson last time, for a group of approximately 15 teenagers at a Grammar school, I thought of these:
136
1) Ss struggle with narrating and are slow and imprecise. Solution: Reduce this by giving them the option of choosing who wants to be the speaker. (Half of the class choose to be speakers and then they find a partner who will listen to them.)
2) The time is quite tight – I was afraid the space for the final debate would not be sufficient. Solution: Be really careful about the timing and do not spend more than planned on the initial stages of the lesson.
3) No time for error correction. Solution: This could be done at the beginning of a following lesson if notes of Ss’ mistakes are taken.
Reflection: I have used this video with a couple of groups of adult learners of B1 and B1+ level in 60- minute lessons and it worked really well. Adults are, in general, better at seeing what is not obvious and the debate was more fruitful. Later, I used it in a 45-minute lesson with a group of 13-year-olds and some months later with 16-year-olds at a Grammar school. Both teenage groups were captivated by the story as it is something almost anyone can relate to. They were giggling and happily describing what was happening on the screen. There was little space for the discussion, though, as 1) describing took them longer due to their limited vocabulary and poorer fluency and 2) the lessons were 15 minutes shorter. However, when asked to write about what issues and meaning they saw arising in the clip, some students surprised me with the depth of their answers. In my case, for both speaking and writing tasks, fluency, not accuracy, was the objective. I strongly recommend to view and contemplate the clip by yourself and take notes before you present it to the class. Discuss it with a friend who can provide a different perspective, write your ideas and conclusions down, and think of (open) questions you could ask your students in order to stimulate them – but not manipulate them – in their thinking process.
A similar procedure could be followed with a simpler video taking place on a train as well. This short Czech film is called The Note63 and it is quite original too. Make sure you watch the
63 Czech film, published on Jul 2, 2009 by SteveyMcDonald; link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g28O0NhTWbE
137 video in advance and mark the moments when you plan to pause the video. Remember to pause it just before the ending and let the students play with the imagination – how could it end? A set of post-watching activities is quite broad again – you may ask them to write a short reflection, perhaps just one paragraph (1. Has anything similar ever happened to you?, 2. Would you wish for a different ending? Why?, 3. Imagine you are the director. How would you make the clip end?, 4. Imagine this is not the end of their encounter. What happens next?, etc.). Or you can focus on accuracy and choose to practice any grammar you have been working on. For instance relative clauses, conditionals, tenses and their aspects, adjectives,... For higher levels, I can imagine this video being used for teaching and practising phrasal verbs (hop on, get on, hang on, hold on, put on, take off, hold up, get off,...).
Lesson 2+3: What is love?
Figure 49. [HUMAN the movie]. (2015, Sep 4) HUMAN - clip #13: Love from the most unlikely place [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afvN6se3Yug. Screenshot by author.
This is another lesson I have recently tried with the same group of 16-year-old teenagers. It did not turn out the way I expected as there was too much to do in little time, so I decided to split the original lesson plan into two lessons and I now recommend it for a slightly higher level.
138
When I created this lesson plan, my aim was to introduce students to this project called HUMAN64 made by Yann-Arthus Bertrand, a set of precious documentaries with captivating soundtrack, breath-taking sceneries, penetrating stares and heart touching stories, available for free on YouTube in its full length with English and Spanish subtitles. Besides three extended versions and one extra volume called Humans and the Land65, you can find plenty of impressive portraits of people all over the world in many languages, telling remarkable and often inspiring stories, always subtitled in English and sometimes in Spanish, German and other languages. Following the advice “Adjust the task, not the video“, I want to encourage you to use the clips you consider compelling. There is a great variety of accents you can expose your students to.
Recommended age: 15+ (Grammar school, High school, University) Recommended level: B1 and higher Material for both lessons: Paragraphs related to literature, two poems by William Harger and a video “HUMAN - clip #13: Love from the most unlikely place”66 Lesson Types: Speaking Writing Listening Reading Functions Grammar Pronunciation Vocabulary X (X) X X
Main Aim(s): Introduce Ss to a few poems and a clip from a documentary I consider thought-provoking.
Subsidiary Aim(s): Practice analysing and ordering pieces of text into a meaningful whole. Introduce Ss to an Afro-American prisoner and his way of speaking.
64 Find “HUMAN the movie” on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/HUMANthemovie2015) where you can see all the extended versions, words of the director and portraits of people – short clips 65 “Humans and the Land - in the continuation of HUMAN a film by Yann-Arthus Bertrand” 66 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afvN6se3Yug
139
Stage/Activity Timing Procedure When Ss enter the classroom, there’s a picture related to literature on Intro 3 min the board/screen. The topic is thus revealed. What’s their attitude to reading? And to poems? (Discuss in pairs, possibly share with others.) Ss are given pieces of paper with paragraphs on them. The read them Forming pairs 8 min first and then walk around, mingle and retell the content of their text to the others. They must find the other half of their text (Have one text for three in case of an odd number of Ss.)
Tip: Give them a time limit in order not to lose too much time. Ss are in pairs now, seated. Ordering 12 min They’re given several paragraphs – 2 poems by W. Harger cut into paragraphs pieces – they need to separate them first (identify those poems) and then order the paragraphs. When done, they can compare their result with another pair. Analyse what helped them decide which lines go first and which next Text analysis 5 min (articles, punctuation marks, conjunctions, etc.) Allow them to revise their result and possibly change it now, after knowing better. Checking with Show them the solution on the board + hand out copies with the the original - 4 min poems (The worksheet contains two more shorter ones.) reading Give the Ss enough time to read all the poems. Any new vocab items? Discuss the meaning of the poems. Discussion 8 min Bring their attention to “Love”. What is it? What does it mean to them? Home 2 min Task for next lesson given – write your own definition(s) of love on a assignment piece of paper. “Love is.....”
Following lesson: I recommend sitting in a circle for this lesson, if possible. It makes Ss feel even and more willing to participate in discussions. No one can hide, everyone sees and hears everyone.
Give Ss definitions of love or quotes you found. You can have them
140
Warm-up 5 min on individual pieces of paper and they can draw them from a box and read them out loud, or they can be reading and passing them silently. Do they agree with them? Have a short debate on the sample you Discussion 5 min brought. You can intentionally choose some provocative ones. Or you may use these, by little children: “21 Kids Were Asked To Describe Love” available on https://aplus.com published by Justina Bakutyte on Feb 12, 2015. Read their own definitions they wrote at home – they can be Reading their 5-10 anonymous if they prefer. They, too, can be drawn from a box one by definitions (+ min one, or each S can read their own to the others. discussion?) If a discussion is sparked, welcome it and let Ss express their views and comments on others’ definitions and ideas. Ss listen to the first 50 sec (no more) and try to imagine the speaker Listening to a 3 min (they don’t see him yet). Who’s he? Where does he come from? part of a video (based on the accent and way of talking) What may he look like? “Human: clip 13: Love from the most unlikely place” Let them express their guesses. Pre- listening 5 min Expressions that appear in the clip + comprehension questions on a activity sheet of paper are given to the Ss. Anything unclear? Watching the 5 min Ss watch the video and see how close they were in their imagination. video, answering the 5 min After watching, they answer the Qs they read prior to watching. Qs Debate If you have spare time, let Ss comment on the video they just saw. Have a set of Qs prepared that suit your group. Further Should you wish to continue with this topic a little longer, consider reading? some of these stories: “8 Most Amazing Acts of Love” available on https://www.oddee.com (published by Grace Murano on Sept 1, 2013).
Reflection: I originally taught this topic only in one lesson and did not include some of the activities I propose here.
141
The paragraphs I brought for pair forming were rather challenging for my group. You might want to use a different kind of texts. I had not stressed enough that they were not allowed to read other people’s texts, only oral summarizing was acceptable. Also the poems were too challenging for the students to analyse. In case or less advanced students, I suggest you use only one to order; “A man met life...” is considerably easier.
Material:
Figure 50. Forming pairs: paragraphs on reading, literature and poems. April 8, 2018.
One paragraph can be split in two in case there is an odd number of students and you need a group of three. Or you can find another piece of text for this purpose.
When Warren Buffett was asked about the secret to his wealth and success, he revealed that he read every day—500 pages, to be precise. Unfortunately, if you’re already working 9-5, you might not have the time to read at all, let alone an entire book a day. But what if you could get the benefits of reading without sacrificing all of your free time?
142
You can! With the Blinkist app, you get the key learnings from the best nonfiction books in minutes, not hours or days. Our experts transform these books into quick, memorable, easy-to-understand insights. Start with the 5 most-read titles on self-improvement and see if you don’t feel a little more satisfied already.67
Writing a poem is all about observing the world within or around you. A poem can be about anything, from love to loss to the rusty gate at the old farm. Writing poetry can seem daunting, especially if you do not feel you are naturally creative or bursting with poetic ideas. With the right inspiration and approach, you can write a poem that you can be proud to share with others in class or with your friends.
Do writing exercises. A poem might start as a snippet of a verse, a line or two that seems to come out of nowhere, or an image you cannot get out of your head. You can find inspiration for your poem by doing writing exercises and using the world around you. Once you have inspiration, you can then shape and mold your thoughts into a poem.68
Reading poetry well is part attitude and part technique. Curiosity is a useful attitude, especially when it’s free of preconceived ideas about what poetry is or should be. Effective technique directs your curiosity into asking questions, drawing you into a conversation with the poem.
The goal of careful reading is often to take up a question of meaning, an interpretive question that has more than one answer. Since the form of a poem is part of its meaning (for example, features such as repetition and rhyme may amplify or extend the meaning of a word or idea, adding emphasis, texture, or dimension), questions about form and technique, about the observable features of a poem, provide an effective point of entry for interpretation.69
Poe began to sell short stories to magazines at around this time, and, in 1835, he became the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, where he moved with his aunt and cousin Virginia.
67 Magazine, S. W. (2018, August 22). 5 Books That Will Change Your Life. Retrieved from https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/5-books-will-change-life 68 Ken, S. W. (2018, October 21). How to Write a Poem. Retrieved from https://www.wikihow.com/Write-a- Poem 69 The Poetic History of Arkansas. (2014, March 11). Retrieved from https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/how-read-poem-0
143
In 1836, he married Virginia, who was fourteen years old at the time. Over the next ten years, Poe would edit a number of literary journals including the Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine and Graham’s Magazine in Philadelphia and the Broadway Journal in New York City.70
An unnamed narrator arrives at the House of Usher, a very creepy mansion owned by his boyhood friend Roderick Usher. Roderick has been sick lately, afflicted by a disease of the mind, and wrote to his friend, our narrator, asking for help. The narrator spends some time admiring the awesomely spooky Usher edifice.
While doing so, he explains that Roderick and his sister are the last of the Usher bloodline, and that the family is famous for its dedication to the arts (music, painting, literature, etc.). Eventually, the narrator heads inside to see his friend.71
“If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation.
Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.72
70 Emily Dickinson. (2018, July 13). Retrieved from https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/edgar-allan-poe 71 Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). The Fall of the House of Usher Summary. Retrieved from https://www.shmoop.com/fall-of-house-of-usher/summary.html 72 A quote from Factotum. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/39207-if-you-re-going- to-try-go-all-the-way-otherwise
144
Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.' 'Does it hurt?' asked the Rabbit. 'Sometimes,' said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. 'When you are Real you don't mind being hurt.' 'Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,' he asked, 'or bit by bit?'
'It doesn't happen all at once,' said the Skin Horse. 'You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.” 73
Poems by William Harger74
A man met life walking down the road and asked: "Why was life such a heavy load to carry. And why should I even try. . . . why?" And life replied: "It´s not for me to try to be your answer, my friend. It´s not for me to be your whys or when. It‘s only for me to pass on by." And life slipped on,
73 The Velveteen Rabbit Quotes by Margery Williams Bianco. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1602074-the-velveteen-rabbit 74 Harger, W. (1973). Of a poet. Millbrae, CA: Celestial Arts Pub.
145 leaving the man behind.
A child met life on the road the next day. The child said: "Hi", and skipped on by. Life smiled and paused a tiny while, giving the child all the time he needed.
It´s easy to be loved. All you have to be is lovable.
In the still of the night I remember times with you. I don´t know anymore why I don´t know where you are anymore. I was certain before I would never lose touch. . . . I would always have you when I wanted you
146 because it was sure to be what you wanted too. But I don´t even know where you are anymore. Distance has swallowed you and time has made you invisible and all our promises have become memories dying some remorseless death. Funny, once you were everything to me.
What is love?
My grandmother says it´s just a funny word made up by man because he doesn´t understand his feelings.
I love her.
147
Figure 51. Poems cut into pieces. April 8, 2018.
VIDEO: Vocabulary and phrases:
extension cords, hangers “I measured love by how much pain somebody would take from me.” environment devoid of love to give insights into a life sentence By all rights she should hate me. ...through the journey that we took
Comprehension questions: 1. Who were Patricia and Chris? 2. Who was Agnes and why does he speak about her? 3. What did he learn when he was a child and what did he think about love when he was younger?
148
Lesson 4: Bluebird (A poem by Charles Bukowski)
Figure 52. [sidewalkgazer]. (2009, Jul 15). Bluebird animation based on Charles Bukowski's poem [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsc3ItAKSLc. Screenshot by author.
Recommended age: 15+ (Grammar school or University) Recommended level: B1 or higher Material: Poem Bluebird by Bukowski printed out + two video clips (“Bluebird animation based on Charles Bukowski's poem”75, “Charles Bukowski – Bluebird”76) I recommend to do a quick online research on Bukowski’s life and work, and on the Beat generation as such in order to know the context and connections. You can offer this reading to your students in one of the lessons preceding this one.
75 Bluebird Animation published on Jul 15, 2009 by Sidewalkgazer. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsc3ItAKSLc 76 “Charles Bukowski – Bluebird” uploaded by Schmachnus on Jul 23, 2011. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyMS4qJ8NXU
149
Lesson Type: Speaking Writing Listening Reading Functions Grammar Pronunciation Vocabulary X X X
Main Aim(s): Introduce Ss to Bluebird, an untypical poem by Ch. Bukowski. Revise characteristics of the Beat generation in literature and show them a work that’s different yet written by one of its representatives.
Subsidiary Aim(s): Give the Ss a chance (or make them) to read between lines and practice interpretation, first of an animation, then of a poem. Let/make them think for themselves.
What I think the Ss will already know in terms of language or skill (relevant to my lesson) before the lesson: This lesson builds on at least superficial knowledge of the beat generation and American writers and poets of 1950s. For a greater benefit, it should be covered (at least briefly) in one of the previous lessons.
Stage/Activity Timing Procedure Lead-in 3 min Display a portrait of Charles Bukowski on the board Who’s it? What do you know about him? What context can you put him into? Beat 5 min Beat generation – revise what they already know about it generation Without being told anything about the animation, Ss are shown a clip and Watching a 3 min asked to answer these Qs afterwards: video How does the clip make you feel? animation What’s its mood? (hints: music, colors, pace, animation itself,...) What could be the story that it depicts? Discussion – what’s the 8 min Ss discuss the clip in groups of 3 or 4. They may develop the story that is animation in it. about?
150
Reading the 10 The animation is based on Bukowski’s poem. Ss are given the poem and poem + min can read it individually. Any unknown words? Clarify if needed. vocab Listening to 3 min Ss listen to the audio poem with captions (a voice similar to Bukowski’s) the poem so that they hear the pronunciation and feel better the mood. Ss are asked to discuss the meaning of the poem in the same groups as Discussion – 10 before. After some time, we sit all together and share our ideas. what’s the min meaning of (A possible interpretation could be that the bluebird represents Bukowski’s soul/true the poem? self/sensitivity/confined feelings or emotions/... - something he was supressing and escaping from for a long time because he had created an image of a tough urban macho guy (most of his books are about drugs, violence, women, alcohol,...) – This is where some knowledge of Beat generation is useful – for contrast and comparison, and a deeper understanding of the poem. The poem was published very late, in 1992, only two years before the author died.
It is a good practice to anticipate problems and consider solutions. When I prepared this lesson last time, for a group of approximately 15 teenagers at a Grammar school, I thought of these:
Anticipated problems and solutions
1) Ss are hesitant to talk, being rather silent and not knowing what to say Solution: I nudge them by asking Qs or giving more hints (such as “notice the music, the voice, the colors, the animation itself,…), or later during the last discussion I can remind them of the beat generation and let them compare a “typical work” and Bluebird.
Reflection: When students are familiar with the beat generation’s literature, their comments are quite apt and interesting. When they have no idea of what was happening in the USA at that time, they may not fully appreciate the poem. How the lesson goes depends very much on the group you face. If you have reflective and sensitive teenagers or adults there, it easily beocmes a stimulating class. Again, this lesson plan works much better for 60 or 90-minute classes because the discussion at the end can get very interesting, your students participate a lot and it is a pity to stop them.
151
Also, a longer class gives you enough time to concentrate on the beat generation. So if you can sometimes join two standard lessons to make a longer one and your students are rather mature, this could be an idea for you. I would like to acknowledge Mr Aaron Collier from the Faculty of Education in Brno for introducing this clip and poem to me in 2012 and thus inspiring me to develop this lesson plan.
Lexis/grammar issues be tough to pour whores, bartenders, grocery clerks (AmE x BrE) to screw up to mess (me) up to blow my book sales a secret pact to weep informal language (notice the questions) no capital letters few commas
Bluebird77 there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I'm too tough for him, I say, stay in there, I'm not going to let anybody see you.
there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I pour whiskey on him and inhale cigarette smoke
77 Sheko, T. (2018, February 08). Charles Bukowski: "Bluebird" – Poem of the day – Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/poem-of-the-day/charles-bukowski-bluebird-f4e80e5000ef
152 and the whores and the bartenders and the grocery clerks never know that he's in there. there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay down, do you want to mess me up? you want to screw up the works? you want to blow my book sales in Europe? there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I'm too clever, I only let him out at night sometimes when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there, so don't be sad. then I put him back, but he's singing a little in there, I haven't quite let him die and we sleep together like that with our secret pact and it's nice enough to make a man weep,
153
but I don't weep, do you? Charles Bukowski
Lesson 5: Bootlegging and speakeasies
Figure 53. [Reading Through History]. (2015, Jun 8) History Brief: Speakeasies [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqsAMJEIQ8I&t=188s, Screenshot by author.
Recommended age and level: 15+ (Grammar school/University) Recommended level: B1 or higher Material: Page 95 from “An Illustrated History of the USA” by D.B. O’Callaghan78 + my own material to be found below this lesson plan Lesson Type: Speaking Writing Listening Reading Functions Grammar Pronunciation Vocabulary X X X
78 OCALLAGHAN, B. (2004). An illustrated history of the USA. Harlow: Longman.
154
Main Aim(s): Get Ss familiar with a period of American history they didn’t know about – the Prohibition and its consequences.
Subsidiary Aim(s): Teach new vocabulary in context.
What I think the Ss will already know in terms of language or skill (relevant to my lesson) before the lesson: They’re familiar with the list of expression from the video. I don’t expect them to know anything about the Prohibition.
Anticipated problems and solutions: Ss don’t understand the video well enough after only one watching. Solution: Depending on the time that is left, we can either watch it twice or Ss are asked to repeat it at home (they will easily find it on YouTube).
Stage/Activity Timing Procedure Write these words on the board add let the Ss discuss in pairs what Lead-in 5 min the relations between them could be: Scarface / 1920s / bootlegging / speakeasy / Prohibition / United States Ss are divided into 5 small groups – each gets a paragraph from the Reading a 5 min article about Al Capone and bootlegging. Their task is to memorize paragraph info from their paragraph and then tell the rest of the class. (Then they try to organize the paragraphs into a cohesive text. Only after that they get the original text to see if they got it right. Now, after summarizing the content of each paragraph and sharing Answering the 2 min the info, Ss are able to answer the initial question – what these initial Q words mean and how they are related. Reading the Ss read the whole article. They highlight unknown vocabulary. When whole article 10 min everybody’s finished, I can help with some vocabulary. We go through unknown (and important) words together; for better Vocabulary + 8 min orientation, the text is displayed on the board. comprehension I ask them a few comprehensive Qs, such as: Was the Prohibition a good thing? What were some of its consequences? Why did they
155
pass the prohibition law in the first place?
Inflation 3 min Ss guess how much 100,000,000 dollars (Al Capone’s annual income) would be today.
Data: According to Inflation Calculator, the average inflation rate was 2.92% per year. Prices in 2016 (e.g.) were 1,303.5% higher than in 1924. 100,000,000 dollars in 1924 = 1,403,549,707 dollars in 2016. Ss watch a brief documentary on YouTube called History Brief Video watching 8 min Speakeasies79 (info and useful vocab from the documentary is on the other side of the sheet about Bootlegging they were given). Before the video starts, they read the 3 Qs they’re supposed to answer afterwards.
Answering the Qs afterwards, checking all together. Revision 2 min Revise the terms and what they’ve learnt today.
A speakeasy in a Have they seen the film Great Gatsby with DiCaprio? film in case Show them a speakeasy in Great Gatsby80– first 1:30 is enough. OR of time word stress left Going through the list of expressions from the video and marking (unlikely) the word stress. This should be done in a following lesson anyway.
Lexis/grammar issues See the list at the end of the plan for unknown words and word stress.
Reflection: I only taught this lesson once, some months ago, and students loved it. The topic was new to them, but despite the distance between the CR and USA and the distance in time, it felt close enough to relate to, and in my observation they were intrigued. It helped me greatly that the list of words that appear in the video was introduced to them in one of the preceding lessons
79 “History Brief: Speakeasies” published by “Reading Through History” on Jun 8, 2015. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqsAMJEIQ8I 80 “The Great Gatsby (2013) Speakeasy scene”. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgY0bDfz6XA
156
and thus they were mostly familiar with them and understood the video easily. I recommend this lesson to Grammar school third or fourth graders.
Material:
Prior to reading: find a picture of Al Capone and ask the Ss whether they know the man.
Figure 54. O’Callaghan, D. B. (2004). An illustrated history of the USA. Harlow: Longman. Page 95.
157
READING: Tasks and questions
1. Circle or highlight all the words you didn’t know (in the article). 2. Find the pronunciation of “Chicago” in a dictionary. Use e.g. www.oxforddictionaries.com 3. What exactly is “bootlegging”? 4. What are “speakeasies” and where could you find them back then? 5. Explain these words or use synonyms: a mob a habit a harm/to harm a thug to obtain to prohibit a prohibition
Go through the unknown (and important) words together; for better orientation, the text should be displayed on the board if possible. Ask them some comprehensive questions, such as: Was the Prohibition a good thing? What were some of its consequences? Why did they pass the prohibition law in the first place?
VIDEO: Questions based on the video:
1. What does “to speak easy” actually mean? 2. What is a gallon? 3. What was invented during the Prohibition era and why?
Useful phrases and expressions from the video students may not be familiar with yet: Mark the word stresses and focus on correct pronunciation with proper stressing when practising. to circumvent (law) amendment was ratified by the State a new law went into effect those in favor of Prohibition enforce a new law
158 alcohol-related illnesses as time progressed unintended consequences breweries were forced to shut down be negatively impacted despite the best efforts personal consumption neither .... nor..... to stockpile wine legitimate business funeral house be familiar with a special knock a code word to disguise the beverage more palatable to those who didn’t like the taste of alcohol high-ranking local officials a raid warning signals to vacate the premises
159