MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Bachelor Thesis

Brno 2015

Supervisor: Ailsa Marion Randall, M.A. Author: Petr Palčík

1 MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Department of English language and literature

YouTube as a source of study materials for English learners and teachers

Bachelor thesis

Brno 2015

Supervisor: Ailsa Marion Randall, M.A. Author: Petr Palčík

Bibliography

2 PALČÍK, Petr. YouTube as a source of study materials for English learners and teachers; bachelor thesis. Brno; Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Departement of English Language and Literature, 2016. 61 pages, 2 pages of attachment. The supervisor of the Bachelor thesis: Ailsa Marion Randall, M.A.

Bibliografický záznam

PALČÍK, Petr. YouTube as a source of study materials for English learners and teachers; bakalářská práce. Brno; Masarykova univerzita, Pedagogická fakulta, Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury, 2016. 61 s., 2 s. příl. Vedoucí bakalářské práce: Ailsa Marion Randall, M.A.

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is research into YouTube and its influence on English learners in the

3 present day as well as its potential for English teachers. The first part of the theoretical section of the thesis aims at introducing YouTube as a popular and enormous source of information and entertainment. In this part I explain the basic functions of YouTube and it´s background. Afterwards, the thesis shows the significance of YouTube for self-learners and its strong influence on their intrinsic motivation for learning English. It also provides a number of example channels that differ between those that provide study resources intentionally and unintentionally. Finally, the thesis considers the vast variety of uses that YouTube has to offer to teachers of English. In the practical part, I further develop the idea of using YouTube for teaching English by creating a private YouTube channel. I have recorded and uploaded several sample videos, that can serve as teaching materials for English teachers.

Anotace Cílem této práce je výzkum internetové stránky YouTube a jejího vlivu na studenty anglického jazyka a potenciálu, jež skýtá pro učitele anglického jazyka. První část teoretické sekce se zaměřuje na představení stránky YouTube jakožto populárního a bohatého zdroje informací a zábavy. Tato část vysvětluje základní funkce stránky YouTube a pozadí jejího vzniku. Dále se tato práce zaměřuje na význam stránky YouTube pro samouky a jejího silného vlivu na jejich vnitřní motivaci pro studium anglického jazyka. Rovněž se zde nachází řada exemplárních kanálů, které se rozlišují na ty, jež poskytují studijní materiály intencionálně a na ty, které je poskytují neintencionálně. Závěrem tato práce zkoumá řadu možností uplatnění stránky YouTube pro učitele anglického jazyka. Praktická část dále rozvíjí myšlenku využití stránky YouTube pro učitele anglického jazyka prostřednictvím soukromého YouTubového kanálu, na nějž jsem nahrál několik ukázkových videí, která mohou sloužit jako studijní materiály pro učitele anglického jazyka.

Keywords

YouTube, , channel, internet, E-learning, motivation, autonomy

4 Klíčová slova

YouTube, youtuber, kanál, internet, E-learning, motivace, autonomie

5 Declaration I hereby declare that I wrote this bachelor thesis on my own and I used only the sources listed in the biblography.

Prohlášení

Prohlašuji, že jsem bakalářskou práci vypracoval samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu auroském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.

In Brno 2016 Petr Palčík

6 Acknowledgement I would like to express my gratitute towards my supervisor Ailsa Marion Randall, M.A., for her kind help, support and advice throughout writing this thesis. I would also like to thank Mr. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for making my writing more enjoyable.

Content

Introduction ...... 10

Theoretical section

7 I. What is YouTube? ...... 12

I. 1. The history of YouTube ...... 12

I. 2. The people behind YouTube ...... 14

I. 3. YouTube channels and ...... 15

I. 4. Creating a profile and following the rules ...... 16

I. 5. Influence of YouTube on "Generation Z" ...... 17

II. YouTube and self-learning ...... 19

II. 1. Finding study materials ...... 19

II. 2. Intentional and unintentional learning on YouTube ...... 20

II. 3. Sample channels ...... 21

II. 3. 1. JamesESL English Lessons ...... 21 II. 3. 2. Learn English with Ronnie ...... 22 II. 3. 3. Holmwood´s online learning ...... 22 II. 3. 4. Learn English with Let´s Talk ...... 23 II. 3. 5. TED ...... 25 II. 3. 6. Other convenient channels ...... 25 II. 3. 7. and Vines ...... 26 II. 3. 8. Other videos ...... 27

III. YouTube and teaching ...... 31

III. 1. Motivating students via YouTube ...... 31

III. 2. Supporting students autonomy via YouTube ...... 34

III. 3. Application of in lessons ...... 36

III. 3. 1. YouTube in conversational English lessons …...... 36 III. 3. 2. Teaching "World Englishes" through YouTube ...... 39

III. 3.3. YouTube in non-conversational English lessons ...... 41

III. 4. Creating study materials on YouTube ...... 41

Practical section

IV. 1. Survey of YouTube´s popularity among students of the English 8 language ...... 43

IV. 1. 1. Questionnaire n. 1 – Learning sources ...... 45 IV. 1. 2. Questionnaire n. 2 – YouTube ...... 48

IV. 2. My channel ...... 50

Conclusion ...... 56

Introduction

In the 21st century, the technologies are becoming more and more significant in everyday life and as a result, people are starting to be increasingly more dependent on these technologies. This tendency can be observed in almost every aspect of life and education is not an exception. Students all over the world cannot imagine their studies without the internet, using notebooks, tablets or smartphones during lessons is very common these days in almost every level of education. At universities, the majority of homework assignments or 9 administrational operations are done via the internet and at the same time the vast majority of information and study materials can be found on the internet. Clearly, the internet is indispensable for education nowadays.

Apart from the internet´s educational use at schools, we can notice an increasing popularity of self-learning on the internet. In today´s rushed world, many people simply lack the time to spend in classes. It is far more convenient for such people to study at home and the internet allows that. There are numerous ways of learning almost any subject on the internet, from finding interesting articles and literature to purchasing online courses. Especially language learning is becoming very easy online. With the overwhelming amount of courses available anybody can study just about any language through well designed, often interactive lessons with just a few clicks.

However, the internet´s use for education, mainly for language learning, is not always as obvious. Almost everybody with access to the internet uses it for spending their past time and the primary language of the internet is English. Naturally, it can prove to be rather limiting to use the internet, without the knowledge of the most elementary English vocabulary and since the most popular websites are mostly English, non-English speakers might feel the need to understand the meaning. Consequently, while facing English each time being online, it is only natural to absorb some of the vocabulary and develop certain level of understanding without showing much effort. After all, this long-term confrontation with English is one of the main reasons, why young students at elementary schools and grammar schools often tend to show better language capabilities than some of their older teachers, who had to learn English in a more traditional way.

Once a non-native speaker becomes capable enough to understand English to a certain extent, it becomes much more attractive to search for entertainment in English. A good example could be various tv-series, that can be watched online or websites, such as the focus of this thesis – YouTube.

There are many reasons for why I chose this topic. One of the primary ones is my personal interest in YouTube. It is by far my favourite source of entertainment and has completely substituted television in my life. Also, YouTube, among series and video-games is one of the main reasons why I speak English on my current level. It is safe to say that I use my own experience with self-learning as an inspiration. It has done me a much bigger service than the entire grammar school English. Finally, I have decided for this topic because I love

10 video-editing. Creating my own films and various other short videos has been one of my biggest hobbies since I received my first digital camera able to make videos as a child. With all these reasons combined, I feel very enthusiastic about my topic.

I. What is YouTube?

The resource, YouTube.com, is an online video repository in which nearly any digital video file can be stored and exhibited free of charge. Started in February 2005, YouTube hosts videos that are cumulatively currently viewed more than 2 billion times each day (“Timeline,” 2011).

While issues involving copyright infringement and obscenity standards have often made the website controversial, the vast array of diverse content and its organic community

11 interactivity make YouTube a tremendous resource for a multitude of educational endeavors. (Watkins, Wilkins 113).

In "Annals of Language and Learning: Proceedings of the 2009 International Online Language Conference", YouTube´s importance is described through statement that:

"YouTube is changing, or rather increasing, the ways people experience the world. Geographical, social, cultural boundaries have been knocked out. Thanks to YouTube, people can easily upload videos and let anyone in the world know something about themselves." (92)

I. 1. History of YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California, . The service was created by three former PayPal employees - , and in February 2005. In November 2006, it was bought by Google for 1.65 billion US dollars. The website allows users to watch and upload videos. Currently YouTube is the 3rd most popular website in the world and the 1st most popular online video website (Competitive Intelligence, online). Users watch over 4 billion hours´ worth of video every month and are uploading over 72 hours´ worth of video every minute. (Dickey, online)

The site was created on the 14th February, 2005. The short and popular version of the site´s creation that has become something of an official story behind YouTube is that Hurley and Chen had the idea of YouTube in the winter of 2005, after having problems with sharing videos online. The videos were supposed to be done at a dinner party at Chen´s apartment in San Francisco but Jawed Karim claims the dinner party never happened and that the seed idea of video sharing was his, though he also stated that the realization of YouTube required "the equal efforts of all three of us." (Cloud 5)

Chad Hurley and Steve Chen both say that the party did occur but that Karim was not there. Steve Chen says: "Chad and I are pretty modest, and Jawed has tried to seize every opportunity to take credit," but he also acknowledged that the notion that YouTube was founded after a dinner "was probably very strengthened by marketing ideas around creating a story that was very digestible." (Cloud 5)

In "Surprise! There's a Third YouTube Co-founder", Hopkins describes a different story which is that the idea for a video-sharing website came from Karim after two particular

12 events. One being Janet Jackson´s Super Bowl show, where she ended up accidentally baring her breast and the other the tsunami in Sri Lanka in 2004. Karim was dissatisfied with the difficult accessibility of all the amateur videos from the concert as well as from the tsunami. This lack of access has sparked the idea of a video-sharing website. (Hopkins, online)

As much as both the dinner party and the events Karim wanted to look up online would make a memorable story, YouTube, like any other company, was not founded in a single moment. Instead, it took several months to evolve. Its predecessor was actually a dating site created by Jawed Karim. It was a video version of HotorNOT.com dating site and it was the first website, where anyone could upload content for everyone else to view. Karim talks very fondly of this achievement saying: "I was incredibly impressed with HOTorNOT, because it was the first time that someone had designed a website where anyone could upload content that everyone else could view. That was a new concept because up until that point, it was always the people who owned the website who would provide the content." (Cloud 5)

The video version of HotorNot lasted only for several months. Chad Hurley described the idea as being too narrow. He also noted that another early idea for a video-sharing website was one where people could share videos for online auctions. In the spring 2005 the founders realized that people had started posting any videos they wanted without regard for the original purpose of the website (the online auction one). It was YouTube that finally achieved recognition. In its beginning, it was greatly influenced by the existence of MySpace where many people would post links to YouTube videos and thus allow MySpace to help YouTube grow. With so many people sharing YouTube videos via MySpace, the growth of YouTube became incredibly fast and was shortly noticed even by major investors. Investors such as Time Warner and Sequoia Capital began to approach YouTube with the intention of a purchase. In addition, big advertisers saw YouTube as an opportunity and started posting videos. Among the most notable ones was a commercial by Nike, which was posted in October 2005. The commercial was meant to not look like a standard add, rather interest the viewers with it´s original concept. It featured the Brazilian football player Ronaldinho and shortly after being posted it became viral. With all this sudden recognition, it was just a matter of time before the creators of YouTube would receive an offer for sale they would accept. (Cloud 5)

I. 2. The people behind YouTube

Steven Shih Chen was born in August 1978 in Taipei, Taiwan. He is an American

13 entrepreneur who co-launched the video-sharing website YouTube in 2005. Chen, YouTube’s chief technology officer, was named to 2006’s “The 50 People Who Matter Now” list by Business 2.0 magazine. (Steve Chen Biography, online)

Chen is also known to be a risk taker after leaving his school a few months before finishing his studies to work for Paypal. He studied at the University of Illinois which he decided to leave a semester and a half early in order to be hired at Paypal. He has also attended the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. The combination of these two schools had made him a very attractive employee for Paypal. (Cloud 6)

Chad Hurley was born on January 24, 1977, in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, Chad Hurley is the co-founder and former CEO of the video-sharing website YouTube.com. After college, Hurley worked at eBay's PayPal division before collaborating with co-workers Steve Chen and Jawed Karim to create YouTube in 2005. Business 2.0 magazine ranked Hurley No. 28 on its 2006 list of "50 People Who Matter." (Chad Hurley Biography, online)

Chad Hurley grew up in a family of a financial consultant and a schoolteacher. In 1999 he majored in computer science at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Afterwards, he began to study graphic design and printmaking. After reading an article about the company PayPal, Hurley had decided to try and seize the opportunity to work for them. He sent them his resume which attracted PayPal´s attention. After the interview, Hurley was asked to prove his skills by designing a new logo for the company. The logo, which Hurley had designed, was a major success. PayPal´s CEO offered him a job as the company´s first designer. The simple logo which Hurley had designed that day still remains the official symbol of PayPal. (Cloud 3-4)

Jawed Karim was born on October 28, 1979 in Merseburg, East Germany, but crossed the inner German border with his family in 1981 and grew up in Neuss, West Germany. He is a German American Internet entrepreneur, best known for being a co-founder of YouTube. He graduated from Central High School (Saint Paul, Minnesota) and later attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department of Computer Science. He left campus prior to graduating to become an early employee at PayPal, but continued his coursework, earning his Bachelor of Science in computer science. He subsequently earned a master's degree in computer science from Stanford University. Many of the core components of PayPal, including its real-time anti-fraud system, were also designed and implemented by Karim. (YouTube Started With An Elephant?, online) It is worth mentioning that Karim is the first

14 person to upload a video on YouTube. The video is called "Me at the zoo" and is officially the first YouTube video. (S. Naaz, online)

I. 3. YouTube channels and youtubers

While YouTube had started as a website dedicated to sharing amateur videos, its rapid development has allowed it to become a profitable business. That has been done mainly through adding commercials to the website. Most videos display commercials before viewers are allowed to watch them and for each view of a commercial, the user gets a very small percentage of the income. But if the videos have millions of views, the sums of money can be considerable to say the least.

Everybody is allowed to create a profile on YouTube, where videos can be uploaded. The settings of the profile (or rather the uploaded content) can be either private – meaning that nobody can watch your content without permission or it can be public, in which case your videos are accessible for everybody. Should the user choose to create public content, other users have a chance of watching the content without being send a direct link. Users can also subscribe to a profile. For the subscriber it means being reminded of new content on the particular profile. For the profile user it means having a steady supply of views. As it has been mentioned in the previous paragraph, the views mean a percentage on the income from the commercials.

Naturally, this has led to tendencies to earn money through creating popular profiles (channels) that would have a large audience. People who upload videos to such channels are called "youtubers". There are many youtubers in various countries and speaking in various languages but the basic rule is that if they want their content to be really popular, it has to be in English. As a result, it is not surprising that the vast majority of the channels are in English. What makes it even more interesting is that we do not speak strictly about clean British or American English. Instead, we encounter English from many non-English-speaking countries. Possibly the best example could be the most popular youtuber Pewdiepie, who has over 40 million subscribers (31st October 2015) and who is Swedish, although he speaks English on his channel.

Economy-wise, competition on YouTube is exceptionally fair, assuming the user can afford a video-camera and access to the internet. However, language can be an impassable barrier for those, who do not speak English (or alternatively Spanish, French, German,

15 Russian or some other major world language).

I. 4. Creating a profile and following the rules

As it was already suggested, creating a profile on YouTube is very simple. It is also free of charge (except for the internet costs). Users can create a profile simply for better accessibility to other user´s videos (for subscribing to a channel or commenting on other user ´s videos, a profile is required) or for uploading personal videos. Assuming a user wants to create a profile, all he/she has to do is search "YouTube.com" and there, probably in the upper right corner, click to make an account.

Should a user choose to upload personal content, there are only a few rules to be concerned about. The first important thing to bear in mind are copyrights. This is a relatively common issue that youtubers face when making videos. For instance, many kinds of videos look considerably better with a well chosen soundtrack. However, most of the music that would seem as a good choice could put a youtuber in trouble. The punishment could range from banning the video to paying actual damages to the original artist. Approximately in the year 2009, one of my own videos was banned due to illegal use of music. When trying to access such video, a user only sees a message saying: "This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.". A user can also breach copyrights by uploading content such as TV shows or musical videos without permission. To avoid this, YouTube sends anybody who would choose to upload a video a message saying : "Do not upload TV shows, music videos or commercials without permission, unless they consist entirely of content that you created yourself." (Marsden, online) Another thing to bear in mind is that YouTube prohibits sexually explicit content. That is mainly to avoid it from becoming a porn website as the quantity of such content tends to grow rapidly should it be allowed on a website. Videos that contain other mature content such as harsh language, violence or drug and alcohol related topics usually require users to have their own profile and confirm that they are 18 years of age or older. A complete list of rules for uploading videos is available at YouTube´s community guidelines website. (YouTube, online)

I. 5. Influence of YouTube on "Generation Z"

As the technologies develop, more and more people are becoming dependent on them. This trend can be seen especially among young people who are growing up in a world of technologies. In times where almost every European and American child has a mobile phone

16 and an access to the internet, it is only logical that the influence of the technologies would be significant. Experts often agree that this is in many aspects a bad thing, but there are many positives as well.

Through constant exposure to the world of internet, which is primarily English, the growth of technologies creates a generation of people who often tend to automatically absorb English. When asking students of English, what has contributed to their English studies the most, a vast amount of the students reply TV shows or occasionally video-games. All of this being available thanks to computers and the internet.

For the purpose of this subchapter, two questionnaires have been distributed among 20 young adult learners of the English language. All of these learners are students of the English language at the faculty of education at Masaryk University. This available sample of respondents was chosen for the reasons that all of these students are fluent in English (mostly C1 level), all of the respondents enjoy speaking English and are enthusiastic about learning it. They represent the ideal result of studying English and thus are excellent for demonstrating the influence of various learning materials.

The results (found in the practical section) show the overwhelming influence of tv- series on learners ability to use English, mainly their listening skills. While some of the results can be ambiguous, a hundred percent of the questioned students agree that tv-series have been very helpful for improving their listening skills. This is a very important point, considering that YouTube is slowly starting to complement the role of tv-series as an entertainment. It also shows how popular YouTube is becoming and how often it is being used as a source of learning materials with 90% of the examined students using YouTube for other reasons than just entertainment. It is also worth mentioning that all of the respondents use YouTube at least several times a week with 65% using YouTube every day.

The influence of YouTube is becoming so important these days mainly because of its popularity. The videos of youtubers, in lives of many people, fully substitute the TV shows they once used to watch so much. The amount of content on YouTube and it´s range is simply overwhelming. Especially for children and young adults, one of the main reasons for its popularity is simply the fact that it is "cool". Having your favourite youtubers is becoming something of a necessity for children. These people are becoming their heroes. In addition, it gives children many topics to discuss. It is understandable that the amount of time they spent on YouTube every day is growing significantly. Even if the English they face is not entirely

17 grammatically correct, neither is it necessarily well pronounced, it does help to develop a certain affinity to the language.

Quite clearly this influence of the internet can be rather beneficial for non-native speakers, which are the students I work with. As far as the influence on native speakers is concerned, it might be slightly more negative since the "online" English is often very simplified and incorrect. As a result, the "proper" grammatically correct English might deteriorate.

II. YouTube and self-learning

As it is already mentioned above, YouTube is a great source of study materials. It does not have to be strictly connected to languages, the range of available study materials on YouTube is nearly limitless. For the purposes of this thesis however, we are going to focus purely on the availability of language materials. This chapter deals with such materials and the uses they can provide for a self-learner as well as the difference between intentional and unintentional learning on YouTube.

II.1. Finding study materials

Finding study materials on YouTube can be truly simple. However, we could make a basic distinction between finding materials which are meant as a study-tool and finding materials which are considered a source of entertainment yet provide very useful experience to learners. If a learner is looking for the first type of materials, he or she can choose practically any topic supporting almost any skill, with the possible exception of writing. All it

18 requires is typing the topic the learner is interested in into the search-bar. It can be almost anything from just typing "English lesson" or "English conversation" to "Past-perfect" or "transitive and intransitive verbs". Practically anything a learner can think of will provide countless results.

Slightly more common is the second category – learners who are looking for sources of entertainment that can prove to be very helpful in English studies. Such learners can be interested in these materials only as a source of entertainment and improve their English unintentionally or they can have a clearly set goal. Videos which are meant for entertainment are generally useful for improving mainly listening skills but can also help with spoken production or even spoken interaction. However, even watching videos for entertainment can be done with the intention of learning.

Listening is quite clearly the skill that is improved the most through videos. By constantly encountering spoken English online, it becomes more and more familiar to the learner. It is especially effective when the speakers are using the language in a standard way without attempting to be comprehensible for an average foreigner. Through exposure to this kind of language, it can become very easy for learners to understand the polished way of speaking used at schools. Possibly the most convenient part about practicing listening online is that it can be done through any video involving English. Learners do not have to look for listening exercises, instead they can search for stand-up comedians, tv-series, vloggers, viners, let´s players or anything else they might be interested in. Through activities which are considered fun by the learner, the learning is incomparably more efficient than by following a simple set of goals that have to be met.

II.2. Intentional and unintentional learning on YouTube

Other, less self-explanatory terms that we could use are language learning and language acquiring. Language learning represents the intentional. It can vary from self- learning with clearly set goals to studying at schools and more. In other words, learning is something learners do in order to obtain new knowledge, new abilities. It is often done with a plan and a clear intention. At schools learning follows certain methods that have proven to be effective. Language acquiring on the other hand is unintentional. The most typical example of language acquisition would be the acquisition of individual´s mother tongue. While they can be supported by parents, obtaining the ability to use one´s mother tongue is done mainly through language acquisition and only at the first grade of elementary school turns into

19 learning. But as far as foreign languages are concerned, the acquisition is done mainly through constant exposure. It can take place when people of different nationalities meet on regular basis (for instance areas around country´s borders) or it could be done through exposure to a different language culture (which in case of English could easily be for example through films, tv-series, video-games). Other terms for this are the explicit (learning) and implicit (acquisition) learning.

So when it comes to language acquisition on YouTube, it is very common that people (especially young people) simply happen to enjoy their time browsing various channels without any intention of learning anything. If such people happen to have at least some basic understanding of English, it is not unusual for them to browse channels which are in English (after all, it is the vast majority of them). When they do, they get exposed to spoken English. Through such exposure, ideally on regular basis, the viewers automatically start to develop particular skills. This is mainly convenient for improving listening.

A large number of people spend many hours a week on YouTube with videos such as let´s plays. While it might not be the considered the most healthy way of spending ones time, it is beyond any doubt that it raises awareness of the spoken English.

II.3. Sample channels

The number of channels that can be used for learning English that is available on YouTube is hard to grasp. Assuming a learner was to start with online English studies possibly the first thing he/she would type in the search-bar is English lessons. Immediately afterwards the learner would receive many channels to choose from. Most of these are only some of the first channels that appear after doing such search.

II.3.1. JamesESL English Lessons

JamesESL English Lessons (engVid) : https://www.youtube.com/user/JamesESL/featured

This is the description provided on Mr. James´s channel:

"If you TRY, you can do anything!

20 It's always been my belief that you cannot put information in other people's heads. If you find a way to show them something, they can use their own intelligence to learn. This is my approach to teaching, trying to be both informative while allowing the students to find their own way of learning.

I've spent the last 12 years teaching in various capacities. I've taught martial arts to kids and developed a curriculum that was geared specifically to enhance their development.

I spent several years working with children suffering from autism and Asperger's -- trying to help them learn to deal with the world around them and to learn from their environment. Finally, it was while helping a child that I was asked to work at the Toronto School Board. While I was there, I helped out with kids who were learning English, and my love of teaching ESL began." (JamesESL English Lessons (engVid))

This channel has nearly 470 000 subscribers (13th December 2015) and the videos available here are not only of high educational quality but are also very entertaining. The majority of the videos is approximately 20 minutes long and new videos are being uploaded on monthly basis. Videos from this channel are sometimes being used in methodology classes at the faculty of education at Masaryk University.

II.3.2. Learn English with Ronnie

Another channel worth mentioning is English Lessons 4U – Learn English with Ronnie - https://www.youtube.com/user/EnglishLessons4U/featured

The description is rather simple : "Free English lessons in pronunciation, grammar, spelling, and more! (EnglishLessons4U - Learn English with Ronnie! (engVid))

The channel has over 840 000 subscribers (16th December 2015). The videos available are being uploaded twice a month and are very well made. The teacher has a good sense of humor.

The two channels mentioned above are actually a part of a bigger channel called engVid - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKRBA9XfgzAtJodE4t8cUeg. The channels country of origin is Canada. It is an excellent source of teaching materials. It provides users with links to eleven channels, each belonging to a particular teacher with particular lessons.

21 JamesESL and Learn English with Ronnie are only two examples of teachers from the engVid. Probably the biggest advantage for learners is that they can choose a teacher that suits them the most. They can decide based on many aspects such as the accent the teacher has, how comprehensible is the teachers English, how advanced is the target audience of the teacher, how entertaining are the lessons or simply whether a learner finds the teacher nice. Such choice can be very beneficial as the students are likely to pay a lot more attention to a teacher they like. In addition, studying can prove to be much more efficient when the learner is exposed to various learning styles.

II.3.3. Holmwood´s online learning

Holmswood´s online learning is an example of a less popular channel, with only a little over 37 000 subscribers - https://www.youtube.com/user/HolmwoodsELT/featured

The description of the channel is:

"HolmwoodsELT shows some of the videos from our main website holmwoods.eu. We specialize in teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) The main focus of our YouTube Channel is the grammar videos, but we also host lots of other videos here as well. Holmwoods.eu is designed for schools, colleges and any other institution where groups learn a language with a teacher guiding them. Each video or text has an integrated exercise which is automatically marked and results are stored in an online database. Individual students can also make use of the system. The grammar and language videos help out when no teacher is available. So for both schools and individual learners, Holmwood's Online Learning is a great place to learn English." (Holmwood's Online Learning.)

It is important to realize that the vast majority of useful (or not useful) channels are not particularly popular. The popularity is mostly a privilege of only a relatively small percentage of all the channels. However, the popularity does not necessarily make the less popular channels any less useful for studying English. In other words, the amount of educational channels available is considerably higher than the first search results might suggest. Regardless of not being as well recognized as the other channels listed, Holmswood´s online learning is full of very useful materials. Videos on this channel are mostly of shorter length, approximately five minutes per video. The videos are focused mainly on grammar or on demonstration of dialogs in various situations.

22 II.3.4. Learn English with Let´s Talk

Another nice example of channel suitable for learning English is Learn English with Let´s Talk – Free English Lessons : https://www.youtube.com/user/learnexmumbai/featured

The description of the channel is:

"Let's Talk is a convenient way to learn English that combines audio and Video lessons.

Our mission is simple: to make learning easier by taking advantage of modern pedagogical principles and the latest web technologies.

Hence our company's tagline of "Fluent English With Neutral Accent".

Learning center for Business English, personality Development, IELTS, TOFEL, Corporate Training, Skills Training in Mumbai." (Learn English with Let's Talk - Free English Lessons.)

This channel has close to 750 000 subscribers (December 16th 2015) and is full of useful videos involving English conversation and grammar. The videos are being uploaded at high frequency of four videos per week. Most of the lessons are only a little over ten minutes long and they range from lessons aimed at beginners to lessons designed for advanced learners. The educational quality of the videos is very good and the ratings from viewers are very high. It is perhaps a little more serious than videos on JamesESL or Learn English with Ronnie, which might be appreciated by some learners while considered less interesting by others. Perhaps due to the frequency at which new videos are being uploaded there does not seem to be as much creativity present as in the case of the other two channels where videos are being uploaded only once or twice a month. Regardless, the lessons are very well structured and active, motivated learners will find this frequency of uploads very convenient.

A good method when searching for more channels involving English lessons is clicking on the sign that says "channels" on every channel´s homepage. When present at a channel´s homepage, the user sees a selection of six signs written under the name of the

23 channel – Homepage, Videos, Lists of videos, Channels, Discussions and Information. After selecting the sign "channels" the user enters a page with a list of channels recommended by the youtuber. These recommendations are in most cases related to the topic. One of the reasons for this is the cooperation between youtubers. The vast majority of youtubers are cooperating with others in order to share subscribers and raise the general awareness of their channel. These recommended channels are also the channels that the particular youtuber has subscribed to. Naturally, the subscription options of each youtuber tend to reflect his/her own interests so channels that involve English lessons are likely to be subscribed to a large number of similar channels involving English.

II. 3.5. TED

TED is an excellent channel for practicing listening skills and learning about various cultural, sociological, educational and other problems in the world. The channel consists mostly of videos where special quests, usually highly qualified, experienced university teachers, or also scientists and other experts in many different fields have lectures on various topics. The lectures are recorded live, as they are being performed in front of audience, the videos are but a recording of the lecture. The vast majority of the lecturers involved are very talented speakers and are entertaining to observe.

The channel has over 4 million subscribers and can be found at : https://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector/featured

The description says: "TEDTalks shares the best ideas from the TED Conference with the world, for free: trusted voices and convention-breaking mavericks, icons and geniuses, all giving the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. We post a fresh TEDTalk every weekday. TEDTalks are licensed under Creative Commons, so you're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with the people you know. To join the conversation, comment here or join our online community at TED.com." (TED)

As already mentioned in the description, videos are being uploaded every weekday, which is a considerable ferequency, much higher than in case of most other educational

24 channels. The videos are usually up to twenty minutes. This channel is not only suitable for improving listening skills but can also have many uses at schools for assigning homework such as writing essays based on topics discussed or could be used to initiate interesting discussion between students in many forums, typical for university studies.

II.3.6. Other convenient channels

Assuming that the learner does not want to study through channels designed as English lessons, there are numerous other types of channels that can prove to be very helpful. Such channels also concern people who do not intend on studying English at all but happen to learn a lot through language acquisition. Realistically, the amount of channels and all the types available is so vast and hard to grasp that it is impossible to cover even just the majority of them in a thesis. For that reason, only a couple of examples is going to be mentioned.

II.3.7. Vlogs and Vines

Vlogs or video blogs are among very popular types of videos on YouTube. In essence, it serves as an online diary in a video form. Many youtubers specialize on making these kinds of videos. These videos often focus on various activities of popular people. It can be recorded while doing almost anything from doing mundane things like shopping to practicing extreme sports or simply to express youtubers opinions or feelings. It is most common among celebrities and other popular people that have a strong fan base that is interested in seeing their heroes in everyday life. Some of the more popular vlogs concern for instance recordings from behind the scenes of various films and serials, such as Maisie Williams and her vlogs and vines from filming the Game of Thrones. Vlogs are usually recorded spontaneously and without much preparation, they simply attempt capture the moment. This spontaneity makes English vlogs a good practice of listening skills because it exposes the viewer to unpolished, ordinary spoken English that can be encountered in everyday conversation. It usually contains a great deal of colloquial expressions and depending on the nationality of the vlogger, can show the viewer various accents. In addition, vlogs can be very helpful in learning English thanks to the way vloggers address their viewers. Vloggers often record their videos in a way that makes the impression that they speak directly to the viewer, which can sometimes resemble a real life conversation. If the learner is to some extend capable of understanding spoken English, vlogs can be an excellent practice.

Vines are a particularly popular type of videos on YouTube. They have some similar

25 features to vlogs as they capture somebody´s thoughts and youtubers often use it to express themselves but unlike vlogs, vines are usually prepared and thought through. Vines are short videos with very specific editing. The videos are organised in short, a couple of seconds long sequences that are connected. Each sequence is a single shot and all the sequences are edited together after recording, creating a very particular short film, where a youtuber is expressing his/her attitude towards some topic, often in a funny way similar to stand-up comedy. The concept of vines came from a video-sharing app, that allows people to record six seconds long videos and share them on twitter and similar sites. The popular vines on YouTube are made of many such short scenes.

An example of a youtuber that focuses on vines as well as vlogs could be Thomas Sanders, who has a little over 700 000 subscribers (30th December 2015). He is from Gainesville, Florida and thus has a very comprehensible, general American accent. He has an excellent sense of humour and his videos are simple yet rather entertaining.

Another nice example of a channel mostly focused on vlogs would be WeeScottishLass, found at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZj7EtGg0F5LKKkzT184gLg/featured

WeeScottishLass is, as the name suggests, a channel made by a girl from Scotland. She speaks with a strong Scottish accent and so her videos can be very useful either for learning to use the Scottish accent or simply to better understand it which could be useful for anybody who should visit Scotland. She mostly does vlogs, talking about various topics but also has numerous videos focused on teaching Scottish accent and Scottish vocabulary. The videos are mostly from five to ten minutes long and are fun to watch. The channel is relatively young, with the oldest videos being only one year old and is just starting to be recognized with 5 700 subscribers (3rd February 2016).

The description says:

"Scottish vlogger / youtuber in Scotland Welcome to my channel! I'm nothing more than a Wee Scottish Lass fae the bonnie bonnie land of Scotland. If ye have any requests drop me a comment on one of my videos or send me a message!" (WeeScottishLass.)

II.3.8. Other videos

26 Possibly the most popular type of videos on YouTube are let´s play videos, that have already been mentioned in previous chapters. Let´s play videos are especially popular among young learners. The concept is very simple, a youtuber records him/herself playing video games and making reactions and funny comments about it. It is important to mention that even the video games themselves can prove to be a valuable learning tool and that their influence on young learners in the past decade has been significant. There are several types of let´s play videos. Some focus simply on making funny comments while gaming, others try to narrate and role play in order to make the viewers enjoy the story of the game and some comment on the games from a perspective of a critic, focusing on gameplay elements such as playability, inspecting important gaming mechanisms, doing bug reports or checking the performance demands for computers. While it might not be particularly attractive to all adult learners, young learners love these videos. As a result there is an incredibly vast amount of such channels, some with millions of subscribers. Unfortunately, some can be bad influence on students English, as many let´s players who speak English as a second language use poor grammar and hardly a representable accent. The reason for them to use English regardless of their skills is simply the popularity that cannot be achieved through using their mother tongues. However, there are also many channels where the viewers have a chance to hear beautiful, proper, authentic English, again used in informal situations. What could be considered a nice example is the Yogscast, which is a group or a company of let´s players, mostly from Britain. The Yogscast work on a similar principle as the engVid, mentioned in the chapter about channels focused on teaching English. Just like engVid, the Yogscast concern a number of youtubers to whom a user can subscribe. Among the Yogscast members are people from England, a Scotsman, a Malaysian British or a Canadian. This multinationality of the yogscast members can be particularly useful for learning the sounds of specific accents. The most popular channel is Yogscast Lewis and Simon. They are both English and they have over 7 300 000 subscribers (16th January 2016). Their names are Lewis Alan Brindley and Simon Charles Lane and they are the co-founders of the Yogscast team.

Their channel description says:

“Minecraft and multiplayer comedy gaming with a drunken dwarf and a handsome spaceman! Join us as we laugh our way through the best, the worst and the funniest indie games, Minecraft mods, mini-games and adventure maps.” (YOGSCAST Lewis & Simon.)

The channel is quite entertaining, assuming the learner enjoys video games. The primary target audience of this channel, as well as the majority of other let´s play channels,

27 are young people, either children or young adults. However, some let´s play channels are more focused on adult audiences. Such example could be Yogscast Sips, a Canadian named Chris Lovasz, whose let´s play videos are full of witty comments about society, politics, entertainment industry or lifestyle, that can be understood and fully appreciated only by adult viewers. Most of this commentary is done in the context of the game he is playing. His very specific, relaxed narrative style often resembles a performance of a stand-up comedian. The channel has over 1 800 000 subscribers (16th January 2016).

A let´s player focused more on the storytelling aspect of video games is for example Cryaotic. He has over 2 300 000 subscribers (16th January 2016). Cryaotic is the let´s players alias and he keeps his real name as well as his appearance a secret from the public. He is very popular mainly because of his deep, charismatic voice and a mature sense of humour. His videos are among those that can be enjoyed by adult viewers as well.

YouTube is also a rich in short films and skits, often of comedic nature. Focused on this type of videos is The Smosh, which is one of the most popular channels on YouTube and the channel with most subscribers until the August 2013 when it was surpassed by Pewdiepie. This channel is led by Ian Andrew Hecox and Anthony Padilla, both American. Currently they have over 21 million subscribers (20th January 2016). They are famous mainly for their short skits full of interesting ideas and funny overacting. Their characteristic style of video editing and their choice of humour has been an inspiration for numerous other YouTube channels that follow similar formulas. The Smosh eventually became so popular that they decided to have another version of their channel, which is completely voice acted into Spanish. That was done to respond to the demand from Spanish speakers. The channel is called El Smosh and already has over 2 million subscribers (20th January 2016).

Apart from many channels designed by youtubers, whose primary field of work is YouTube, there are many channels that belong to professional performers who only use YouTube as a part of their job. There is a considerable demand for people famous from other sources of entertainment to have a YouTube channel of their own. This is greatly due to the growing popularity of YouTube and youtubers. Among such channels is for instance Ricky Gervais found at: https://www.youtube.com/user/plumplard/featured. It is a channel run by the world famous British stand-up comedian and actor Ricky Gervais. The description goes: “Welcome to The Ricky Gervais Channel, it's run by my minions and means you all have a place to watch clips of my old shows and see the new videos I make just for YouTube.” (Gervais) The channel has close to 400 000 subscribers (3rd February 2016). Another example

28 is Jon Lajoie, again a channel that bears the name of it´s author, a Canadian comedian, singer and actor. He is known for his politically very incorrect sense of humour. Most of his videos are songs with clever, yet very offending texts. The description says: ”My name is Jon, I am from Montreal, Canada, and I make videos once in a while. I also act on a show called "The League," and I tour sometimes. Want to be my friend?” (Lajoie). He has over 1 200 000 subscribers (3rd February 2016).

Among other videos that can be helpful in learning English without looking specifically for English lessons could be various educational channels focused on science, literature or culture. A nice example could be Vsauce, which is a channel focused on describing various scientific facts and theories in a way that can be understood by anybody with just reasonable intelligence. It consists of three channels and the primary one has almost 10 million subscribers (16th January 2016). On YouTube, there also are numerous channels that focus on literature, which can be very helpful especially for students. One that stands out and is very funny is Wisecrack where an Afro-American man gives a thorough analysis of important works of literature in a street slang, speaking like a member of a gang. The channel has over 700 000 subscribers (16th January 2016).

29 III. YouTube and teaching

YouTube can not only be a great source of study materials for enthusiastic individuals, who can use it for improving their level of English but it can also serve as a great source of materials for teachers. YouTube can be useful in all sorts of areas whether it is assigning homework, using videos in classes or even going as far as creating their own materials. In addition, using materials that the students consider interesting can result in an increase in motivation. As it was mentioned in previous chapters, the range of materials available on YouTube is incredibly vast. As a result, language teachers can not only use it in subjects that necessarily concern purely the language itself, such as practical language, grammar, syntax or phonetics but it can also be very useful for teaching subjects such as history, culture and others. Basically, we can distinguish two primary perks of using YouTube in classes, the exposure to authentic English and promotion of a learning style that is more autonomous and student centered. C. K. Cheung proposes that: "Popular culture is a rich source of authentic materials, bridging the gap between formal and informal English learning, and developing learning based on students' daily experience, personal values, attitudes and feelings." (60)

Brent Kelsen, a highly qualified lecturer with many years of experience in teaching English, praises YouTube as a source of study materials stating: “YouTube, as mentioned (earlier in the article), is one readily available source of authentic pop culture material. Encouraging students to interact in an educational capacity with popular culture through English language YouTube video clips may act as a motivating factor for students wishing to further develop their language skills as they endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of content they willingly access online. Moreover, it is also available for students to engage in outside of class in some form of student-centered, self-directed learning.” (Teaching EFL to the iGeneration)

III. 1. Motivating students via YouTube

30 Motivation can prove to be crucial when it comes to learners efficiency in studies. Robert C. Gardner suggests: “While it is difficult to isolate the factors contributing to second language learning, motivation has been found to be one of the key elements determining success in learning a second language.” (qtd. in Kelsen). We can distinguish either between extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation or long-term and short-term motivation. Extrinsically motivated students perform tasks "in order to receive some reward or avoid some punishment external to the activity itself." (Lepper 292). Extrinsic motivation is for instance studying in order to have a better job one day, pass an exam or avoid getting extra homework. Intrinsically motivated students are defined as those who undertake an activity "for its own sake, for the enjoyment it provides, the learning it permits, or the feelings of accomplishment it evokes." (Lepper 292). In other words, intrinsic motivation is learners personal interest in the subject. It is usually more convenient than extrinsic motivation because intrinsically motivated students tend to be more curious, more interested in the topic, find more enjoyment in the topic and as a result develop better learning strategies. A combination of the two is considered the ideal situation though. Long-term motivation is studying for a bigger goal such as eventually getting a degree while short-term can be just passing a particular exam. Teachers should aim at keeping the students reasonably motivated at all times.

One of the primary methods for keeping students motivation high is giving them a variety in their lessons. That means using more kinds of learning materials that engage more types of learners, do something surprising or focus on several different skills. YouTube is in many cases the tool lessons need to have the variety interesting. Of course it cannot be used throughout entire lessons but as a tool to use once or twice per lesson, it can not only assure that students pay more attention but also, in many cases give them a reason to study at home without being told to do so. It is a known fact that students like it when videos are being used in classes. Ideally it should be combined with exercises that check comprehension. The positive influence on learner´s motivation and on the quality of lessons was a subject of research conducted by Brent Kelsen on EFL students (19-21 years of age) at a private university in northern Taiwan, focusing on the usage of YouTube in classes. YouTube was used to supplement the textbook throughout the semester and the topics of videos were chosen mostly in order to correspond to the topics in the textbook. The results showed great enthusiasm from students for using YouTube as a learning tool in classes. When students were rating how interesting of a source YouTube is, they were to rate it on a scale from 1-5, 5 for being very interesting. The results showed that:

31 “ An overwhelming number (96.8 percent rated it neutral or higher, mean 3.92) of students considered using YouTube in class to be interesting. This result is more than likely related to the excitement factor derived from visual stimulus as compared to regular teaching materials such as textbooks. Furthermore, it is probable that the participants could relate to the authentic pop culture nature of the material and readily identify with this. Similarly, a great majority perceived the YouTube material as being relevant to class (82.2 percent rated it neutral or higher, mean 3.15). This is probably due to the instructor consciously selecting material related to what was covered in class and explaining the relationship. In a similar vein, students found the YouTube material beneficial (93.6 percent rated it neutral or higher, mean 3.82) in their efforts to study English. Plausible reasons for this are the exposure to natural English and addition of authentic comprehensible input to the class.” (Teaching EFL to the iGeneration)

In addition, it is important to note that Kelsen´s research was conducted in the year 2007, YouTube has grown greatly since then and it´s safe to assume that the selection and availability of learning materials is considerably better in the present (2016) and is likely to continue on having a growing tendency.

In addition, the article shows us some personal comments from researched students about using YouTube in and out of classes. “Most comments were supportive of using YouTube as supplementary material in the classroom and ranged from: "I love it" to "It's wonderful". Others responded with comments such as: "I can learn more natural English", "It lets English be more interesting" and "It's funny to see something out of book". However, several students wrote less positive feedback relating to the use of YouTube outside of the classroom: "I don't know how to use it" and "I don't know what to find". Thus, even with regard to teaching the igeneration, instructors need to be aware that they cannot assume all students know how to navigate their way around web sites such as YouTube, nor will they easily be able to discern which materials are beneficial and which are not.” (Teaching EFL to the iGeneration)

As for the several negative comments, it is important to pay attention to the possibility of students not being well acquainted with YouTube and thus not being able to use it properly, however, the number of such students is likely to be considerably lower today (2016) than at the time of this research (2007). There could be many solutions for this problem including sending students direct links to specific videos, which would allow them to completely avoid

32 doing searches or alternatively, providing them with particular keywords to look for in the search bar. The advantage of sending direct links is also that it can be checked easier, since there would be only one video or one set of videos to focus on while the advantage of keywords is certain variety, which could form a good discussion topic.

Considerably worse results were achieved in a questionnaire concerning YouTube´s influence on learners motivation.

“The number of students who registered that using YouTube in class motivated them was considerably lower (62.9 percent rated it neutral or higher, mean of 2.95). While this figure points to a reasonable degree of motivation in class, the fact that it lags so far behind those for the preceding variables leads to the conjecture that students are willing to watch YouTube as stimulus in class, but are less inclined to view it as anything other than entertainment. Following this trend, less than half the students found using YouTube in class motivated them to use it outside of class to study English (46.7 percent rated it neutral or higher, mean of 2.53). In other words, 53.3 percent of the students considered it less than neutral in motivating them to learn English outside of the classroom. This may reflect that in the absence of a teacher and structured activities, many students are unaware of how to, or perhaps unwilling to, use YouTube for anything other than entertainment. The statistics presented in Chart 8 add further weight to this claim, as less than one third of the respondents (32.25%) indicated that they used YouTube to study English, while well over three quarters (80.64%) used it for entertainment.” (Teaching EFL to the iGeneration)

As pessimistic as these results regarding motivation might seem, it is important to still bear in mind the year in which this survey was conducted. The survey was conducted only approximately two years after YouTube came into existence. The fact that many people were not well acquainted with this website at the time is one obvious reason but what is even more important to consider is the amount of available videos and channels at the time. In the year 2007, the majority of content available on YouTube were individual, often home-made videos, musical videos, news reports or commercials. The idea of creating channels with a steady stream of videos that follow certain theme (English lessons for instance) became popular only several years later. For that reason it is safe to assume that with the current availability of learning materials on YouTube, the results would be slightly more in YouTube´s favour.

III. 2. Supporting students autonomy via YouTube

33 Learner autonomy has been defined as the ability to take a greater degree of control during the learning process (Holec 95) and is also described as a “capacity for detachment, critical reflection, decision-making, and independent action” (Little 4). Gardner and Miller point out that: "Learner autonomy is often mistakenly equated solely with independent out-of- class learning in which learners are in control of all aspects of their learning process. In this view, an autonomous learner is one who is intrinsically motivated and learns outside the classroom, alone, and with no need for support from the teacher. However, learner autonomy can also develop in the structured learning environment of the classroom and become part of the pedagogical objectives of a language course. When a syllabus is designed to promote learner autonomy, the focus of the syllabus is clearly on a student-centered approach." (qtd. in Hafner and Miller 69). Making students autonomous can easily become one of the biggest challenges for any teacher. It requires a large portion of motivation, mainly intrinsic, to make students learn by themselves for the sake of learning itself. However, once autonomy is achieved, learning becomes increasingly easier and much more efficient. Since the intrinsic motivation is often based on personal interested in a subject it is good to pay close attention to what sort of students attend teachers classroom. With the variety of materials available on YouTube, teachers could adjust the topics and the materials chosen in order to attract as many of their students as possible. When exposed to topics and videos that students find interesting, they are much more likely to further investigate on their own, in their free time without any further instructions from the teacher. In other words, through increased interest and motivation, students spend more time self-learning and learning through entertainment.

Clever use of YouTube in lessons is one way to strengthen students autonomy, another good method is using YouTube through carefully chosen homework assignments. While generally not very popular, homework assignments that contain videos which are either fun to watch or contain interesting facts can make students study beyond the requirements. For instance, if we create a homework assignment where our students are to describe the story of a short sketch by Monthy Python, it is quite likely that many of the students will continue searching for more sketches by Monthy Python. Choosing a video containing interesting facts could also prove to be efficient at supporting students´ autonomy. The idea is to make students curious. However, choosing a video that is simply entertaining is in most cases easier. The key is to know what kind of entertainment might be appreciated in a particular classroom. That of course depends on many aspects such as age, gender or level of English of our students. In case of a multi-cultural classroom, it is also very important to consider the appropriacy of the materials chosen in order not to insult anybody and to adjust to more kinds of sense of humor and more ideas of what is entertaining and what is not. Finally, a good method of supporting

34 learners´ autonomy is for teachers to show their own interest in potentially language learning activities that students enjoy. For example if a student says he or she likes watching an English speaking youtuber, it would be a good response from the teacher to acknowledge it as a great idea, perhaps encouraging other students to follow this example.

III. 3. Application of YouTube in lessons

The application of YouTube, as it has already been suggested, is not limited just for several specific subjects. With some portion of creativity a teacher can apply this website in almost any subject, not just the obvious (such as practical language or phonetics). However, the activities involved would differ depending on the subject and topic.

III. 3. 1. YouTube in conversational English lessons

Practical language or conversational English classes, appear to be the first choice when we consider subjects, where YouTube can be used. One of the main reasons is that the practical language courses are specialized on skills such as spoken fluency, spoken production or listening skills. Videos are helpful for teaching these skills because they are most immediately observed by sight and sound.

Many interesting and original activities involving YouTube, that can be used during lessons have already been recorded by various teachers and methodologists. Two university lecturers Jon Watkins and Michael Wilkins suggest several applications of YouTube that can be used in conversational English lessons, involving activities such as conversational analysis, movie trailer voiceovers, famous movie scene re-enactments or vlogging. Considering the difficulty of these exercises, it is important to note that the primary focus of Watkins and Wilkins are intermediate to advanced students.

Conversation analysis: “This activity is well suited for intermediate to advanced students, and it can create a heightened awareness of effective conversation techniques as well as common conversation problems that can be avoided. In the activity, students view teacher-selected clips (or browse YouTube and select clips for themselves) that demonstrate effective or ineffective conversational techniques to reinforce material taught in class." (Using YouTube in the EFL Classroom) The videos chosen for conversational analysis can be for instance examples of conversations from films or series, where a conversation suffers from lack of interactive and monitoring features such as asking follow-up or clarification

35 questions. Students could then attempt to think of ways to make the conversation more effective. Alternatively the videos could involve examples of effective conversations where students would only analyse the techniques used in the dialog to achieve better understanding of how to apply these strategies in a real life situation. The result expected by Watkins and Wilkins is that: "By searching through YouTube conversations for targeted discussion techniques, students are critically evaluating discourse and immersing themselves in English. Student effort can be assessed by the number of illustrative conversations found on YouTube and how well the conversations demonstrate concepts discussed in class.”. (Using YouTube in the EFL Classroom) Finally, Watkins and Wilkins suggest that this activity could be further developed by assigning presentation to students, where they would share their videos (assuming they were to search fo the videos themselves) with the rest of the classroom.

Movie trailer voiceovers: The aim of this activity is to help advanced students recognize their pronunciation difficulties and at the same time improve their spoken production skills. "In the activity, students select any two-minute movie preview from YouTube. Then students transcribe the audio in the preview. After this, the video can be downloaded from YouTube and stripped of its audio track using a free software program called YouTube Downloader (http://youtubedownloader.com/). With the aid of their transcriptions, students can then record their own voices while paying close attention to mimicry and synchronization." (Using YouTube in the EFL Classroom) In their article, Watkins and Wilkins suggest that the students would use a video editor of their choice to redub the preview chosen. This would have to be preceded by detailed, clear instructions since not all students are familiar with video editing programs. Another suggestion they have is for this exercise to be done as a group work. Different students would do different characters, which could make the task more fun and also easier. According to Watkins and Wilkins: “This activity involves repeated close listening to create the transcript, and then repeated recordings in which students attempt to recreate native-like cadence, intonation, and pronunciation.” (Using YouTube in the EFL Classroom). In case of phonetics classes, the transcriptions could make a very good practice and generally could be considered helpful by some students. However, in most cases the transcription seem unnecessary as many students prefer relying on repeating what they hear in the listening exercise rather than writing transcriptions of it.

It is clear that this exercise requires an enthusiastic classroom as it is not only challenging but also time demanding. The exercise could be used mainly with university students where it would serve rather than a homework assignment as a project, for which the

36 students would be given an appropriate amount of time in a semester and which would be considered either a compulsory requirement or one of optional requirements for passing the course. Assessment would be based on listening and speaking accuracy. The exercise is too time demanding to be appreciated by grammar school students who have to focus on many other subjects and are generally not very excited about homework assignments.

Famous movie scene re-enactments is another activity suggested by Watkins and Wilkins. It is best suited for intermediate to advanced students and it´s primary intention is improving fluency and spoken production. The students would be instructed to search YouTube for an iconic scene from a movie of their choice, for instance quoting Ezekiel 25-17 from Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994), and then prepare the performance for the classroom. The re-enactment itself could be focused on a particular concept discussed in class, as Watkins and Wilkins suggest: “The re-enactment could focus on any number of concepts discussed in class. For example, if students have been learning about sentence stress, then by doing reenactments, they would focus on (and presumably, be evaluated according to) the accuracy of sentence stress in their mimicry. Assessment is based on the quality of the reenactment, particularly in the ways it reflects speech and pronunciation concepts discussed in class.” (Using YouTube in the EFL Classroom). The efficiency of this activity would greatly depend on the enthusiasm of the classroom. Assuming that the students would find the activity entertaining it could serve not only as a good way for practicing fluency and spoken production but also a way to make the lessons more interesting and fun. However, it is important to bear in mind that not all students, if not the minority, enjoy performing in front of their peers.

Vlogging, as mentioned in previous chapters, is a form of a video online diary and is very popular on YouTube. Watkins and Wilkins consider it a good studying resource for listening practice. The teacher could either ask the students to search for any kind of vlogs or direct them to specific ones. In addition, Watkins and Wilkins suggest that students should record their personal vlogs to share with the teacher and their classmates. Thanks to the YouTube privacy settings, students themselves could choose whom to share the vlogs with, so that it could be visible only by other classmates and the teacher. This activity is particularly good for improving learners fluency because the idea of vlogs is expressing what is on somebody´s mind or agenda without preparation, speaking naturally. For those who would view the , it is a practice of listening skills. In addition, students and teachers can respond to each other´s videos through the comment section under the video. In order to make

37 interesting fruitful discussions, the author of the vlog him/herself could invite other students for discussion by asking a follow-up question in the comment section for others to reply on. An advantage of this activity is the relatively low difficulty of this exercise for it can be performed by students who have achieved even the lowest degree of conversational proficiency.

III. 3. 2. Teaching "World Englishes" through YouTube

As it has already been mentioned, YouTube is a rich source of authentic English materials. As a result, YouTube is an excellent way of teaching so called “World Englishes”. Throughout history, English has slowly developed into a lingua franca for the modern world. The term "World Englishes" was created by a linguistics professor from India, Braj Kachru in the early 1980s, and serves to describe the variety of Englishes that have developed (Kachru, 1992). For the sake of communication, it is important for learners of a foreign language to be able not only to speak and understand polished, sanitized version of the language. In case of English this means not only being able to understand standard American or British English and non-standard English spoken by native speakers but also English as spoken by non-native speakers. A solution to this problem is the exposure to authentic English in as many dialects as possible.

Watkins and Wilkins consider YouTube an ideal vehicle to teach World Englishes and expose students to a variety of dialects. Short videos presenting many different kinds of dialects are not only easy to access but the variety of content and cultures is likely to be enjoyable by students. Watkins and Wilkins suggest there is a large variety of possible activities for teaching World Englishes. Some of the more notable ones are current events and media study or cultural entertainment study.

Current events and media study: This activity is suitable for students of almost any level of English. The concept of this activity is that students compare news clips about major world events, for instance the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan or the British royal wedding of 2011. Alternatively, it can be done with news clips from recent events. The teacher chooses two clips, bearing in mind that each has to represent a different type of English. Students then watch and transcribe the clips. Afterwards, students compare the transcriptions and note the key differences as well as similarities. They also focus on pronunciation as well as vocabulary. After doing this individually, students can compare their results with a partner to add any missing information. The teacher then shares his or her list of

38 differences with an explanation for each point. Students can then be asked to do the same exercise on their own, either by being provided a list of topics to focus on by the teacher, or being free to choose any topic they want. Students can then make a presentation, focusing on the differences and explaining why are there differences in the first place.

While being suitable for students of almost any level of English, the activity as described by Watkins and Wilkins depends on the students ability of making transcriptions, which is a skill not too often taught at schools that only teach English as a second language. In case that students are not familiar with transcriptions, a simplified version of the activity where instead of transcribing, students would mainly focus on different vocabulary and study pronunciation purely through hearing, could be a solution.

Cultural entertainment study: This activity requires a classroom of students who have reached preferably a higher-intermediate or advanced level of English. The task for students is to analyse drama clips, chosen by the teacher, that demonstrate differences between cultures of the English-speaking world. Teacher´s objective is to provide students with short clips of dramas that are not likely to be well known among the students. The choice would greatly depend on the country in which the activity was to be performed but the authors suggest avoiding American television programs as they are generally the most popular in the world. Among their suggestions are short clips of Neighbours, EastEnders or Coronation Street which are according to Watkins and Wilkins a great introduction to Australian and regional British English dialects. First task for the teacher is to choose a short drama clip and make a transcription. Afterwards, the teachers prepares a list of vocabulary with definitions, focusing on words that might prove to be difficult. Teacher then also prepares a matching activity for the newly introduced words as well as comprehension questions on all the main points in the clip and discussion questions on the issues raised in the clip. The activity concerning new vocabulary is done prior to watching the clip. After watching the clip and answering the comprehension questions, students are to discuss the issues raised. When the activity is done, the teacher can assign students to choose clips of their liking (within certain limits set by the teacher) and prepare a similar exercise of their own, which they then present to classmates.

III. 3. 3. YouTube in non-conversational English lessons

39 YouTube and its potential applications in lessons are nearly limitless. It is clear that the most original activities involving YouTube can be done in conversational classes. However, the possible use of YouTube can easily overlap and concern many other subject. The easiest way of applying YouTube in other lessons and also a method that can be applied in almost any subject is searching for some of the many lectures available on YouTube. Those can involve almost any topic a teacher can encounter. The sample channels listed in the second chapter often provide lectures that are designed for specific subjects. For instance, a large percentage of all the lectures deal with grammar and syntax. Whether it would serve for the teacher to use during the lessons, for assigning homework or for students in their presentations, these online lectures often provide comprehensible guides to many grammatical features which can otherwise prove to be hard to grasp by the students. The overlap into lessons such as phonetics seems relatively clear, whether we discuss focusing on somebody´s pronunciation through listening or making transcripts from the videos. In addition, the lectures provided in the sample channel section often deal with known or less known pronunciation issues. For more enthusiastic learners, channels that deal with a particular accent and ways to master it are an excellent choice. Many lectures often deal with facts concerning history, literature or culture of various nations. The easiest to find are of course those dealing with history and literature of Anglo-Saxon origin.

III. 4. Creating study materials on YouTube

The incredibly simple accessibility of study materials on YouTube does not only concern finding the materials. Creating materials for YouTube is almost equally easy. In order to create new materials there are few requirements. What a person needs is a profile, a camera and an idea. Details for making a profile have already been discussed in previous chapters. As long as the person uploading respects the basic rules that apply on YouTube, he or she can upload almost anything. The profile where the videos are being uploaded can be made either public, made for everyone to view, or private, when the profile owner chooses whom to allow to view the videos. That way, the materials could be limited only to particular schools or classrooms.

Creating unique, personal materials can have many advantages for the teacher and the classroom. One of the most obvious perks is the adjustability of materials crafted for a specific classroom. While through searching, the teacher can be able to locate materials that fit a specific issue dealt with in the classroom, by making a new, original video, this issue can be addressed in great detail with regard to particular needs of the classroom. The way the

40 topic is addressed is then entirely up to the teacher. With a certain understanding of video- editing tools, the materials can be even made entertaining, simplified and easy to remember. However, even with no video-editing skills at all, the topic can be handled as a simple presentation in which case it can be created even by an amateur. The materials can then be used in numerous ways described in chapters above, whether the teacher would assign them as homework for students to study at home, use them in the classroom as a form of a presentation or perhaps make a whole set of activities connected to the video. This personal approach leads to another major perk which is increased motivation. In an ideal case, the students can find it more entertaining when the person dealing with their subject in a video is a teacher they know, rather than a lecturer they have never seen before.

IV. Practical section

This section deals with popularity of various learning sources and opinions about YouTube, received from university students of the English language through a questionniare.

41 The results serve as a source of information for the Influence of YouTube on "Generation Z" subchapter. Furthermore and primarily it presents an exemplary channel created to demonstrate the simple access to YouTube and its potential for making new learning materials. The channel contains several videos of different, school related topics.

IV. 1. Survey of YouTube´s popularity among students of the English language

The survey was conducted through two questionnaires. The first one deals with discovering the most popular learning sources among students of the English language. The second questionnaire focuses on the popularity of YouTube among the same group of respondents, as well as their knowledge of YouTube and the frequency at which they use it. Twenty students were questioned.

For the purpose of both of these questionnaires, the respondents were chosen among university students of the English language. All of the respondents study English teaching at the Faculty of Education at Masaryk University. The respondents attend the third and the second grade. The reason for this available sample of respondents is the level they have reached in their English studies. All of the respondents are fluent and perfectly capable of communicating in English. The levels of their language proficiency are B2 at the least. However, the majority of the respondents has already reached C1 level. It was very important for the purpose of these questionnaires to have a sample of such people because the survey was aiming at discovering the importance of various learning sources of English. Should the respondents not be fluent in English, their answers would be irrelevant. As it was already mentioned in the first chapter, this sample of respondents represents the ideal result of English education. The majority of the questioned students no longer study English itself but rather how to use it in their future jobs. Given the level the respondents have reached, it is useful information to know how did they manage to reach it. In other words, the learning sources that were found very useful by this sample of respondents have to be useful in general.

The choice for this sample of respondents was also influenced by another factor which is their age. All of these respondents are young people. The youngest of the respondents are nineteen years old while the oldest are in their late twenties. The majority of the respondents is between twenty-two and twenty-five years of age. The importance of age for the purpose of these two questionnaires is that some of the learning sources listed are either only becoming popular or have been popular for only about two to three decades. Learning sources such as video-games have existed for longer than is the common belief. However, they were not

42 anywhere close to their current glory until late nineties. Online sources such as YouTube are even younger. The first chapter of this thesis, dealing with the history of YouTube, mentioned the time of its creation which dates back to February 2005. YouTube than quickly grew but it took several years for it to reach popularity that could be compared to its state nowadays (2016). The sample of respondents chosen grew up in a world of these technologies. They were strongly influenced by it and thus they have interesting opinions of all these learning opportunities. It is likely that a sample of older respondents would not be as well acquainted with neither YouTube, nor video-games. While a group of younger respondents would probably be even more influenced by these technologies, they would be less likely to have reached such high level of English proficiency.

What has contributed to your English studies the most?

How would you rate these sources of learning? How useful were/are they in your studies?

Not helpful / No Quite helpful Very helpful Essential opinion 43 Schools 3 - 15% 10 – 50% 7 - 35% Friends* 7 - 35% 3 - 15% 6 - 30% 4 - 20% Tv-series 3 - 15% 12 - 60% 5 - 25% Video-games 7 - 35% 7 - 35% 4 - 20% 2 - 10%

*Friends – English speaking friends (native speakers, foreigners, friends with whom you speak English a lot etc.)

How helpful were these schools in your English studies?

Not helpful / No Quite helpful Very helpful Essential opinion Primary school 4 - 20% 9 - 45% 4 - 20% 3 - 15% Grammar school 1 - 5% 6 - 30% 9 - 45% 4 - 20% University 1 - 5% 6 - 30% 8 - 40% 5 - 25% Language school 12 - 60% 2 - 10% 3 - 15% 3 - 15%

Which of these sources suits you the best for learning these skills?

Schools Friends Tv-series Video-games Listening 1 - 5% 5 - 25% 20 - 100% 3 - 15% Reading 17 - 85% 2 - 10% 2 - 10% Spoken 4 - 20% 15 - 75% 2 - 10% interaction Spoken 12 - 60% 8 - 40% 1 - 5% production Writing 18 - 90% 3 - 15% 2 - 10%

Is there any other source that you personally find very helpful? - I read a lot of books - Books and fanfictions - YouTube - Tv-series and YouTube

The goal of this questionnaire was to consider the influences of various sources for learning English. Its purpose was to discover how important do the respondents find these sources.

The first part dealing with learning sources in general was meant to provide basic understanding of how useful did respondents find them. However, it did not show any irregularities and most of the results are neither positive nor negative. Still the best scores were achieved by schools where 50% of the respondents answered "very helpful" and 35% answered essential. A relatively high score was also achieved by the tv-series with 60% of the respondents finding them very helpful and 25% essential. Video games and English speaking

44 friends did not show any stronger tendencies,

The second part was meant to distinguish which of the schools attended by respondents were considered most influential. The best results were achieved by grammar schools and universities. The results also show that respondents find grammar schools and universities important for English studies with 45% of the respondents finding grammar schools very helpful and 20 % essential and 40% finding universities very helpful and 25% essential. The relatively low results of primary schools and language schools can be easily explained as some of the respondents attended German classes at primary school instead of English and many of the respondents never studied English at a language school.

The goal of the third part was to distinguish which of the learning sources are the most helpful for specific skills. Respondents had the opportunity to mark more than one option. In this part, more decisive results were achieved.

Tv-series were considered the best source for practicing listening skills with 100 % of the respondents answering in their favour. 25% of the respondents also considered English speaking friends as an excellent source. Interesting is that only one person marked schools as a good source for practicing listening skills. Video-games with 15% of the respondents answering in their favour had results bellow expectations.

Schools were a clear choice for the majority of respondents as far as reading skills were concerned with 85% answering in schools favour. It is not particularly surprising due to lack of proper competition in the questionnaire which is a mistake I have been reminded of by some of the respondents, who mentioned that books should be considered in the research. They were not used as a choice since they would only have relevance as far as reading skills are concerned.

The majority of 75% of the respondents found English speaking friends as the best source for improving spoken interaction. Schools received 20% and video-games, which allow players to communicate with a microphone received 10%.

Spoken production was much more divided. 60% of the respondents answered in favour of schools whereas 40% preferred English speaking friends. This difference between spoken interaction and spoken production is caused mainly by school projects such as presentations. While schools might not often encourage learners to interact in English they do seem to put some emphasis on spoken production.

Writing received 90% in favour of schools, which is likely a result of the number of written assignments students receive at schools such as essays or reports. The 15 % in favour of English speaking friends were a result of having pen friends or chatting online.

The purpose of the optional open question was to give the respondents an opportunity to name some sources that they personally find useful. The responses showed that some of the respondents do consider YouTube a very good learning source. Respondents also mentioned books as important learning tools.

45 How much do you use YouTube?

How often do you visit YouTube on average (approximately)?

Frequency Tick the most accurate choice (approximate) Every day 13 - 65% Several times a 7 - 35% week Once a week Less than every 46 week

Do have any favourite channels?

Yes 12 - 60% No 8 - 40%

Do you have a profile?

Yes 18 - 90% No 2 - 10%

Are you subscribed to any channels?

Yes 13 - 65% No 7 - 35% Like I said, I don´t have a profile

Do you upload your own videos?

Yes 6 - 30% No 14 - 70% Seriously, I don´t have a profile

Do you use YouTube for other reasons than entertainment? (school, education, news etc.)

Yes 18 - 90% No 2 - 10%

The second questionnaire was meant to show how well do respondents know YouTube and how much they use it.

The first question dealing with frequency at which students visit YouTube shows its great popularity as there were no respondents who would visit YouTube less than several times a week. 65% of the respondents visit YouTube every day and the remaining 35% several times a week.

The second question dealing with whether respondents have any favourite channels is another important point in favour of YouTube´s growing popularity. Generally, people who spend more time on YouTube and find it more important for their lives tend to have favourite channels. 60% of the respondents answered that they do, 40% does not.

The third question concerning profiles is crucial for discovering how popular YouTube is among the respondents. The reason for that is the necessity of a profile for the majority of

47 functions on YouTube. As it is already mentioned in the introductory chapters of the theoretical section, profile is needed to subscribe to channels. It is also required for commenting on videos, liking or disliking videos or uploading personal content. It was greatly in YouTube´s favour to discover that 90% of the respondents have a profile.

The fourth question concerning subscriptions to profiles is important because subscribing to a profile is an important step for anybody interested in YouTube. In general, the more interested people are in YouTube the more subscriptions they collect. 65 % of the respondents are subscribed to some channels. The possible answer "Like I said, I don´t have a profile" is there just to remind respondents that they cannot have subscriptions without having a profile.

The fifth question concerning uploading personal content was meant to show how many of the respondents were truly enthusiastic about YouTube. 30% of the respondents do upload personal content.

The final question dealing with whether the respondents use YouTube for other reasons than just entertainment is among the most important questions. It was meant to show how many of the respondents actually consider YouTube something more than a past-time activity, perhaps even a learning tool. An overwhelming amount of 90% of all the respondents do find YouTube useful for other reasons. This only supports the claim that YouTube is becoming an outstanding source of learning materials.

IV. 2. An exemplary channel

This chapter presents a newly created, personal YouTube channel, created for the purpose of this thesis. It contains a variety of materials, potentially useful in classes or for homework assignments. These materials serve primarily as an example of YouTube´s simple accessibility. The name of the channel is: YouTube – Thesis project – Palcik

The selection of videos was also meant to show variety of learning tools that can be available on YouTube. The aim of the variety was to prove that the videos can be used for learning many other skills than just listening. It is a common belief that videos are a good source only for practicing listening. In the selection of videos we of course do find several

48 examples of listening exercises but there are also other learning tools. There is for instance a video dealing with new vocabulary and slang expressions. Another video teaches new grammatical features.

Another interesting point about using YouTube for learning a language is that not all of the important content has to be seen in the video itself. An interesting feature is the description bellow the video on which a user can click. There the user can find many useful materials provided by the person who uploaded the videos. I have used this feature with several videos on my channel. A nice example of how to use description is for instance the RiotVan song where I use the description to provide lyrics for the song and also a link to another video where I explain the vocabulary used.

The first two videos were assigned as homework. The one called Interview was assigned in an intercultural communications seminar and the one labelled Practical language in methodology. Apart from being inspired by youtubers in terms of editing, both videos use YouTube as a primary source for soundtrack.

The task in the intercultural communications was to interview a foreigner living in the Czech Republic for a period longer than at least two months. The main focus of the interview was whether these foreigners have experienced any sort of a cultural shock with their arrival into the Czech Republic. To make the video a little more entertaining, it is recorded as an interrogation where the foreigner, a Japanese girl Miki Kano, is being questioned by two police officers, Petr Palčík and Tomáš Průdek about the reasons for her stay. The video is labelled "Interview".

The Interview can have several uses for English learners or teachers. As a majority of videos, it can serve as a listening exercise. In this case it could also serve to demonstrate Japanese accent. That could serve to show learners that when travelling, they will not necessarily encounter polished, well comprehensible English. Another important use for the video is the use it had in the intercultural communications seminar where the students were to focus on how do foreigners perceive Czechs and life in the Czech Republic.

The Interview can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p31QuWRQhNA

The second task was assigned in methodology and was originally not meant to be a video. The task was to make a presentation about a practical language seminar, a subject

49 studied at the English department. Since our group was the first one to have this presentation, we could focus more on the broad introduction to this subject and that has sparked the idea of making it in a form of a video. The idea was to present the practical language course with exaggerated enthusiasm and through not very likely or even absurd real-life situations, where knowledge of conversational English could be applied. The video is labelled "Practical Language".

The video has English subtitles which can be helpful to some students. The main purpose of the video was originally the presentation of practical language but it can still serve as a motivating tool. Many students responded very positively after seeing the video and in ideal case it could support their creativity or at least their enthusiasm for learning English at our faculty.

The Practical Language video can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=W887tnqlXVY

Another video uploaded, labelled "ColdBloodedChristmas (Christmas party)", is a performance from English department´s Christmas party. It is a cover version of a song called Cold Blooded Christmas, written by a Canadian comedian and musician Jon Lajoie. It could be a helpful learning tool since songs can be a good way of improving learners listening skills. For better understanding, lyrics of the song are included in the description of the video. The recording is more suitable for mature learners as the lyrics contain rude language and a high amount of violence.

The Cold Blooded Christmas can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=Bp0MMThM_BU

Next two files uploaded are only recordings, not videos. The first one is a recording where I narrate a Politically correct version of Little Red Riding Hood from Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Garner. The purpose of this recording is improving listening skills. It could be accompanied by tasks such as comprehension check questions or retelling the story in the classroom. With the same intention I have also recorded a slightly longer short story called If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists by Woody Allen. Recordings of short stories could also be used as an alternative to reading tasks.

The Politically Correct Little Red Riding Hood is being used as a reading exercise in

50 practical language classes at the Faculty of Education. This version of the fairy tale uses humour that can be appreciated mainly by adult learners. However, the same recording could be done with the original story to serve as a listening exercise for small children. The tasks such as comprehension check or retelling the story could be a useful exercise to be used by teachers. Teachers could easily create a set of questions to distribute among their pupils and see whether there were any issues with understanding. Trying to retell the story would be a more challenging exercise requiring certain amount of fluency from the learners. As for the exercise being used as an alternative for reading tasks, the primary advantage is that more students would take their time to do the assignment. It is an unfortunate fact that not all students do assigned reading tasks on regular basis. Searching for audio-version of the readings or videos explaining them is a common practice done by many students as it is less time demanding and can be done with less effort. To provide students with an audio-version of the reading would likely be appreciated.

The Little Red Riding Hood can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=kxe1Zu9y65o

The reading labelled If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists is also a reading used in practical language classes. The potential uses that the story has are the same as with Little Red Riding Hood. However, this exercise is considerably more challenging as it is much longer and uses more unusual expressions.

If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWe3TLLp3xQ

The video labelled "RiotVan (listening exercise)" is a video of me playing the song Riot Van by the Arctic monkeys. This could serve as another listening exercise. It is followed by a video labelled "RiotVan (vocabulary)" where I explain some of the slang expressions occurring in this song. Videos of this type can often be used to teach new vocabulary.

The Riot Van song was chosen for two important reasons. The primary reason is that the song contains a variety of unusual, slang expressions typical for British English (or to be more precise typical for Sheffield since the singer, Alex Turner, is from Sheffield). These

51 expressions are likely to be new to most learners of the English language as they are rarely being taught at schools. The second reason is that the song is relatively slow and is very calm which can make it easier for learners to focus on the lyrics (which are provided in the description).

The song Riot Van can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlkBJD-R2vA

The video concerning vocabulary that occurs in the song is a nice example of how vocabulary can be taught on YouTube. The video combines me describing the expressions with subtitles of the expressions that appear on the screen and make them much easier not only to understand but also to memorize. An interesting feature is unintentionally being used in this video. The video editor on YouTube allows the user to add comments and notes on the video even after it had been edited and uploaded. That is particularly useful if somebody records a video, edits it, uploads it and then discovers that there is a mistake in it. This function of adding notes can save a considerable amount of time and helps avoid frustration. In the video, when I describe the expression "to spark excitement in somebody", I have forgotten the "somebody", saying only "to spark excitement in", which is not enough. While I still say the incorrect version, by adding the note saying "somebody" to the subtitles I made it clear what is the correct way of using the expression.

The Riot Van vocabulary is also recorded in a specific way resembling vine videos which are described in the second chapter. The video is recorded by a static camera but the individual scenes are edited in short sequences, each lasting only a couple of seconds. My performance in the video is quite enthusiastic and I tried to look somewhat strange and funny to make the video more entertaining. Similar appearances are not uncommon on YouTube though they are rarely used when teaching (This style of performing is more common in Vine videos). However, should the teacher prefer a more regular approach, it would be very easy to record the same video in a form of a standard presentation.

The Riot Van vocabulary video can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=y6tJv1y51Iw

The video labelled "Sentence Patterns" can serve in grammar lessons to provide examples of the seven basic sentence patterns that appear in English language. The seven basic sentence patterns is one of the first topics discussed in University grade grammar lessons. Grammar lessons are by many students often considered to be among the more

52 difficult subjects. The purpose of this video was to take a grammar topic and explain it in an easy to understand and quick way. The video only has a little over one minute in duration which could be appreciated by many students, especially if they were to use it shortly before an exam. Apart from being difficult, another downside of grammar lessons is that due to the amount of new information provided and the requirements on students attention, they are often considered boring and exhausting. For that reason I have decided to make the video very enthusiastic in an unexpected and exaggerated manner. To make the video entertaining I have chosen to use absurd features (in terms of grammar teaching) such as explosions effects, loud and enthusiastic narration and guitar solos. The result makes the video very surprising to anybody searching for information about seven basic sentence patterns but through this element of surprise the video might make the information easier to remember.

An alternative way of using this video is to teach vocabulary concerning dinosaurs. In order to make the video more entertaining and make the information given easier to remember, I have decided to provide absurd example sentences that are not likely to appear in any grammar book. The result is that all of the example sentences used to demonstrate seven basic sentence patterns involve dinosaurs. Every example sentence introduces different species of dinosaurs. That can be also appreciated by younger learners who might not necessarily be interested in the grammatical aspect of the video. In addition especially young learners would appreciate that pictures of the dinosaurs appear each time a dinosaur is mentioned. That way the learners can immediately see what does each of the mentioned dinosaurs look like. The example sentences are written on the screen in order to make them more comprehensible and easier to remember.

The seven basic sentence patterns video is recorded as a form of a multimedia presentation. I do not act in the video. Instead I only provide the narration. The video only shows the written examples of the sentences, special effects and pictures of the dinosaurs. The video was inspired by tv commercials, movie trailers and sports events promotions.

The Seven Basic Sentence Patterns can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=XWOs7Nglu2o

The video labelled "Radioactive" is another listening exercise. It is a cover version of a song Radioactive by Imagine Dragons. The reason for choosing this recording was to provide a song that is well known and thus more entertaining to the learners. The Riot Van song was an example of a song that is not particularly well known (especially in the Czech Republic)

53 whereas Radioactive is very popular and there are already numerous cover version available on YouTube. As much as introducing a song that is not well known can be interesting and receive attention from students, it is well known that students tend to respond more positively to songs they know and like.

The song Radioactive can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=WuXVfThHVhY

Conclusion

The aim of this thesis was a thorough survey of YouTube as a source of learning materials for English learners and teachers. In addition, attention was paid to the origin and history of YouTube, since it is a relatively new phenomenon that still has a tendency for rapid growth. The influence of YouTube on young generations, self-learning and modern teaching is not only significant as it stands but is still on a rise and is likely to be even more influential in the future. As it was shown in this thesis, YouTube is an outstanding source of study materials whether we consider its use for students and self-learners or whether we consider teachers and the uses of YouTube in classes. The amount of materials available is almost impossible to cover by a single individual. The possibilities for self-learners who are either looking for English lessons or simply English videos that can serve as learning tools are nearly limitless. Nearly limitless are also the potential applications that YouTube has for teachers. With certain creativity, YouTube can be applied in almost any subject. In addition, the accessibility of YouTube and the easy way to upload new materials by anybody makes it even more impressive.

54 It is clear that the internet is becoming a necessary part of modern education and as far as the education online is concerned, YouTube is one of the most important and popular sources.

Sources

"Annals of Language and Learning: Proceedings of the 2009 International Online Language Conference (IOLC 2009)." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2015.

Biography.com Editors. "Chad Hurley Biography" Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2015.

Biography.com Editors. "Steve Chen Biography" Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2015.

Brindley, Lewis Alan, and Simon Charles Lane. "YOGSCAST Lewis & Simon." YouTube. YouTube, 9 July 2008. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.

Cheung, C-K. "The Use of Popular Culture as a Stimulus to Motivate Secondary Students' English Learning in Hong Kong." ELT Journal 55.1 (2001): 55-61. Web.

Cloud, John. "The YouTube Gurus" Time. Time Inc., 25 Dec. 2006. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.

"Competitive Intelligence." Youtube.com Site Overview. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2015.

55 Dickey, Megan Rose. "The 22 Key Turning Points In The History Of YouTube." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 15 Feb. 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.

"EnglishLessons4U - Learn English with Ronnie! (engVid)." YouTube. YouTube, 9 Feb. 2009. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.

Gardner, David, and Lindsay Miller. Establishing Self-access: From Theory to Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999. Print.

Gardner, Robert C. Social Psychology and Second Language Learning: The Role of Attitudes and Motivation. London: E. Arnold, 1985. Print.

Gervais, Ricky. "Ricky Gervais." YouTube. YouTube, 22 Nov. 2006. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.

Hafner, Christoph A., and Lindsay Miller. "Fostering Learner Autonomy in English for Science: A Collaborative Digital Video Project in a Technological Learning Environment." Language Learning & Technology 15.3 (2011): 68-86. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.

Holec, Henri. Autonomy and Self-directed Learning: Present Fields of Application = Autonomie Et Apprentissage Autodirige: Terrains D'application Actuels. Strasbourg: Council of Europe, Council for Cultural Co-operation, 1988. Print.

"Holmwood's Online Learning." YouTube. YouTube, 2 Oct. 2008. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.

Hopkins, Jim. "Surprise! There's a Third YouTube Co-founder - USATODAY.com." Surprise! There's a Third YouTube Co-founder - USATODAY.com. USA TODAY, 10 Nov. 2006. Web. 01 Nov. 2015.

"JamesESL English Lessons (engVid)." YouTube. YouTube, 26 Sept. 2008. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.

Kelsen, Brent. "Teaching EFL to the iGeneration: A Survey of Using YouTube as Supplementary Material with College EFL Students in Taiwan". Vol. 10, No. 2, February 2009, online

Lajoie, Jon. "JonLajoie." YouTube. YouTube, 10 June 2007. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.

56 "Learn English with Let's Talk - Free English Lessons." YouTube. YouTube, 3 Mar. 2009. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.

Lepper, Mark R. "Motivational Considerations in the Study of Instruction." Cognition and Instruction 5.4 (1988): 289-309. Web.

Little, David. Learner Autonomy 1: Definitions, Issues and Problems. Dublin: Authentik Language Learning Resources, 1991. Print.

Marsden, Rhodri. "Rhodri Marsden: Why Did My YouTube Account Get Closed Down?" The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, 23 Oct. 2011. Web. 31 Oct. 2015.

Naaz S. "Jawed Karim : The Little Known Co-founder of YouTube." Http://muslimmirror.com/. N.p., 10 May 2015. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

Timeline. (2011). YouTube.com. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/t/press_timeline.

Watkins, Jon, and Michael Wilkins. "Using YouTube in the EFL Classroom." Language Education in Asia LEiA 2.1 (2011): 113-19. Web. 3 Oct. 2015.

YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2015.

"YouTube Started With An Elephant?" AskMen. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

57 Appendix IV. 1. 1. Questionnaire n. 1 – Learning sources

What has contributed to your English studies the most?

How would you rate these sources of learning? How useful were/are they in your studies?

Not helpful / No Quite helpful Very helpful Essential opinion Schools Friends* Tv-series Video-games

*Friends – English speaking friends (native speakers, foreigners, friends with whom you speak English a lot etc.)

How helpful were these schools in your English studies?

Not helpful / No Quite helpful Very helpful Essential opinion Primary school Grammar school University Language school

58 Which of these sources suits you the best for learning these skills?

Schools Friends Tv-series Video-games Listening Reading Spoken interaction Spoken production Writing

Is there any other source that you personally find very helpful?

IV. 1. 2. Questionnaire n. 2 – YouTube

How much do you use YouTube?

How often do you visit YouTube on average (approximately)?

Frequency Tick the most accurate choice (approximate) Every day Several times a week Once a week Less than every week

Do have any favourite channels?

Yes No

Do you have a profile?

Yes No

Are you subscribed to any channels?

Yes No Like I said, I don´t have a profile 59 Do you upload your own videos?

Yes No Seriously, I don´t have a profile

Do you use YouTube for other reasons than entertainment? (school, education, news etc.)

Yes No

60