Dayna House, English Langague Fellow 2012 elfdaynahouse@gmail.

com

Using DVD and Video in Your ESL Class

I. Reasons using DVDs of TV Shows and Movies a. Accent b. Subtitles and Sound c. Slang Task 1 - Match the explanations to the reasons. a) Numbers 1 to 6 provide one word reasons for using this kind of material with students. b) Letters a to f give more detailed explanations of these reasons. Reasons 1. variety 2. culture 3. motivation 4. speaking 5. language 6. visuals Explanations a. Watching TV programs or films can motivate students to discuss what they see and therefore generate a lot of oral language. b. We now live in a world of sophisticated images and students expectations are that this world can also be found inside the classroom. c. Using DVDs and videos makes a change from the course book and is an opportunity to include some authentic material in the teaching program. d. Excerpts from TV programs or films can provide an authentic and rich context for grammar and vocabulary. Some commercially produced ELT videos are created to target specific language structures. e. DVDs and videos have an association with the word entertainment which means that students are often keen to work hard in lessons based around this kind of material. f. Excerpts from films and TV programs can bring the real world into the classroom and can illustrate background information associated with language and English-speaking life.

Task 2 - Sort questions 1 to 8 below into one of the two categories: equipment or materials. Equipment OR Questions Materials

1. Will I be infringing on any kind of broadcast copyright by showing this material in the classroom? 2. Am I able to freeze the frame to focus on one image? 3. Does the DVD or video player work and can I operate the machine efficiently? 4. Is this topic or genre motivating for the students I am teaching? 5. Is there a troubleshooting guide to help me get out of any problems? 6. Is the level and the speed of the language manageable for my learners? 7. Is there a counter on the DVD or video player cue the segment I want to use? 8. Is the excerpt about the right length when I take into account the activities I want to do and the time I have available? On line Resources: http://www.eslnotes.com/synopses.html & http://www.esl-galaxy.com/video.htm

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II. The Right Way To Teach EFL Using DVDs of TV Shows and Movies a. Always Pre-Teach the Vocabulary b. Completing a Question Sheet c. Assign a Project III. Teaching Techniques for using video 1. No picture - Choose a short video extract (2 or 3 minutes) with a lot of sound effects. a. Play it with the screen covered. Have students describe what they hear using a linguistic focus. Then show them the extract with the picture and sound. For example: -Present continuous: Some birds are singing / A baby is crying -Past simple: Some birds sang / A baby cried -Past continuous: Some birds were singing / A baby was crying b. Making deductions about what is going on in the film. 2. No sound Show a short extract (again, 2 or 3 minutes is enough) with a lot going on, or where characters convey a lot of emotion in their expressions, without sound. Students can then do many things without having to worry about understanding dialogue. Have Students. a. Describe the scene or what happened using narrative tenses b. Anticipate dialogue or reactions c. Arrange a cut up dialogue which you have given them in order. Finally, play the extract again with sound, and your students will be able to fit what they hear into a context much more effectively than viewing the extract cold. 3. Jigsaw viewing - activities where students have half the information and have to share what they have to recreate the whole story. You can do this with short video sequences. Here are 3 different ways to do it depending on your facilities a. Half the class watches with no picture, then the other half with no sound (you'll have to take half the students out of the class in each case). In pairs they question each other to recreate the scene. b. Half the class have picture and sound, the other half just sound. You can do this by sitting students in two rows, back to back, so that only one row can see the screen. The half who only had sound question the other half. c. One student listens with headphones, the others view without sound. The student with headphones questions the others. 4. Backwards viewing - Choose a short sequence with a lot of action. For example, a woman enters an apartment, picks up the telephone, speaks, looks terrified, runs out of her apartment and down the stairs, and runs off down the street. Movies are a good source for this sort of material. a. Play the sequence backwards to the students, and then have the students reconstruct the story in chronological order, using narrative tenses, or future tenses, or whatever you want the linguistic focus to be. b. Then play the sequence normally so students can compare it with their version. 5. Freeze frame Just like we can use pictures in the classroom to introduce new vocabulary, describing people and scenes? You can add a new dimension to this with the freeze frame button of your video or DVD player. a. Hit freeze frame when a character has an interesting expression on his / her face, is about to react to something or answer a question, or when there is a lot of colorful new vocabulary on the screen! b. Have students describe the character/scene, or anticipate what the character will say or do next. c. Release freeze frame to compare with what actually happens.

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6. Vocabulary in context - Choose an extract (3-5 minutes). a. Make a sheet with ten to twenty words that are used in the extract. Give one sheet to each pair of students and go through it discussing meanings and possible contexts. (Giving them the context of the movie/documentary as a whole can make it easier to guess possible contexts of individual words within this.) b. Play the extract through once, asking students to listen for the contexts in which the words are used. c. Students can then pool their information and produce a list of contextualized vocabulary on the board. 7. Subtitles - A big advantage of DVD is the subtitle feature. A good exercise for building confidence is to play an extract with subtitles in the students' own language. a. Play it first with the sound down and let them read the titles, b. Play it again with the sound up c. Play it again reading the titles d. Play it finally, with the sound up and the titles covered. *Note: As reading practice for higher level students, use an extract with subtitles in English. 8. Cultural differences - Find a short extract which shows a typical aspect of British or American culture. In groups, have students write down or discuss the differences between what they saw and their own culture. Students do not necessarily need to understand the dialogue for this - the visual aspect of the cultural scene is usually enough. 9. Act Out a Scene - Another fun way to enhance the learning experience is to have your students write and act out a scene from the movie. Put your students in groups and let them choose a particular scene in the movie they liked and have them re-write what happened in their own words. Allow them time to rehearse the scene then have each group act out the scene in front of the class. 10. What are they thinking? have students in group imagined what characters in a certain scene are thinking. a. Choose a short extract with some interesting and expressive dialogue between two or more characters. Show the scene and check students' comprehension. b. Put your students into groups, one group for each character - if there are 4 characters in the scene, you will need four groups. It is the groups' task to imagine what is going on in the head of their assigned character! c. Play the scene again several times if necessary, for students to familiarize themselves with the character, and allow them to work together to imagine the character's thoughts. d. Finally, play the scene again, pausing after each character has spoken, at which point the groups add what they think he/she is thinking.

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Task 3. Blooms Taxonomy 1. Using the verbs below. Identify which levels are being used in the 10 Techniques above

Knowledge Comprehension Application Analysis Synthesis Evaluation

Count, Define, Describe, Draw, Find, Identify, Label, List, Match, Name, Quote, Recall, Recite, Sequence, Tell, Write Conclude, Demonstrate, Discuss, Explain, Generalize, Identify, Illustrate, Interpret, Paraphrase, Predict, Report, Restate, Review, Summarize, Tell Apply, Change, Choose, Compute, Dramatize, Interview, Prepare, Produce, Role-play, Select, Show, Transfer, Use Analyze, Characterize, Classify, Compare, Contrast, Debate, Deduce, Diagram, Differentiate, Discriminate, Distinguish, Examine, Outline, Relate, Research, Separate, Compose, Construct, Create, Design, Develop, Integrate, Invent, Make, Organize, Perform, Plan, Produce, Propose, Rewrite Appraise, Argue, Assess, Choose, Conclude, Critic, Decide, Evaluate, Judge, Justify, Predict, Prioritize, Prove, Rank, Rate, Select,

Task 4 Match the techniques and activities to the materials. a. Numbers 1 to 4 below describe some DVD or video materials that you can use. b. Letters a to d describe key techniques for working with video. c. Numbers i. to iv. are suggested activities. Material Technique Activity 1. An excerpt from a TV discussion or debate program 2. A short excerpt from a crime story that includes dramatic music. 3. The same days TV news broadcast on different channels. 4. An excerpt from a film. Technique Activity a. Divide the class into 2 groups for split i. Students get practice at listening for gist viewing and listening. and following the main narrative of a story. b. Viewing with no sound. ii. Students listen and view trying to infer any c. Extensive viewing and listening. bias in what they see, then report this to d. Listening first with the images covered, another student. then again with the images revealed. iii. Students describe the screen they imagine to each other then compare their ideas with the excerpt. iv. The teacher asks students to focus on body language and gesture and what this tells them about the people they see.

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Friends Vocabulary Activity

I. Vocabulary Throat Lesbian Hormones Cleansing aura Fixating Wedding Dress sweet & low Hysterical Brides maids Limoges gravy boat Verbs Cleansing Adjectives Sweet low Turned on Sobbing Freaked out Decaf = decaffeinated Products/ body parts Small intestines/ Throat

Small intestines Murky Strip joints Mr. Potatoes head Nouns Aura

sweet & low

II. Scene: Ross arrives at the coffee shop. Later, Rachel arrives in a wedding dress and ends where Ross stirs her coffee. -What is wrong with Ross? What happened to him? -What does Ross say just before Rachael come in? -What does chandler wish for immediately after that? Why? -why does Monica ask for decaf coffee for Rachael? -Why does Rachael ask for sweet and low? -Why is Rachael in a wedding dresswhat happened? -What is the weather like outside? -state the differences between an American coffee shop and an Argentina coffee shop