Video in Second Language Teaching: Using, Selecting, and Producing Video for the Classroom

1. Video in Second Language Teaching:Using, Selecting, and Producing Video for the Classroom

2. The video is used as a tool to present language for students to work on. Students see and listen to the language presented in the video clip and then they work on this language. The video is used as a tool to motivate students to produce language and work on this language. Students only see the silent video clip and try to produce the appropriate language and work on it. Videos can be used to perform two functions in the language classroom:

3. Activities which help students understand the language they hear through the video clip. Video is used as an audiovisual tool in these activities. Activities which help students produce language which is suitable for the silent clip they see. (Chinese Whispers). Video is used as a visual tool in these activities. Activities used with both functions

4. Factors Affecting Comprehensibility • Degree of Visual Support: When choosing a video clip for educational purposes, this video should contain lots of visual support such as pictures, movements, gestures, reactions, etc which help students to understand the content in a better way.

5. 2. Clarity of picture and sound: When using the video program for both kinds of activities, teachers need to make sure that both the sound and picture are clear for students in order to be able to understand all about the content of the video clip.

6. 3. Density of language: The amount of language spoken in a certain video excerpt/clip should be appropriate to the purpose I am using the video to achieve. For example, listening tasks require “talky” videos, while reading ones may not.

7. 4. Speech Delivery: • The language used in the video excerpt plays an important part in comprehensibility in the sense that students usually understand standard English more than other dialects or accents. • Arnold Schwarzenegger, for example, is known for speaking language which is difficult to understand due to his use of the Austrian accent.

8. 5. Language Content: The linguistic items the excerpt contains (grammatical structures, colloquial expressions, low frequency words, etc) play a basic role in understanding. For example, grammatical structures such as the third conditional, the passive and phrasal verbs as well as idiom are usually difficult to understand even by advanced-level students.

9. 6. Language level: • The main idea the excerpt talks about should be familiar to students and/or easy to understand. There should be a balance between the students’ level and the main idea of the clip. • For example, excerpts about subjects such as star wars (Babylon 5) or climate change (The Day After Tomorrow), etc may be difficult to understand.