Digital Video In ES/FL Classrooms

Digital videos are used in a variety of ways in classrooms nowadays. As technology develops, teachers are accessible to many great video resources online or they can create their own materials using various computer programs or apps for mobile devices. Especially in ES/FL classrooms, digital video gradually takes over its role in the classrooms as one of the favorite resource for teachers to motivate and engage their students in learning English (Epstein and Omiston, 2007).  

Digital videos can be used to help students improve their language skills as well by filming their presentations or their learning process.

(a)   Broadcasting news

1. Ss choose a topic of their interests in local, domestics, or international news.
2. Read the article of their choice on their own carefully and paraphrase the news into a “announcement version” of the news.
3. Depending on the number of students, this can be done individually or in groups of no more than two.
4. Each presentation will be video recorded by the instructor.
5. Each student or pair will receive the video of their presentation and will write a reflection.

(b)  Role-play

1. Retrieve about 30sec-1min length clip from a movie or a drama
2. Instructor provides a sample dialogue and present to the class (Instructor can apply certain grammar points, pronunciation, or idiom instructions freely depending on the focus of the lesson)
3. Students work individually to groups of as many as the instruction instructs them to do so.
4. Play the clip as background (no sound) and student(s) present the script/dialogue.

(c)   Jing-Library research technique

1. Academic writing classes
2. It is great to go over each step one by one in class with the students while instructing about library research, but instructor can share the presentation in Jing with the students so that the students can view it whenever they need to.
3. *also useful for teaching MLA, APA, or Turabian styles for English writing.

(d)  Video and comprehension questions

1. Involve students’ thinking process while watching a video clip.
2. Students will answer comprehension questions as they are watching a film.
3. Questions involve direct comprehension, analysis, critical thinking, and interpretation skills.
4. Students exchange their worksheet with a partner to compare and contrast their responses by discussing about them.
5. Instructor debriefs and reviews the answers. For critical thinking and application questions, remind the students that the responses the instructor made may not be as same as their responses.

(e)  Books and Movie with subtitles

1. In a reading class, instructor may show a movie while reading a book which made into a video. It is better to align each portion of the book and the movie instead of finishing the book first and the show the whole portion of the movie. Make sure to turn on the English subtitle
2. Students write about any differences they observe between the book and the movie.
3. Students also find some interesting expression made from the movie such as idioms. 

References:

Epstein, R., & Ormiston, M. (2007). Tools and tips for using ELT materials. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Gromik, N. (2006). Meaningful tasks with video in the ESOL classroom. In E. Hanson-Smith & S. Rilling (Eds.), Learning language through technology (pp. 109-124). Alexandra, VA: TESOL.

http://www.onestopenglish.com/support/methodology/teaching-technologies/teaching-technologies-teaching-english-using-video/146527.article

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/ell-engagement-using-video-larry-ferlazzo-katie-hull-sypnieski