1. Video in the Classroom Ishihara, N. & Chi, J. C. (2004). Authentic video in the beginning ESOL classroom: using a full-length feature film for listening and speaking strategy practice. English Teacher Forum 42 (1), 30-35.
2. Summary With the proper support and preparation, movies can become an excellent teaching tool in the language classroom. Movies are interesting, motivating, authentic sources of language input. Ishihara and Chi outline many reasons why movies are great tools in the classroom. Among their many attributes, they provide multi-sensory input in the form of language, visuals, contextual cues, and cultural information. Videos can be made manageable by cutting them up into different sections. While this breaks the continuity of the film, it allows the teacher to provide learning support and activities while at the same time diminishing the feeling of being overwhelmed by the language. Why movies?
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6. Summary Ishihara and Chi’s article spelled out the why and how of movies in the classroom. They can serve as an interesting and authentic media – the source of rich cultural and linguistic input. With the proper support and preparation, they can be used to practice many different skills, and are especially good for speaking practice. While there may be some problems, if they are dealt with in advance, full-length movies become an excellent tool for English language instruction. Conclusion
7. Reflections Ishihara and Chi did a good job explaining why movies can and should be used in the classroom. They are interesting and motivating, they hold the students attention, they are rich in context, they are a source of excellent language exposure, and they are full of cultural information. I have used videos in the classroom, but only as clips. I was wary of overwhelming students with too much authentic language, but the authors gave me a sense that with the proper support and preparation, full-length movies can be used, and can provide more practice than just disconnected clips. I think that readers can gather a good sense of the material development process from this article. The authors watched the film, most likely several times, came up with objectives based on their students and what the movie offered, and then found specific scenes that contained the proper language. They then made activities to focus on specific scenes and their corresponding objectives. The simple categorization of pre-, while-, and post-viewing activities gives the teacher a general sense of how to organize their video activities. Benefits Benefits
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9. Application The following activity was developed for a low level EFL middle school class in South Korea. Classes have between 30-40 students, and meet once per week. Though the article was based on showing full-length movies, this activity utilizes a five minute clip from an episode of Mr. Bean. All activities, whether from TV shows or movies, are based around clips. The difference lies in the fact that teaching with a movie provides a greater degree of connectedness - between both scenes and themes - than TV shows and other random clips. For these reasons, and practical for purposes, only a clip is used. However, these activities can be extended, modified, and adapted for other video-based lessons.
10. Application The following activity was developed for a low level EFL middle school class in South Korea. Classes have between 30-40 students, and meet once per week. Though the article was based on showing full-length movies, this activity utilizes a five minute clip from an episode of Mr. Bean. All activities, whether from TV shows or movies, are based around clips. The difference lies in the fact that teaching with a movie provides a greater degree of connectedness - between both scenes and themes - than TV shows and other random clips. For these reasons, and practical for purposes, only a clip is used. However, these activities can be extended, modified, and adapted for other video-based lessons.
15. Discussion List 2-3 discussion questions for the class. These questions will be the focus of the discussion for that reading in the weekly forums. Also copy these questions into a separate thread in the forum, so your classmates do not have to open the presentation each time they want to remember the questions .
