Using Digital Video in English Language Teaching

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FINAL EXAMINATION

Media in English Language

Teaching

“Digital Video in English Language

Teaching”

Arranged by:

Diah Endarwati

2215081431

REG DIK B 08

Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris

Universitas Negeri Jakarta

2010-2011

Diah Endarwati (2215081431)

REG DIK B 08_Media in ELT

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1. What is Digital Video?

Digital Video is one of technical media and also one of multimedia production that is

used to construct, edit, and produce a linear story. Digital video requires that learners bring

a story to life with voices, images, a soundtrack or sound effects, and a sense of movement,

through cuts and transitions. The format allows learners to relate a story of importance in

the target language, with attention not only to language, but also to image and sound and

their interconnection. This multimedia production is becoming increasingly common, and

now is a part of the standard hardware and software that comes with many home

computers. Here is the table summarizes the hardware and software needed for digital

video production:

Software Hardware

Photo or image editing software. Computer capable of running software

named in first column.

Digital video editing software. Sound card.

Audio editing software for voice

recording, capturing, and editing.

Video capture and output card (Necessary

only if capturing from or outputting to

traditional linear video).

In recent years, the use of digital video in English classes has grown rapidly as

a result of the increasing emphasis on communicative teaching techniques. Digital

video is well-liked by both students and teachers. Students like it because digital

video presentations are interesting, challenging, and stimulating to watch. Teachers

like it because digital video helps promote comprehension. Digital video makes

meaning clear by illustrating relationships in a way that is not possible with words.

Digital video is now widely used for oral practice in English teaching. As listening



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and speaking are the two major skills students should acquire, the digital video course

not only teaches English through video but gets students to use the English they have

learned in talking about the video.

For many years, digital video has been widely used in education (and, even

more commonly, in training situations) as a mass-instructional teaching method in

their own right. As well as being a teaching method in their own right, digital video

can also be incorporated into lecture-type presentations in order to provide illustrative

visual stimulation and variety of approach.

2. Digital Video Types Used in English Language Learning

Harmer has divided three kinds of Digital Videos that can be used in English

Language Teaching, they are:

Off-air programmes

What means of off-air programmes are programmes which recorded from a

television channel. This kind of digital video is good for students in high level in

learning about culture because as we know that in television programmes, they used

particular accents in each programme. So, it is quite difficult to understand if we use

off-air programmes for students in beginner. However, teachers can use off-air

programmes such for follow up activities, let say ask them to make any report from

the programme they watched.

Real-world video

Examples for this kind of video are documentaries, feature films, or even

comedy. Because this kind of video has long length, so the teachers should be aware

if they want to use it in teaching language and also the teachers should consider about

the topic of this real-world video in the use of teaching language.



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Language learning video

This language learning video can be produced by the teachers themselves based on

the topic will be delivered in teaching language. And nowdays many publishers also

produced this kind of digital video to accompany the course books. In teaching

process, the teachers also can ask the students to make this kind of digital video as

their project.

3. Approaches in Using Digital Video in Classroom

The digital video can often be used either in Audiovisual Self-Instructional

Materials or in Computer-Based Self-Instructional Materials. In audiovisual learning

programme, although print-based, self-instructional material still has an important

place in most individualized learning systems and many self-instructional learning

packages now utilize a whole range of audio and visual media to increase their impact

and effectiveness. The particular ‘media mix’ such audio and video are being

carefully chosen with the objectives of the topic being covered in mind. The precise

choice of media is therefore very dependent on the objectives that the package is

designed to achieve. Audiovisual programme like digital video can involve a high

degree of student activity, and in many cases is used to save tedious tutor repetition.

Moreover it is used very effectively for helping to achieve mastery of factual

(cognitive) material, in psychomotor skills training, and also in the attitudinal

(affective) area.

In Computer-Assisted Learning (CAL), interactive digital video attempts to

utilize two relatively well-established teaching media in an integrated teaching

resource. The aim is to combine a flexible, interactive and accessible teaching

programme with good visual and sound characteristics. As with interactive digital

video, the widespread use of individualized learning materials that rely on interactive

digital video for their presentation is still in the future, although perhaps not too far

away.



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4. Suggested Activities in Using Digital Video in Classroom

Effective use of a digital video, especially in a beginning level classroom,

requires careful planning and appropriate teacher guidance of pre-viewing, viewing,

and post-viewing activities (Burt 1999, Stempleski 1993, Stoller 1993). Pre-viewing

activities are used to tap into the students’ background knowledge or to review the

previous segment of the video. Key vocabulary is introduced, and learners can read

the comprehension questions on the handout and predict the answers. Such pre-

viewing activities stimulate learners’ imaginations, spark their interests, and aid in

comprehension of the segment. While viewing, it is recommended that they focus on

the content and watch carefully so as not to miss important visual clues. The teacher

can play the segment or part of it more than once if necessary to ensure learners’

understanding. Post-viewing activities include going over the answers to the

comprehension questions, predicting future occurrences, and getting learners to

practice the language through role-play and summaries. Whereas pre-viewing and

viewing activities center on understanding input, post-viewing activities focus on

output practice.

5. Suggested Methods in Using Digital Video in Classroom

There are eight suggested methods that can probably be used in classroom for

teaching English, they are:

1. Active viewing and global comprehension.

It is necessary for students to take an active part in watching the digital video

presentations because active viewing can not only focus students’ attention on the

main idea of the video presentation but also increase their enjoyment and satisfaction.

In order to help students get an overview of the content of the video presentations,

write any key questions on the whiteboard about the presentation and ask students to

keep the questions in mind as they watch. After viewing the video, have students



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answer the questions orally. For more detailed comprehension, provide students a cue

sheet or viewing guides and let them watch the video presentation again, section by

section, asking them to watch and listen for specific features of languages.

2. Freeze framing and prediction.

Freeze framing means stopping the picture on the screen by pressing the

pause button. Digital video gives the students an additional dimension of information

about the characters’ body language, facial expressions, emotions, reactions, and

responses. Freeze the picture when the teachers want to teach words and expressions

regarding mood and emotions, to ask questions about a particular scene, or to call

students’ attention to some point. This technique is also useful if the teachers want

students repeat something or to identify body language, and if the teachers want to

explore background detail.

3. Silent viewing activity.

As digital video is an audiovisual medium, the sound and the vision are

separate components. In this case, it is recommended that silent viewing as a way of

arousing student interests, stimulating thought, and developing skills of anticipation.

By silent viewing, it means playing the video segment with the sound off using only

the picture. Silent viewing can be a prediction technique when students are watching

video for the first time. One way of doing this is to play the digital video segment

without the sound and tell students to observe the behavior of the characters and to

use their powers of deduction. Then press the pause button at intervals to stop the

picture on the screen, and get students to guess what is happening and what the

characters might be saying or ask students what has happened up to that point.

Finally, replay the digital video segment with the sound on so that students can

compare their impression with what actually happens in the video.

4. Sound on and vision off activity.



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It can sometimes be interesting and useful to play a section of a digital video unit and

remove the visual element from the presentation by obscuring the picture so that

students can hear only the dialogue but are unable to see the action. Have students

predict or reconstruct what has happened visually depending only on what they heard.

5. Repetition and role-play.

If there are some difficult language points in the digital video unit, closely

controlled repetition is a necessary step to communicative production exercises.

Replay a scene on video with certain pauses for repetition either individually or in

chorus. When students have a clear understanding of the presentation, get them to act

out the scene using as much of the original version as they can remember. And when

students become confident with role playing and are sure of vocabulary and language

structures, a more creative activity can be introduced in which students are asked to

improvise the scene to fit their views of the situation and the characters they are

playing.

Role-play involves students as active participants. As each student plays the

assigned role, he/she becomes more and more involved. The students will like the

activity because it helps them to better understand their own behavior and to be more

able to respond in a positive way to various human relationships. In a word, role

playing, a good communicative activity, is true preparation for real-life situations,

and gives students a chance to apply what they are learning.

6. Reproduction activity.

When students have seen a section, ask them to reproduce either what is being

said, to describe what is happening, or to retell what has happened. Related to the

story of the digital video presentation, reproduction activities can be organized in a

number of ways, from paired retelling of parts of the video during the initial

presentation to individual retelling of the summary of the video presentation after two



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or three viewings. This activity encourages students to try out their knowledge.

Students will get benefit from experimenting in English, even though it is challenging

and mistakes are made. In general, oral reproduction is hard work, and students need

help, guidance, and reassurance. Write key words or cues on the whiteboard to help

them tell the story of the presentation.

7. Dubbing activity.

One of activities that students seem to enjoy from digital video presentation is

completing a scene from the video by dubbing. This can be done after a review of the

video material or when students have the necessary language competence. There are

two ways to do it:

Play the video episode again. Turn the sound down at random intervals and then

invite students to fill in the missing dialogue orally.

Choose an interesting scene from the video again and play it again. Turn the

sound off, leaving students with only the visual information. Ask the students

to fill in the script in response to the visual cues they receive.

8. Follow-up activity.

Discussion, one of the primary aims, stimulates communication among students. So,

it is important that a digital video presentation should lead to follow-up activity as the

basis for further extended oral practice. One way to achieve communicative practice

is to conduct a discussion of what is presented in the digital video unit. Discussion

offers students an opportunity to develop sharing and cooperative skills.

6. Advantages of Digital Video Presentation

Digital video presentation can be used in education and training as an

effective teaching-substitute. It is particularly useful if the content has a high visual

impact, where a variety of techniques such as animation, time-lapse photography and



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close-up work can be used to good effect. This digital video programme can provide

an impression of life outside the classroom which would otherwise be inconvenient or

perhaps impossible to achieve. It can for example, shows lifestyles in other countries,

scientific processes at the microscopic level, documentaries, theatrical productions,

and so on. A professionally-scripted and produced digital video programme may well

be better structured than its teaching-type equivalent, and is almost certain to be more

visually relevant and more stimulating than a teaching process, even if the latter is

supported by slides and other visual aids. Further advantages are that appropriate

digital video can help to add variety to teaching-dominated courses, and can be used

to stimulate discussion and debate. Moreover, it could help the students in motivating

them to understand the materials.

7. Disadvantages of Digital Video Presentation

The most common miss-use of digital video occurs when the media is used

purely for convenience rather than for sound educational reasons. The use of a digital

video should not be thought of as an easy option, or ‘something to keep a class quiet’.

Indeed, it is important that a teacher should carry out a critical preview of the

programme in order to check on its quality and assess its relevance to the course. This

will enable the teacher to introduce the programme properly, to explain its context

and to prepare for class discussion after it has been shown.

Another possible educational disadvantage of using digital video presentation

is that the teacher effectively relinquishes control over his/her class for the duration of

the presentation, handing over control to the maker of the digital video. This makes it

doubly important that such presentation should only be used where it offers some

distinct advantage over other, more conventional, methods of teaching in achieving a

particular set of objectives.

One practical disadvantage of digital video is that neither can be shown

without the appropriate hardware. Also, there is often a financial implication



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associated with using a programme; indeed, in many cases, hiring or buying a video

can be quite expensive, particularly if it is to be used in a commercial or industrial

training context rather than in an educational situation.

8. Conclusion

In conclusion, this kind of technical media, digital video, can be used in

English language teaching. It becomes an effective teaching aid which can be use to

capture, record, process, store, transmit, and reconstruct a sequence of images

representing scenes in motion. Those make the learning process more exciting,

stimulating, and also challenging. By using the digital video could help either the

teacher or the students to understand the materials. Watching the digital video should

be an effective process for the students in understanding the materials and also in

motivating them, and digital video could help the teacher to promote or explain the

materials easier. However, we must consider either the advantages or the

disadvantages of using digital video in the classroom.

In the growth of technology, digital video also will become one of prospective

technology in the future for English language teaching. Both teachers and students

will be used to in using digital video in their daily life. In teaching English, in the

future, they can ask the students to make project with digital video as their follow up

activities and present their projects to the class.



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References

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film-video-clips

Sokolik, M. 2001. Computers in Language Teaching. In Celce-Murcia, M.

(Ed.). Teaching English As A Second or Foreign Language. 3rd Edition.

Heinle & Heinle.

Percival, Fred & Henry Ellington. A Handbook of Educational Technology.

1984. Great Britain: Nichols Publishing Company.

Ishihara, Noriko & Julie C. Chi. Authentic Video in the Beginning ESOL

Classroom: Using a Full-Length Feature Film for Listening and Speaking

Strategy Practice. January 2004. FORUM English teaching magazine Volume

42 Number 1, United States.

Hemei, Jiang. Teaching with Video in an English Class, China. April 1997.

FORUM English teaching magazine Volume 35 Number 2, United States.

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/language-assistant/teaching-tips/using-film-video-clips

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/language-assistant/teaching-tips/using-film-video-clips

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/online-video-elt

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/video-young-learners-1

Documents

Using Digital Video in English Language Teaching