Let’s try the moving image in the ESL classroom in India

JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY FOR ELT

Volume 5 Number 3 July 2015

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Let’s try the moving image in the ESL classroom in India

Ms Atiya khan

M.Ed. Researcher

RMIT University

Melbourne, Australia

Email: [email protected]

Abstract:

English teachers which are teaching in the vernacular medium context in India know how

difficult it is for their students to be exposed to authentic English language input outside the

classroom. Based on this reality and based on the advancement of popular multimedia

technology in English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching learning environments, this

review places the moving image at the centre of the 21st century English language learning

agenda. It examines the significance of television viewing in enriching the learning

experiences of ESL learners, and suggests television viewing in the classroom as part of the

English curriculum in vernacular schools of India. The review of literature suggests that

vernacular medium schools and their English teachers need to make full use of multimedia to

create an authentic language teaching and learning environment where students can easily

acquire English language naturally and effectively.

Keywords: Teaching ESL, vernacular learner, multimedia technology, television, videos

The growing demand for English language instruction in India:

Over 4,000 government schools spread across Maharashtra state of India are facing closure

ahead of the new academic year 2015-2016 as these schools have less than 10 students on

their rolls; in some extreme cases, the figure even comes down to one or two (Srivastava,

2015). This is happening at a time when private schools are clocking new records in

enrolment with every passing year (Srivastava, 2015). Most of these schools are facing

serious functional crisis. Rising demand of English language in Indian job market, negative

perception of the society towards vernacular medium of education, poor teaching quality,

indifference of the government towards own schools are said to be the major factors behind



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this "never before" situation. Moreover, India lacks quality teachers who can teach English to

students in vernacular schools. In these schools, most teachers themselves don’t know decent

English. Due to this lack of quality English medium teachers in vernacular medium schools,

the English medium schools are winning over vernacular medium schools in India. Private

schools in India are more inclined to employ English as a medium of instruction

(Muralidharan & Sundararaman, 2013). As a result, parents in India are more interested in

placing their child into a private English-medium school, a school where subjects are taught

in the English language, rather than in a local/regional language school (Galab, Vennam,

Komanduri, Benny, & Georgiadis, 2013). The enrolment scale has already tilted towards

private schools in urban India. According to estimates of private school enrolments in India,

more than 50% children in urban areas of India were enrolled in private schools (Desai,

Dubey, Vanneman, & Banerji, 2009). Moreover, enrolment at vernacular medium schools,

that is, schools that teach primarily in regional or native language, happens to be declining

drastically, as India's poor manage to scrape together the funds to send their children to more

expensive English-medium private schools (Masani, 2012).

There are several other reasons for this exodus to English medium schools. While students

may perform well in vernacular medium schools, they face severe difficulty in higher

education institutions, because most higher education institutions in India are in English

medium. Indian students who have completed their education from English medium school

and college are also more likely to find jobs than their vernacular medium peers, even

without completing university education (Jayakar & Tejaswani, 2013). The Indian call centre

industry, which hires millions of Indians, requires candidates to have a basic understanding of

English, and is therefore unlikely to hire those from vernacular medium schools (Rani &

Jayachandran, 2014). The fact of the matter is that employability and higher education are

directly linked to English medium education.

Many brilliant students from vernacular medium schools are found lagging in

academics, job interviews, seminars, presentation of projects and in other contexts of

communication. In most of the situations, such as job interviews, academic projects,

elocutions, debates etc, which require communicative competence, students with

convent education background are stealing the march over the vernacular medium

students. As a result, vernacular medium students are understood to have been



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depressed and felt marginalized by their own peer group members on various

occasions. (Jayakar & Tejaswani, 2013, p. 17).

While the demand for English is high, the supply of efficient English teachers is extremely

low in vernacular schools, and this rift between demand and supply affects the students who

study in these schools the most. The gap between the supply and demand of quality English

education in vernacular medium schools is yet to be filled. Vernacular medium schools in

India need to empower their students with good English speaking skills to prepare them for

the competitive job market.

The role of audio-visual literacy in English language teaching and learning:

It is widely known that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is nowadays a

key factor in the teaching of ESL, especially in developing countries which lack efficient

teachers. Within this structure, multimedia materials are considered as extremely valuable

resources for teaching, especially for English language teaching. Computers, internet and

social media have received a lot of attention in the English as a Second Language (ESL)

literature and in the research which is gradually informing English teaching practices in India.

Although technology is recognized to have a transformative effect on teaching and learning,

videos are not widely used as an instructional tool in the classrooms in India. More precisely,

television, a multimedia technology which combines sound and visual information and

presents language use in rich social and cultural contexts, has not had the same impact as

these technologies, and is an often misunderstood, underused and undervalued pedagogical

tool in India. Multimedia technology has a long history in English Language Teaching (ELT).

Since the 1980s, researchers (Candlin, Charles, & Willis, 1982; Eisenstein, Shuller, &

Bodman, 1987; Meinhof, 1998) have been exploring the ways in which popular multimedia

technology can be used effectively to enrich the English learning experience.

It is often said that an image is worth a thousand words and, as a matter of fact, moving

images have proved to be especially effective when it comes to teaching English. It seems

obvious that there is a connection between the application of video as an instructional tool

and improved learning in English. Recent psycholinguistic research (Bisson, van Heuven,



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Conklin, & Tunney, 2013) shows that incidental vocabulary acquisition takes place even if

learners do not make any conscious effort to learn the words. While ESL learners in

vernacular medium schools can deliver written examinations, many of them find using

communicative English in academic or professional settings challenging. To these learners,

television material is particularly valuable in addressing learners’ lack of experience in

casual, everyday English.

Television is an excellent resource for second language learning. Children like it and are

happy to spend their time watching it in the classroom. An extensive and regular exposure

can develop ESL learners’ skill of English phraseology, which is identified to be particularly

lacking in ESL learners (Siyanova & Schmitt, 2007, 2008), and help them to establish an

ability of phrasal expressions (Lin, 2014). Rucynski (2011) integrated television into English

as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) instruction by demonstrating how a range of

English lessons can be taught with The Simpsons, a famous American animated TV series.

Research in Second Language acquisition over the past three decades has shown that learners

remember better when they see, hear and do (Doughty & Long, 2003). The level of a

students’ understanding of a subject when they see, hear and produce materials during

instruction is higher (75%) compared to students who only see during instruction (20%), and

see and hear only (40%) (Lindstrom, 1994). Thus, learning with multimedia elements, such

as videos, seems to be effective for ESL learning activities (Zahn, Pea, Hessse & Rosen,

2010). Viewing videos support ESL learners in developing more conceptualization of words

than plain verbal instruction, as words which are presented in audio and visual form will

support learners of second language better (Silverman, 2013).

Solanki (2012) in her analysis of the use of multimedia technology in English language

teaching and learning revealed that multimedia technology promotes the students’ English

communication capacity and creates a relevant context for English language teaching. ESL

learners should be particularly encouraged to watch television and videos since research

shows that they can support the learning of English vocabulary and better communication

skills (Lin, 2014).



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Recommendations and conclusion:

The aim of this article was to explore the potential of multimedia technology and set out a

framework for using television material in English language teaching and learning in non-

English medium (vernacular medium) schools in India. Television material can be a

foundation of the English course, especially where the learning goals relate to communication

skills, or an occasional activity, supplementing the textbook. Either way, it is likely to be

most successful where some consensus to work with multimedia technology in general and

television in particular is integrated in the teaching-learning context by schools in India.

References:

Berk, R. A. (2009). Multimedia teaching with video clips: TV, movies, YouTube, and mtvU

in the college classroom. International Journal of Technology in Teaching and

Learning, 5(1), 1–21.

Bisson, M.-J., van Heuven, W. J. B., Conklin, K., & Tunney, R. J. (2013). Incidental acquisition

of foreign language vocabulary through brief multi-modal exposure. PLoS ONE, 8(4), 1-

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Candlin, J., Charles, D., & Willis, J. (1982). Video in English language teaching: An inquiry into

the potential uses of video recordings in the teaching of English as a foreign language.

Birmingham: University of Aston.

Doughty, C. J., & Long, M. H. (Eds.). (2003). The handbook of second language acquisition.

Oxford: Blackwell.

Eisenstein, M., Shuller, S., & Bodman, J. (1987). Learning English with an invisible teacher: An

experimental video approach. System, 15(2), 209-216.

Galab, A., Vennam, U., Komanduri, A., Benny, L., & Georgiadis, A. (2013). The impact of parental

aspirations on private school enrolment: Evidence from Andhra Pradesh, India. Oxford:

University of Oxford. Young Lives Working Paper 97.



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Jayakar, T.J.R., & Tejaswani, K. (2013). Challenges to vernacular learners (L1) in acquisition of

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Srivastava, K. (2015, April 24). Maharashtra government to close down 4,000 government

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Article web link: https://sites.google.com/site/journaloftechnologyforelt/archive/volume-

5-Number-3-July---Se/2-optimising-l2-utterances-using-web-based-resources---s-shaik-

khader-nawaz

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-maharashtra-government-to-close-down-4000-government-schools-this-year-2080177

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-maharashtra-government-to-close-down-4000-government-schools-this-year-2080177

https://sites.google.com/site/journaloftechnologyforelt/archive/volume-5-Number-3-July---Se/2-optimising-l2-utterances-using-web-based-resources---s-shaik-khader-nawaz

