Video teaching
ideas for EFL teachers
This training session
involved the use of a wide variety of commerically-available video
material, which for obvious reasons cannot be reproduced here. However,
a good starting point is the "Inside Out" series of videos/books,
which, while not perfect, offer a reasonable combination of interesting
topics and ease of use.
The session also involved
the use of home-made materials. Visit our
Teaching Resources page to download them.
Why use video?
- involve your students in
“real” English and so favour
“acquisition” of language rather than just
classroom-based “learning” of language
- establish good study
habits (borrow
videos to take home, watch video on internet, etc.)
- video is “more
natural” than audio, because of the visual clues to meaning
- recycle material already
done in
class
- introduce new material
(i.e. past
simple regular and irregular verbs, new vocabulary)
- it makes a nice change
- “authentic”
video material can be very memorable (remember your first film in a
foreign language?)
- a wider variety of
learning
activities should favour students with different learning styles
What are the pitfalls to
avoid?
- most authentic video
material will
be hard, even for the most advanced learners
- video “for the
sake of
it” – it’s obvious to students that
you’re wasting their time!
Choosing pre-prepared
material
- they can be dry...
- but they offer a
“ready-made solution” which is time-efficient
When preparing your own
materials..
- define purpose of
activity
according to your group and the material – a good rule of
thumb is “hard video – easy task”
- choose an appropriate
question
format to reflect the purpose of the activity – i.e.
true/false statements if the aim is general comprehension, gap-filling
if the aim is to listen for specific details
- pre-prepare a hand-out
with your
task material, or dictate it, or write it on the board. Preparation
need not mean endless work producing hand-outs, but will require at
least one pre-viewing of the material and careful thought about the
task
- recycle video lessons
–
you can use the same video with different ages and levels, just by
varying the task.
As usual, please e-mail any
comments
you may have regarding this material to:
info@madrelinguabologna.com
