Proceedings of the 2002 KATE International Conference (pp. 256-259).

The Korea Association of

Teachers of English.
Video in ELTTheoretical
and Pedagogical Foundations
Johanna E. Katchen
Introduction
Language teachers have been using video technologies for at least the past twenty years. From videotapes
to DVDs and streaming video from the Internet, the visual mode is still powerful and popular. Far from
being mere entertainment, carefully chosen films can be a useful and extremely motivational teaching tool
for both practicing listening skills and stimulating speaking and writing. This paper reviews some of the
principles on which the use of video in ELT is based. It is divided into two major sections reflecting two
kinds of video useshowing videos to students and videotaping student activities. Within these two
categories, specific pedagogical applications are summarized and educational foundations elaborated.
Showing Videos
What do we mean by video? There are videos made for ELT and for other educational purposes, video
broadcast on the Internet, and even home movies, although here video will refer primarily to movies and
television programs.
How do teachers use video? Most often it is used either to present students with spoken language input
for listening practice or to elicit student language output via speaking or writing. Videos may also
illustrate cultural and nonverbal behaviour and can also be used for teaching a variety of content (e.g.,
about linguistics) and skills (e.g., media literacy, literary criticism, comparing book and film versions).
Authentic Language
A great advantage of video is that it provides authentic language input. Movies and TV programs are
made for native speakers, so in that sense video provides authentic linguistic input. Students in East Asia
in particular have traditionally been taught to memorize grammar rules and vocabulary; actual ability to
use the language may or may not follow. When faced with a real native speaker, they panic. Where the
friendly native speaker who is patient and willing to use foreigner talk is unavailable, as in many EFL
contexts, the film/TV show can be a substitute.
There are a number of features found in real spoken language but not found in typical teaching materials.
Real people mumble and talk with food in their mouths; some speak rather rapidly and use nonstandard
forms; they incorporate different levels of formality and colloquialisms; they talk in incomplete sentences
and use all sorts of pause fillers, hesitation phenomena, and the like. Differences in speech may be found
from those of different regions, ethnic groups, social classes, ages, even gender. Speech is full of variety
and ambiguity and students need to develop some ability to deal with this, even if its just to learn how to
ask for clarification when they dont understand something. Using video examples, we teachers can
slowly guide students do deal with language as it is really used.
If our definition of authentic refers more to tasks, then watching films and TV programs are indeed
authentic tasks. Normally, however, just watching and listening is usually not enough in the classroom
(though possible occasionally). Teachers create activities, yet there is a danger in overkillin picking
over the transcript too thoroughly: such activities are not usually authentic. But what are authentic
activities? We often summarize the plots of movies or entertaining TV shows such as situation comedies
to our friends; we may even describe specific scenes or characters in detail. When we watch news or
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information programs, we are interested in locating specific information by looking for the answers to
WH-questions such as What happened? To whom? Where? With some other stories we are interested in
finding out What is the problem? What are the effects? What caused it? Are any solutions suggested? A
travel show may stimulate our interest in finding out what we can do in that place, where we can stay, and
how much it will cost.
These activities incorporate listening and understanding, perhaps writing down key information, and
talking about what we heard with others. The activities might take the form of comprehension questions
(multiple choice, ticking off, or completion), note-taking, and discussion. But students also know that
there are certain kinds of activities that are authentic in a classroom context. Thus we have students fill in
blanks in the transcript while listening or focus on certain lexical and grammatical usage.
Strategy Use
Another activity often used with video is prediction: the teacher plays part of a video, stops it at a specific
point, then asks students to speculate and discuss (or write for homework) what they think will happen
next. In our everyday lives, we probably do not actively predict and discuss what will happen next as we
raid the refrigerator during the commercial breaks, yet prediction is an authentic activity. We may
observe the way a male student behaves toward a female student and tell another teacher of a budding
love affair, for example. That is, by having students perform prediction activities, teachers are showing
students that they really do use their knowledge of the world and of genre types (e.g., the good guy
always wins in the end) to help them follow the happenings of a film in their L1, and that this is also a
useful strategy in L2.
Students often depend too much on linguistic input to decipher meaning, yet in life we take cues from the
context. In L1 people mumble and we dont hear correctly, yet we go on what we think they said even if
we dont hear all the words clearly. Films are ideal vehicles for drawing students attention to the nuances
of setting and nonverbal behaviour. A popular activity is to turn off the sound and have students glean as
much information as possible from the visual images. Or we may point out how the combination of the
paralinguistic (e.g., intonation, pace, volume, pitch) and nonverbal behaviours reveals meanings rather
different from the meaning denoted by the words alone.
Comprehensible Input
From Krashens famous i + 1 to Vygotskys Zone of Proximal Development, we are told that the ideal
input is comprehensible but slightly challenging. If the input or task is too difficult, the student will give
up in frustration. In order for learning to occur, there should be some feeling of success. But teachers
may argue that authentic video is simply too hard for their students, that they wont understand anything
and experience only failure. How can we counter this argument?
There are at least three remedies for this situation. The first is careful selection; teachers can choose more
familiar topics and a clip with language use that is more standard (Katchen, 1996). This does not mean
that the students have already learned all the vocabulary and structures found on the clip. Second, the
students should be able to perform the task or activity successfully. For lower level students, we can ask
them to find out some more obvious information for which a high level of linguistic expertise is not
necessary. Moreover, instead of writing out full sentence answers in English, they can check off the items
they heard mentioned or pick out the correct answer in multiple choice.
A third way of making the material more comprehensible is to provide helpful pre-teaching activities. In
this way, students will be able to perform the task with a little help from the teacher. We use the same
sorts with video as we do for other materials. We may activate students background knowledge on the
topic, introduce the main characters, teach some necessary new vocabulary. The purpose of these advance
organizers is to lessen the gap between the students knowledge and the knowledge necessary to
understand the material so that they can jump over the challenging gap successfully.
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Multiple Intelligences
The more times and ways we are presented with information, the more likely we will learn it. The recent
emphasis on different preferred learning styles and multiple intelligences has shown us that all of us learn
in different combinations of ways. While video uses primarily the modes that are also used most in the
classroomthe visual and the aural, classroom visual activity often centers on texts and aural activity on
teachers lectures. Film is richer in setting and nonverbal behaviour and spoken language is more varied.
Moreover, although the input is still via visual and aural modes, we can at least observe elements of
movement, music, and texture and discuss how they contribute to the effectiveness of a scene. (See
Tatsuki, 2001 for how video can address multiple intelligences.)
Videotaping Student Activities
Recording has long been used to improve performance in many fields, from athletes to artists. Video
cameras have become familiar tools in some ELT classrooms, too, and are most often used for recording
student speaking activities, such as role plays, speeches, group work. Students and professionals alike can
use the camera as a rehearsal tool for future public performances or presentations. Trainers videotape
both pre-service and in-service teachers for subsequent analysis.
Taking Charge of Ones Own Learning
When students write a composition, they may submit it to the teacher, who writes comments and returns it
to the student. The composition exists. But when we speak, the words disappear into the air; we may
remember the essence of what we tried to say but recollection of the exact words eludes us. How can
students make any effort to improve if they do not even know what they have said? This is where the
video camera helps because it turns the speaking activity into something concrete.
Most of todays students have seem themselves on video, if only briefly while passing a shop window
equipped with a camera for advertising purposes. Nevertheless, they may still experience some surprise
at seeing themselves as others supposedly see them; therefore, the initial activity might be something like
a role play, where students take on other identities, to reduce the possibility of shattering their own
identities. That is, there is a risk here, but it can be minimized. Above all, teachers have to avoid
criticizing students in front of their peers.
When we have something concrete, we can make an objective analysis and we can show students how to
analyze their own speaking performances, and then ideally let students do this outside of class. Students
usually see their own nonfluencies and may be more critical judges than their teachers are, so a little
encouragement is in order. Fortunately, fluency is an easy area to remedy in prepared presentations;
students just need to be reminded that more practice will make it better. Therefore, videotaping should be
done at least two or three times though a course so that students have a chance to see their improvement.
From my experience of videotaping student speeches for nearly 15 years, I have seen students quite happy
to chart their own progress using their own ability as a yardstick, not some unknown professional native
speaker. And are we not the only yardstick that matters, particularly at the tertiary level of education?
Students critique themselves and compete against themselves, and they gain satisfaction from setting and
subsequently reaching their own goals.
Conclusion
Here it has only been possible to touch briefly on some of the principles behind the use of video in ELT.
One aspect not yet mentioned is motivation. Students in many contexts have said they like video
activities because they provide a break from the usual textbook-based activities, and even when the
activities challenge students, learning with video is more enjoyable. Students do not always take the easy
way out. We have shown here that video use is based on sound pedagogical principles. While a daily
dose may be excessive, a regular, well-prepared video lesson may provide a healthy addition to the
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student body.
References
Katchen, J. E. (1996). Using authentic video in English language teaching: Tips for Taiwans teachers.
Taipei: Crane.
Tatsuki, D. (2001). Multiple intelligences and video. Small Screen 14(2), 5 6.
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