Multimedia and multimodal texts are ubiquitous with most people facing a daily barrage of 100,000 words, many of these words are coupled with images, unfortunately the variety and speed of digital information is affecting our cognitive processes including memory and reading [Carr 2010]. The redundancy principle of the cognitive load theory states that unused information slows down information processing, it is therefore my job to help students select information useful to them. Pavio’s Dual Coding Theory, that verbal and non-verbal messages are handled differently and when they are combined recall is strengthened, suggests that using visuals and verbal information together positively affects second language acquisition (SLA). Dubois and Vial [2000] point out that: ‘the more educational materials promote connections between the two methods of coding (visual and verbal) the more learning will take place.
The following video worked well with a small group of Advanced students who answered all the questions to a short comprehension correctly. The dialogue to the video is extremely fast yet as some of the information is displayed on intertitles allowing students to digest the video’s content. Please follow the link below for the video and comprehension questions, students’ are also given visuals and a short quiz on body language as a lead-in.
body-languagequizquestions
Bailey & Dugard’s book entitled ‘Lights, Camera, Action’ offers further ideas for the use of video in the classroom. For example the image below shows a still frame with accompanying questions, students examine the shot and answer questions to create interest in the video, giving learners the opportunity to speak about a listening comprehension and visuals before and after watching it.
I showed the following advert to some of my students and they recognised ‘ought to’ as a form of advice. I asked my students when they needed advice and the various questions featured on the class presentation. The class steadily moved onto the next exercise on an adapted exercise sheet showing students how to use different advice forms. The video acted as an exciting stimulus as well as eliciting ADVICE to allow students to move on to the next exercise.
CLASS VIDEO AND PRESENTATION
Using Video in Class
and PDF WORKSHEET [Follows in-class video]
advice
The advertisement video above is a cheerful route into teaching ‘giving for and asking for advice’ but is only a small part of a lesson.
For something more student interactive Goanimate is an online animation creator which can be created by the students to help improve their English. Alternative animated movie generators include Voki.com, Dvolver.com, PowToon.com and Xtranormal.com.
Students can work together to create a video dictionary. Learners find words of particular interest and create a short video for the word. The students show the written word, further giving it’s pronunciation, collocation, phrasal verbs and fixed expressions, the image below can act as a prompt for the exercise, addressing all the pathways to explore for the exercise.
Memory and Language Reactivation
[Images: J. Keddie]
Students in the class should work together to create an extensive catalogue of words they learnt during their course, the compiled video dictionary can be kept and used for future reference. This idea was created by Carol Wild, (Technology and Enhanced Language Learning – A. Walker & G. White), for some Malaysian students. Another idea is to use dubbing and subtitles. Dubbing and subtitles are widely used in Europe for big budget action films, romantic comedies and many other feature films. Students can have fun creating their own dubbing or subtitles for short extracts of Bollywood films featured on websites such as BombayTV. In the book Language Learning with Digital Video Ben Goldstein and Paul Diver suggest that the activity could take between 10 – 30 minutes where students create three or four subtitles for 30 second long clips.
EFL students can have fun with the internet site video jug. The website offers instructions on a variety of subjects from learning how to customize your Ipod menu to how to make a pizza. Students can use their English to create a video that can be uploaded to the site or to help their peers in class; offering advice on a subject on which they’re an expert.
Ben Goldstein and Paul Diver offer a lot of advice about how to bring technology into the classroom; for example using windowsmoviemaker or imovie to add speech and thought bubbles to short films. Videos can have intertitles added between scenes to make the extracts of films more interesting and allow students to practice their English and entertain their peers.
Narration can be produced for other online videos or school resources. SpeakOut Intermediate features an excellent BBC wildlife video that can be used on silent for students to create their own narration, internet wildlife videos are also suitable for the same exercise. Deconstructing videos, continually questioning what’s happening throughout the video allowing students to appreciate the video in English. The page featured below is a lesson plan and a simple yet effective method of aiding students comprehension. News bulletins or clips can be used for short dictation or comprehension exercises, Jamie Kiddie uses the week’s news videos without sound as a visual prompt to start students speaking in English about the stories featured. After the students have discussed the news they would be able to listen with the volume to check their comprehension of events. News, News is another interactive idea for blended learning where students write the script for silent news and weather stories.
When students want to express themselves various video technologies enable short but sweet student productions. Microsoft Photo Story 3 allows videos to built around images, ideal for short in-student presentations. Voice Thread is another in-class video option, a collaborative video tool which allows students to work together on stories through video, text or voice. Students can record a story which is followed and finished by other students in class, exciting and interactive. Most students carry mobile devices with them and to enable a full immersion experience while on sojourns students can map and film their journeys inspiring them to record changes in their routes with Google Maps.
Bailey, B. & Dugard, C. (2007) Lights, camera, action. Digital video in the classroom. London: CiLT.
Godwin-Jones, R. (2012 Emerging Technologies – Digital Video Revisted: Storytelling, Conferencing, Remixing. Language Learning & Technology 16 (1) pp.1 – 9
Sydorenko, T. (2012) Modality of input and vocabulary aquisition. Language Learning & Technology 14 (2): pp.50 – 73
Keddie, J. (2014) Bringing online video into the classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press
J. Keddie, J. (2009) Images Oxford: Oxford University Press,
Goldstein, B. & Driver, P. (2014) Language Learning with Digital Video. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sherman, J. (2003) (2003) Using Authentic video in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Walker and White, G. (2013) Teachnology Enhanced Langauge Learning: Connecting theory and practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press (Chapter 6 Multimodal literacies: learning through visuals.)
