Video in the classroom

1. Antonio Ivan Sánchez Huerta
Technology in the classroom
Maestría en la Enseñanza y
Aprendizaje del Idioma Inglés
2012-06-16
Use of Video in the Language Classroom
Many a time, despite of the different materials we have from a course book set, we as teachers have
to come up with authentic materials, realia and crafted resources in order to help students internalize
the target language. These materials are made to bring stimulus for students' production as well as to
keep some connection to the real world, so that the language experience can be as meaningful as
possible.
There are many reasons why we integrate extra material to our classes. Most of these reasons range
from not having materials well contextualized to lack of interest from students to grasp a course book
that may include only grammar or reading exercises. This is a report of a piece of video material that
was made on April 25th, 2012, and applied on May 2nd, 2012. This analysis of video material is
divided in four aspects: considerations; a previewing activity; a viewing activity; and, a postviewing
activity.
Considerations
The course book includes a topic based on movies, it includes three introductory synthesis in text and
then two other movies developed through the unit. In previous courses at this level I have identified
that many students do not feel keen on talking about those movies. It was necessary, then, to create
new material to attract their attention. The movies are: The Lord of the Rings, Out of Africa, The
Beach, The Motorcycle Diaries, and The Schindler's List.
The trailers of these five movies were searched and downloaded from youtube.com and then encoded
into DVD format. The timing of this process was of an hour and a half approximately. The software
used for this was DeVeDe, and the platform Linux Ubuntu 11.10.
On the class of April 25th, previous to the unit of the movies, students were asked for homework to
bring a poster or a DVD of a movie they really liked. It had to be a movie they really knew different
aspects about, like the director, where it was filmed, etc.
Previewing activity
On May 2dn, students were asked to brainstorm movies that were representative in history. They gave
different names and the movies from the course book unit were included purposefully. Then they had
to answer these questions:
1) Have you ever seen any of these movies?
2) Can you explain one or two? What are they about?
3) If you could recommend any, why would you do that?
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2. Antonio Ivan Sánchez Huerta
Technology in the classroom
Maestría en la Enseñanza y
Aprendizaje del Idioma Inglés
2012-06-16
After asking each other, students were asked and answer the questions as a class.
Viewing activity
The movies of the unit were highlighted and students were asked they knew those movies. After that,
the DVD with the trailers was shown to them on TV. After the trailers, which were shown all in a row,
students were asked to explain what the movies might be about according to what they saw. Later,
they asked to open their books to the pages of the respective unit. Answered the first two pages,
which were focused on passive voice to explain the plot, the setting, the direction and other aspects of
movies.
Postviewing activity
Afterwards, students were asked to show their posters or DVDs. A set of questions was given to them
in order to practice the grammar point:
1) What's your favorite movie?
2) Who was it directed by?
3) Where was it set?
4) Where was its location?
5) What is the plot?
6) Is it based on a novel or comic?
7) What kind of people would that kind of movie be addressed to?
Conclusion
Students reacted positively to the movie trailers, it was a good stimulus for them. Using their own
movies to talk about the topic was motivating for them to produce, for they felt they could talk not only
about the movie included in the unit.
The timing for the application of the materials was longer than expected. The use of the last movie of
the unit had to be left for homework.
This material was shared with another teacher of the same level and reported having good results in
her classes, but due to her schedule, she preferred to show the trailers one by one according to the
progress of the unit and not all of them in a row. Which suggest that the change would be made not on
the materials, but on their pacing, according to the schedule and time limitations per course.
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