13- In a nutshell / Teaching Grammar through Video.

During the last decades, the use of technical innovations, such as television, computers, and audio-tapes, have become widespread in professional fields, and of course, education has not been an exception. One of these innovations is video, which facilitates many aspects of foreign/second language teaching. Video has been proved to be an effective method in teaching English as a foreign/second language (EFL/ESL) for both young and adult learners. Video can be used in a variety of instructional settings—in classrooms, in distance learning sites where information is broadcast from a central point of learners who interact with the facilitator via video or computer, and in self-study and evaluation situations. It also can be used in teacher’s self and professional development or with students as a way of presenting content, initiating conversations, and providing illustrations for various concepts.
According to Mr. Grant S. Wolf, videos should be used in EFL/ESL classrooms for many reasons:
Learners can easily remember grammar rules and patterns when 'anchored' in a rich, engaging and memorable context.
Video provide learners with shared experience to communicate about and concequently practice grammar.
Video give students an ideal basis for using the language in an engaging and meaningful context.
Entire movies should not be shown in class. It may be a waste of time. Nevertheless, carefully selected films with a strong cultural and/or historical content can be watched by students for homework or as an extra-curriculum activity. It can also be accompanied by "movie notetaking" diaries in which students take notes about what they have learned, both content and language wise. Films should have English subtitles. Student "movie diaries" and carefully edited extracts from the films can be the basis for class activities.
How to use video in the classroom?
Mr. Grant S. Wolf gave us important teaching tips for the use of video in EFL / ESL classrooms.
- We should choose excerpts from movies which most students have seen and liked.
- We should spread the activities out, over many days to provide repetition over a period of time.
- We can use subtitles to help students understand the scenes.
- We should choose scenes which have a lot of action in order to componsate for the difficulty of the language.
Mr.Grant S. wolf gave us many other suggestions to solve the problem of difficult language:
- We should choose scenes where the characters are speaking slowly and clearly.
- We can develop a viewing guide which will help students figure out the story.
- We can also explain the scene in English, or even Arabic, before showing it.
In the practical part of his presentation, Mr. Grant S. Wolf showed us a sampling of some materials that he has developped to teach some grammar structures through video. I really enjoyed it and I will certainly use this technique with my students.