For a lesson with the use of video to be the most productive and effective, the teacher needs to properly organize the work of the students. Thus, it is necessary to take into account that the exercises for working with the film contribute to the vigorous activity of the students.
Some German Methodists (Brandy M., Helming B., Shverdteger I.) also propose the use of separation of the visual and auditory canals. Channel separation facilitates easier understanding of the language. In addition, showing a video without sound allows you to focus only on visual information. Through the image, students can predict the place and time of what is happening, through facial expressions and gestures they can put forward assumptions about the mood and character of the characters. The authors note a strong link between the image and the language. This method of work allows you to convert the perception of the image into the language, as it provides an opportunity to express assumptions / opinions in a foreign language.
The teacher can create numerous speech situations based on the description (description of characters, place, time, action, facial expressions, gestures), prediction (dialogues, monologues, actions), interpretation of what is happening.
In this article, we aimed to identify some strategies of exercises, which can be used while working with video materials, oriented for the development of educational skills as prеdiction, chаracter / еvent study, rоle-play, jigsаw listеning and viеwing, vidео trаnslation. Here we tried to enrich these exercises with the ways of how to work in English classes. Let us consider these video exercises in more details:
Rolе-play: each student receives the name of a historical figure or a famous person in the country of the language being studied (the teacher can prepare in advance a small historical background — a biography for removing difficulties related to the semantic form of the message and the source of information). The teacher recommends that students pay attention to the events taking place with the character in the episode, his character traits, language means of expressing his thoughts and feelings. The teacher then asks the students to play their roles from memory.
It is not necessary to reproduce the text verbatim; you need to play the role of the character so that the class guesses who it is. If the selected segment is very short, then you can learn the roles by heart. After the students guess all the famous people, the sound is turned off, and the students voice their characters while watching.
Video trаnslation: the teacher needs to pick up a documentary or feature film of linguistic and cultural nature with subtitles in native language, select from it a 2 minute episode containing a dialogue (or a few people conversation) that lack complex lexical units and ask students to translate the subtitles into English. The main task is not to recreate the original, but to translate the titles, taking into account the existing linguistic knowledge.
Students are shown the plot of the film without sound. When the first subtitle appears, the teacher stops the video and asks the students to record their translations. It is necessary to avoid literary translations, it is more interesting to formulate speech equivalents using their knowledge of English.
At the end of this work, students compare their translations in groups of 2–3 people, and then voice the adjusted translation.
Chаracter / Evеnt study: working in groups, students write the words that they associate with each socio-cultural event or the hero of the film’s plot and explain why, in their opinion, these are the words that are appropriate.
Predictiоn: the video plot is played with sound and image, but from time to time the picture stops, and during the pause, students try to predict what the characters will say or do in the next frame.
Jigsaw listеning and viewing: the class is divided into two groups. The teacher asks one group to leave their class while the second group watches a fragment of the film with the sound turned off.
The first group returns, the second leaves the class. The episode is shown again with sound, but no image. Then the groups come together, divide into pairs and discuss what happened on the screen and who said what.
Deducing diаlogue from picturеs: the teacher chooses the plot of the linguistic study film, consisting of a dialogue between two people, asks the first option to write down only one role on paper, the second option writes down another role. Thus, each option instead of a different role has gapped dialogue. Students watch a video story without sound and record the intended replicas. At the second stage, the teacher demonstrates the episode only with a sound track, but without an image.
Students in pairs are trying to recreate the plot of the film in the form of a dialogue. Note that the work is not assessed by the exact reproduction of the original, but by the way, their version fits into the visual video images.
We present recommendations for working with authentic video at the post-demonstration stage for high school students. This stage may include the following set of skills and a set of exercises:
A set of acquired skills and a set of exercises on the post-demonstration stage for high school students.
- The development of lexical skills: repetition and testing of lexical units obtained after the demonstration of the video:
− exercises for the initial consolidation of lexical units, — language and speech exercises.
- Development of grammatical skills: recognition and differentiation grammatical phenomena:
− transformational exercises;
− question-answer exercises;
− reproductive exercises.
- Development and improvement of skills of viewing reading on the topic of video:
− communication exercises: the teacher offers students problem or informational texts on the topic of the video plot for further discussion.
- Development and improvement of speaking skills:
− communication exercises: commenting, consolidation of communication techniques seen in the film;
− discussion, as students relate what they see to their actual experience and situations in their lives in their country, and analyze the similarities and differences in culture.
- Development and improvement of writing skills: it is proposed to write a brief retelling, reflection on the subject of the story that was viewed, to add a biography of a famous person, which was discussed in the plot, to form a dialogue, to expand or compress information in a video.
Most of the exercises recommended by domestic and foreign methodologists to work on authentic video can be classified as purely communicative.
When viewing authentic documentary films and language programs in classes that have no experience with video, it is recommended to offer students a list of questions for information retrieval in the first few classes. These questions may have a specific thematic focus.
The above-mentioned exercises are for working with a separate fragment. One of the main aspects of working with a fragment is decryption of the text. Ideally, as a result of this work, students should be able to independently record a section of text from the sound of the video plot, as well as be able to correctly interpret the reactions, facial expressions and gestures of the characters. This method of work allows not only to create prerequisites for speaking, but also contributes to the fact that students are involved in what is happening, that is, favorable conditions are created that make it possible to communicate in a foreign language.
References:
1. Milrud R. P. Methods of teaching English. English Teaching Methodology. Textbook for universities. — M.: Drofa, 2005. — 256 p.
2. Nosovich, E.V., Milrud, R. P. Parameters of authentic educational text // Foreign languages at school. — M.: Enlightenment, 1999.− № 1.− С.11–18.
3. Solovova E. N. Methods of teaching foreign languages. — M.: Education, 2002. — 125 p.
