web hosting short URLs photo sharing

"Children learn better if they have a positive attitude towards what they are doing and if they are motivated or want to do it [Williams 1991 : 207]. One way of providing or increasing this motivation is through the use of video which, according to Marsden, brings "fun and added motivation to language learning" [1991 :51]. Video presents language not only in context but also in a manner that can have an impact upon learners: 'grabbing' their attention in a way that is impossible for a static text or a sound-only recording, video is "...dynamic, immediate and accessible" [Lonergan 1984 : 4]. Video may be used to present new language; to revise or develop language; for comprehension activities or as a stimulus for writing, discussion or role-play. Vale and Feunteun point out, however, that children cannot be expected to reproduce the language that they hear on the video nor answer specific comprehension questions. As they remark:

"Connections seem to be made between the language input from the TV and the foreign language in the outside world. In other words, use of video or TV...does not teach language, but it most certainly supports its acquisition." [Vale with Feunteun 1995 : 111].

This paper examines the use of video in the teaching of English to young learners and is split into two main parts. The first section looks at factors to consider when selecting video for language teaching whilst the second part reviews four different videos - one of which actually teaches French but embodies principles which could be applied to the teaching of any language.

Arcario suggests that the following factors should be considered when choosing video materials: appropriateness of content; sound and picture quality; extent of visual support and language density. Sound quality is particularly important as language learners will gain little from a video that they cannot hear. Another relevant consideration is the availability of related print materials which can be used to develop activities supporting and extending the language used in the video [Arcario u/d : 114-119]. When considering the visual support, care should be taken to choose material where the soundtrack and pictures 'go together'. MacWilliam, for example, cites research showing that, if there is a mismatch between the visual and aural messages then viewers (especially children) will disregard the linguistic content This can happen with sequences where there is a 'voice-over' and related pictures - although the relationship may be apparent to a sophisticated viewer a language learner or a child may only be able to 'process' the visual information [1986 : 132].

Vale and Feunteun ask the following questions: would a native speaking child want to watch the video (programmes produced for native speaking children are usually interesting)? Does the material avoid didacticism? Is the content interesting? Would a child want to watch the video again and again? [1995 : 111]

Most authorities suggest using short pieces of video: Stempleski [u/d : 11] , for instance, claims that 2-3 minutes of video will provide sufficient material for a one hour lesson whilst Marsden argues that "...between one and five minutes can generate at least one or two lessons" [1991 : 52]. MacWilliam also suggests using brief video sequences, quoting research which shows that the optimum viewing time for native speakers is only a little over six minutes.

A further point to bear in mind when choosing materials for young learners is the need for an integrated curriculum. Whereas adult learners tend to learn English either in isolation or for a specific purpose (for example needing to conduct business meetings or read text books in English) children will almost certainly be learning English as part of a full curriculum of school subjects. The young learner may be learning English as a foreign language alongside the other curriculum areas or her entire education may be presented through the medium of English and include the study of the language itself. As Garvie argues, English language tuition should, therefore, be seen in the context of the wider curriculum and materials used for teaching the language should be integrated with the topics of other subject areas. [1991: 120].

2.1 Animated Alphabet

This is a compilation of video sequences originally produced as part of the BBC television programme "Playdays" for pre-school children in Britain. The video is now marketed both to (parents of) native English speaking children and to teachers of EFL or ESL. There is a book to accompany the video when used for English teaching.

Each sequence lasts for about 11/2 minutes and features a single letter of the alphabet. The letter is drawn and then turns into various things that begin with that letter. For example, 'c'' becomes a cottage which changes into a castle which cracks and then crashes to be lifted and carried away by a crane. The name of each item, action or adjective is spoken by a child.

The video sequences certainly fit the criteria in terms of brevity and can be amusing to watch. However the sound quality is poor in places with the words sometimes difficult to hear above the music or sound effects. As all the words are spoken by children there are some pronunciation errors typical of immature speakers - for example, 'arrow' is pronounced 'awwow'. The main intent of this video is to teach the relationship between letters and their sounds in English yet the sound name is never given - viewers must deduce the sound from the words used to illustrate it. As several words would be unfamiliar to a learner ( 'albatross', 'glider') and those which are familiar cannot always be heard it is probably difficult for learners to make the connection from the video alone.

2.2 Words and Pictures - 'V'

This programme, recorded off air, is produced by BBC Television for use in British schools. Although its main audience is native speaking children (5-6 years old) it will also be used with children learning English as a second language. The programme is about 15 minutes long but has three discrete sections which could be used independently. A published storybook, which could be obtained for classroom use, is read during the programme and related computer software is available from BBC Education.

The first section shows the presenter visiting a village in Cornwall where, accompanied by two children, she sees the shop, the church, the (red) 'phone box and the harbour. Although the commentary is not always clear this section presents a 'traditional' English village and so could be useful for cultural background to a teacher working abroad or with city-based children. The second part features a story about a boy on a voyage which is read aloud accompanied by pictures from the book, related real-life images, an animated sequence and shots of the presenter reading . This section clearly demonstrates the problem referred to by MacWilliam [1986 : 132] of a conflict between the pictures and the sound. The third section focuses on a specific letter, in this case, 'v' (which has, in fact, been the theme of the entire programme). Several words beginning with the letter are presented in written and spoken form together with animated pictures - a vulture is magically dressed in a vest then a van dumps some vegetables and we see that the bird is a vegetarian vulture. The presenter points out that all these words begin with 'v' which is then written several times by a 'magic pencil' as the voice-over chants the correct letter formation, "down and up and flick". The animated sequence is memorable because of the bizarre images and there is a clear link between the spoken and written forms of the word which makes this section more useful than 'Animated Alphabet'. The letter formation sequence is excellent for native-speaking children but probably less useful for EFL learners, even those with a non-Roman script, because it relies on the child remembering the little chant and this could be difficult in a foreign language.

2.3 Fourways Farm : 'Who's Been Eating?'

Produced by Channel Four mainly for native speaking children (4-7 years old) this video, containing five programmes, is intended to introduce basic science concepts such as through humorous stories about a group of farm animals. Accompanying materials include storybooks, activity books and teacher's notes.

Each programme is 10 minutes long including the title sequence and credits; these are accompanied by a catchy, easy-to-learn song which introduces the characters. The stories are acted out by puppets and told mainly through dialogue with occasional narrative voice-overs and, although all the parts are read by only one actor, each character has a distinctive voice. The first programme, "Who's Been Eating?" looks at food and what kind of food each animal eats. Three rats appear on the farm and steal food from each of the animals whilst tricking them into thinking that a dangerous monster has moved into the barn. Finally the cat solves the mystery and forces the rats to show themselves and confess to the theft.

Generally, the language used is simple (Marsden points out that elementary language is easier to accept in a cartoon [1991 :51] and this is also true of puppetry) and presented at a fairly slow pace with a lot of visual support. The story contains plenty of humour and the end is not obvious (although there are several clues which offer scope for prediction). There is no doubt that children would want to watch this programme more than once (in fact the review copy belongs to a native speaking five-year old who watches it repeatedly) and will enjoy each viewing. The programmes greatest strength, however, lies in the fact that its main focus is not language. Although there are clear language points which can be used (for example the present simple: "Martha eats grass", the present perfect: "Godfrey's apple has gone" and the passive: "It's been stolen") the programme is about food and thus could form part of the English language component of integrated topic work on this theme.

2.4 Tots Video - "Tilly, Tom and Tiny's Fun with French"

Designed to introduce French to English-speaking children up to the age of seven this video illustrates one approach to the production of language-teaching video materials for young learners. The video is based upon a popular British TV series (Tots TV) which features three puppet characters one of whom (Tilly) speaks only French. The other two characters understand Tilly and repeat, in context, everything that she says, for example, Tilly is looking through some binoculars:

Tilly: Je regarde.
Tiny: You're looking Tilly? What can you see?
Tilly: Un arbre avec les feuilles vertes.
Tiny: A tree with green leaves? Oh, let me see!

As the emphasis in this video is on the French language then everything that Tilly says she repeats several times and a lot of imaginative devices are used to prevent this repetition becoming boring. For example, at the end of the video Tilly says that she is going for an adventure and says "au revoir" to each of the other characters. Then there is a knock at the door:

Tom: Rat-a-tat-tat, who's that?
Tiny: Let's open the door.
Tilly: J'ai oublié non chapeau.
Tiny: You've forgotten your hat? Here it is.
Tilly: Merci Tiny. Au revoir Tiny.
Tiny: Goodbye Tilly.
Tilly: Au revoir Tom.
Tom: Goodbye Tilly.
Tilly: Au revoir, au revoir!
Tom and Tiny: Goodbye!

This is repeated as Tilly comes back for more things that she has forgotten. Another sequence has Tom and Tilly singing a song where they point to and name facial features. First Tilly sings in French then Tom sings the English version. The two characters are involved in a game where each tries to sing faster than the other. The video does not only feature puppets; there are also several sequences where real children play games and sing songs in French.

Overall the video is fun to watch and manages to avoid being didactic. The full running time of the video, however, is fifty-three minutes and it is not split into separate sessions. That is not to say that short sequences could not be used independently, simply that a teacher would have to be very adroit with the rewind and stop controls on the video player. Several of the sequences could fit into integrated topic areas such as 'weather', 'the body' or 'colours' but this would need careful planning on the part of the teacher as this video has not been designed with classroom use in mind.

The video materials reviewed above are all very different and each has its own particular strengths. "Animated Alphabet", "Fourways Farm" and "Fun with French" all have and 'entertainment' feel whereas 'Words and Pictures' is very obviously 'educational'; this could limit its appeal to the learners. The approach to language teaching used in "Fun with French" could be applied to any language materials intended for a monolingual target group although it is probably more appropriate for a child learning at home than class use. In conclusion, "Fourways Farm" is probably the most useful of the videos here because it is entertaining; a single programme could provide sufficient material for several lessons and it enables the language work to be easily integrated into the wider curriculum.

Arcario, P. (u/d)"Criteria for Selecting Video Materials" in Stempleski & Arcario (u/d) Video in Second Language Teaching

Brumfit, C., Moon, J. and Tongue, R. (Eds) (1991) Teaching English to Children, HarperCollins : London

Garvie, E. (1991) "An integrative approach with young learners" in Brumfit et al (1991) Teaching English to Children

Kennedy, C. and Jarvis, J. (Eds) (1991) Ideas and Issues in Primary ELT, Nelson : London

Lonergan, J. (1984) Video in Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press

MacWilliam, I. (1986) "Video and language comprehension" ELT Journal 40/42 April 1986

Marsden, B. (1991) "Using video in the primary classroom" in Kennedy & Jarvis (1991) Ideas and Issues in Primary ELT

Stempleski, S. (u/d) "Teaching Communication Skills with Authentic Video"in Stempleski & Arcario (u/d) Video in Second Language Teaching

Vale, D. with Feunteun A. (1995) Teaching Children English,Cambridge University Press

Williams, M. (1991) "A framework for teaching English to young learners" in Brumfit et al (1991) Teaching English to Children

Video Materials

Animated Alphabet (1989) BBC Enterprises

Fourways Farm (1995) CASE Television for Channel Four

Tots Video - Tilly, Tom and Tiny's Fun with French (1996) Ragdoll Productions

Words and Pictures (1997) BBC Education

Click here to go back to the Video page.