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EVALUATION OF A PIECE OF VIDEO MATERIAL:
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| CONTENTS |
| INTRODUCTION |
The use of video material has become an integral part of classroom
teaching and has gained in popularity over the last twenty years. The impact
of video on language learning is well known although its usage has disadvantages
because of its comparison with television viewing (Lonergan
1984:56). However, its advantages outweigh any disadvantages because
of its motivational effect on learners to generate questions and follow-up
ideas and thus create an atmosphere for successful learning (Lonergan
1984:56).
There is a great variety of video material which can be used in the EFL
classroom. This assignment will concentrate on published ELT materials
i.e. scripted materials for the EFL classroom which are accompanied by
workbooks and teacher's guides.
The purpose of this assignment is to evaluate a piece of video material in order to assess its stated objectives and to see whether those objectives can be accomplished by a group of learners. The evaluation will determine whether any alteration to the material may be necessary. I have selected to evaluate video material from the Headway Pre-Intermediate series (Falla 1994). A full description of the video package is described in the introduction to the teacher's video guide (Falla 1994:5). The piece of material I will focus on is Unit 4 - The Purple Violin.
| GENERAL AIMS AND CLAIMS OF THE HEADWAY SYLLABUS |
In order to successfully evaluate this material it is necessary to
understand the underlying methodology behind the Headway syllabus. Headway
Pre-Intermediate (Soars & Soars
1991) is the third part of the Headway series, and is a General English
course for adults and "young adults" who have previously
completed one or two course books to learn English in their native countries
or in the U.K. Published in 1991, it is a relatively new edition to the
Headway series.
The methodology, however, follows the same basic thread of the earlier course books in the series. Soars & Soars (1986) based the their Headway Intermediate course on a "communicative methodology." Their use of quotation marks in their description of this, suggests that the approach is really an umbrella term i.e. that communicative is open to interpretation depending on the theories of language teaching that is followed. According to the definition in the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (1992) the communicative approach is:
"an APPROACH to a foreign or second language teaching which
emphasizes that the goal of language learning is COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
- the ability not only to apply the grammatical rules of a language in
order to form grammatically correct sentences but also to know when and
where to use the sentences and to whom."
The suggestion by Soars & Soars of a kind of communicative approach
would seem accurate as even this dictionary definition would seem
open to interpretation. Indeed, Richards
and Rodgers (1986:71) describe communicative language teaching (CLT)
as more of an approach than a method because of the eclectic nature of
the language theories underlying the approach. Furthermore, Soars
& Soars (1986) argue that there is no real agreement as to what
really make up a communicative syllabus. They instead, draw on aspects
of a structural syllabus, situational syllabus and a task-based syllabus
in the design of their courses.
A lot has been written about independent learning and learner independence.
Much of this research has been used to more accurately define the communicative
approach. The Headway Pre-Intermediate syllabus (Soars
& Soars 1991) is claimed to help learners get the most out of their
course book in terms of language-learning support. How and when learners
learn the most, has also been considered by the authors. Whether it is
when the focus on language is part of the lesson or when it is the focus
of a whole lesson, is still a matter for debate. Richards
& Rodgers (1986:77) argue that:
"learners bring preconceptions of what teaching and learning
should be like. These constitute a "set" for learning,
which when unrealized can lead to learner confusion and resentment."
In this respect, the methodology of the structural syllabus could
be accounted for in the authors' approach.
Eclecticism of approach is also the focus of the accuracy versus fluency
debate in the Headway course design. Nevertheless, the tendency leans again
towards a more structural approach. Soars
and Soars (1991) prefer to consider accuracy and fluency and
not accuracy or fluency. They argue that the use of both at all
levels will result in a fair, balanced approach.
Thus,.. "the Headway series aim to make accuracy and fluency
cohere, and see them as confluent influences."
Whether this approach for coherence is apparent in the video package
which accompanies the course book is a matter for discussion in the following
paragraphs. Consideration will now be given to the general aims and claims
of the Headway Pre-Intermediate video package.
| GENERAL CLAIMS AND AIMS OF THE VIDEO |
The provision of revision and extension material is the claim of
the author (Falla 1994) in the use of the video
accompanying the course book. This is achieved through "Situations"
which mirror the Everyday English sections of the Student's book providing
functional language practise, which may then be used productively by the
students. Allan (1985:73) in her analysis of using
video at different learning levels, describes three levels of learners
namely, basic, intermediate and advanced learners. In her analysis of the
basic learner she states:
"Video's main role at this stage is to provide the learner
with the stepping stones to real world use of language by giving realistic
examples of language in use in a limited range of contexts."
Learners can then benefit from recognizing language learned when
seen in context by confirmation that the language is used in the real world
and giving learners confidence to be able to cope with real life situations.
At the intermediate level, Allan argues that learners are beginning to
develop control of the language they are learning. The Pre-Intermediate
stage, therefore, should possibly contain elements of both levels, although
it must be remembered that this description was written in the 1980s. The
second area of "Reports" or mini-documentaries based on
the Student's book syllabus, is aimed at the development of listening comprehension
skills. What these 'skills' are, are not elaborated on by the author.
Unit 4 "The Purple Violin" is based on the latter type of material featured but whether it is successful in achieving its aims is a matter for further discussion. Brown and Yule (1983:57) say that the aim of listening comprehension in a foreign language is the ability for learners to "arrive successfully at a reasonable interpretation, and not process every word". This is how native speakers comprehend. While listening, native speakers "operate with … partial reasonable interpretations of what they are listening to … and it is this general experience of success in understanding via such partial interpretations that allows the native listener to have confidence in his ability to understand what he hears (without in any sense totally comprehending everything he hears)". Whether the tasks in the unit allow learners to achieve this level of comprehension, will be discussed when looking at the material itself.
There is a Student's Activity book included in the package to provide pre-viewing and while viewing tasks. All units are sub-divided into 'Before you watch', While you watch', and 'After you watch' sections. The purpose of these sections is to provide learners with tasks to help them prepare for and help them use the video. It is essential that learners are suitably prepared before viewing the video material. There is always the problem that learners compare a video lesson with passively watching TV, therefore the tasks set must have a meaningful aim. Learners are likely to pay more attention to the video if they are viewing with a purpose. Lonergan (1984:5) argues that when using video in the classroom there must be a clear distinction from watching television and there is a need for some kind of activity used in conjunction with the video. Allan (1985:40) also talks about the fact that our minds are more active when viewing for a specific purpose.
Provided at the back of the student's activity book is the script
of each unit of the video. Suggestions for the exploitation of the script
is given in the video guide also included in the package. One of Falla's
suggestions is that weak students could read the script in preparation
for the video lesson. However, Allan (1985:47) suggests
that reading the transcript alone is not sufficient preparation for a video
lesson. The danger, here is that a learner might assume that they will
be able to cope with the sometimes diverse task types typically used with
video materials.
Falla (1994) suggests that the video is designed to be entertaining and that it is usually enough for learners to watch the video and then complete the tasks. Viewing techniques such as jigsaw viewing are seen by the author as not useful at this level. I would oppose this viewpoint and concur with Allan (1985:43) who argues about the possibility of applying this technique to any material. I have successfully used this technique with beginner adult learners and children. On the other hand, Falla considers that freeze-framing or silent viewing is useful although in practice, Falla only suggests that silent viewing could be used with two of the 'situation' units as a global viewing activity.
Included in the package is a "Video Guide" containing
teacher's notes for each unit. Falla offers that the notes are provided
as a guide for teachers in using the materials although, the suggestion
is that the materials are shown consecutively and at the appropriate point
in the Pre-intermediate course. There is definitely a need for a guide,
especially for inexperienced teachers or those who are not familiar with
using video. I have observed many inexperienced teachers use only the activity
book to prepare their lessons by completing the activity as they watch
the material. At least they have familiarised themselves with the material
even though they may be unaware of different ways of exploitation. I found
the video guide useful insofar that it provided an answer key to the tasks
(a key is not included with the Activity book). However, I did question
the validity of the vocabulary list featured at the beginning of each unit.
Falla describes them as lists of active and passive vocabulary, the latter
consisting of vocabulary learners will use in exercises in the unit. The
author continues …"unknown vocabulary should be dealt with before
students watch the video." I totally agree with Falla's argument,
but I fail to see the significance of his exploitation of the vocabulary
in the pre-viewing tasks. The presentation of vocabulary items and indeed
the language items are there only because they appear in the unit
and are presented out of context for recognition purposes. If the aim is
to provide a context for active viewing, these tasks are unsuccessful as
they give no clues as to what they will do with the information. Learners
are thus not adequately prepared for active viewing.
After considering the Headway syllabus and the aims and claims of
the video package, attention will now be focussed on the evaluation of
the video material.
| ELT VIDEO MATERIAL |
The video tape is of good quality without sound distortion. It is scripted and simplified to contain the target language introduced in the course book. This unit is a 'report' and in this case is a one-to-one interview with a musician and an interviewer. This report attempts to sound and look authentic but it is obvious that the discourse does not sound authentic. It is as if the dialogue is used solely as a vehicle to demonstrate the language introduced in the relevant unit of the course book. Indeed, if we return to Allan's argument that video at the elementary level should be giving realistic examples of language in a limited range of contexts, then this is a reasonable example (Allan 1985:73). However, the dialogue is far from real and comes across as very controlled, in my opinion.
A technique advocated in the use of video (Motteram & Slaouti:1996), suggested viewing the video material, before looking at accompanying print materials in order to examine the potential for visual support. However, this would appear to be superfluous in a piece of video footage such as this. The bulk of the visual takes place in the living room of a flat (presumably that of the musician). Indispersed with this are scenes of the musician playing his violin in the street of a town. The lack of visual clues stems from the static nature of the interview and the lack of paralinguistic features expressed by the speakers. If the technique of silent viewing was to be employed for the initial viewing by learners, the only real benefit to learners would be to illustrate the place, people and situation. Indeed, learners would benefit from silent viewing but, in this case they would quickly become bored with the fixed nature of the unit. According to Allan's argument, visual information helps to reinforce the audio signals heard (Allan 1984:40). I would argue that this is not true for this piece of material.
If I now turn to examining the print-based material accompanying the video, I suggest how there is a mismatch between visual support and audio support. As in all of the units in the student's activity book, the task approach is the same as previously described in this evaluation. The global viewing task enables learners to view the whole unit and calls for learners to watch and check predictions to a number of sentences. However, the introduction to the unit is very long and the first answers appear as a voice over and not in response to the dialogue between the two speakers which starts a few seconds later. Each time this activity was attempted by my students they failed to confirm the majority of answers because they were waiting for the answers to come from the dialogue they were watching. In fact, most of the exercises in the unit are based on the aural, thus creating the "heads down" effect where the visual is mostly ignored.
Adequate preparation before viewing any piece of video material is vital for understanding and indeed enjoyment of the video material can take place. There has to be some pre-viewing tasks to active learners' understanding of topic, setting and genre. There should also be tasks to compensate for the lack of knowledge of the topic and language. Headway is no exception and has a 'Before you watch' section to deal with these aspects. It is unfortunate that the tasks fail to prepare learners adequately for active viewing as there is no clue in these tasks as to what they are expected to do. Instead, they act as a means of recognition of lexis and grammatical items which will focus in the video unit. On a positive note, the large colour illustration of the musician and the following questions, does serve to activate knowledge on the topic.
There are clearly opportunities for the "chunking" of information although, this is mainly based on the aural and not the visual information. The remaining sections are broken up to focus on different listening skills. In fact, I would question the validity of using the video at all for any of these exercises because learners only need to concentrate on what they hear. Sections two and three attempt to use the visual for support but fail because of the difficulty of the task learners are asked to attempt. Not only are they asked to listen intensively but they also have to decode and understand specific terminology. Attempted the way they appear in the unit, in my experience, learners fail miserably in answering these questions even after listening to the sections several times. The problem learners have with these questions may be due to how we listen and process language. Cook (1989) describes the way native speakers listen in "chunks" so that information is stored in a way that makes sense in a global context. He goes on to suggest that approaches to listening in L2 will activate the same strategies in L1. Therefore, because learners at this level do not have enough experience of the linguistic system, they are unable to process the information they hear adequately enough to successfully complete the tasks.
The final part of this evaluation brings me to looking at ways of improving the material. I have already mentioned the fact that this material does not lend itself to picture-only exploitation. Instead, my suggestions for improvement would be to attempt to utilize the visual more and make more use of the music vocabulary featured in the pre-viewing section.
| BIBLIOGRAPHY |
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