LUCRARE METODICO-ȘTIINȚIFICĂ PENTRU OBȚINEREA GRADULUI DIDACTIC I [307954]

UNIVERSITATEA „ȘTEFAN CEL MARE” [anonimizat] I

[anonimizat],

Conferențiar univ. dr. LUMINIȚA- ELENA TURCU

CANDIDAT: [anonimizat]. LOREDANA-ANIȘOARA FLOREA (căsătorită MUREȘAN)

SUCEAVA, 2020

TABLE OF CONTENT

Introduction …………………………………………………………………3

Chapter I – Knowing the student…………………………………………. .7

The language learner

Encouraging the learner’s autonomy

Learner’s [anonimizat]

2.1 A review of policy and research evidence

2.2 A strategic approach to ICT

2.3 Beliefs about digital technologies and their potential

2.4 Using Video in the EFL classes

2.5 Approaches, [anonimizat]

3.1 Educational resources and learning resources

3.2 Video in teaching language construction

3.3 Teaching reading using video content

3.4 Teaching listening using video content

3.5 Teaching writing using video content

3.6 Teaching speaking using video content

Chapter IV – A bird’s eye view on some coursebooks with DVDs

4.1 Close-Up Series

4.2 Life Series

4.3 Super Minds Series

4.4 Keynote series

Chapter V – Methodical Applications

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

In the last decades there have been a [anonimizat] a massive technological development that has changed society profoundly and that has demanded educational services according to the markets’ requirements.

[anonimizat], and now it’s even more. Teachers have to master their school subject in order to teach but also to be very good judges of characters; [anonimizat], to “scan” them, to analyze their needs and to provide a proper learning scheme that works for them.

[anonimizat] a [anonimizat]-going society and students. [anonimizat]. Sometimes at the beginning of a teaching career you can hear lines like “you will grow out of it” or “this will pass too” or “you’ll get use to it” when something challenges you or troubles you in terms of teaching results. But if you turn your frustration into a challenge, results will show up. Teaching and learning standards are a [anonimizat], are demanded to meet those standards that are rigorous and measurable.

Our students and their needs are not the same everywhere. [anonimizat]. The same teaching strategies can be fruitful in some place but a complete failure in another. A strategy can be fully implemented if it’s appropriately differentiated for the students.

Taking into consideration all these facts, I [anonimizat] a [anonimizat]. During one of the plenaries held at an International Conference for English Teachers, I listened to David Evans (a magnificient teacher trainer and author of different English coursebooks) talking about how to motivate students to learn. The Speaker told the audience about different studies that revealed the fact that students are much more motivated when they are promised a reward (aka. a carrot) and less motivated and productive at the threat of a penalty (aka. the stick). Obviously, carrots are no longer a treat unless you are vegan (or rabbit), but we can replace the carrot from the analogy with something that can raise a hefty dose of dopamine and create a real physiological reward- chocolate, and consider having chocolate covered carrots.

Three young children enjoying a portable, healthy snack – a carrot on a stick Photo: Getty Images

Stick thinking is old fashioned. For many years in the past, stick thinking has dominated the management of people – in schools, in by gone days at least (fortunately), they literally used to hit pupils/ students with a stick, fines are designed to stick a person’s wallet and many bosses/ teachers/ parents demand compliance through yelling, so loud that someone would want to stick his/ her fingers in his/her ears. Fortunately, research has proven that sticks are not all that motivating, although all out terror can definitely be described as highly motivating, under the right circumstances.

A team of accounting professors from Michigan State university conducted an experiment, a simulation game in regard to the motivational factors. The game was set up, so the participants got to be the boss or the ones being bossed. In the game, the boss could use a chocolate carrot or a stick approach. Both the stick and the “carrot” were financial. Performance on the task was monitored. The workers who were rewarded with a bonus, actually put in more effort. Workers who had their pay docked for poor performance, did not raise their game, due to the punishment, but instead did less.

“The brain likes rewards. Of course, it can be quite a challenge finding seeds that grow into chocolate covered carrots, especially on a tight budget.

And for most of us, carrots grow too slow – we need instant gratification. But if you use your imagination, you can find a few “legal”, non-fattening ways to get a quick dopamine lift.”. We could go jogging or to the gym, have a good laugh, play a computer game, watch a good movie or read a good book, drink a cup of coffee/ tea or a glass of wine.

In the same way we can motivate students, with things they like doing, they enjoy, with things they know how they work. We live in a digitalize era and children are mastering the digital tools: mobile phones, gadgets, computer games etc. We, as teachers, must keep up the pace, and facilitate learning and language acquisition using these tools. Luckily, availability is not a problem and we can provide English lessons using different types of coursebooks that have DVD support, apps, websites and free authentic online materials.

An important factor in a competitive teaching domain is the prestige thought to be around video mastery in the EFL classes. Video materials are also used to expand aspects of the curriculum. Video is commonly inserted in the lesson to give a lift to methodology in terms of interest and motivation, to widen the range of teaching techniques in use, to enable complex presentations, to provide a modern design to a course by expanding the content of the units and the type of skills wanted to be developed. “Video can literally provide the complete picture: listening comprehension reinforced by watching comprehension. Video is considered potentially capable of developing a wide range of linguistic and semi-linguistic skills e.g. highlighting language functions, pinpointing non-verbal signals, showing the relationship between linguistic and paralinguistic features.”

Video is more often used with a specific interest, on all levels of English language learners. It is used to develop different skills at different times. Having activities with watching video contents demands a certain level of proficiency from the teacher’s part, in order to carry out more than one task concurrently. Students need to cope with having drills that prompts alertness and focuses attention at the same time. Introductory and follow up activities are compulsory, and everybody is aware of the need for support material.

Despite interest in video and frequent references to its potential, there still is an uncomfortable gap between actual and ideal use of it. There are alternative softwares for all levels, for general and specific purpose. Nowadays, the coursebooks market provide la vast range of books with DVD support, which helps the teacher to make the subject that he/she teaches attractive, interactive and reliable. Rapid technological development has benefited ELT, and has increased the methods and techniques applied in the EFL classes. In this way, teachers can merge very well the traditional methods with the modern ones, and can create and design the appropriate approaches for the students, according to their needs and interests.

Networking is also essential in the present, for our students and for teachers as well. Digital tools facilitate interaction and opens our world. Information is just a click away. Physical boundaries are no longer obstacles. People from different countries interact in English, students all over the world are inter-connected and share opinions, ideas, pictures, videos. Understanding of local trends, issues, pressures, culture and language are also key in developing the best possible opportunities for progress to be made. Teachers are facilitators of these inferences as they bring into class more and more real life.

In this study, I am going to present the learner and the way he can develop his learning autonomy with the help of the teachers, what constitutes the students’ motivation, how the ICT tools and applications have developed in the last decades, some of the modern coursebooks, websites and apps that I consider a very useful support for teachers and students in the EFL classes, lesson planning, practical examples of the way these modern tools can be used, and the final conclusions.

CHAPTER I

Knowing the student

The Language Learner

We are to talk in this chapter about the average learner, as pupils and students learn differently. Some of them are early developers, others late ones, some of them progress gradually, others in leaps and bounds. We, as teachers, should see where they place themselves on the learning ladder. We need to draw our attention to the characteristics which are relevant for language teaching.

There are many similarities between learning one’s mother tongue and learning a foreign language, although there are to be considered the learners’ age and the time that is available for the process. It is not known somebody to have found a universal pattern of language learning and teaching that everyone agrees with. Many things depend on which mother tongue the learners speak, their emotional background, their social status and what triggers them and motivates them to learn. “But the system of language and the understanding of it seems to fall into place for many children in the same way.” Children and adults learn differently, so make sure they understand the requests and they know what they have to do.

In the book “Creative Teaching: English in the early years and primary classroom”, Chris Horner and Vicky Ryf present three major themes in the way teachers teach:

Planning and assessing for learning;

Creating a learning culture;

Understanding how learning develops.

These themes construct an approach to learning that places the student at the heart of the curriculum and enables the teacher “to be creative and imaginative in facilitating learning.” The dialogue should be part of the feedback that we give to students. It should reflect a real interest regarding the child’s effort and to offer confirmation of what works for him or what areas might be improved upon. Students should be aware of the learning objectives and how they could be met.

Scrivner states that teaching is basically a permanent processing of options. At every point in the lesson, a teacher has a number of options available. He/ she should be able to decide to do what he/ she has planned, or to do something else that could work for that particular class of students, or to do nothing at all. To become a better teacher, it is important to be aware of as many options as possible and in this way he/ she can generate his/ her own rules and guidelines as to what works and what doesn’t. Creative teachers provide opportunities for students by involving them in deciding what they need or want to learn, to discover. Learners should be encouraged to reflect on what they already know and to decide what they want to learn. Setting individual learning schemes in consultation with the students is another way of involving them in their learning process. Some students can be motivated, others can be obliged to learn, others can do both depending on the sequence of studying. Sometimes young students don’t know what they want to study or to find out and how to accomplish some learning tasks, so the teacher is ought to show him “the path”. But being autonomous learner up to some degree on his/her preferred ways of working and having some choice on how to present their work can encourage a creative approach to learning.

Getting students to talk English in class can be extremely easy or extremely difficult. If it’s a good class atmosphere, students who get on with each other and whose English is at an appropriate level, will often participate willingly and enthusiastically if the teacher gives them a suitable topic and task. If you have a class of students at the beginning of a cycle or a mixed class regarding the level of second language acquisition, then things are not so easy. Or maybe the topic is not of interest. Sometimes they have a natural reluctance to speak and to take part in class activities. In such situations the role/ roles that the teacher plays is highly important.

The age of the students is a huge factor in the teacher’s decision about how and what to teach. Students of different ages have different needs, competences and cognitive abilities. Children of kindergarten and primary age acquire much of a foreign language through play, whereas adults expect a greater use of abstract thought.

Children who learn a new language early have a facility with the pronunciation. Lynne Cameron suggests that children “reproduce the accent of their teachers with deadly accuracy” (2003:111). Older children are better learners in terms of acquisition, but not pronunciation. The relative superiority of children over the age of 10 may be related to their increased cognitive skills, that allows them to understand more abstract approaches to language teaching.

Older learners can also reach “high level of proficiency in their second language” (Lightbown and Spada 2006: 73). They could encounter difficulty in approximating a very good pronunciation than children do. Yet, every student is an individual with different experiences inside and outside the classroom. Much depends upon individual learner differences and upon motivation.

Encouraging Learner’s autonomy

To compensate the fact that the classroom time has its limitations and to enhance the chances for successful language learning and acquisition, the learners need to be encouraged to develop their own learning strategies in order to become autonomous students. These self-learning strategies could be influenced or conditioned by their educational culture. Researchers see autonomy and associated learner behaviour as very important.

Mark James suggest that one of the main goal of English language teaching is for “students to apply outside the classroom what they have learnt inside the classroom” (2006: 151). Sarah Cotterall considers learner’s autonomy “an essential goal of all learning” (2000: 109). Joanne McClure shares the same beliefs. While working at the Nanyang Technological university in Singapore, she wanted her students to develop an awareness of their own learner’s profile. One of the things she wanted her students “to develop was a systematic approach to their reading, writing and research and to become increasingly aware of the way in which successful writers structure their research (McClure 2001: 143).” Sarah Cotterel and Joanne McClure talk about the fact that students should think over how they learn and in this way they can take charge of their own learning.

Teachers train and encourage students to be autonomous. They provide help to students in thinking how they can learn better, and the learner training is just the first step in self-directed study. “Students are encouraged to think about what (and how) they have been learning, are made to think about different ways of listening and are offered different strategies for them to choose from.”

Students can go through checklists of “to do”/”can do” statements at the end of a unit, or in which way they can focus better on listening or what information to look for in a listening material, by using their knowledge of the world, or to complete specific charts on a studying segment, to develop a systematic approach to their writing and studying (taking notes, making spidergrams, writing/ keeping journals or e-journals, files with materials they found helpful, recordings, etc.).

Figure 2

Figure.1 Students’ ways of self-studying

Learners can be involved in their own learning process through a graded sequence of metacognitive tasks that are integrated into the teaching/learning process.

• Make instructional goals clear to the learners.

• Help learners to create their own goals. 12 Language Teaching Methodology

• Encourage learners to use their second language outside of the classroom.

• Help learners become more aware of learning processes and strategies.

• Show learners how to identify their own preferred learning styles and strategies.

• Give learners opportunities to make choices between different options in the classroom.

• Teach learners how to create their own learning tasks.

• Provide learners with opportunities to master some aspect of their second language and then teach it to others.

• Create contexts in which learners investigate language and become their own researchers of language.

It is wishful and ideal for students to take over their own learning. As a first step in the process, they will be able to use the new language to express their ideas, opinions. Then they can make their own dialogues, their own conversations, they can become creative in speaking English. Dictionaries help students to acquire a proper language proficiency according to their capacities, as they are very complex and have the necessary tools to help students in pronunciation, proper usage and giving synonyms. On line dictionaries have the audio support as well, so the learner can check his/ her pronunciation and they can replay the sound in their own pace. When students can help or make decisions/ suggestions about what happens in and out of class, the lessons are more creative, interactive and improved.

Keeping journals is also a way of developing the autonomy of a learner. Students need to consider a way to receive feedback if their activity is constructive, if their journals are public or private, and how often their writings can be assessed. Feedback is very important and even more important is to be done in such manner to motivate the student.

The self-access centre (SAC) is another alternative for self-study, additional to class learning. At the centre students have access to loads of materials, from books, worksheets, collections of learner literature, reading texts to listening materials, CDs and DVDs. They can connect to the intranet or internet and search for information, study programmes, e-learning platforms, etc. Students need to be trained by teachers in order to facilitate its use to student’s best advantage. Sometimes websites may look boring or overwhelming. Many teachers design quizzes to make students explore them. Highly motivated and potentially autonomous students can help their colleagues in the learning process, as teacher’s assistants. Students can become members of online communities, can share ideas with other students from other schools in different countries, can improve their language level by using online vocabulary games, grammar interactive drills, storytelling, songs, film sequences, and so on. Many course books have e-platforms and sections dedicated to learner’s independent work.

1.3. Learner’s motivation and interest

Penny Ur says in one of her books that “motivation” is a term difficult to define and it would be more useful to think in terms of the “motivated” learner. In the Cambridge dictionary, the term “motivation” is defined as “the willingness to do something, or something that causes such willingness”. Considering this definition, the motivated student should be willing, even eager, to invest effort in learning activities and to make progress. Student motivation makes the teaching and learning process to be easier, more pleasant and more productive.

Gardner and Lambert have written in their books that motivation is very strongly related to achievement in language learning, but it’s necessary to consider which is the cause and which the result. It hasn’t been reached to a conclusive evidence in regard to whether motivation is more, or less, important than a natural capacity for learning (languages, in our case) or which comes first, motivation or success. But the Teacher’s job is to encourage student to develop their abilities to enhance motivation and to make it a constancy during the process of acquiring knowledge.

Students are motivated in different ways. To motivate them, teachers have to show them that the approached topics within a lesson are necessary for their lives or to make them desirable and intriguing.

Intrinsic motivation comes from within- a desire or a need that the brain considers as pleasurable or important. When we are motivated in this way, neurotransmitters such as dopamine are released in our brains (LeDoux, 2002). This gives us the settings to accomplish our goals. The same neurotransmitters are also released when our goal is achieved. The pleasure chemical- dopamine, makes us want to attain those things again in order to repeat the good feeling. Penny Ur said in one of her books that “intrinsic motivation is in its turn associated with what has been termed «cognitive drive» -the urge to learn for its own sake, which is very typical of young children and tends to deteriorate with age.

Extrinsic motivation is associated with rewards and/or punishments. Some researchers consider that extrinsic motivators change the brain and shift the goal from reaching the objective to obtaining some tangible reward/rewards or just avoiding punishment. Receiving the reward will cause dopamine to be released and this will train the brain to have good feelings about it. This type of motivation has sources that are inaccessible to the influence of the teacher (the desire of students to please other authority figure such as parents, the wish to achieve high results in an external exam, or peer-group influences) and sources that can be affected by the teacher (success and its rewards, failure and its penalties, authoritative demands, tests, competition etc).

Girard (1977) emphasized in an article that it is an important part of the teacher’s job to motivate learners. “In more recent ‘learner-centred’ approaches to language teaching, however, the teacher’s function is seen mainly as a provider of materials and conditions for learning, while the learner takes responsibility for his/ her own motivation and performance.”

Characteristics of motivated learners

Naiman et al., 1978, came to the conclusion that the most successful learners are not necessarily those to whom a language comes very easily, but those who display certain features, most of them clearly linked to motivation. Some of these characteristics are:

Positive task- orientation: the learner is willing to deal with tasks and challenges, in a self-confident way;

Ego-involvement: the learner considers that succeeding in learning helps him maintain and promote a positive self-image.

Need for achievement: the learner want to overcome difficulties and to be successful in what he/ she sets out to do;

High aspirations: the learner is ambitious and goes for high achievements;

Goal orientation: the learner directs his/her efforts towards achieving specific purposes;

Perseverance: the learner has consistency in putting up the necessary effort in studying, no matter the setbacks or frustration when failing;

Tolerance of ambiguity: the learner is not disturbed when he/she finds himself/herself in a situation of blurry understanding or no understanding at all. He/ she is confident that he/she will understand latter on.

Most good teachers agree that it is their responsibility to motivate learners, and they invest a lot of time and effort in doing so. As a teacher, you have to know your students and apply the methods and techniques that work for them, and if you found a way to combine the traditional with the modern approaches, your lessons will be relevant, reliable and fun (less stress for the teacher as his/her lessons work).

According to Abraham Maslow’s theory, certain needs must be met before the brain can focus on academic achievement. His hierarchy begins with physiological needs and then proceeds to safety, belonging, esteem, and, finally, self-actualization (Maslow & Lowery, 1998). Offering choices to students (responding to their needs for power and freedom) may also make them feel good about what they are doing and therefore make them more motivated and attentive. The brain cannot focus if student’s basic needs are not met. “The classroom environment— how the teacher affects the socialization process, what the expectations are and how they are communicated, and the modeling component—can significantly influence student motivation and attention.”

It is equally important to consider your students’ emotions, their likes and dislikes, their social background. Strong emotions can impede the reception of information hence creating a difficulty in coping with the lesson. Due to the fact that emotions are so powerful and triggering, to incorporate emotion into the teaching process is an excellent way to reach students and to make them engaged. If emotions organizes brain activity, and perception and attention are swayed by these states of mind, then the classroom experiences will be more memorable if teachers use emotions to reach students. The brain is always attentive to something and teachers want learning to be a first priority. Making students believe they can learn anything is in a teacher’s job description.

Harmer says in one of his books that when students feel that a teacher has little interest in them, they will have little incentive to remain motivated, but when the teacher is caring, interested, active and learning provocative, learners are much more likely to maintain an interest in what is going on and as subsequent effect, their self-esteem is likely to be nurtured. If they believe they matter, they will learn. What I have observed during my years of teaching is the willingness of students to get engaged and cooperative when their opinions counts and their interests are incorporated in the lessons. Teachers must help students grow and make them aware of the things they are good at, acknowledging their strengths and offering guidance and support in overpassing their doubts and fears.

Franklin D. Roosevelt said that “the only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” Guide students to make the change they need to succeed!

Achieving success highly motivates students and failure turns the balance into the opposite direction. It is an important part in the art of teaching to try to ensure that students are successful, as the longer they are good at something, the more likely you keep them motivated to learn. But success cannot be attained without effort and constant work. “What students need to feel is a real sense of achievement, which has cost them something to acquire but has not bankrupted them in the process.”

Students need to make measurable progress from their starting point or from one year of study to the next one. Proof of this may be completing a syllabus, gaining confidence or passing a test. However, by the end of a school year your students want to feel that it was all worthwhile because they’ve bettered themselves. Encouragement goes hand in hand with improving English skills. Your class wants to know that you’re on its side by the praise you give the students when they do well.

Students need to believe that teachers know what they are doing. However nice teachers are, students will not follow them unless they have confidence in their professional abilities. Teachers need to have the proper attitude and posture in the classroom, and talk “students’ language”, in order to decode the information. When trust is built, students stay connected to their teacher and they are more likely to remain engaged with the lesson.

Other things which motivate students are the activities during the class. Students like to do things they enjoy or they can see the point of. Students have different interest and learning styles. While some of them like activities which involve game-like communication and other interactive tasks, others may want to sing songs and write poems, or get focused on concentrated language study and poring over reading texts. Many students have a very good visual memory and they respond to video materials very well, they are focused at the task if the guidance lines were accurate and they are active and engaged during the activities.

Teachers should keep a constant eye on what they respond well to and what they feel less engaged with. Nobody wants to have a boring experience, so students rely on the teacher to make the lessons as lively and memorable as possible. “They don’t want a standup comedian or anything too eccentric, but there should be smiling, laughing and interesting debates and talks. In this way students will not just remember that they had a lesson about words for sports, for example, but they’ll remember the story of a great athlete that you gave as the backdrop to the vocabulary. Remembering is also a big deal for people learning a language, because they need enough repetition to drive the point home but not so much that it becomes tedious.”

Motivation is different for students, from all cultures. Culture is very important in a language lesson; it’s almost impossible to teach one thing without the other. Students want a role model who can give them a bird-eye view into the English-speaking culture while showing due respect to their own. They definitely don’t want a hint of superiority from their teacher but instead they want to know about any pitfalls in terms of appropriate behaviour and expressions.

In regard to the teaching and learning strategies, teachers need to look carefully at who the students are, where are they learning and which are their aspirations. As educators, teachers have to reflect upon what worked well during the lesson and what didn’t. The ability to reflect critically on someone’s experience and put that experience together with prior knowledge is essential to take information from immediate memory to process it in active working memory. Keep in mind that active working memory allows us to hold onto incoming information while our brains search long-term memory for patterns or connections that it recognizes. According to Williamson (1997), reflective practice may be a developmental learning process, and Wellington (1996) considers the possibility of different levels of attainment. Taking these views into consideration, teaching students about the value of reflection may be a first step toward a habit of reflection.

It seems that the biggest enemy in education is time. Teachers don’t have enough

time to cover the curriculum, to prepare for the specific tests, to give individual attention to students. They barely have time to eat lunch, go to the restroom, and check their e-mail box before classes restart. In a technological era, where files are in a computer folder at the distance of a click away, materials are organized on levels of language and skills to be taught, where archive is much easier to access you would think that we, teachers, have more time. The irony is that with this developed technology came a bigger amount of work to be done. The learning strategies are constantly changing as our students needs do as well. Since the learner is the core of the educational system, we continually think how to educate him in order to cope with the contemporary society. The flow of information is huge, everybody is connected with everybody and the tasks to be done change and multiply themselves each year.

Students motivation is vital for our lesson because motivated students equals with great classes, less stress for what doesn’t work during a lesson and more captivating topics to discuss in order to develop students’ critical thinking.

CHAPTER II

Digital technology and language learning

2.1 A review of policy and research evidence

Digital technology is already changing how we practice professional services and live our lives. Most schools – and every university and college – now have broadband access. Teachers increasingly use information and communications technology (ICT) to improve their own skills and knowledge – and to bring their lessons a pint of innovation. People working with children, students and adults are testing out new and better ways to deliver lessons/ courses with common processes supported by technology. The technology is making many administrative and assessment tasks easier, yet time consuming. Teachers need a more strategic approach to the future development of ICT in education. By doing so, they believe they can:

Transform teaching, learning and help to improve outcomes for learners, through shared ideas/ projects, more exciting lessons and online help for professionals;

Engage ‘hard to reach’ learners or the ones with special needs support, more motivating ways of learning, and more choices about how and where to learn;

Build an open accessible system, with more information and services online for parents and careers, children, young people, adult learners and employers; and more cross-organizational collaboration to improve personalized support and choice;

Achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness, with online research, access to shared ideas and lessons plans, improved systems and processes in children’s services, shared procurement and easier administration.

But first, some of the specific terms must be presented and explained in the following lines.

ICT (information and communication technology) is accepted and used as an abbreviation by everyone in education. There are people in the USA and the UK that are not really certain or precise about what the I and C stand for, linguistically or conceptually. The label used in the USA focuses exclusively on the technical medium itself (digital world), while in other countries is used as serviceable term with a more-or-less-common frame reference for all users.

In the case of foreign language learning, is more complex as the discipline generated its own subject-specific terms:

–CALL (computer-assisted language learning);

–CBLL (computer based language learning);

–CELL (computer-enhanced language learning).

The labels and their corresponding definitions remain arbitrary, transient and contingent. More than most other forms of teaching and learning, those that depend on digital technology are particularly prone to the effects of change, innovation and temporary. This thing makes more difficult for teachers “to time their assimilation of the technology effectively into their students’ learning programmes before the march of innovation has moved on and new digital challenges and opportunities present themselves to language teachers and learners”. There are effective ways in which the technology can enhance language teaching and learning aims because, as Stockwell pointed out –“many pedagogies exist as a result of technology and many technologies exist as a result of pedagogies” (2007:118).

Evidence of the impact of computer use in lessons on language –learner motivation has been intuitively accepted for a long time and overall there are evidences that learners enjoy it.

Ofsted conclude in his report on the impact of ICT, in 2004, that “one in three departments in the sample’ of schools” he visited on one year length period of time, “the impact that using ICT had on teaching and pupils’ achievement was at least good; in one in twelve it was very good”. Two main areas of positive impact were consolidation and practice through teacher use of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) or video-projectors in whole-class presentation of language and through developing students’ autonomy in language learning by completing activities such as word-processor- based redrafting exercises filled in by students individually or in collaboration through email/ groups online etc. Ofsted was worried about a negative side in all these, particularly the amount of target- language communication taking place in the languages lesson. Students and teachers don’t always know how to use all the information accurately and appropriately, and on time feedback is difficult to be given when you have a large number of students. Also lessons need to be thoroughly planned by teachers, the technological tools to function and to make the best out of what it is presented in class. Access to technology is frequents and easily done by students, but they have to focus on particular things pointed out by the teacher in order to achieve proper results, otherwise it’s just a distractor.

In Australia, in 2008, the aim of the Digital Education Revolution was to contribute sustainable and meaningful change to teaching and learning in schools that will prepare students for further education, training, jobs of the future and to live and work in a digital world. In the present, that is an education goal worldwide, and the amount of educational resources that are online and accessible to teachers and students is vast.

In England, in a review of six large-scale studies of the impact of ICT on pupil achievement, motivation and learning in schools in England, Pittard et al. (2003:3) concluded that:

generally, something positive happens to the attainment of pupils who make high use of ICT in their subject learning;

the use of ICT in class motivates students to learn;

school standards are positively associated with the quality of school ICT resources and their use in the teaching and learning process;

to achieve a positive impact of ICT on attainment, motivation and learning very much depends on the decisions of schools, teachers and students on how it is deployed and used.

In the USA, in 2007, The American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages reported on a survey, completed by 2,236 teachers, that the use of technology in their lesson continued to increase but without a dramatic extent.

Michael Evans states in his book “Foreign-Language learning with digital technology” that most of the early studies focused on learners of English as foreign language who had a working proficiency in the language. Studies on the impact of technology within educational field have registered in recent years, a growing number of meta-analyses and critical overviews on the topic within applied linguistics. The value of these studies stands in their individuality and in the themes that emerge through the analyses.

Michael Evans also says that if you apply the typology to the broader educational context, including the different domains of education, you still cannot view technology as a defining factor in alternative syllabus modes. We need to acknowledge that technology needs to be recognized as one of a range of different pedagogical and learning experiences within the classroom practice.

Classrooms around the world have video projectors, interactive whiteboards (IWB), built-in speakers for the audio materials delivered from a computer/ laptop/ mobile phone, and internet connected computers. Whenever teachers want their students to find out or to look for something, students can use a search web engine to show the results. In this way, sometimes it’s more engaging and more captivating for visual-learners and not only.

At the present time, existing research frequently highlights the use of technology as rewarding for both learners and teachers in second language learning classrooms. Yet, there are issues to consider. Although technology has become embedded in our everyday life, incorporating technology in education is a challenging endeavour.

2.2. A strategic approach to ICT

Digital technology is in an ongoing development and change, and it also changes how people do business and live their lives. Most schools – and every university and college – now have broadband access. Teachers increasingly use information and communication technology (ICT) to improve their own skills and knowledge –and to bring their lessons to life. People working with children, young people, and adults are testing out new and better ways to deliver services, with the help of technology, which can make many administrative and assessment tasks easier.

Learning a language is generally complex. Learning a second language usually happens in a situation in which direct instruction of the rules of language happens but it is obvious that formal L2 instruction is not enough because learners receive insufficient input in the target language. So as learning input is very important and numerous EFL students do not have the opportunity or the possibility to go abroad and experience exposure to real language, technology is a good tool to be used to introduce to learners “real life situations” language. In this way second language learners` exposure with the target language is provided. Video can be considered a useful challenging educational tool among technologies.

The resources that are currently available for the EFL lessons are truly amazing. The media offers an amazing variety of routes for learning and discovery, although not all classrooms in the developing and developed world have easy access to very modern technologies. Nevertheless, keep in mind that technology is an aid to a memorable lesson and not the core. Students and teachers are the engine of a class, and it is the teacher’s option whether to adopt the latest technological innovation.

The three crucial pieces of hardware to be used in a language classroom are:

a computer/ laptop;

a data projector or a wide screen TV (that connects with the computer);

speakers.

Teachers want to put up an enlarged version of the material they use for the lesson and the sound should be clear and sufficiently loud. The class will be able to see a word-processed task at the same time, or a picture, diagram/map, a song or video shots could be projected.

Presentation software increases the capacity to present visual material in a dynamic and interesting way. There are other softwares that offer a more interesting option where we can mix text and visuals with audio/ video tracks or songs. Music, speech and film can be integrated into the presentations. If it is overused it could get irksome, but there is no doubt that it allows teachers to mix different kinds of display much more effectively than before such digital tools came along.

Some studies expose the fact that students prefer technology because they believe that it makes learning more interesting and fun. They especially like laptops, tablets or smartphones. Subjects that students deem challenging or boring can become more interesting with virtual lessons, through a video, or when using a gadget. Many students indicated that using technology in the classroom would help them prepare for the digital future as education is about solving complex problems and learners building collaborative skills to shape up strong teams that would contribute to the success of the organization.

The impact that technology has had on today’s schools has been quite significant. This widespread adoption of technology has completely changed how teachers teach and students learn. Teachers are learning how to teach with emerging technologies (tablets, iPads, Smart Boards, digital cameras, computers), while students are using advanced technology to shape how they learn. By embracing and integrating technology in the classroom, we are setting our students up for a successful life outside of school.

2.3. Beliefs about digital technologies and their potential

Traditionally, language teachers may focus on word (improving vocabulary) and sentence (syntax and grammar) work and view text work as an outcome of the first two. The National Languages Strategy in England aims to put text level work on an equal footing with word and sentence practice. Professionals have highlighted the importance of the development of cultural awareness of the societies where the language is used.

The use of authentic texts and audio materials in the EFL classes used to be viewed as problematic due to the lack of easy and up-to-date access to such materials, limiting their use and effectiveness. The development of the internet has led to immediate access to resources for teachers and language learners. The availability to authentic texts, audio and visual files/ materials became vast and learners seem to be very stimulated. The lexis and structures is far beyond what has been encountered until a decade ago, and the subject matter may relate to a culture of which the learner has little or no experience. Authentic texts available on the internet illustrate how technology can be used to assist in language learning. Unfortunately, the pressures of time can lead languages teachers to focus mainly on the development of reading and listening skills as they relate to assessment criteria of the examination system, although it is highly important to develop learners’ confidence in facing the unpredictable challenge of the original and the awareness of the cultures where this language is the main means of communication and expression.

Despite the fact that it is a requirement to incorporate ICT into classroom teaching, changing the pedagogical practice of teachers is not easy. It has been researched that change is non-linear (simply providing access to technology does not ensure its use), is complex and needs to be rooted in support structures that are embedded within teachers’ social and working contexts. As for the experienced modern language teachers, they have established aspects of their identity as successful practitioner with certain and specific pedagogic approaches. In order to accept the use of ICT in their lesson and make it an efficient act, teachers need to be open-minded and skillful as to turn it into a pedagogical tool.

The reluctance of using the digital technology in the EFL classes came from teachers’ “fright” of a tool they don’t master (YET!). At first, they were afraid to use these tools, as they didn’t “grow up” with these media devices as their students did and do. The sources of these fears could be:

lack of confidence;

lack of training in using digital technology;

doubts about the value of ICT in the classroom;

lack of accurate planning;

problems with technology in itself (the internet doesn’t work properly, the computer could crash, the files could be lost, lack of electric power, mismatch of computer and video-projector, etc);

the belief that ICT is removing the possibility of children’s active involvement in the lesson (the use of technology requires them to sit passively instead of engaging with learning activities);

lack of facilities;

lack of digitally skilled students;

a big amount of research work for teacher to prepare ICT lessons properly and usefully;

lack of support from the school boards;

financial issues.

Andrew Goodwyn stated in his book “English in the digital age” (2004) that ICT “enables us to explore the significant and the signifying in powerful new ways”. He also makes a type of analogy of the British writer, Alfred Tennyson, with the contemporary teacher. In his time, he was preoccupied of the 'British' nation which was considering its empire building and industrial and technological future. Tennyson wrote:

And slowly answer'd Arthur from the barge:

"The old order changeth, yielding place to new',

And God fulfils himself in many ways,

Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.

(Tennyson, 'The Idylls of the King',

The Passing of Arthur, 1.407)

These lines captures the dilemma for many educators at the beginning of the twenty-first century. They are in between the print literature generation and the new generations concerned, they feel, with electronic media of all kinds.

“I am a part of all that I have met;

Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough

Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades

For ever and for ever when I move.”

(Tennyson, 'Ulysses', 1834)

Tennyson's lines seem to have been written nowadays: for a child facing a computer screen or a smart phone is like he is about to set off on a voyage across the Internet, the screen can be an arch of huge significance. Tennyson's Ulysses refuses to rest. He chooses 'to follow knowledge like a sinking star/ Beyond the utmost bound of human thought'; he is determined to remain 'A bringer of new things'. “That strikes me as a wonderful motto for English teachers, tempted perhaps by the safe harbour of literature but for whom a 'newer world' offers new possibilities.”

One of outmost importance tasks faced by today’s world is that of bridging the “new” mindset of digital insiders and the “old” mindset on which models of education are still based. Technology has an important place within students’ lives. When they are not in school, many things they do are connected in some way to technology. By integrating technology into their lessons, teachers are changing the way they used to teach and providing students with the tools they need for the 21st century.

Using authentic texts and video materials from the internet, English teachers can exploit news websites and commercial websites to practice vocabulary and communication, exploit websites specifically for children or adults to practice real life situation, exploit cultural authentic sites for culture lessons, exploit grammar sites for grammar drills. Teachers can develop strategies and techniques:

– to improve students’ reading skills,

– to shape up a critical thinking ability for students,

– to get students interact in groups more easily,

– to improve listening skills, etc.

– to engage them in topics appealing for them;

– to encourage them to speak in English about things they like, they enjoy, in a less stressful environment.

Effective technology integration for teaching specific content or specific topic requires a mutual understanding and negotiating between three important components: technology, pedagogy and content. Teachers that are able to obtain this mix efficiently have a higher expertise in these fields than average. Krumsvik underpins teachers’ double role when they are to focus on education and instruction with ICT, and to perform as role models when teaching ICT within the subjects.

2.4. Using Video in the EFL classes

Ben Goldstein presents in one of his articles a brief history of video in ELT, starting with the BBC video crash course “Follow Me”, from the late 70s, where the emphasis was on showing functional language context. The sketches were used as models for learners’ own output. Then in the 80s and 90s, the new concept of Communicative Approach was in the spotlight and the “active viewing” came in. The emphasis was on interface and teachers began to insert subtitles, freeze frame images and they could even remove sound. Students engage in more active roles, yet the most common task type was listening comprehension. Video materials were used as an extra activity, more rarely, and it was purchased in order to alleviate the coursebook and its grammar syllabus, as a form of light entertainment. The author of the article states that this fact coincided with the fun element of many CLT coursebooks with the emphasis on games, songs and self-enjoyment of the student. In the 90s, the “Speak Up” magazine/ video package showed up as a response to the need of authentic materials suitable for teaching and accessible to learners.

A number of questions emerged from the situation:

1) how much should it be done? (adaption of authentic material)

2) how advisable is it to use them? (use of subtitles/ transcripts)

3) what’s the ideal time sequence when presenting a video in class? (length of video sequences)

As a result, coursebooks began to integrate video, often incorporating shorter vox-pop sequences or documentary-style/ news-based clips. Teachers could show these materials with or without subtitles depending on their targeted skill, with the help of the coursebook tools. Publishers settled deals with media groups (such as National Geographic, Ted Talks later on) in an attempt to introduce authentic material seamlessly into the class content.

In the present day, the use of video for language focus or skills practice is now being challenged as there is the conventional task order of Before /While / After You Watch. Video is now commonly seen as a Stimulus – as a springboard to other tasks, such as discussion or project work. Likewise, video materials are being exploited increasingly for their visual qualities with learners not having to worry about comprehension issues. This means that the same video sequence can be used for different levels. Instead of grading the input, you grade the task.

The fourth use of video is video as resource and the changing status of digital video. Current estimates suggested that most of the internet traffic would be video-based in the near future. What are the implications for classroom shapes? Video classes already supplement F2F classrooms in Blended Learning programs. In the Flipped Classroom scenario, input is provided on video and watched by learners online, allowing for more and more F2F classroom interaction and changing the roles of the teacher / learner relationship in the process. The movement then is clearly from Video Exploitation with the teacher guiding the class to video creation with the learner taking on a more active role. “This movement echoes the blurring that exists in the digital age between author and audience. It is also symptomatic of the evolving nature of literacies, with a movement from Convention to Critique to (Re-) Design”.

Rather than our learners following a model or merely criticizing that model, they can now design their own material and thus contribute to their own meanings. In the case of video, new genres and hybrids are being created as a result of these changes – remixes, mash-ups, etc. This is the future of video materials in the classroom – the learners providing the input themselves – designing, scripting, recording and transmitting it in any way they see fit. As Stephen Apkon says: “There is no better way to critically appraise the message of others than to speak one’s own message”. On Vimeo it is a short video in this matter, how a learner/ person can create his own input in regard to his own interests and likes.

Scrivner says in his book “Learning Teaching”, that a teacher should take into consideration some basic guidelines while playing video materials during the lesson:

to keep it short;

to exploit the material;

to switch it off when the students don’t look at it (a fuzzy, buzzing device can become a distractor);

not to use only video chunks to extract language for study, but to use them as starting points for communicative activities, for writing or introducing new topics.

Video should be used as another tool in the teaching process. A creative teacher can design many learning activities out of a few minutes video sequence. When a teacher wants to exploit video recordings, he should consider its purpose and language production. A video has sounds and moving images, has “pause” and “back/ forward” options that can help students replay that piece of material, or pause to make assumptions for what happens next or go back to pay more attention to some expressions and deduct the meaning and so on. You can be accurately jumped to a specific moment that requires more focus, or you can replay small sections with precision, you can show/ hide subtitles on screen, or isolate a sound cue or play music, watch a film scene and compare with the book, you can even rewrite it, if options are available. On the website ISL Collective such options are posible for any chosen video by the user.

Some recently published coursebooks have DVDs attached to them, in order to provide supplementary materials for students research, isolated sound cues and music available and also video shots for each unit from the student’s book to enable learners to see the “full picture” and to engage them in active and interesting communicative activities.

Using video and DVD during the EFL classes

The video activities can be devided in 3 general categories:

Before watching: what you do before you watch a section of recording;

While-watching: what you do while you watch;

After watching: exercises to be done after viewing.

Before watching/ Previewing – some specific drills:

A language focus on lexis, function and grammar that will come up on the recording;

Students predict what will happen from some given information or pictures;

Students discuss a topic that leads into or is connected with the subject from the video sequence;

Students study a worksheet that they will use when watching the recording.

The previous lesson could also constitute in itself a preview task, leading to the video material to be watched. If a particular function is being studied, the students might already have spent a lesson or two working with it and now view the recording to expand their knowledge of it, or they had a vocabulary lesson on a specific topic and the video sequence can help them practice their speaking skills/ assess the previous vocabulary/ better understanding of the meaning , etc.

Sample exercise, Close-Up C1 Student Book, pg.16, Unit 1

While watching

A clear viewing tasks should be set for the English lessons in order to help the student get the most of the video. The task-audio and watching- feedback circle still works well as a basic procedure for this type of activity. Task might be in the form of oral instructions/ worksheet/ checking previously made predictions, or they might be a natural follow-up from the previous activities. Teachers may want to replay the recording through many times with harder tasks. Tasks can be listening, looking or intrepreting. The answers to many of the questions will involve active interpretation of the visuals as well as the audio information. “Focusing on gestures, facial expressions, body language, etc. is especially useful when studying functional language.”

Sample exercise, Close-Up C1 Student Book, pg.16, Unit 1

After watching – some specific exercises:

Discussion, interpretation, personalisation (“would you like to be a skydriver?” or “what can go wrong?”, “do you think it worths the risk?”etc.)

New language study;

Inspiration for a future project or other work;

Role-playing, imagining a particular scenario;

Writing tasks (letter of recommendation, article, story, etc.)

Imagine a different ending.

Sample exercises, Close-Up C1 Student Book, pg.16, Unit 1

Video materials can be used in different ways in the EFL classes. Teachers should be willing to use them during lessons but in the same time they must be aware of the fact that they cannot plonk students down in front of a screen and expect the programs to do the job. As a tool, video should be mastered by the teacher according to the needs of the class. He needs to make sure that he knows how to exploit it in order to be fun, entertaining and learning efficient. The purpose of the visual material is to serve the stuying process and not to entertain the students. Ideally is to blend them together. Previous preparation is vital. The teacher has to take time before the lesson to thouroughly set all up, to be prepared for a machinery failure and have a backup. I once had a lesson with video support and there was a power break. The key is not to panic. I improvised and used the backup handouts. The lesson was successful due to previous planning.

Aims and objectives

Teachers should think very carefully before starting a plan, designing a pattern.

The aims should be clear and concise and to show what the teacher wants to achieve, like:

To improve the students’ ability to communicate effectively in formal/ informal written or spoken English;

To develop an understanding and appreciation of the world’s cultures/ grammatical structures/ words meaning, etc;

To create opportunities for students to engage in creative self-expression/ creative projects/ interactions/ role-plays;

To develop students’ listening/ speaking/ communication skills;

To engage students in talking about specific subjects, in a stress free environment.

‟Aims may point you in the right direction, but they don’t tell you how to get there, or when you have arrived. So intentions must be described in a more detailed way with what are variously called ‘specific objectives’, ‘behaviourist objectives’, ‘competencies’ and/or ‘specific learning outcomes’”. If the teacher knows precisely what students should be able to do, it is much easier to assess whether or not they can do it. This enables him/ her to evaluate how successful his/her lessons have been. The crucial point is that the outcomes precisely describe observable learner performance, shifting the focus on to what the students will be able to do as a result of their learning, and away from what the teacher will do. For example:

Some teachers find writing objectives sometimes difficult, but if they are focused on what the students should be able to do, the task becomes clear and effective. Bloom’s “Taxonomy of Educational objectives” divides them into three main domains:

Cognitive (to state; recall; recognise; describe; explain; identify; illustrate; apply; use; select; differentiate; summarize; etc.)

Affective (to listen; appreciate; recognize; believe; etc.)

Psychomotor ( to draw; to mix; to sketch; etc)

If the teacher considers these point, his planning will be efficient and his lesson productive.

The use of technology in the classroom does not replace using traditional materials. Technology tools are used to complement and enhance regular classroom work. The teacher can produce additional electronic materials to review coursebook material on the topic, independently. For many learning purposes, visual information is more effective. Getting students to summarise their understanding in a visual way and then to check this is a great way to learn.

CHAPTER III

Approaches, methods and techniques used in video lessons

3.1 Theoretical input and practice

In “The Practice of English Language Teaching”, Jeremy Harmer explains the differences between the above terms. He defines them as it follows:

The use and mis-use of these terms can make discussions of comparative methodology somewhat confusing, but what the interested teacher needs to do when he is confronted with a new method, or a new technique, is to see if and how it incorporates theories of language and learning.

Grammar-translation, Direct Method and Audiolingualism

Before the nineteenth century, scholars used to consult lists of foreign languages in dictionaries. Now, with the development of technology, students can access dictionaries online from computers or smartphones. It’s time saving and accurate as well.

Sample of word definition from Cambridge English Dictionary

The Direct method was a reform movement as reaction to the restrictions of Grammar-translation. The teacher and students could interact by relating the grammatical forms they were studying to objects and pictures, to establish meaning easier. In the 20th century, due to travelling possibilities world wide, this method morphed into the Audiolingual method. It would use stimulus-response-reinforcement models to engender good habits in language learners. With the help of the video materials, the objects can be put on a screen, accompanied by sound or other important details. Repetition of words/ lines is facilitated due to video projectors and speakers in the classroom and it can be replayed and worked with at students’ own pace.

Presentation, Practice, Production- is another method grew out of structural-situational teaching whose main departure from Audiolingualism was to place the language in clear situational contexts. Students now practise the language by using repetitions, cue response drills, substitution exercises. The teacher can present an image on the whiteboard/ screen of a picture and ask question about it. Students elicit answers, can develop the action further on, can describe a completely different situation, can use specific vocabulary or practise chunks of language.

Samples of pictures used for speaking drills

Ex: The teacher points to one of the picture from the image above and plays a sound. The student has to express the verb whose action is described by the sound. Them they write on the board sentences that describe one of the pictures. Students practice specific language sequence (verbs to describe actions: taking photos, visiting the museum, painting etc., or they could practice past continuous/ past simple- ex: We were taking photos at 3 o’clock yesterday / We went on a school trip a week ago and we took photos of those places). After this practice, they are able to produce their own sentences, using specific vocabulary/ grammatical structure.

The teacher can also present a short video of approximately 2 minutes where 2 teenagers are doing some shopping. The teacher can practice specific vocabulary with the students. They can make shopping lists, clothes descriptions, creative writings etc. They can imagine a follow up story for the next lesson and develop writing and speaking abilities.

Printscreen of a video sequence (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_EwuVHDb5U)

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

This method means different things to different people. It’s like an extended family of different approaches. It doesn’t concentrate solely on grammar but on communicative functions people perform with language and other notions of it. Students are involved in meaning-focused communicative tasks, and they have vast exposure to language and plenty opportunities to use it. Activities in CLT typically involve students in real/ realistic communication, where the successful achievement of the communicative task they are performing is at least as important as the accuracy of their language use. Role-play, debates and simulation are very popular drills. CLT “has become a generalised ‘umbrella’ term to describe learning sequences which aim to improve the students’ ability to communicate.”

It has sometimes been seen as a method on the pursuit of fluency rather than students’ accuracy.

As a teacher, I used this method during EFL classes, involving technology as well. For example, I wanted to teach my students vocabulary related to extreme sports, and I wanted to make them talk, in pairs/ groups about them. First I pre-taught the vocabulary and solved some thematic exercises, then I presented them a video about bungee-jumping, skurfing, windsurfing, free-diving, paddleboarding, white-water rafting, etc. After the video, I split the students in 2 groups: each group had an equal number of students to the number of extreme sports presented in the video. Each students was given a card with the name of the sport they practice, and they had to make a speech in order to convince the other members from the group that his sport is the most exciting and challenging and rewarding. Clues for the arguments were presented in the video sequence. It was a role-play exercise. Other students were chosen to be the judges, and to expose reasons for their choice of the winners.

Teacher talking time was reduced to the minimum and students talking time was bigger than for an average exercise. The material was authentic and engaging for the learners. Students had fun, they were creative and spoke in English in a stress free environment.

Printscreen of a video sequence (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qEbjw_I0-o)

Task based learning (TBL)

This method makes the performance of meaningful tasks central to the learning process. Students are presented with a task they have to perform or a problem they have to solve. This type of approach requires a Pre-task stage (the teacher introduces the topic and may highlight useful words and phrases), a During the Task cycle stage, when students perform the task in pairs/ groups and the teacher monitors the activity and a Language focus stage –students examine and discuss specific features of any listening exercise or reading text they have worked on.

I worked with my classes this type of exercises frequently, using video materials during the lesson. An example of such a drill:

Activity – A woman is talking to her husband about her day at work.

The lexical approach

Michael Lewis says that this approach is based on the assertion that “language consists not of traditional grammar and vocabulary, but often of multi-word prefabricated chunks”(1997:3).

What I used with my students for this matter, was the British council Kids site, where they have uploaded video lexical games. These are fun, engaging and activate students prior vocabulary, whilst acquiring new words as well.

Video lexical games I used during my English Classes

3.2 Video Teaching Techniques (theory and practice)

Freeze Frame- the video is used like a picture dictionary. The teacher presses the Pause button on the video sequence, and the image on the screen “freezes”. He can pause to ask questions about what students see (vocabulary lists), describing scenes/ people, making inferences about the characters’ habits/ economic or social status from their clothing or physical shape, etc. The “magic” of the video is that the characters move and speak.

I used this technique just at the point when a character is about to respond to a question, at a crucial moment when he/she must make a statement or reaction, or when the character has an interesting facial expression. I used it for reported speech once. I played a video recording from TED Talks, where a former girl model from the fashion industry held a speech about her image on the covers of magazines and her real self. I paused and I asked students to retell her story up to that point.

It is useful also for pronunciation and grammar practice. You can stop the video material when a character has used an intonation pattern, a grammatical structure or idioms that students need to practice. The utterance can be replayed and repeated as often as needed.

Below I present some examples of activities, using this technique:

Students find this type of exercises engaging and pleasant. The downside of them is the lack of time dedicated to this kind of activities, due to syllabus planning. But nevertheless, creative students and creative teachers find the opportunities to make them possible and insert them in the planning in order to achieve a good lesson.

Silent Viewing- a video clip is played, without the sound. The teacher asks the students questions about what they saw, he/she asks them to try to tell the story to the class or to each other, in pairs or in groups, and he/she prepares questions for them to answer about the clip guessing the meaning, etc. Then the video is played again with sound and students check their answers.

Students attain much information visually. They can make judgements about a person’s age, physical appearance, economic status, a person’s mood and behaviour. They can recognize the time of the day or the season. When two people are talking, students can infer a lot about their relationship and personalities from their body language. If small details are observed, through video close-ups, we can find out additional information: if he’s rich or poor, whether the person is married or in search of a relationship, if he’s relaxed or nervous, if he’s clean or dirty, etc. All this information is readily available for class discussion.

For very young learners, this techniques is useful for playing video games, where they have to recognize the item and pronounce the correct words (guessing games), or to sing a song previously learned by simply watching the clip.

Video scenes usually present many unsubtle clues to their content. By watching a scene with the sound off, students gain two major benefits:

Time in which to absorb the content of a sequence without the anxiety of having to understand the language;

A chance to fit the language that they hear on a second viewing into a context. By this, their level of comprehension in the second viewing is superior to that of a first viewing that includes both sound and picture.

This type of exercise is very engaging and stimulates speaking and writing: students want to communicate their interpretations/ opinions of the people and actions they have seen on the screen.

Prediction Technique- a clip is ongoing and it is stopped at a certain point in the clip. The teacher asks the students to predict what will come next. Students can work individually, in pairs or in groups and they share ideas with a partner after thinking first on their own and then offer their best idea to the class.

Listening without viewing Technique – The teacher turns the image off and has students listen to a clip. He/ she uses focused listening techniques and asks students to listen for specific information. The learners can be asked to fill in a chart with information gleaned from the listening.

This technique is also known as Sound Only technique, involving listening for aural clues to the action. Sounds effects may be included. It’s like a listening exercise, but with the major advantage that students can positively confirm their guesses immediately upon viewing.

After listening to the audio material, students make predictions about what is happening. Who and where the people are and what are they doing. They can also describe a character by listening to his/her voice. The teacher may use this type of practice if he wants students to pay particular attention to a small piece of dialogue, while avoiding the distraction of the activity on the screen.

Listening activities are of utmost importance in an EFL class, as they provide a valuable and necessary language input and students can learn and hear the English words from natives. The aim of a listening exercise is for students to understand most of the information presented to be able to do the tasks. This is how they become more confident when they hear spoken English. The advantage of having the video input as well is that they can check their understanding and see if their predictions were correct. (Appendix 1)

Back-to-Back Technique- based on the idea that pair partners know, each of them, different but incomplete versions of a story. In order to recreate the original story, they need to share their information. Video input helps with the sound and visuals and it adapts quite easily to the task.

The classic mode of “Jigsaw Viewing” requires the ability to have 2 rooms for simultaneous tasks, or one room but the two teams enter the room one after the other, which requests more time span. One team member is retelling the story he sees (without sound) while the other team member is with his back to the screen, then they switch places and after that they reconstruct the whole happening. These type of activities can be made by the teachers, considering the structures needed to be revised, or they can be found online (http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/04/26/the-best-popular-moviestv-shows-for-eslefl/).

An easier, quicker way is to rearrange the students’ seats so that half of the class face the screen and are able to see the video; their team mates sit with their backs to the screen and can only listen. This creates an information gap –the listeners lack vital information and must question their counterparts about the setting, the characters, and the characters’ actions. As the students watch, those who can see may describe what is happening. Or you may tell the students to wait until the sequence is finished; then the listeners can question the watchers. Tip: choose a sequence of no more than two minutes in length –the listeners get very jealous of the watchers!

Summary Strips Technique- students are given summary strips in a random order. They have to find the right order. Then they watch the video and check if they were correct. (Appendix 2)

Normal Viewing Technique- watching a video with both the sound and the picture qualifies, however, as a technique in an educational sense: the teacher chooses to show the video in this manner in order to give to the students the visual and audio information they need to complete a task.

The teacher will also want to create very structured tasks for his/her class if Normal Viewing is used as an initial viewing. While he/she can’t expect detailed comprehension from the students, the teacher can create activities that focus on sequence of events, checking off things that they see (or do not see), listening for paraphrases, and gaining impressions that can lead into writing assignments. The most common use of this technique, however, is on a second or third viewing of a taped segment, after students have a general impression of the content gained through silent viewing. Now they can concentrate on activities that require recall of specific vocabulary or language exchanges. (Appendix 3)

Comprehension Check Technique- it’s a very similar technique to the listening type of drill, having visuals as extra help for understanding the meaning.

Role Playing- students can be asked to role play sequences they have seen in any of the video materials. We have found it more interesting to get them to role play things which are not seen in the video, but which they can guess from having seen the video.

The actual way we do things depends not on the choice of a method (although it is possible that a method may be appropriate), but rather on why and where and what we are teaching. What do we want to achieve and in what context? We need to analyse these features and then choose from the procedures and techniques at our command those that best fit the situation we are in. “At all levels and at all stages of teaching we should be able to say clearly why we are doing what we are doing.”

CHAPTER IV

Teaching grammar with video input

4.1 Introducing grammar to learners

Many times grammar can happen as a result of other work that students are doing- if they study language in context, or if they have been listening/ reading an English material, or when a grammar problem presents itself unexpectedly in the middle of a lesson and we consider we need to deal with it on the spot. Grammar teaching can immerse directly from the tasks the learners are doing or have just done as part of a focus-on-form approach.

Any time the teacher can emphasize the crucial relationship between reading and writing will be beneficial for the students. When he/she introduces a grammar concept, a model paragraph or text can be shown to students, a model which illustrates this concept nicely. For example, when teaching indirect/reported speech, teachers can take a news article and highlight the examples of indirect speech for the students to expose them to this new form. Students may study the bolded sentences, and ask why these sentences are written the way they are.

Grammar can be introduced to students in various ways, or we can show students grammar evidence and ask them to work out for themselves how the language is constructed. Students may be provided opportunities to practise different grammar points and also games to make such practice more engaging. Teaching grammar to students was and still is a challenging task, as students do not learn by traditional methods but they tend to learn better if the chunk of language to be taught is presented in an engaging and motivating way. Presenting the rule and working strictly on it is not effective any more.

Joseph Webbe (schoolmaster and textbook writer) wrote IN 1622: “No man can run speedily to the mark of language that it shackled…with grammar precepts”. Webbe was one of the earliest educators to question the value of grammar instruction, but certainly not the last. Grammar debate has preoccupied theorists and practitioners for a long time (probably it still does). Differences in attitude to the role of grammar underpin differences between methods, between teachers and between learners. It is a subject that everyone involved in language teaching and learning has an opinion on. Sometimes these opinions are strongly and uncompromisingly stated. In recent years there has been a growing recognition of the importance of word- and chunk-learning, such that some writers have proposed a lexical approach to teaching, in contrast to the traditional emphasis on sentence grammar. This method promotes the learning of frequently used and fairly formulaic expressions (“Have you ever been…?/ Would you like a…?”) rather than the study of rather abstract grammatical categories or structures.

There are many different teaching methods which people today purport and which do not focus on solely teaching grammar. It is important to realize, however, that students have different learning needs. Some will take a more logical approach, whereas others will be more inclined to simply use the language as they receive it. An effective teaching method is learning how to blend these two together. However, when it comes to teaching in schools and other institutions this might be required as some examinations which students prepare for will focus solely on grammar and therefore it is essential to know how to get these points across to the students. Dealing with grammar is only a part of the teacher’s activities and since the classroom time is quite limited, it seems imperative that whatever grammar teaching is done, is done as efficiently as possible. When considering an activity for the presentation or practice of grammar, the first question to ask is: “How efficient is it?”. Efficiency in turn, can be broken down into three factors: economy, ease and efficacy. “The shorter the better”- be economical in terms of planning and resources. The ease factor implies the fact that teachers have busy lives, many classes to teach and little time to sacrifice in order to prepare elaborated classroom materials. Generally speaking, the easier an activity is to set up, the better it is. Finally, and most importantly: Will it work? What is its efficacy? This is difficult to evaluate and measure as learning, like language, resists measurement. Every teacher knows his/her students and should be able to apply the necessary teaching techniques that work for his/her students. The teacher can establish the indicators of performance that need to be measured in order to assess students’ development in learning English. At the end of a school year, he needs to evaluate them and to quantify progress. If there are students preparing for a college entrance examination or any other kind of test, then simply knowing grammar structures may be the key to passing it. If the learners have been doing grammar all along but still don’t understand the mechanics, then it is important that the teacher makes sure that they receive a crash course in it. English grammar can be relatively simple when it is all laid out. They can start from the beginning, the teacher can give them a few practice exercises and let them work their way up. It is also a good idea to create a “grammar book” or a portfolio with grammar precepts, whereby the students can write down the various sentence structures and tenses, class by class, so that they will always have a reference.

4.2 Teaching grammar differently

During one of the national conferences for teachers of English that I’ve attended to, I “came across” a very good international trainer, named Hugh Dellar, who is among many things, the co-author of the coursebooks series “Outcomes” and “Perspectives”. What he said during one of the plenaries was lifechanging for me. He said to approach grammar differently and to teach it from a lexical approach, giving also a series of examples to support his argumentation.

Picture taken during a Fischer International Conference that I attended

Learning the rules of language can be exciting and energizing and… very much, boring. Teachers around the world try (and many times they succeed) to make this technical side of language interesting to their students. With a few simple strategies boring grammar classes can be banished and teachers are able to ensure students that they may be just as excited about grammar as any other aspect of language learning.

Considering the new perspectives, I started to shape up more active, engaging and efficient ways to teach grammar to my students who are sportsmen and sportswomen, who needed to be focused and motivated, but in a simpler way. On the following pages I’ll present some of the drills and activities practiced during my classes.

4.3 Making Grammar lessons more engaging

USING SONGS

Music is often a great way of getting students to learn. By singing phrases, this will become embedded into the mind a lot faster, especially when teaching teenagers. In order to do this, I downloaded songs that uses several tenses or differing grammar points. I got the students to sing along, and then to write up the lyrics on the board, or to fill in the lyrics with the missing words. If the tune is in their head, you can quiz them on what tenses or grammatical points are in the actual text. I made it short and quick, and once they get the hang of it I had them sing the song again.

After this, you can make a game out of it. Select individuals to say or sing a verse or phrase from the song, but change the tense. This way they will be able to practise with using the different tenses and verb forms, but in a much more light-hearted way.

USING GAMES

There is no doubt that playing games will make learning a lot easier. Both adults and children love these. The teacher can turn it into a competition. This will often get the students motivated to get the answers right and therefore allow them to learn much faster. Amongst teenagers this can be particularly effective, whether the class is divided into two or more groups. By turning it into a competition, everyone will become a lot more active and a lot of fun can be experienced by everyone.

TELLING A STORY

Another way to make grammar a little easier to digest is to teach it in the form of storytelling. Perhaps get the students to form a “story stick” whereby everyone contributes a line to the overall story. If there are any grammar mistakes in this, then leave it until the end.

When the entire story is finished and written out on the board, get a student to come up to it and make the appropriate corrections. With participation from the class, have the entire text corrected. Ask the students questions as to why certain tenses are the way they are. Having something to focus on like this will keep the students’ attention and therefore allow for the understanding of grammatical structures to sink in a lot easier.

USING PICTURES

It is necessary to take time and to file up all different categories of pictures including: famous people, people doing things, pictures of homes/ houses, street scenes, animals, food, rooms in a home, odd cartoons, diverse people and groups of people, interesting and colourful objects, etc. This can be done by gluing them to construction paper and laminating them if you have the option. You will get years of use of them and continue to add to them as time goes on.

GET STUDENTS MOVING

Getting your EFL students up and moving around the classroom will serve multiple purposes. Not only will physical activity keep your students more awake and focus their attention on the lesson at hand, it will also help them remember and retain the language they are learning. Making physical associations with language concepts is the key to Total Physical Response, a well know and well respected ESL/EFL teaching method. Though having students move around the classroom may seem chaotic at times, the advantages far outweigh the drawbacks when it comes to actions in class.

MAKING CLASSES COMMUNICATIVE

Communicative classes focus on communication and language used by students rather than theory and repetitive practice. Making a habit of encouraging students to use the language that they know to get their meaning across, even when the grammar isn’t really accurate. In grammar class, teachers can include speaking activities and give students a chance to put their language use to practical applications whenever possible.

FREE READING

Giving your students an opportunity to read authentic English materials without requiring follow up activities or assessment is another way to sneak grammar instruction into their language learning diets. When students read, they see English grammar used correctly. With enough exposure to language in this form, and when it is paired with ESL instruction, your students will find themselves absorbing the grammar they see on the page. The key here is to avoid putting pressure on your students when it comes to this type of reading. Being patient is essential, and eventually your students will begin to pick up what someone else has put on the page.

4.4 Teaching grammar with video input

Video has been used in teaching and learning various aspects of ESL/EFL, including listening and vocabulary (e.g., Chung, 2002; Garza, 1991; Gruba, 1997; Talaván, 2007). These studies have emphasized the effect of video on ESL/EFL students’ learning because of its multimodal materials offered to learners, including audio and visual input. This helps learners to better understand or comprehend the content.

USING ONLINE WORKSHEETS AND VIDEO SEQUENCES

Due to the development of technology, every student (and teacher) has internet connectivity almost 24 hours a day. Since the smart phone seems to be like an extension of the human body, a compulsory tool or accessory, teachers can use it in the benefit of learning. The vast number of websites that provide on-line grammar worksheets offer to students the possibility to work extra, in addition to the exercises printed in the course books. The great advantage is that many of them provide immediate feedback, as learners have options and they can check themselves at the end of the exercise. Whenever they need more practice, I encourage my students to work online, having provided some recommended websites.

https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com (Appendix 4)

https://www.ego4u.com (Appendix 5)

https://www.english-4u.de/en (Appendix 6)

http://www.islcollective.com

I also use video materials to present different tenses to students as visuals are more engaging and students love to process the information by seeing it. From a short video you can build an entire lesson. The teacher can offer basic information to students, he writes on the board some sentences with actions from the video material, then the students have to recognise the pattern. Individually, the students will need to write on their notebook similar examples, by changing the subject or other parts of a sentence.

Further practice can be done, depending on the students’ English level. Below I present some of the drills that I have practised with my students during the English lessons.

Applications during classes:

After teaching the first two grammar rules for conditionals, the students are provided with online worksheets to practice and better understand the concept. The worksheet is exposed with the help of a video projector. The students are divided into groups of 4 and they start with exercises of lower level of difficulty, followed by more demanding ones in the process. By organising and offering these types of exercises on different levels I, as a teacher, engage the less knowledgeable students/ shy students to more advanced and active learners. They also develop collaborative skills in a less stressful environment. What is also a gain for all the participants to this type of activity is the instant feedback, as there is a check button and if there are still issues regarding the comprehension of the theoretical part, the teacher can and will pause in order to discuss the matter thoroughly and be better understood by the students.

The drawback of this kind of exercise is that it’s time consuming and sometimes technology may not be working properly, or the internet connection may be slow. In these cases I use my backup worksheets that I have downloaded in my computer, or even printed on paper. A good teacher has to have a second plan, just in case.

As a follow up to these type of exercises, personalized dialogues can be made, using parts from the sentences of the presented worksheets. In this way students will be able to practice speaking in a semi-controlled way. It is a less creative type of drill but some students feel more confident as they have most part of the lines. By repeating the pattern, the learners improve their pronunciation and overpass some emotions they might have while doing that.

Students that have attended this activity were at an intermediate and upper intermediate English knowledge level.

https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/first-conditional.html

Examples of online worksheets

https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/first-conditional-exercise-1.html

https://busyteacher.org/25959-avengers-civil-war-conditionals-worksheet.html

Activity: The teacher wants to revise Present tense Simple. Instead of asking the students to state/ write rules/ examples, the teacher plays a video (http://snip.ly/gnllzg# https://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com) visual and audio input (Appendix 9). After viewing the material, the students are asked to take a quiz from the website. The benefit of this drill is that each student can take the test/ quiz on his/her own using the mobile phones that they have. The exercise is private and at the end of the exercise, when the answers are checked, the students can see where they have made mistakes and hopefully, not repeat them in the future. If further explanations are required, the teacher could give them to students.

Activity: Topic of the lesson: Present Simple.

The Teacher tells the students that they are going to see a short video about a film making museum in London (http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/general-english/britain-is-great/creativity-is-great-part-1). The first time that they see the video sequence is for general understanding of it. The teacher asks the students some comprehension questions:

Where is the museum situated?

What can you find in that museum?

What is the name of the presenter’s favourite superhero?

What is the name of the creator of the London Film Museum?

The purpose of this exercise is to activate students vocabulary and to check their level of understanding a material presented by a native speaker of English and to engage them into further activities.

The teacher divides the students into groups of 5 and asks them to watch the video again and to write down as many present simple verbs as possible. Then the Teacher checks them and writes on the board the teams and their scores. They like to see their names written down and to see how they improved with time. Since they are in groups shyer students can also be involved and have a sense of contributing to their team success.

Another exercise is to answer the present simple questions related to the video material or, for further practice, to form sentences with some of the words from the video sequence (Appendix 10). The words are given by the teacher. Online worksheets with multiple choice answers are provided by the teacher. I consider that using online worksheets or worksheets in electronic format is a way of being environmentally friendly since I don’t have to print them on paper in order to be used and it is easier to access. The teacher can form, in time, his own archive of worksheets stored in a folder on his/ her computer. Many sites provide online materials that are downloadable and can offer great teaching material and practise exercises, the teacher just needs to click on the chosen topics and materials are only a matter of choice. Since the Teachers Community worldwide is quite vast, it provides a very large numbers of online materials that other teachers have used and were beneficial to students (“Sharing is Caring!”).

This material can also be used to practice other grammatical structures, such as Reported Speech as the teacher can ask the students to say what people did/ said during the video or adverbs of frequency or for further discussions.

USING GRAMMAR BOOKS WITH DVDs

Grammar with moving images is more engaging for the students, and fortunately for the English language teachers, there are such resourceful materials on the specialized market. One of the grammar series that I use during my lessons is “Grammar Practice” (1,2,3&4), from Helbling Publishing, where Professor Grammar and his worthy assistant (a robot) is showing how the rule is formed, how it works and how students can work on some interactive exercises. At the end of each grammatical sequence “a cartoon of fun” is provided, in order to combine the pleasant things with the useful ones (Appendix 7).

For instance, if I want to teach my students a new grammatical structure, I show to them the video material within the course book, then I write the rules on the board, giving examples from their area of interest. After some drillings on the board, I play on the video projector the exercise from the course book where they can practice and check. I elicit answers and we check at the end of the exercise. It is also a listening exercise and students can have more language input. Even shy students interact and sometimes we make team contest with rewards for their results. In the end, a spelling exercise is also given to students, as they have to spell out letters so as to find the line from “a cartoon of fun” part. I have observed that students pay more attention to this type of presentation and they are more focused.

Students cope better with the video input as they are used to using visuals all the time. Immediate feedback is also a plus.

Students enjoy interactivity and they like to take a guess. In some grammar games they have to predict or to make assumptions. Considering the fact that they are not graded when they play games, they find themselves in a “comfort zone” and they are more productive and more accurate.

Another activity that I have done during classes was to use the video support from the coursebook Keynote upper- intermediate (National Geographic Learning& Cengage Learning Publishing), where a young girl made a presentation about her experiences working as a model. The purposes of the exercise were to expose students to original, real life situations, to practice repetition and pronunciation, to use reported speech sentences and to form critical thinking.

Activity – Controlled and semi-controlled practice with video material;

Aim: – to develop listening and comprehension skills;

– to enable Ss to form indirect speech sentences.

Procedure:

• the T asks the Ss to watch attentively a video material from the series TED Talks. The video presents a girl who worked for 10 years in the fashion industry and she was there to present her stories and experiences. The T plays the video, but stops the material at some points in order to elicit assumptions from Ss.

The Ss watch and answer to the T’s questions;

Ss form sentences using indirect speech, to say what the model stated during the presentation;

The T helps if necessary.

Interaction: T – Ss, S – T, Ss – Ss

Time: 15 minutes.

Undoubtedly, playing games makes learning a lot easier. Both adults and children love them. Perhaps this is due to the fact that it can also be a competition and students like to compete and to see their names in the charts. This often gets the students motivated to provide with the right answers and therefore allow them to learn much faster. Amongst teenagers this can be particularly effective, whether the class is divided into two or more groups, or even individually. By turning it into a competition, everyone will become a lot more active and a lot of fun can be experienced by everyone (Appendix 8).

Some of the sites that I have been using in recent years for grammar games are:

https://www.education.com/game/floyd-danger-sorting-sentences/

http://www.elllo.org/english/grammar/L1-05-MegTodd-Cities-Adjective.htm

https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-free-video-games-support-english-language-learners

http://www.esltower.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JfrS2gYKe0

http://www.eslgamesworld.com

https://en.islcollective.com/video-lessons/planes-trains-and-automboiles-comprehension-and-conditional

https://www.gamestolearnenglish.com/prepositions-game/

www.englishmedialab.com

www.esltower.com, www.eslgamesplus.com

www.kahoot.com

Due to the fact that games are time consuming and I have to provide myself the necessary tools and technology, I play games with students as a reward, usually towards the end of the lesson and considering the proper reinforcement that I want to obtain. In this way, I keep my students focused during the lesson, active and engaged. Kahoot game is very appreciated by my students and it offers the teacher the necessary means to have a good ending for the lesson.

During one of my English class, I taught my students Present Perfect. We wrote the rules on the board, practised some drills to better understand the use of it and towards the end of the lesson I asked 3 students to be my volunteers for a video grammar game (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u940E_QlqGs). The task was to write down the missing verbs while watching the video. It was a race against time. Students loved it and for the next class more students wanted to take part in these type of activities (Appendix 8). Below I inserted a lesson sequence when using game during the class.

Activity: Semi-Controlled practice

Aim: Ss will use and self-correct the targeted grammatical sequence.

Procedure:

The teacher asks for 2 volunteers. She then play a video material with questions like “Have you ever….?”. The two students have to choose the correct verb form during the video. The first to complete the task correctly wins a prize.

Ss play the game using present perfect forms. They have fun while using grammar structures.

Interaction: T – Ss

Skills: listening, reading, writing, speaking.

Time: 8 minutes

USING SONGS TO TEACH GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURES

“Music has the unique quality of integrating the emotional, cognitive, and psychomotor elements that activate and synchronize brain activity.’’(MORA, apud BREWER and CAMPBELL, 1991, IATEFL Issues, Oct-Nov, 1998. Music has the ability to change the classroom atmosphere. It seems to provide energy and prompt images when students complain they have nothing to write about or their ideas do not come up. When facing such situations, I as a teacher, frequently play background music to relax and stimulate the students. Of course, it is taken into consideration the type of music that goes with different types of activities.

Another relevant reason for the use of songs in the classroom is that they are among the best ways of teaching a foreign language. Consequently, they can develop and integrate the four basic skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking, in a natural and harmonic way in the language classroom.

“Some of the advantages of considering the students’ choices are as follows:

♫ the topic holds great value, if selected by the students;

♫ it gives them some responsibility and involves them in the lessons more;

♫ the students actually teach the subject matter (their songs and music), while the teacher is a resource for the language;

♫ it reduces the teacher-time and work spent searching for materials. (MURPHEY, 1992).”

Songs can be exploited in many ways. Students love music and they want to learn the lyrics by heart. The teacher can use this means for studying purposes and by choosing songs to fulfill this assignment he can transform a plane grammar lesson into a fun and engaging one.

1. The cloze or gap fill

This is the most familiar and popular activity, and for that reason is probably overused. However, there are many important things to take into account when using them, and there are many different ways to do it.

Activity- The teacher wants revise Past Simple with elementary students. She announces them that they will watch a video with the song “Yesterday”- Beatles. On the worksheets that the teacher has given them the students have to fill in the missing verbs.

The purpose of the exercise is to identify the correct verb forms, to improve listening skills and to provide a good atmosphere in the class.

As a follow up, the students were asked to write the first form of the verbs and after that to build up sentences with the verbs.

Extended activity: write a short dialogue using some given verbs, in which to talk about a past activity.

2. A-B activities

Students match beginnings and endings of the lines from the song 'Another Day in Paradise'. The teacher gives to students chunks from lines and while they are listening they have to put the pieces of paper in the correct order, on the board.

Another Day in Paradise

Phil Collins

She calls out to the man in the street
"Sir, can you help me?
It's gettin' cold and there's nowhere to sleep
Is there somewhere you can tell me?"

Oh, think twice
'Cause there's another day for you and me in paradise
Oh, think twice
'Cause there's another day for you
You and me in paradise

She calls out to the man in the street
He can see she's been crying
She's got blisters on the soles of her feet
She can't walk, but she's trying

Oh, think twice
It's just another day for you and me in paradise
Oh, think twice
'Cause it's another day for you
You and me in paradise

Oh, Lord
Is there nothing more any one of us can do?
Oh, Lord
Na, na-na, na, na-na-now

You can tell from the lines on her face
You can…

After matching the lines, the students are asked to write down the present tense forms. The purpose of the exercise is to activate prior knowledge and to engage students.

– Extended activity- students have to describe the way the author feels.

3. Mixed-up activities

Generally, have the lines of the song on separate strips of paper. Students put down strips as they hear them. It is a similar drill to the one described before. The teacher can ask students to anticipate the correct order and after that to play the song and do the check-up. It can be accomplished with more advanced students.

4. Dictation- students are asked to write after dictation different stanzas from the song.

– As a teacher, I have worked this type of exercise with upper- intermediate and advanced students.

– Before giving the actual dictation, I presented to students some facts about the life and work of the famous painter Vincent Van Gogh. Then I made sure that students had no difficulty in understanding the given information.

– I presented to them, with the help of the video projector, the famous painting “Starry night” which was made by the artist in 1889, and I asked my students questions related to how it made them feel and how the author felt like when he painted it, according to their opinions. In this manner, I activated prior vocabulary and I engaged students into the topic. They practiced speaking, using grammatical structures and the teacher offered feedback and correction, if necessary.

– After this stage of the lesson, I divided them into groups and I asked them to write after dictation lyrics from the song “Starry, Starry night”, a song by Don McLean written as a tribute to Vincent van Gogh.

Starry, Starry Night

Lianne La Havas

Starry, starry night.
Paint your palette blue and grey,
Look out on a summer's day,

With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills, Group 1
Sketch the trees and the daffodils,
Catch the breeze and the winter chills,
In colours on the snowy linen land.

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity Group 2
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen
They did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now.

Starry, starry night.
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze, Swirling clouds in violet haze,
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue.
Colours changing hue, morning field of amber grain, Group 3
Weathered faces lined in pain,
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand.

For they could not love you,
But still your love was true.
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night, Group 4
You took your life, as lovers often do.
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you.

Starry, starry night.
Portraits hung in empty halls,
Frameless head on nameless walls,
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget. Group 5
Like the strangers that you've met,
The ragged men in the ragged clothes,
The silver thorn of bloody rose,
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.

Now I think I know what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free. Group 6
They would not listen, they're not listening still.
Perhaps they never will…

– As a follow up activity, students have to write some of the verb to their negative form and to change the ending.

– For more advanced students, they can create an imaginative interview with the writer of the song, using given chunks of language.

5. Translation

Class chooses a song from their own language. Groups translate. After writing the first draft they have to check with other groups. They have to agree upon the best version and then to work on rhyme and rhythm.

The teacher can also ask students to translate from English to Romanian an English song, and they have to see the video to get the gist of it, to better understand the meaning in order to have an accurate translation.

VIDEO STORIES AND GRAMMAR

Since to introduce grammar has always been a difficult area to master in second language learning, most researchers agree that the reasons why students find it difficult to acquire the grammatical components of a language was due to the fact that they were influenced by their first language or mother tongue. Second language learners look for shortcuts or ways to memorize grammar rules. As stories tend to attract almost everyone’s attention, the idea of introducing grammatical terms and their rules in a story form could facilitate the process of grasping these rules among second language learners. Storytelling may be able to lure or captivate students’ attention. A story has the power to place an ordinary event or person into something amazing, it shapes up that thing into something that people desire. Imagine all these, coming with visuals and sounds as well.

Since in the present grammar is taught more deductively than inductively, video stories offer to teachers of English a valuable tool in teaching the language. I remember during my classes how students enjoy watching these short sequences and after that having a different tonus for the exercises that underwent from that material. Among the stories that I used I mention “The Gruffalo”, for the little ones and elementary students (to teach past simple or be going to), or “Stop looking at your phones”- The Britishes, for the upper-intermediate or advanced students, to teach and practice the imperatives. (Appendix 11)

Storytelling (video stories) are a very good way to teach any chunk of language without paying particular attention to grammar rules or how to use and when to use a tense, or if it is the correct word order etc. It is integrative as it combines listening, reading, speaking and writing, and “grammar linguistic aspects enrich the students linguistically, effectively and culturally.”

Activity- Purpose of the activity:

to make students focus on different language structures;

to use words in the correct order in a sentence;

to improve students attention and listening skills.

The teacher (I) tells the students that they are going to watch a story about a man who began to study English at a very mature age, and that he succeeded at a basic level. The students are

asked to watch the story and to pay attention to all kind of details from the story, as they will have to answer some questions during the viewing (when pausing). The video material has incorporated some questions related to grammar patterns and vocabulary. The material used during the lesson can be found on islcollective website.

During the activity, the students paid attention to the video, answered to the questions and received immediate feedback. The Video quiz is presented below:

Video quiz questions

1) What is in the box?

a snowman

a Christmas tree

an English coursebook with listening material

a surprize gift

2) Put the words in order:

an internet. decided order the from to gentleman English has The coursebook old

3) All the answers below are possible motivations for learning a new language. Why does this old Polish gentleman want to learn English?

He wants to get a new job.

He wants to travel.

He wants to prevent the Alzheimer disease.

He wants to communicate with someone special.

He wants to read Shakespeare in original.

4) Tap on the kettle!

5) In order to be able to memorize things you neet to focus. What have you seen on the gentleman's desk? List at least five items!

Answer the question using your own words

6) Combining words and visuals helps you remember.

Fill the gap: The old man put ________________________ notes on objects all over his apartment in order to be able to remember the words for them in the new language.

7) Changing the learning environment can boost your language learning. Where in the house and outside the house does the old man learn?

Answer the question using your own words

8) Retrieval practice is a very important learning strategy.

Find the extra word: The old gentleman tests of himself by trying to remember and use the new words he has learned.

9)Put the words in order:

practice learn Watching great way movies in words. the new a is to language comprehension listening target and

10) The old gentleman uses several learning strategies. Please match the name of the strategy with its description.

Match the items:

11) Making mistakes is an essential part of language learning. What mistake has the old man made? Why? Could you explain?

Answer the question using your own words

12) What did the old man put in his bag?

Answer the question using your own words

13) Correct the wrong word: The old man leaves home at Easter

14) How does the old man feel?

nervous

angry

thrilled

exhausted

depressed

15) Where did the old man arrive? How do you know?

Los Angeles

New York

London

Buenos Aires

Berlin

16) What is he about to say?

Hi! I am your grandpa.

Hello! Nice to meet you!

Nice to see you!

You are a lovely little girl.

17)Put the words in order:

learning a new start to never late language. is It too

Stories in general are full of simple and complex grammar structures.

Students’ attitude towards English changes in a good way and their level of motivation raises when, during the lesson, more interactive methods and techniques are used to teach any kind of topic. Learners are used to have visuals most of the time as they use personal smart phones and computers a lot, in the recent years. Technology is surrounding us and we, the teachers, need to keep up with these means of communication and studying. I consider the traditional teaching methods just as good and I see them as part of the modern English lesson. If the teacher manages to combine “old school” with the “new school”, I’m sure that his/her students are good learners and his/her lessons are successful.

CHAPTER V

Teaching vocabulary with video input

Introducing vocabulary to learners

When teachers introduce new vocabulary, it may be possible that to some students that is not new. It is highly important to elicit before teaching. For instance, when the teacher wants to introduce new words, he/she can start by showing pictures or using mime games. A rapid cue-response exercise can be done and students may response by matching the pictures with the correct word and so on. The images can be on paper or projected on the board.

Samples of pictures that can be used to teach new vocabulary English words

After working the exercise, the teacher can go through the answers, assuring himself/herself that they don’t mispronounce them. They can do a quick exercise practice afterwards. In the end, students can be asked to write new instructions/ dialogues using the new words.

David Nunan wrote in his book, ”Language Teaching Methodology” (1991), that for many years the main focus of the language teaching has been on the grammar of the language. It was believed that if learners were able to internalize basic grammar patterns, then building a large vocabulary could come later. Since then the status of vocabulary has been considerably enhanced due to the development of communicative approaches to language teaching.

Teachers attitudes to vocabulary has changed considerably over recent years, the lexis reflecting a fundamental shift in understanding, attitude and approach. “The increasing availability of corpora (large computerised data base of analysable real conversations and other text), and dictionaries, grammar books and other resource based on them have revealed many surprising features of language that had been previously unrealised.”

There is an entire discussion related to the difference in meaning between vocabulary and lexis:

Vocabulary typically refers to single words (e.g. student, intertwine, moss, etc) and sometimes to very tightly linked two-word or three-word combination (e.g. set off, pay back, come out with, etc)

Lexis is a bigger concept, referring to “internal database” and complete “ready-made” fixed/ semi-fixed combinations of words that we can remember and use rather easily in our sentences. It includes:

Traditional single-word vocabulary items;

Common “going-together pattern” of words/ collocations, such as: club together, carry over, take away, etc;

Longer combination of words that are typically used together as if they were a single (e.g. in the spotlight, on-the-spot decision, line your pocket(s), it’s as broad as it’s long, etc.). These longer combinations are commonly referred to as chunks or multiword items.

Jim Scrivner says that it can be an argument regarding the fact that collocations and chunks occupy an “intermediate zone between vocabulary and grammar”, as it is shown below, in the figure.

Words have multiple meanings and can be taught in different order. Researchers have argued upon the number of words that a learner should know in order to express basic or complex ideas. J. Richards (1974) underlines the fact that frequency does not necessarily equate with usefulness or relevance to learners needs.

Coverage (the range of contexts in which the words are encountered) may be more important than frequency. The easiness in learning the words may be another factor to be taken into consideration. Familiarity, meaningfulness and concreteness need to be taken into consideration as well. With the advent of computer technology, it has become feasible to analyse vast corpora of data. The analysis has been able to show the different functions performed by the words and the frequency of occurrence of these functions.

Language reflects the context in which it is used and the purpose to which it is put. The focus in class will be on encouraging students to develop strategies for inferring the meaning of new words from the context in which they occur and teaching them to use a range of cues, both verbal and non-verbal, in order to determine meaning.

Kruse (1979: 209) makes five suggestions for teaching written vocabulary in context:

Word elements such as prefixes, suffixes and roots – to recognise component parts of words, word families and so on. This reduces the number of completely new words to encounter in the future and increases control of the English lexicon.

Pictures, diagrams and charts – these should often be pointed out to the EFL students to be able to memorize easier the new words and to make connections between words and images.

Clues of definition – important to understand the meaning of words.

Inference clues from discourse – which are usually not confined to one sentence.

General aids – which include function of the word in question and the subject being discussed.

Honeyfield (1977) stresses the importance of context in the teaching of vocabulary. He makes a number of suggestions for helping learners develop their skills in inferring meaning from context. These include the familiar cloze or gap exercise where words are deleted from the text, words-in-context exercises, and context enrichment exercises (progressively more context is provided).

Cloze exercise:

Instruction: Complete the text with one word that best fits into each gap

Gap year is the used to describe the year that some students take off before to university. Gap years are quite popular in many countries, the UK, Australia and Germany. There are a variety of options for people who are thinking of taking a gap year. One is to the year travelling around the world. possibility is to spend the year at home getting work experience. A third option is to do volunteer work , at home or abroad.

Solution: term, going, including, available, spend, another, either

Word-in-context exercise:

Context enrichment exercise:

Our understanding of language learning and teaching can be greatly informed by observing and analysing interactions between participants in the learning process. When the students meet new lexical items and understand their meaning(s), the way they are used, they need to practise by using the lexical items. Ways to memorise new words have to be presented by the teacher but the students must take active part in this process and to choose from the models presented to them (map words, diagrams, written definition, charts, etc) the ones that help them acquire the new word. Acquisition of language is made with effort and drilling from both parts: teacher and student. Hard work, perseverance and constancy are absolute necessities. The lexical items need to be recalled and used appropriately.

Teaching vocabulary like a pro

Students learn new vocabulary in two stages. First, they read or hear new words, they know something about them and can usually recognise them, but they are not ready to use them in speech or writing. Later on, when they start to use the words, they become part of their active vocabulary. Repetition is important. This process can take a long or longer time. To speed it up, the teachers can help students by providing useful ideas for recording and storing new words and giving lots of practice with new words.

Important points to remember about presenting practising, recording and storing vocabulary:

When presenting new vocabulary, you must teach its meaning and the way it pronounces;

The accurate meaning of new words, in specific context is compulsory;

The meaning of new words can be taught by using pictures, mime games, real objects, as well as from a situation in context;

Elicit questions to check if students have understood the meaning;

Students need lots of varied practice of new vocabulary;

Students need to revise new vocabulary on a regular basis;

Students need to record and store new vocabulary in a helpful way. Well-recorded new vocabulary can improve students’ learning.

Presentation phase

When we, as teachers, present new vocabulary during our English classes, we need to teach students the meaning of the word, its pronunciation and how to use the word.

But before introducing the new words, we need some pre-teach exercises. The teacher may select some activities specifically designed to revise, teach and practise lexis before moving on to work on the text. The lexis selected to be taught is very likely to be that most needed for completion of whatever listening or reading task is to be set. Even if this is called the pre-teaching stage, keep in mind that this work may be helping students to recall things/items they already know as much as introducing new items.

I give my students the topic that I will be teaching. I write on the board and I ask questions related to the theme. Students have the chance to brainstorm ideas, in groups, and to make lists of whatever they know about the topic. Students knowledge vary as some of my students may know things new to the others and other students may not know anything at all. That’s why working in groups is beneficial to all students, since the ones that have ideas on the topic can expose them and they feel good to be heard and the students that don’t have knowledge on the topic have the opportunity to discover new things before being asked by the teacher.

After brainstorming ideas, the teacher writes on the board the words/ ideas/ expressions related to the topic. All students visualise the lists.

Activity- the teacher tells the students that the topic of the lesson is “Clothes”.

Then she/he asks the students the following questions:

What are clothes?

What kind of clothes do they like?

How many types of clothes do they know?

How often do they buy clothes?

What was the most expensive piece of clothing that they’ve bought?

The teacher writes on the board some of the students’ answers.

After that, the teacher presents some pictures with clothes items and students have to identify the correct word for each item;

A third activity would be to pre-test students’ knowledge on the topic by giving them a short quiz.

After these exercises, students are given a text related to the topic. The new words are in bold. After reading the entire material, the teacher writes on the board the new word and gives the necessary explanations (definitions and examples of sentences).

In this presentation phase, the teacher asks the students to repeat loudly the new words, or if there are younger students, using puppets as characters is another good way to demonstrate the meaning of new language.

Teachers need to engage students in lively discussions about the word/words, to give personal details if he/she has, to allow them to share their personal experiences and connections to the key word. To help reinforce the meaning of new vocabulary, I sometimes teach students a gesture specific to some of the words that are introduced. Incorporate word study strategies when you present each word.

For younger students, the teachers could point out blends, digraphs, and vowel patterns in order to teach the new words. They should ask their students to chop each word into syllables by clapping or to practise spelling. For older students, they should point out prefixes and suffixes connected to root (base) words, and call attention to how their individual meanings help determine the meaning of the word as a whole.

Research shows that students need 10–15 exposures to a word before it becomes a permanent part of their word bank. To help new words “stick” in learners’ minds, teachers need to allow students many opportunities to actively use their new words in cooperative activities as well as independently, and to make sure to tap into all four language domains: speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

To ensure that their sentences are grammatically correct, model oral and written sentences using the new vocabulary and provide your English learners with sentence starters.

Practice phase

Students need many opportunities to practice the new words in order to remember and use the new vocabulary. Teachers should use different kind of practice activities assuring, in this manner, variety of exercises for students.

Students can enjoy practising new vocabulary through a large variety of word games and activities. These are either specially made up for the target language or adapted from well-known games that are used in the EFL/ ESL classes all over the world. Some examples will be presented below.

Dominoes- students can play different matching games with domino-like cards, such as words and pictures, or English words with mother tongue words, or words with their definitions.

Sample of Domino cards vocabulary game

Bingo – students or the teacher can make sets of bingo cards by cutting up used packaging. There are sets of cards, one for each student. Each card has between six and twelve words written on it, chosen randomly from a selection of new words which students need to practise. It is useful to include recently learnt words as well as words from several weeks before. After giving the cards to students, the teacher proceeds on reading the complete list of words. If a student/ a group of students has the word that was read, he/they crosses/cross it off. The winner is the first person/ group who has crossed off all their words.

Sample of Bingo card used to teach vocabulary

Crosswords – students can make these type of worksheet, by writing the clues (the ‘up’ and ‘down’ clues) for the words that were given by the teacher or the teacher can prepare the handout by herself/ himself or can copy it from a book or download it from the internet dedicated websites. It depends on the proficiency level of students, on the aim of the lesson and on the time span dedicated to it.

I have observed (during classes) that students work better when they can find the already given words. Each students can preserve his/ her worksheet to his/ her portofolio and they take pride in showing to others (students, teachers, parents, etc) how well they have worked. Sometimes I add some motivational remarks/ stamps/ stickers to those students that have succeeded in achieving the task faster than the others.

Samples of crosswords

Spelling activities on the board or on worksheets:

Unjumble the words to complete the description:

Make short words out of longer words:

Guess the word from the correct number of blank spaces, letter by letter:

Noughts and crosses / Tic-Tac-Toe

Memorising lists – in random order, the teacher asks the students to think of an item from a list (e.g. shopping list) and the first students has to name a word. The second student will have to repeat the word and to add his own; the next one has to repeat the previous words and to add his own, and so on, until the list is too long to remember.

Recording and storing new vocabulary – in a special notebook, using the alphabetical order, or in a computer list, or in their regular class notebook, using diagrams, definitions, synonyms etc.

Word cards – the teacher can give students some cards with a picture on one side, and the English word on the other. Students have to say the correct word. The teacher turns the card and show to students the correct answer. Immediate feedback is provided. (Appendix 12)

Tell the differences – the teacher shows to the students two pictures that seem to be the same, but they have a specific number of differences. Students have to identify the differences and to say which are by using specific vocabulary.

Dictation – it is a good way to improve vocabulary and writing. Sometimes I use short texts that I dictate to them from the beginning until its end, other times I use handouts that have part of the words on the sheet of paper and they have to write down the missing ones. (Appendix 13)

Running dictation – it is a variation of the regular dictation. I use when I have smaller groups, I divide students in teams of two; one student writes down what the other student dictates. The text is not in the same room as the student, it is on a wall in the hall or another close room and the students that dictates has to go and read the text and to go back to his/her team mate to dictate as much and as better as he/ she remembers. They have to be accurate and to fulfil the task in a limited time span. It is fun and interactive and students enjoy it.

I also recommend to my students to read in English as much as possible: pieces of news, articles, stories, etc. I consider this a very efficient way of improving vocabulary, and when they have finished a story they have the chance to retell it to their colleagues. Sometimes I ask them what new English word they have discovered recently or what word/ words seemed difficult to them.

Production phase

Production activities for new lexis will usually be part of the production stage of a speaking or writing skills lesson, or a grammar/ functional language lesson, as shown in the table below.

Teaching vocabulary with video content

An eVoc strategy is an electronic or technology-based strategy that teachers can use to improve students' vocabulary learning and their interest in words. The term of eVoc is used to underline that the strategies rely on digital tools and resources and to suggest its learning potential that is possible when technology and media are part of the instructional process.

As teachers, we need to use the tools that 21st-century technologies enables us. Most of schools in Romania have Internet access. Although ICTs in all aspects of 21st-century life is quite clear and well accepted, it is less clear how teachers could successfully integrate technology into literacy instruction. Developing students' vocabulary is an area of urgent need if we want to develop the advanced literacy levels required to achieve success in schools and not only. Vocabulary is also an area where teachers are asking for guidance on instructional approaches, strategies, and materials (Berne & Blachowicz, 2008). Since the digital tools and media are available in most schools, the teachers could harness nowadays to improve vocabulary learning, they could use tools that draw the interest of students and that provide scaffolds and contexts in which to learn with, and about, words more efficiently.

USING ONLINE WORKSHEETS/ EXERCISES IN THE ELT CLASSES

There are so many websites from where students could solicit data and online exercises and worksheets to improve their English vocabulary skills, that is really difficult task for them to make a good choice. That is the reason why I consider that it is the teacher’s role to get involved and to recommend to students proper and useful sites to work on their lexis and develop their English skills. The sites I have used during my English classes and the ones I recommended to my students are:

www.busyteacher.org

www.apples4teachers.com

www.islcollective.com

www.alltopics.com

www.education.com

www.liveworksheet.com

www.esltower.com

www.teachthis.com

www.teacherspayteachers.com

www.cambridgeenglish.org

www.englishexercises.org

www.onestopenglish.com

www.britishcouncil.org

www.learnenglishfeelgood.com

Some of the worksheets from these websites are interactive and some are printable (Appendix14) and teachers could download them on paper and have a backup in case there are problems with ‘technology’ (poor internet connection, no video projector in the classroom, no sound devices, malfunction of your PC, etc.).

Activity: Practice on vocabulary related to describing people.

Activity – Controlled practice with online exercises;

Aim: – to reinforce students’ vocabulary;

– to use correctly words to describe people.

Procedure:

– the T asks the Ss to watch on the video projector an exercise that is on a dedicated website (https://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/vocabulary/esl-vocabulary-describing-people3.html). The exercise is formed of sentences in which there are made descriptions of people. The sentences are not complete (gap-fill exercise) and students have to choose the correct option in each of them.

-The Ss look at the screen and give answers. The T fills in with the students answers and does the checking in the end;

-The T offers additional explanations, if necessary, and feedback.

Interaction: T – Ss, S – T

Time: 10 minutes.

ONLINE ENGLISH VOCABULARY EXERCISE
Topic: Describing people (physical traits) 3
Choose the best response to complete each of the following sentences:

Top of Form

1. He was a bit (chubby/skinny) when he was younger, but he lost a lot of weight.
2. She has three . (tattooed/tattoos)
3. Jordan is pretty (fit/flabby) ( = in good shape). He goes to the gym three times a week.
4. Robert’s sister is . (gorgeous/unkempt) ( = very attractive)
5. She’s rather (plain/plane)-looking, but a lot of boys like her.
6. Rick’s hair is always . (unkempt/chubby) (= messy)
7. Peter started working out three months ago, and he’s already . (ripped/flabby)

(= very muscular)
8. Her (freckles/wrinkles) ( = small light brown spots on her face) make her look younger than she is.
9. My grandmother’s face is rather . (wrinkled/wrinkles)
10. He’s never tanned. In fact, he always looks very . (pale/pail)

Bottom of Form

DVD SUPPORT COURSEBOOKS AND VOCABULARY TEACHING

Coursebook treatment of vocabulary varies considerably. For example, one study of children beginners’ courses showed that the number of words introduced ranged from just over a thousand to nearly four thousand. Nowadays, it is customary explicit reference to be made in the lexical content of a course in the syllabus description. The choice of words for inclusion in the lexical strand of a coursebook syllabus is based on usefulness, frequency, learnability and teachability.

Most coursebooks favour a lexical set approach. Hence, it is important to present the sets in such a way as to reduce the chances of confusion. One way of doing this is to emphasize the differences (rather than the similarities) of words in a set. This means avoiding using them interchangeably, as in it’s hot, it’s cold or hot water, cold water. It would be better to introduce them along with the commonly associated collocates, such as hot coffee, hot and dry, and hot summer, but cold beer, cold and wet and cold winter.

Thematically linked words are easier to learn but have a looser relation than lexical sets.

In the coursebook “Super Minds 6” (Cambridge Publishing), level 6 (A2-B1), unit 1- The treasure, the following words are introduced in order to talk about treasure search:

The words are presented within a picture, each item being paired with a visual. The manner of presentation is important, but also the kind of follow-up practice that is provided.

(From “Super Minds 6”, Student’s Book, page 10)

After the part in which the words are introduced to the students, there are some exercises to check if the students associate correctly the words with their meanings, as shown in the picture bellow.

(Image from “Super Minds 6”, Student’s Book, page 10)

For further practice, the DVD of the coursebook provides video exercises (Appendix 15) in order to check and reinforce vocabulary, to practice the grammatical structures of the unit, and to improve speaking and listening skills, as shown in the pictures below:

Print screens of video exercises from “Super Minds 6”

Exercise from the DVD support:

Collect all the words;

Put the words in the correct order.

“How long has your brother been interested in History?” – the solution.

Another exercise from the DVD:

Read and put the sentences in the correct order.

Exercise from the DVD:

Watch the documentary and then complete the activity;

Complete the sentences or select True or False.

Printscreen images from “Super Minds 6” DVD

Vocabulary work in coursebooks is often integrated into text-based activities. This can take the form of pre-teaching of vocabulary in preparation for text-based task, whether for understanding (as in listening and reading) or for production (as in speaking and writing). Words selected for pre-teaching are those likely to be both unfamiliar to learners and crucial for the performance of the task. Not allthe unfamiliar words in a text need to be pre-taught, that is why coursebooks often leave this up to the teacher’s decision regarding which words to be pre-taught, starting from the assumption that the teachers’ familarity with the students is the best guide. Teachers have fairly reliable intuitions as to which words will cause their learners difficulty. Many times, however, particular words are singled out by the coursebook’ s authors and included in the instructions in the Teacher’s Book or in the coursebook itself.

Another coursebook with DVD-rom that I use for my English lessons is “Outcomes pre-intermediate” from the “OUTCOMES” Series, National Geographic Learning Publishing, a very good structured coursebook in terms of developing the reading, listening, writing and speaking skills for students. It provides real , global input from the inspiring National Geographic videos, helps the students hear language as it is really used and has an expanded and updated online Vocabulary Buider that allow students to personalise vocabulary learning by developing their own word lists and testing themselves.

Each unit has a video material with real life situations. The students watch the video and work on vocabulary worksheets provided by the online wesite nlg.cengage.com. Students have the possibility to work at heir own pace, in the privacy of their rooo, for reinforcement on the lexis from the lesson. I prefer to use these worksheets online as printing is not eco-frinedly and in this way I make sure that all students from a class do the drills.

For example, in unit 2, the topic is “Shops”. Students watch a video where ordinary people have conversations about shopping and bought items.

Activity- The teacher presents to students the topic and ellicit questions about this subject.

Students give answers to the teacher. The teacher wrtes on the board the words that he/she consider useful to pre-teach vocabulary.

Then the Teacher tells the students that they are going to watch a short video, where some young people talk about shopping. The first time they watch it, they do it for general understanding. The teacher asks some questions to see if students have words they did not understand or are unknown to them. For the second viewing, the students have to pay attention to details and to fill in the worksheet that their teacher gave to them. Students work in pair and presents their solutions to the exercises. Also silent viewing on some video shots can be practised and students are asked to read the lines, in order to focus on pronunciation as well.

The worksheet with the video script is at Appendix 16.

The teacher give to students follow-up exercises from the online website.

This series has its own dedicated website which can be accessed by teachers and students. Each student can log in and make his/her personal account if they have the coursebook, as the password is on the back cover of each coursebook. The advantage of this series is that it has extra online vocabulary practice, and by clicking on the “vocabulary” button, students have access to definitions of words, collocations, examples of sentences with the new words for meaninful context and other vocabulary exercises.…

Printscreen shots with exercises from www.eltoutcomes.com

Another coursebook that I use during my English classes as a helping teaching resource is “Keynote Upper-intermediate”, from the KEYNOTE Series, National Geographic Learning& Cengage Learning Publishing, which uses videos from TED Talks. The materials are authentic and present real life situations and the stories/ events presented by the speakers are real, fun and engaging. The coursebook promotes a deeper understanding of the world and gives students the courage and means to express themselves in English. Communication, collaboration and creative thinking drive students towards real 21st century outcomes and encourage them to respond to ideas. Keynote takes a rigorous approach on critical thinking, and uses the device of ‘online comments’. The talk on the screen comes with interactive questions which provide a link between working from the page and focusing on collaborative listening. It also builds students confidence in their understanding of more challenging aspects of the language used in the talk and gives them an opportunity to work with language they may not have come across before.

Activity: Topic of the lesson “Exercise”, unit 5.

The Teacher tells to students that they are going to watch a TED Talk by Nilofer Merchant, called “Got a meeting? Take a walk”.

But before watching, the students are asked to read the text about the speaker and the talk.

Then work in pairs and discuss the questions:

Students read the text and give answers.

Pre-teaching vocabulary stage:

-The Teacher asks the students to read the sentences from exercise 2 and to guess the meaning of the words in bold, considering the context. (pair-work) Then to match the words with the definitions that the coursebook provides.

Key words/ expressions:

Students give personal answers first and then they do the matching.

The Teacher plays the video, with the subtitles. She asks the students if the video was difficult for them to understand.

The teacher plays the video the second time, without subtitles and with pauses. The video material is divided into 3 parts and each part has a vocabulary exercise that student have to fill-in.

Students Watch the video and complete the empty spaces from the text. (Appendix 17)

After the previous exercise, the teacher plays the video vocabulary exercise, where certain words are emphasized and need to be matched with the correct meaning.

Students offer their answers to this interactive exercise. The correct answer is provided in due time by the DVD support. Feedback is given almost immediately.

As a further practice, the teacher can request to student to write a short composition about healthy habbits specific to their activities, in which they have to use the new words taught during the lesson.

There is a wide selection of supplementary coursebooks and vocabulary books available at the moment. The coursebooks that have DVD support can be found for all levels of English and for all types of students: kindergarten children, primary pupils, teenagers and adults. But it is the teacher’s job to wisely select the exercises and the methods so as to achieve success in teaching English and make sure that students remember.

USING SONGS TO TEACH VOCABULARY

It is always reassuring to know in advance about our students’ interest so that we can find and prepare suitable materials, and the process of getting to know them and their tastes could become an integral and communicative part of the lesson. There is a ‘wealth’ of song materials on the dedicated websites, but teachers should be aware that the ‘material’ used successfully one year may become outdated and irrelevant the next. Adolescents are using their music as a means for group identity and self-discovery. They often reject dated music but they may nostalgically embrace rock n’ roll, soft music or ‘oldies but goldies’ songs. If the teacher uses students’ own selections together with lyrics sheets, the teacher’s preparation time can be reduced and the large stock of material can be really useful.

A few activities to be used or built around songs, for the ELT classes:

Getting to know each other preferences –students are asked to bring for the English class cut outs from magazines with their favourite singer/ artist. The pictures are placed on the board and students are asked to choose one image and to talk about that. In pairs, they have to describe one imagine and the colleague has to guess. Students practice suitable vocabulary (words to describe people), then they share opinions regarding the type of music they prefer (agreeing vs. disagreeing). After 10-15 minutes of talks, the teacher chooses a song to be played in the class. Students can receive worksheets with the lyrics, in the form of a ‘fill in the gaps’ exercise. They practise specific lexis, then they can be asked to find synonyms/ antonyms of some words. Further practice- they can perform short dialogues using specific words.

Identity cards- the teacher finds a pop artist profile in music magazines/ dedicated websites. She/ he makes handouts for all students and prepares a set of questions from the information in the profile. The questions are written on the board (What’s the star’s family name?/ What does she/he like?). The teacher does a round up and writes the answers on the board. After this activity she/he plays a recent song of the artist and asks students their opinions about the video. Then she/he singles out a student and asks the rest of the class the same questions: “What’s her/his name? What does she/he like?” and so on. The teacher erases the previous answers and writes new ones. As a follow-up activity the students are asked to write a personal identity card, except their names.

The teacher collects the cards, then she/he redistributes them at random, in the classroom, and students are asked to guess whose card they have.

Music journals – an exercise whose purpose is to improve written fluency. The teacher plays one song at the beginning of the lesson. Students have a small notebook where they write about the music that is playing- they give opinions, share their feelings, they can write whatever it crosses their minds (within common sense limits), the important thing is for students to express themselves and to develop their writing skills.

Discussions – the teacher can choose a number of songs which have themes and topics suitable for class discussions. Copies of the lyrics are made and given to students. The teacher plays the song and after that she/he writes a number of questions on the board. Students express their opinions and the teacher offers feedback at the end of the activity.

Text completion and construction – this type of exercise is suitable for all levels of English and its aim is to improve listening comprehension, reading, guessing and composition skills. The teacher has to choose a song appropriate to the language level of the class, to offer handouts with the lyrics that contain empty spaces which need to be filled in. Students try to guess the matching words first, then they listen and see if their guesses were correct.

I personally enjoy using this type of drill and I choose my materials from islcollective.com and lyricstraining.com.

The songs from www.lyricstraining.com are useful to me, as a teacher, because I use them to teach or reinforce vocabulary but also as a classroom discipline tool. My students enjoy these songs and I keep them for the end of the lesson, if they have been active and collaborative and I give them this as a reward. It works every time. I alternate this with games and I have observed, in time, that they are more active and more engaged when I give them this kind of interactive activity. The songs are to be completed within a time limit. I divise my students into groups and I make a chart during the activities. Rewards are offered at the end of the lesson.

Activity – Vocabulary practice. Topic “Emotions”.

The teacher tells the students that they are going to listen to the song “Nothing breaks like a heart”. Students are given a worksheet and, in pairs, they have to solve the exercises from their sheets of paper. (25 minutes)

Mark Ronson, Miley Cyrus – “Nothing breaks like a heart”

Ex. 1. Listen and number the lines.

___ And nothing breaks like a heart

___ Things fall apart, but nothing breaks like a heart

___ This world can hurt you

___ It cuts you deep and leaves a scar

Ex. 2. Cross out the word that is extra.

I heard you on the phone at last night

We live and die by pretty old lies

You know it, oh no, we both know it

These silver bullet cigarettes burn

Ex.3. Fill in the empty spaces with the suitable word.

This burning __________, there's nothing left

It's smoking, we both __________ it

We got all _________ to fall in love

But just like that we ___________ apart

We're _________, we're broken

Ex.4. Choose the word you hear.

[Pre-Chorus] Well nothing, nothing, nothing gonna save/have/blame us now

[Chorus] Well, there's broken violence/solace/silence

By thunder dashing/crashing/bashing in the dark

(Dash/Crash/Bash in the dark)

And this stolen/broken/taken record

Spin endless circles in the car/far/bar

(Spin 'round in the car/far/bar)

We'll ____________ each other cold as ice And __________and ___________, the desert wind Is ___________, is ___________ Remember ___________ you ____________ to me? ___________ were ___________ in love in Tennessee And I _____________ it, we both _____________ it.

VIDEO STORIES/ SEQUENCES AND VOCABULARY

It is common practice for teachers of first and second language learners to read stories to children. By engaging in this practice, teachers not only model literacy skills, but they also cultivate listening skills and promote vocabulary acquisition.

“According to one of the most outstanding theories of second language acquisition, Krashen (1985) proposed that learners can learn a large amount of language unconsciously through ample comprehensible input. The Input Hypothesis, stated by Krashen, argues that the use of a target language in real communicative environments and the stress on rich comprehensible input, by exposing the learners to the target language in the classroom, facilitate their language acquisition. In other words, language acquisition only happens when comprehensible input is suitably delivered. In this respect, language teachers resist to use a wide range of teaching techniques to make authentic situations and to promote learners' language acquisition.”

During my teaching English classes, I used videos from ‘youtube’ channel that have the vocabulary incorporated. The video material is always paired by specific vocabulary worksheet/ worksheets.

Other source that I use to teach chunks of language is the website islcollective. Teachers can find already made videos to use during the vocabulary lessons or they can make their own video material, as the website provides the software to accomplish that. The teacher upload a chosen material and inserts the questions/ exercises/ clues that she/he considers useful for his lesson.

https://en.islcollective.com/video-lessons/mr-bean-home-furniture-tappable-pictionary

The vocabulary is incorporated and the teacher can build up his vocabulary lesson around a video material or the material to be used as a stage in his/her lesson. The above pictures are for elementary level, and the topic of the video quizz is “Furniture”.

Activity – Lesson sequence:

I also use TED Talks at my English classes, for my students. The large variety of materials and video stories are abundant in useful vocabulary to use during the ELT classes.

VIDEO GAMES AND VOCABULARY

Second or foreign language learners attribute most of their communicative inefficiencies to their shortage in vocabulary (Kang, 1995). Vocabulary is a collection of words, or unit of meaning, that everyone acquires when he or she learns a language (Carter, 1998). Studies revealed that vocabulary acquisition in video games, either serious or commercial, is superior and more comprehensive than previously used methods

for vocabulary instruction. The video games have proved their positive effects not only on general but also on field-specific vocabulary as well (Fotohi-Ghazvini, Earnshaw, Robinson, & Excell, 2009).

“Motivation has been widely embraced by both practitioners and researchers as a critical determinant of success in language learning, and this belief is strongly supported by a wide range of studies on L2 motivation”…”hence, it is logical to assume that motivation also facilitates vocabulary learning” (Tseng & Schmitt, 2008, p. 385). “The motivated individual is goal directed, expends effort, is persistent, is attentive, has desires, exhibits positive effect, has expectancies, demonstrates self-confidence (self-efficacy), and has reasons (motives)” (Gardner, 2007, p. 10).

The websites I use to choose games to play during the English classes are:

https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/games

https://kahoot.com/

My student love this game as it is interactive, each student can connect with their own smart phone (after having installed the apps) or they can play by teams. The feedback is almost instant and there is a chart given at the end of the game. Students really enjoy to see their names on the board/ screen.

https://www.gamestolearnenglish.com/

Home

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/vocabulary/intermediate-to-upper-intermediate

Although vocabulary games are an alternative lesson tool to use during classes, there is a real concern regarding the technological aspects needed to support this activity. Moreover, teachers consider ways to integrate this means of teaching within the lesson taking into consideration the pedagogical applications of digital tools, resources and internet resources. But some teachers may find this a difficult task to achieve as they don’t master well enough technology, in general, or they lack the hardware equipment. Nevertheless, if you want to break the routine and try new interactive ways of teaching English, vocabulary video games constitute an alternative.