Teacher Discussion Forums

hi .! I am so curious about it is the video inside the classrooms are really a big help for students? how it works? what kind of video where cn I buy it? or should I make my own video?

I think they are very useful. Right now I am showing episodes of Sponge Bob Square Pants to my middle schoolers. I dictate some questions and the students right them down and then we watch the episode and have them answer the questions. I ask for a few responses the students had when they are done.

There are many types of activities you can do. You can do like I mentioned, with full length movies, showing 15-20 minutes per day.

I'm using the old Interchange 1 Video in a class I'm teaching. We do one lesson a week. It's about two to three minutes, usually some kind of story with a funny ending. I give them a paper with questions, which we go over first. Then I play the tape 3 times and they write the answers. We check the answers, and then I play the tape and stop it, asking them what the people are saying, and filling in what they don't know. Then I play it once more all the way through.

Video and DVD in the classroom can be very effective if used properly. There is a big difference between sitting your students down in front of the screen, hitting "Play" and leaving them to watch for half an hour, and using much shorter segments with a clearly focused activity! Have a look at http://www.eslbase.com/articles/video.asp for some ideas.

Keith
http://www.eslbase.com

I think using videos and dvds are very useful. Everything that is visual helps learning...do you agree?

Videos in the classroom can be of use if they are reinforced with other activities. Students need to know the purpose for the video and have an idea of what is going to be asked of them after it is shown.

jwilkes wrote:Videos in the classroom can be of use if they are reinforced with other activities. Students need to know the purpose for the video and have an idea of what is going to be asked of them after it is shown.

Sure, you are right, you can't just teach by using videos in the class, but students find them fun, so I think they are very useful if one uses them like once a month... , do you agree?

For K-12 a series called English Academic Success for You
is designed for the classroom. Info is at www.easyeld.com - videos with lesson plans and reproducible worksheets - multiple formats too.

For adults, In English, can be used in the classroom.

The key with video is to use the tool as a jumping off point for additional activities or to reinforce skills taught with books, etc.

Using videos in the classroom is really a very useful resource as anything visual helps students in recalling what they have learnt. You could use cartoons that impose educational aspects as they would not only serve as entertainment to the pupils but also at the same time as something educational as well. You could also provide worksheets to the pupils as to further enhance their understanding and reinforce what they have learnt. Try it out and you would be surprised at the outcome.

Hello Keith i have read your page is very interesting, but i´d like that you can help me i´m teaching english to children too small, between 1 and 3 years so i´d like to know what can i do to them?what cand i show in videos?..please very gratefull if you or any of you can help me.

Luisa

hi, i'm a new comer here. your discussion sounds quite interesting.

as to video in the classroom, i think it is very very helpful for the teacher and beneficial for students as along as they are used properly. actually , although video is a great assistant for a teacher, it can never replace the teacher. in another word, video is a wonderful tool for a teacher to present a class.

videos arouse students' interest in class , achieve teacher's objects at the same time easily.

i still have a question: what about the length of the video i can display in a class? thank you!

Of course there is no point in watching a video or movie and not making your students work on that. You can make lots of things with videos, you can work on the visual part, work on the grammar, on vocabulary, questions and answers, multiple choice, etc. Everything depends on the students' age, of course!
Good luck!

It is a interesting topic.I think video is a good recource to study english,especialy for EFL learners. My students are all chinese and unaccessible to language environment of native speakers.so,video provide us with authentic input of native speakers,which can improve the listening and speaking ability of students through listening and imitating it.The key is how to make use of it properly and effectivly.The specific questions follow:
what kind of video are better? movies , newsreports,others
how long and how many times will it be better to play video in class?
how to use video as a material to improve the whole ability of english?
do you have any concrete experiences,examples and suggestions,please share with us!

i think it is common for english teachers to use video in classes.
i'm vocational school teacher, my Ss' english is poor, i played movie once a week in my class. before playing, i will make handpaper for Ss to finish while enjoying movie. eg the actor actress, the main plot, your idea or your thinking about the movie, even any sentence spoken by actor in the movie. Ss can finish using simple or even partly correct english, that's also OK.
as time went on, u'll find Ss' changing attitude to english classes.
of course there is an important process, it'll take time to choose proper movie.

I think it is good to use movie to interest ss,especially their english are poor,and have little interest in it. ss do not like english but usually like movie.In order to understand the original english movie ,they have to try to understand english.It is important to give them tasks to finish according to the movie.If without requirements ,the effect will decline.