Teaching engliseffectively by using english video clips and photos to tenth grade students

 THANH HOA EDUCATION AND TRAINING SERVICE
TRAN PHU HIGH SCHOOl
***
 EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE
THEME : TEACHING ENGLISEFFECTIVELY BY USING ENGLISH VIDEO CLIPS AND PHOTOS TO TENTH GRADE STUDENTS 
 Researcher : Bui Thi Linh
 Foreign language Group
 Tran Phu High School
 THANH HOA , MARCH 2017
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
Video and photos are held as a supplementary material in the foreign language class. It is used for different kinds of activities, mainly to practice the language skills, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. Video introduces a topic; they serve as a discussion starter, as a kind of pre-reading, pre-listening or pre-writing activity or as a kind of game, for example. To prove the usage of video and photos in teaching English is the main aim of this study.
The theoretical part of the study is going to explore the diversity of video and photos materials, their characterization and exploitation in such a class.
The practical part is going to prove the theory on concrete examples. The procedure of activities is described with a comment how it functioned in practice. The reader will find copies of the learners’ concrete products attached.
The study is supposed to serve as an introduction to teaching English through video and provide practical ideas which an EFL teacher could use in the class. The reader will be acquainted with both positive and negative aspects of video and photos activities in the class.
Why use video and photos in teaching English?
As technology develops, written materials tend to get ever less popular for learning foreign languages. People seem to no longer find pleasure in reading books. We need to apply the new technology to practical language learning problems to have motivating results.
Following chart shows what effect us when we learn a foreign language:
 10% of what we read
 20% of what we hear
 30% of what we see
 50% of what we see and hear
 70-90% of what we see, hear and do
(
Therefore, we use video and song as a learning tool for following reasons:
Firstly, using video and photos in the English class is a very helpful and stimulating method to motivate your students to get the most of the lesson. It provides students with a more effective and relaxing way of learning English. 
Secondly, video and photos allow teachers to not only tell students what they need to learn from a specific lesson, but illustrate examples to help develop understanding.
Thirdly, video and photos play an important part in teaching and learning a foreign language, as it employs real-life situations with real-life expressions and other particularities. 
Fourthly, video and photos are the great resource to use in class and there are an endless number of ways to exploit it to create motivating, memorable classes with a high level of language production.
To sum up, video and photos serve for illustration, develop learners’ imagination, make the learning process more interesting and entertain at the same time. This created strong motivations for me to carry out my research into “Teaching English Effectively by Using Video clips and photos to Tenth Grade students of Tran Phu High School”.
Video,photos and the teacher
Jack Lonergan makes a good comment about the role of the teacher:
 “As in most language-teaching situasions, the role of the teacher is a key one. It is the teacher who must harness the power of the video films; it is the teacher who has the prime responsibility for creating a successful learning environment.”
 (Lonergan, J. 1984, p.5)
The techniques of video and photos can present material to learners in ways quite beyond the normal resourses of the language teacher, but it is not meant to overshadow him.
In course development the teacher has the manegerial role as well as an instructional role. It is he who decides how much factual knowledge is really needed, who must skillfully use the various techniques that modern technology makes available to present interesting topics using video materials in such a way as to maintain interest throughout the course. The teacher also reveals his own personality in the way he presents his ideas. 
It is clear that the teacher must be trained to be confident and competent: his ability to code the information into language teaching mode. This depends on his own knowledge, intellectual skills and also on his own character.
Technically the teacher must be properly and carefully trained in the technical aspects of using video equipment, involving techniques such as stopping, reversing, re-playing, speed-viewing, freeze-frame and the memory button. The teacher need to exchange ideas, experiment constantly.
The role of the learners
The modern approach to teaching stresses that teacher should provide opportunities for learning. Lonergan said that: 
“Watching video films for language- learning purposes should be an active process by the learners.; they must participate so that the output from the video is not just one-way, to an unresponsive audience.”
(Lonergan, J. 1984,p6)
The learner must be familiar with the video equipment, and with the recorded video materials so that he can take responsibility for choosing sequences for review, for asking questions, for discussion and for self- assessment.
The learner’s active participation in the lesson promotes his comprehension which in turn promotes acquisition, increases his motivation.
Some strategies when using video and photos in the classrom
There are some strategies that enhance the use of video and photos in classroom (Claudia Miclaus, Last Updated: 10/13/2011)
1. Predicting: 
- With picture and audio on: Teachers use the pause control to stop a scene and have students predict what will happen next.
- With audio off: The teachers might be to turn off the sound and ask students to make up a dialog from a scene they've just watched or ask them to predict the situation and characterization based on viewing an entire scene without the sound.
- With picture off: Students have to predict the situation and characterizations by listening to the soundtrack without the picture.
2. Speaking practice:
One of them could be role-playing, for example having students act out the dialogue and lines from the video and photos, stressing the correct intonation and pronunciation.
Interviews is an another idea. The teacher asks students to move around the classroom and interview one another using questions that can be found in the video. Then students can make a report to the whole classroom about those interviews. 
One another is information gaps. The teacher divides the class in two. Half of the class watches the video without sound, and the other listens to it without image. Then the teacher can put students in pairs from each half, to have them discuss the situations and characters and perform the scenes in front of the class.
3. Discussion:
The most classical type of activity is discussing before or after watching the video and photos. There are plenty of topics for students, like those referring to the general plot, the feelings, actions, thoughts of the main characters in the scene. One may also ask students to tell which character they like best and why, or which they identify with and why, or to think about the things that the characters in the scene are thinking, but not saying out loud, and give reasons for the characters' attitude. Students may create such inner monologues and then present them in front of the class, in order to discuss their ideas regarding the video and photos.
Data Collection Method
In an attempt to reach the aim mentioned in the first part, we have conducted a true experiment in my school for a year.
This study was carried out at tenth grade students of Tran Phu High School. The material for teaching English is English Tenth (2006) by Hoang Van Van, all by The Publishing House of Ministry of Education of Training. 
The participants involved in this study were 88 students of grade tenth (10A and 10D) at Tran Phu High School (Nga Son District). 
The Procedures of Data Collection
	This section presents the key procedures of the study. 
First, some critical steps of preparation were planned. The procedures of data collection were mapped out. Having been approved by the Head of the Foreign Languages Group, arrangements and discussions with the students and the two other teachers were made to ensure that the data collection was carried out smoothly. Then, the interview questionaires was designed. All the materials were gathered, revised and edited and then designed for each lesson. 
Next, the teacher directly taught the quasi-experimental class and the control one from January to May. For the experimental class, the teacher started teaching Unit 8: My village; Unit 9; Undersea world, Unit 10: Conversation, Unit 11: National parks, Unit 12: Music and Unit 16 : Historical places with the help of videos and photos.
Then, the interview questionaires were carried out to the teachers and the students during the first week of March. Their answers were also colltected by the teacher. The results of the answers were kept for later analysis.
All the data of the interview questionaires were gathered and analyzed. The data analyses helped to fulfill other parts of the study.
VII. Studies
	The results of interview questionaires were run to compare. The questionaires include many questions and we divided into two parts: one for teachers and another for students. (See appendix)
1. The result of the questionaires
a. The teachers’ answers:
I think that using videoand photos in teaching raises my students achievement.
Video and photos can bring fresh and timely information into the classroom.
The length of the video and photos are from 5-8 minutes are enough.
I have tried to make an instructional video and photos in my classes.
I see that the number and quality of videos that ministry of education provide are enough to me as a teacher.
Video and photos could improve the students’ problem-solving skills .
 b. The students’ answers:
I think that using video and photos in teaching enlarges our knowledge and improves our language.
I see that the video and photos are related to our lessons’ goals.
I prefer to participate in making videos and photos for our lessons.
Using videoand photos help us relax and more confident during the lesson.
Learning with video and photos help us to have good scores.
2. Findings
From above results, I found out that:
Teachers:
Teachers are positive about the use of video and photos in the classroom because it stimulates classroom discussion. Video and photos reinforce lectures and reading, help students to have a common base of knowledge. The movement, the natural language and the story all combine to provide an enjoyable context for learning. However, this learning requires great preparation from the teachers. 
Students: 
The main aims of using videos and photos during the English classes are to motivate and help students to understand this language. Students who watched video were able to provide more complete and complex explainations. The gaps in knowledge base between boys and girls and between minority and majority students were smaller and closer. Video and photos can help to improve the students’ problem-solving skills. They can produce more sophisticated solutions. 
Both teachers and students are eager to make video clips for their lessons in spite of spending so much time and preparation.
Advantages of the video and photos:
Video can illustrate how thing works. It provides information in detail that text can not. Video and photos can show real life examples and stimulate students’ discussions. Students listen to the teacher attentively. Students feel relax and more confident when learning with video. Barners said that video could enhance problem- based learning ( Barners, 1997).
Challenges
Beside all above advantages, there are also some challenges. 
There may be a lack of resources because the number and quality of videos that ministry of education provide are not enough for teachers.Teachers may lack equipment and required software. Not all teachers have a camcorder and are good at technic. 
VIII. Implications of the study
Every study should be applied to practice. The results of the study showed that video and photos could be exploited as a supplementary method in teaching English to the tenth grade students at Tran Phu High School.
Nonetheless, in order to fully exploit the approach, the following resources should be taken into account. 
1. The Teacher
The teacher should be wholeheartedly devoted to their job as he/she needs time, enthusiasm and efforts to design lessons in accordance with the teaching context, especially choosing and making video. For example, the teacher has to spend a lot of time choosing and preparing suitable video for each lesson. You can use programmes recorded from the TV in the country you’re in. or you can use cartoons, soap operas or reality TV shows from the students’ country as they will be able to tell you all about the characters and you can exploit the natural information gap between you and them! 
The use of Video is likely to create good opportunities for students to express their feeling freely. This suggests that questions in this lesson should be designed in a way that creates opportunities for the students to express their minds frankly. 
The teachers need to have video ideas and prepare carefully before going to the classroom. Each video only lasts from 5 to 8 minutes. Some following topics may make the students atractive:
School events: music show, guest speakers, school plays and sports... These events would make great videos for a classroom
Student projects: Let students create videos as special projects or to demonstrate their mastery of a concept, then post the video on the screen to show off the learning that’s going on in your classroom.
Teaching videos: There are many educational videos available online, which can be used to supplement lesson plans. Add the videos to the blog so students can easily find them and watch them.
2. The Students
	The students' feelings, wishes, weaknesses and strengths should be exposed more frankly so that the teacher can adapt their teaching methodology flexibly. Apart from that, pair and group work should be taken advantage of so that weaknesses can be compensated for. 
	In short, using video and photos in teaching English requires the support and encouragement from other departments as well as the administration of the whole .
IX. Practical part
1. Introduction
Video’ s activities have a wide use. Nevertheless, the practical part of this study focuses on one group of learners: high school students, especially grade 10th. The activities might be modified according to the level, age and interest of the learners.
In the practical part there are concrete examples of video activities which were tried out in three different levels of learners. There are both original and modified activities included. The overtaken video activities were included in order to illustrate how usual video activities can be modified into activities for teaching. 
The categorization of the activities is based on their main skill focus, topic, type of task, other skills, level, time, function and purpose. The characterization helps the teachers orientate in the activities and choose the appropriate activity according to their needs.
Time suggested for each activity depends on the particular group of learners and modification of the activity. The teacher had to count with longer time by younger learners.
To illustrate concrete products of the learners, a few examples are included.
2. Activities (See PP lesson Plans and Watch videos in the CD at the appendix).
There are some examples of Teaching English Effectively by Using Video clips and photos to Tenth Grade of Tran Phu High School.
Unit 1: A day in the life of... Part A: Reading: 
In the part Before you read, I use a video clip in spite of a picture to illustrate the life of the farmer in the fields. This video clip was recorded by my students and I. The reason why I have to use this video clip is that most of my students were born and grew up in the country. But they don’t know much about the farm life. They could not immagine how hard it is. Because they do not pay attention to things parents do for them everyday. But after watching this video clip, they know more information about the farmers and their work. Our students disscuss frankly about the life of the farmer, and give many sollutions for them. This video clip helps our students read and understand the text about the life of the villagers easier and feel sympathy for the farmers, from which they try to overcome difficulties in learning to escape the poverty of the farmers.
Unit 12: Music. B: Speaking.
+ In Warm up part: I let students play a game: Who’s Who. In this part, I use a music video to raise the emotion of the students about music. They are eager to talk about their favorite music, their favorite singers and their favorite songs.
+ In Task 1: In spite of asking students to read the text in the book about Ha Anh’s favorite music, I ask students to wacth a video clip. This video clip is about one of their friends. She talks about her favorite music and why. Students feel very happy when seeing their friend in the video clip. They try to listen and answer all the questions easily. This video clip also inspires the emotion of the students. They ask and answer their parners all information about music. They want to share what they think about music. 
These video clip helps my lesson succeed. All my students feel relaxed and confident when talking about their favorite music. 
Unit 16 : Historical places. A: Reading :
In the part Before you read, I use a video clip and photos in spite of the last of English 10. Many students don’t equivalent status to learn when finished second semester exam. But when using this video clip has had more students toward learning and learn interesting information about history and landmarks that we do not know and have not been visited. This video helps our students read and understand the text about the historical places in Viet nam and in the world and they hope that they will visit these places in the near future.
X: Result after applying the research in teaching.
Before applying the research in teaching
Class
Number
Like
Dislike
10A
45
16 (35%)
29 (65%)
10D
43
15 (34.8%)
28 (65.2%)
After applying the research in teaching
Class
Number
Like
Dislike
10A
45
35 (78%)
10 (22%)
10D
43
32 (74.4%)
11 (25.6%)
XI. Conclusion
1. Conclusions
This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of using video and photos in teaching English to the tenth grade students at Tran Phu High School. The study showed both benefits and drawbacks when videos were used to teach English.
As regard for the advantages of the study, the findings showed that video could benefit students' learning development. These benefits could be summarized as follows: 
- Video can illustrate how thing works. 
- It provides information in detail that text can not. 
- Video and photos can show real life examples and stimulate students’ discussions. 
- Students listen to the teacher more attentively. 
- Students feel more relaxed and confident when learning with videos. 
- Video and photos could enhance problem- based learning.
- In conclusion, the study shares the most common results of the study on using video and photos in teaching English.
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References :
Nguyen Quoc Hung (2003). Video- Assisted Language Teaching and Learning. The Ho Chi Minh Publishing House
Hoang Van Van et all. (2006). E