Listening with a video

According to Thanikachalam Murugavel (2003), the main purpose of using video in the classroom is to get students energized and engaged in hands – on learning experiences, and video is the perfect medium for students who are auditory or visual learners. Video taps into emotions which stimulate and enthral students, and it provides an innovative and effective means for educators to address the curricular concepts.
We have to consider the classroom in which students can hear the cry of a nearly extinct species and see the colours and hear the sounds of animals that thrive only in a remote wilderness half way around the globe. We can envision teaching with the voices of the past by introducing young learners to great historians, political figures and famous people who lived centuries ago. We should think about how much easier would be to understand the diverse cultures of people who live in other areas of the world if we could encounter them in their own environments – hearing their songs, observing their rituals or listening to their silence. Video provides another sensory experience that allows concepts to actually be ‘experienced’ and come to life while we guide our students on each adventure. We also know that the more engaged our students are, the more interactive the lesson is, the more the students will enjoy, learn and retain information from lessons.
We can stop the video and challenge our students to predict the outcome of a demonstration. We can also rewind a particular portion of a show to add our own review or view a segment in slow motion to ensure that our students understand a key concept.
Video should be used as a facet of instruction along with any other resource material
we have available for teaching a given topic and we should prepare for the use of a video in the classroom the very same way we do with any other teaching aid (http://www.library video.com/articles).
As Jeremy Harmer (1991) suggests, the main advantage of listening to a video is that students can see people speaking and can have a visual context for what is being said. When video is used for language learning, students are exposed to the non – verbal communication – facial expressions and body language as well as to pronunciation, stress, tone and other aspects of verbal communication.
The principles for using video are very much the same as those for using listening, and there is an especial need for teachers to set motivating and challenging task. This is partly due to the very nature of video material, which is, after all, similar to television. Like most of other people, students watch TV as a form of relaxation when teachers use it as an aid for learning (Byrne, 1986).

1. The variety of video materials.

Video materials used in the process of developing listening skills can come from a wide variety of sources. The techniques for using a video can be used with different sorts of films. They are categorized by Lonergan (1984), as follows:
- video recordings of language teaching broadcast and films,
- video recordings of domestic television broadcast, such as comedy programmes,
- video recordings of specialist films and television programmes, such as educational programmes,
- video language teaching materials made for the classroom rather than for public transmission as broadcasts,
- self – made video films, involving the teachers and learners.

Video recordings of language – teaching broadcast and films.
Films made for language teaching have the obvious merit of being planned and produced for a language – learning audience. The language can be graded, and the presentation of new vocabulary, items, structures, or speech exponents will be controlled. The film has an explicit language – learning goal, expressed in terms of language structures or a level of communicative ability. The language used and the situations shown relate well to other published materials such as course books.
Video recordings of domestic television broadcasts
Some materials, which have not been produced for language – teaching purposes, can be used in the classroom to bring good benefits, the same as the use of other realia, such as articles, magazine pictures, or popular records. They are real and meaningful. There are occasions when it is quite legitimate just to play a recording of a broadcast, using the video recorder to show programmes at a time convenient for the learners.
Video recordings of specialist films and television programmes
Programmes made for the educational channels of broadcasting authorities are usually available to the public. The thematic content of these films means that they are particularly suitable for courses in language for specific purposes. For example, the educational channel presenting the use of Present Simple Tense suitable for the Primary School.
Video language materials made for the classroom.
Video materials made for the classroom can have all the advantages that the medium
of television brings, as well as being designed specially for the purpose of educational use. These video films are quite different in construction from the usual television language broadcasts. In the broadcast mode, television programmes are presented in a characteristic style. The programme starts, and progresses without pauses or review to the end. The viewer cannot stop, consider, or look again at an earlier passage (Lonergan, 1984). Language programmes made for video take into account the fact that the video recorder allows to select the view. The developments in technology and the spread of video equipment into homes and schools show that these types of language – learning materials will become increasingly popular, both for classroom work, and self - study.
Self made video films
Working with a video camera can be really exciting for the teachers and the pupils as well. The subject of these films made by using a video camera, is usually the learners themselves. The film can be used to analyse their use of language, their gestures and reactions as well as to provide a record of activities and plays which might be performed
(Lonergan, 1984).

2. The variety of video techniques.

There are some video – specific techniques worth to be mentioned:
Silent viewing
It acts as a powerful predictive exercise. The teacher plays the video tape with the sound turned off. The students are supposed to guess what the characters are saying. Then they watch the tape with sound to check whether their predictions are right.
Freeze frame
The teacher might create expectations by freezing a frame on the screen. The students can predict what the characters will say.
Sound only
Students listen to the sound only (the teacher can cover the screen or turn the contrast). Their listening task may be to say where the conversation is taking place and who the speakers are. Then they watch the whole picture to check if they were right.
Jigsaw viewing
One technique, with video, is to let half the class watch without sound and the other half hear without a picture. They can then compare notes and build a complete story of what happened before watching the video with both picture and sound. A variation of this is for half the students to sit with their back to the screen while the other half tells them what is happening while the video is being shown. When the first half then watch the video they can see how accurately it has been described to them (Thanikachalam Murugavel, 2003).

3. Some examples of using the video during the lesson.

According to Tim Murphey (1992), video connected with music can be used successfully with any age group or level of students to improve listening skills. They can be used at the end of class for a ten minute uplift, or they can be an integral part of one or more lessons. Teachers can start from a text, a sound recording, or an image and gradually add on the other dimensions.
Countdown exercise.
The aim is to encourage listening for specific information. We have to prepare a video – record from a hit song TV programme a portion when the presenters are summarizing the position of the hit songs for that week. Announcers usually do this in tens, that is, they go from 40 to 31, 30 to 21, etc. and then they usually show a few video clips.
First, we play the countdown once or twice through and then let the students get together in small groups to share their information and to home in on information they do not yet have. Then we play the clip again for the students to listen selectively for the information that they did not get the first time round. Finally, we ask members from the different groups to come up and write their information on the board. And we have final viewing to settle any doubts.
Instead of forming small groups, each person can be assigned a different number in the countdown and asked to listen specifically for that number. On the first showing we may wish to turn off either the picture, or the sound, so that the students are only monitoring one source of sensory input and gathering their information from that. At a later stage, we can add the other mode (vision or sound), so that the students can gather further information (Murphey, 1992).
A day at school.
The aim is to develop listening skills watching short video films. We have to prepare a short video film about a student from other country including his or her class subjects, meals, rules, dress and extra curricular activities. We also need several questions connected with the film. During pre – listening exercises students describe a normal school day in the life of a student in their country. After that, we play the video film about Joshua, a boy from Japan. Students listen carefully and try to make notes and answer the question which they have in front of them:
1. How does Joshua get to school in Japan?
a. He takes a school bus every morning.
b. He rides a subway at 8 AM.
c. He walks with a group of students.

2. What is one of the first things Joshua does when he arrives at school?
a. He practices his reading and writing.
b. He stands and bows to the teacher.
c. He puts on his gym clothes for class.

Our family roots.
The aim of this exercise is to listen for particular information (http://www.esl-lab.com/roots/). We need to prepare a short documentary (in this case it’s a short documentary of Randal’s family roots) and some questions connected with it. At the beginning, students try to answer the question – What details would you expect to hear about the life of Randal’s grandmother, Ana Maria Cavazos? Then, they will watch the film trying to guess the answers for prepared questions:
1. When was Ana Maria Cavazos born?
a. June 7, 1908
b. June 8, 1908
c. June 9, 1908
2. Where was she born?
a. Mexico
b. Texas
c. New Mexico
3. How many brothers and sisters did she have, not including herself?
a. Eleven
b. Twelve
c. Thirteen