Teaching English With Authentic Video

Paul Maglione and Frederic Tibout, co-founders, English Attack!

INTRODUCTION 

The widespread availability of online video has been one of the most visible manifestations of the internet as a daily presence in our lives. In the field of education, innovative start-ups such as Khan Academy have shown that clear, concise and simple made-for-instruction videos can help students learn complex concepts across a wide range of academic disciplines. 

On the other hand, authentic video – video originally created for purposes other than education (most typically, for information or entertainment) – has not yet been widely exploited as an educational resource. One field, that of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), is changing all that, with he usefulness of authentic video being acknowledged by language-learning experts, teachers and learners alike.

This White Paper is intended as a guide to integrating authentic video into best TEFL practices, particularly for the current “digital native” generation of English language learners – adolescents, teens and adults - who have grown up with online video not as a technological innovation, but as a part of their everyday reality.

SELECTING AUTHENTIC VIDEO FOR YOUR LEARNERS 

Why authentic video? 

For many years, teachers of English – to the extent they used video materials at all – relied on a small number of available “graded” video series (collections of video scenes created specifically for language learning) featuring situations and dialogue carefully scripted to address one or two learning objectives. At a time when English-language media was largely inaccessible to learners living outside of an English-speaking country, this was often learners’ only exposure to English in an audio-visual format. With the advent of satellite television and especially of the internet, however, authentic English-language audiovisual entertainment and media became available to nearly everyone, and online services like YouTube quickly became hugely popular on a global scale. The result has been to make made-for-learning English video seem stilted, outdated and even condescending to today’s English language learners. 

Authentic video has many advantages over graded video beyond its comparative attraction to learners, however. The first is that authentic video – a scene from a blockbuster film, or a hit comedy TV series, or a popular music video – directly engages a learner’s emotions, which in turn creates the predisposition for effective learning. Secondly, if the video material is current, learner engagement is further enhanced by its direct relevance to the learner’s interests, its reflection of the prevalent zeitgeist, and the buzz - magnified greatly by social media - which accompanies such content. Learners thus attribute a value and significance to authentic video material that artificial material simply cannot match. 

Third, the use of authentic video from the world of English-language entertainment and news media achieves wonderful language-learning context, in that it familiarizes learners with cultural and societal norms of English-speaking countries - both generic (commonly used cultural references, collocations and expressions across the language) and specific (such as regional accents, region-specific idioms or slang). In this way, the use of authentic materials helps reinforce the essential positioning of English, for the learner, as far more than just a language to be mastered, but rather as a culture and mental framework to be absorbed and in which to participate.

Finally, what is sometimes portrayed as a weakness of authentic English language video is actually an advantage. Precisely because producers of entertainment video strive to accurately reproduce how English native speakers actually speak, authentic video is ideal for acclimatizing learners to the types of speech speeds and cadences, prosody, use of informal speech, and evolving conventions of usage that they will encounter when they actually need to communicate with a native speaker of English, or need to comprehend the language swirling around them in an English-speaking environment. And if the exercises built around authentic video are structured correctly, this huge range of inputs will help learners with the essential notion that it is not necessary to understand every word in a dialogue, or every reference in a conversation, in order to negotiate meaning from it and conduct a communicative exchange.

What makes a good authentic video clip? 

Some teachers of English make the mistake of recommending that their students watch television news or a full-length film or documentary in English. While that may work for some very advanced learners, most learners will feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of language input and quickly “tune out.” Thus, we need to be more selective when targeting authentic video input for learners of English. 

• Duration: Our conclusion from our work with English Attack! over the past four years, having experimented with video segments of varying lengths, is that clips of 50 seconds to two minutes in length are optimal: short enough to allow the learner to focus on the content without getting lost or bored, but long enough to contain a context, a wide range of vocabulary, and non-verbal clues to help the learner negotiate meaning. 
• Subject matter: It would seem to go without saying, but subject matter that stimulates the learner’s attention is also the best at creating the conditions for effective learning. Thus, the best subject matter ranges from entertainment content (current films, TV shows, or music videos), to current television news items of relevance to the learner, to short documentaries or factual video about subjects of interest (nature, sports, the environment, or hobbies). 
• Situation / Context: Video featuring dialogue between two or more speakers is preferable to single-speaker or voice-over video. Authentic video depicting situations the learner considers to be important or directly relevant to his or her life (e.g. job interviews, social situations) creates strong engagement. In general, authentic video set in the present day, or in a future defined by present-day issues (such as in most science fiction films) tends to resonate more strongly with language learners than “period piece” scenes set far in the past, which often feature elements of language not normally used in the present day. 

The issue of subtitles 

The issue of whether video used for English language learning should be subtitled – whether in the learner’s L1 language, or in English - or has generated considerable disagreement among language learning researchers for some time. 

The point of view of the authors of this White Paper is against the use of subtitles of any kind. Reading subtitles allows the learner to “switch off” his or her efforts to negotiate meaning from the clip (via context, tone of voice, recognized vocabulary, or other verbal and non-verbal clues) and thus, if subtitles are present, this negotiation-of-meaning skill – so vital in actual, unscripted communicative situations – is never properly developed. 

In addition, the presence of subtitles undermines a key building-block of language learning: the confidence that comes from being able to understand the gist of a communicative exchange, even if every word in the dialogue is not known or recognized by the learner. The presence of subtitles, whether in the learner’s L1 or in English – constitutes an all-too-comfortable “safety net” which can then sap this confidence when it is not available in real-life situations. 

Providing a transcript 

Instead of subtitles, a transcript of the speech or dialogue in an authentic video – provided at the right stage of the video-based lesson - can achieve the twin aims of helping the learner achieve a fuller understanding of the video, and practicing reading skills. Thus it is best not to provide the transcript too early in the lesson, for example when learners are being tested for gist comprehension or listening skills. Instead, provide the transcript sequentially after these skills have been worked on, using the transcript to allow learners to practice text scanning skills to pick up detailed information, like a name, a date or a number, from the transcript. 

Difficulty levels – beyond the CEFR 

Because authentic video is such an accurate representation of actual language used in the real world, it brings with it comprehension considerations which go beyond those outlined in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), such as vocabulary, grammatical forms, subject matter, and context. 

Most of these considerations have to do with the manner of speech featured in the video. Fast-paced speech, for example, will obviously present more of a comprehension challenge than a normal pace of delivery. Dialogue rich in jargon and slang will be more difficult to understand than textbook English. Heavily accented English – such as a Scottish burr or a marked Southern U.S. drawl – will be harder to follow than Received Pronunciation English or Midwestern U.S. variants. However, these challenges are insufficient reasons to exclude video with this type of speech, as learners will no doubt encounter similar speech later on in real life and will not achieve true mastery of the language without being able to negotiate meaning in these situations. Furthermore, ambient factors in the authentic video – whether the sound track is clear and distinct from background noises, the recorded sound volume, and overlapping speech from the different participants in a dialogue – need to be considered when establishing the difficulty level of the video. 

Obviously, it is very difficult – and would be extremely time-consuming – for teachers to take all these elements into consideration when selecting authentic video to use with learners. Fortunately, a good online TEFL resource featuring authentic video will do that work for the teacher, categorizing clips according to difficulty scales (CEFR and/or others) while factoring in the additional considerations mentioned above.

USING AUTHENTIC VIDEO WITH YOUR LEARNERS 

The video-based lesson plan 

Just because video – and, in particular, authentic video – is perceived as more entertaining than printed input material, this does not mean that video-based lessons should be structured and planned any less carefully than traditional ones. It is important to keep in mind that the input represented by the video gives the opportunity for a language learning exercise that recognises the challenge faced by the learner: to quickly get a feeling for the general situation or story arc of the clip; to understand the gist of what is happening in the video using both verbal and nonverbal clues; to understand the contextual meanings of essential vocabulary used in the clip; to be able to identify or recall key factual information (names, dates, numbers) mentioned in the dialogue; and, ideally, to be able to familiarise themselves with a specific point of grammar or usage present in the dialogue. 

As with conventional lesson plans, it is useful to break up the session into pre-task, task and post-task components. 

Pre-task: this can take the form of a general ‘warm up” announcing the video clip upon which the lesson will be based; a very brief mention of the theme or subject matter portrayed in the video; and a quick overview of key vocabulary that will help learners catch the essential meaning of what they will see and hear. As so often is the case in lesson plans, less is more: do not overload learners with long lists of vocabulary they will encounter. Six to eight key terms should be enough, and these should be selected not so much based on the learners’ current proficiency level, but rather on the key vocabulary that will be most useful for comprehension of the video’s context and story arc. For example, a video clip exercise calibrated to A2 learners may nevertheless contain a more advanced term - say, “hardly” - in the transcript, and if this term is important in understanding the communicative intent of the character saying it, it should be defined as part of the pre-task activity. 

Task: The number of stages within the video-based lesson proper, and their depth, really depend on how much time is to be spent on the lesson. It is advisable to keep the overall pre-task plus task duration to about 15 to 20 minutes, so as to be able to spend a similar amount of time on the all-important communicative post-task activities. This timespan should still be sufficient to cover the following task activities: 

• Viewing the video, in a single pass, without pauses. 
• A Gist Comprehension exercise: this should be seen as a confidence-boosting step as much as a language skills exercise. The key objective here is to reinforce learners’ notion that they can negotiate meaning from a scene or sequence even if they have only partial context and do not know or understand every word spoken.
• A Listening exercise, in which the video can be viewed again, this time pausing it from time to time to pick up key phrases or nuances. 
• A Detailed Comprehension exercise, requiring learners to dive deeper into the facts or details put across in the video. As mentioned above, text scanning skills can be worked on during this stage if the teacher makes the video transcript available. 
• A Vocabulary exercise, limited to the key lexical terms essential to understanding the video and testing whether the learners have grasped how to use these terms in a similar context to that seen in the video. 
• A Contextual Grammar exercise, focused on a rule or element of language usage heard in the video. 

Post-task: this should be the communicative part of the video-based lesson plan, during which the learner motivation generated by the clip, as well as the language assets acquired during the task phase (key vocabulary, an understanding of the context and story arc of the clip, a key grammar element used) can be leveraged to engage learners in an interactive discussion - whether teacher-led or between learners - around themes, questions and topics contained in the clip. Ideas for this type of post-task activity are described in the “Flipped Classroom” section below. 

Obviously, as with the video clip difficulty level categorization issue outlined previously, the preparation by the teacher of sequenced language exercises built around a video clip can be very time-consuming. Here too there are good online resources (English Attack!, obviously, is one) which structure lesson plans around a video clip in this very way, saving teachers time and effort that can instead be dedicated to creating teacher-student or student-student communicative opportunities around the clip. 

The Flipped Classroom 

This leads us logically to the subject of flipped learning, or the “flipped classroom.” 

A hot topic in English Language Teaching circles these past few years, the concept of the flipped classroom is based on the principle that classroom time, with the teacher present, is a limited and valuable commodity, and should be dedicated to those areas where the teacher can provide the most interactive, communicative and pedagogical support: leading a class discussion about a given concept or topic; supervising pair and group work; or explaining one of the more complex points of usage. 

This means that classroom time should not be taken up by input and task-related activities – absorbing material, learning new vocabulary and grammar, and practice activities – which can instead be assigned as work to be done outside of class, especially if specially designed as a series of interactive, guided exercises. 

Current, authentic video, of course, is ideal for the EFL / ESL flipped classroom, as the high level of engagement that learners have with the input material away from the classroom creates the ideal conditions and motivation for communicative work within it. Virtually any clip from a current movie, television program, television news item or documentary, if built upon with exercises following the guidelines described above, presents a wealth of discussion opportunities: What do you think happened just before this clip? Why are the characters or people in the clip displaying the emotions we see? What would you do if you were in the situation of one of the characters? What do you think happened right after this scene? Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation? What was it like for you? 

Pairs or small group work 

Whether the video clip is viewed within the classroom – as a whole-class exercise – or outside of it in a flipped classroom implementation, the follow-on communicative work it can facilitate need not be limited to teacher-student interaction. Authentic video – again, because of the high levels of interest and motivation it generates – can be followed by pairs or small group role-plays during which learners can be asked to improvise dialogue within a context similar to that shown in the video. Pairs of students can be asked to imagine what each of the two speakers in a clip could have said next; and - for those teachers using online resources with video-based exercises producing a score – small groups can be put into stimulating competition with each other to see which group can obtain the highest score on a given video-based exercise. 

Autonomous discovery learning 

As valuable as authentic video is to the concept of blended learning in general, and to the flipped classroom in particular, it also can play an incredibly important role in creating a motivated, autonomous learning mindset in the learner. As humans, we engage most actively with whatever interests us the most, and each of us is different in his or her centers of interest. Thus, the use of authentic video in English language learning should ideally not be limited to clips selected by the teacher, but should instead include the ability by the learner to explore a wide range of properly structured video-based learning units, allowing him or her to gravitate towards genres, themes and topics that will encourage maximized attention as well as frequency of use. A good video-based learning resource is therefore one that has a wide range and a large number of learning units; one that keeps adding to the resource via newly published units reflecting current, topical subject matter; and one which allows both teachers and learners to search for units and filter selections in different ways.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 

Teachers of English as a Foreign or Second Language (EFL/ESL) today have the ability to stimulate and engage their learners with a powerful resource: current, authentic video. However, the attraction of the medium – and the vast choices it allows – should not obscure the need to plan its use as carefully as you would any other input material. Years of experience with authentic video points to an optimum length for the video of roughly between one and two minutes. Also highly recommended is a structured approach, with clearly distinct pre-task (key vocabulary), task (viewing; comprehension; vocabulary checking; grammar) and post-task (discussion, pairs or group work) phases.

Determining the right video for your learners should of course be based on the level of language it contains, but should also factor in elements (speed and clarity of speech, presence or not of non-verbal clues, background noise, subject matter, accents) specific to the audiovisual medium. Because it is so engaging – particularly for the “digital native” generation of learners who have grown up with it in various on-demand formats – and because it lends itself so well to follow-on discussion and derived exercises, authentic video is ideal for the “flipped classroom” approach to English language teaching, as it allows teachers to focus precious time and energy on communicative interaction based on the video lesson with and among their learners.

Finally, the value of properly structured lessons based on authentic video should not detract from its usefulness, when used as an open, self-study resource, in promoting a highly motivated autonomous learning mindset in the learner, one which will help him or her play a much more active role in their continued journey towards English language proficiency. 

The authors of this White Paper, Paul Maglione and Frederic Tibout, are the co-founders of Entertainment Learning, publishers of the English Attack! online English language immersion learning service. Developed in collaboration with researchers in cognitive neuroscience, teachers of English, and gamification experts, English Attack! features a unique pedagogical approach consisting of learning units based on authentic video clips, and learning games. It is currently used by a million learners and in over 1,500 schools, companies, training agencies and language institutes around the world. 

www.english-attack.com 

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