How To Liven Up English Lessons
With Video

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A new student already had a rudimentary grasp of English. He was asked if he had spent any time in the United Kingdom.

His answer was no, he had not lived in the UK. However, in his youthful days he did love to watch Hollywood movies and learned his English from them.

Without any formal English education, this man was a living testimony to the power of video and movies when it comes to language instruction.

So consider:

• How can a teacher tap into this amazing resource during English lessons?
• What makes it so powerful anyway?

Colin McGinn, in his book, "The Power of Movies" states: "The child has to learn to read before a literary narrative can be processed, but watching a film requires nothing much beyond the capacity to dream. The 'grammar' of films recapitulates the 'grammar' of dreams, which is written into the genes."

He further says: "Film enters the brain through its sensory centers and radiates outwards to the emotional sub-regions," showing that film lives in the senses, not the intellect.

The Secret Of Movies

Here then lies the secret as to why movies are so powerful. They touch emotion and they engage multiple senses, especially the visual and auditory senses. How often in conversation do people refer to a particular scene from a movie they watched? So how can this powerful communication medium be utilized in a class setting?

By selecting brief clips from movies and videos, a teacher can use it as a basis for class discussion with students creating sentences based on what they see. A whole range of vocabulary can be covered in just one video. For this to be effective however, some precautions have to be observed.

It is important for the video clip to be brief, perhaps 3 to 4 minutes at the most. Clips of approximately 2 minutes in length are ideal. This allows for concentration on just a few scenes without overwhelming the student. The dialogue, if any, can also be more easily analyzed.

Repeat Viewings

Usually it takes more than one showing for a student to fully grasp the meaning of the video, especially for beginners. So the video can be played the first time, and students asked to describe in their own words what happened. Or, the teacher may wish to ask specific questions about some of the scenes to draw out the students in conversation.

Some of the lines can be repeated by the teacher and the meaning explained if any students are unclear about them. After this, the video can be played again. This time, the students will extract much more from it. Questions can be repeated and key lines also repeated.

Finally, the video can be played a third time if necessary. This time, the students are able to fully absorb many more details, perhaps certain gestures, facial expressions, intonations of the voice, etc. They can then be encouraged to take the place of the actor or actress and repeat the lines along with the body language that was used.

Repetition and Gestures

This coupling of vocabulary repetition along with the appropriate gestures and body language is especially effective in helping a student remember new words. As the learning becomes a whole brain and body experience, with emotion attached to words, vocabulary stands a much higher chance of reaching long-term memory.

As to subject matter, any tasteful video clip can be used but humorous clips are particularly effective.

When students start to laugh at a comedy scene, they relax, and start absorbing the sense and sounds without having to concentrate on it. Comedy can make a vivid impression on the mind.

A teacher may wish to include a brief video clip at some point in every lesson. It adds variety to the teaching period, relaxes the students, and creates a very light-hearted atmosphere in which students lose some of their inhibitions, and become more courageous in trying out their new vocabulary.

Summary on using video effectively for English lessons:

• Make video clips brief - 3 to 4 minutes maximum
• Repeat the viewing 2 or 3 times
• Ask questions and repeat the dialogue
• Use the same body language as the actors and actresses when repeating lines
• Use humorous clips where possible