Using
News Video in Developing Language Skills
By
RAHMAD RISAN
12B01153
GRADUATE
PROGRAM
STATE
UNIVERSITY OF MAKASSAR
2014
INTRODUCTION
One
influencing factor in developing the various teaching technique is the use of
ICT. Information and communication technology or ICT allow
users to participate in a rapidly changing world in which work and other
activities are increasingly transformed by access to varied and developing
technologies. By this definition, you could almost say ICT is technology's
version of economic growth, to satisfy the needs and wants of the community
over time. ICT tools can be used to find, explore, analyze, exchange and
present information responsibly and without discrimination. ICT can be employed
to give users quick access to ideas and experiences from a wide range of
people, communities and cultures.
Information and communication technologies in
education deal with the use of Information and Communication Technologies
(ICT) within educational
technology. Educational
technology (also called learning
technology) is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning
and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate
technological processes and resources." The term educational technology is
often associated with, and encompasses, instructional
theory and learning theory. While instructional technology covers the processes
and systems of learning and instruction, educational technology includes other
systems used in the process of developing human capability. Educational Technology
includes, but is not limited to, software, hardware, as well as Internet
applications and activities.
In
this paper, teaching language skillsusing video is introduced. The language
skills discussed in this paper are Listening, Speaking and Writing. Video as
audio visual aids is beneficial for the teacher and students in English
Language Teaching. Video can be used as an aid to teach the four skills namely
reading, listening, speaking and writing.
A.
English
language skills
Learning English
means learning language components and language skills. Grammar, vocabulary,
pronunciation, and spelling are examples of language components. Meanwhile,
language skill covers listening, writing, reading, and speaking. They may need
for further study, work or leisure, so that they will not be among the many
people who unable to express his idea in English after having studied it for
some years. The teachers, therefore, are challenged to develop various teaching
techniques. The variety of teaching techniques will help learners to get higher
motivation to learn English.
The four
language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing are highly
interconnected and, therefore, cannot be taught independently. Listening
and reading both rely on input from an outside source and require knowledge of
the language, background knowledge, and comprehension skills. The productive
skills of writing and speaking are more complex as they necessitate taking
knowledge of a language a step further to actually produce new language (Anonymous,
2008).
All language
skills are needed to successfully assimilate into an environment where the TL
is used: one cannot simply listen without responding. The foreign
language classroom should mirror (as closely as possible) an authentic
environment where the language is used. Therefore, these language skills
should be integrated into the curriculum.
Teaching
language skills can vary in terms of method or technique. It has been indicated
that most of the students love learning with enjoyable way. One thing that can
make teaching and learning process more enjoyable is the media used by the
teacher in teaching. In terms of using ICT in teaching language, video can cover
teaching the four language skills.Katchen (1993) says that video has so much to
offer. Furthermore, students love video because video presentation is
interesting, challenging, and stimulating to watch. It also brings how people
behave in culture whose language they are learning into the classroom. It
enables students to have authentic experience in controlled environment. It is
also contextualizing language naturally by showing real life into the
classroom.
A.
Video
Video
here is one of the ICT use in language classroom. Video is a visible part of a
television transmission; "they could still receive the sound but the
picture was gone". Video also refers to displaying images and text on a computer monitor. The video adapter, for example, is responsible for sending signals to the
display device.
In the past fifteen years, with the increase in access to videos and video technology,
language teachers have begun to use video as a tool in the classroom.
After a decade of increasingly more developed usage, it is possible to make
some generalizations about the most common ways videos are used in language
instruction.
To understand how videos are used, we should first
understand what is meant by the word "video." This word has
come to refer to many different classroom tools. "Video" in
language learning may mean the use of popular films on video to provide
content. "Video" can also mean the use of smaller pieces of broadcast
material, used both in whole and in part. Short documentaries and
television advertisements are examples of broadcast material that can be
used to provide content and teach structure. "Video" can
also refer to professionally produced tapes specifically written and designed
for classroom instruction. These tapes generally accompany books and
provide scripted dialogs and developed language activities.
A drawback to this type of material is that because it is
scripted and professionally prepared, it often does not use authentic
language. "Video" can also refer to amateur productions
developed by individual teachers and classes. Videotaping classroom
projects and presentations is a useful way to help students improve pronunciation and
overall fluency. Finally, "video" can refer to the use of news
broadcasts to provide content and to teach specific features of authentic
language. In short, videos are a valuable tool that can enhance a
classroom experience, proving that a picture is truly worth the proverbial
1,000 words.
1.
News
Videos in the Language Classroom
News has always been a focus of modern language teaching
lessons. Since the news is of vital importance to all, it usually
requires no effort on the part of the teacher to motivate students to listen to
the news. In the early 1990s, Cable News Network (CNN) joined the broadcasters
who were working with news as a teaching medium. It now offers the nightly CNN Newsroom broadcast,
a 30 minute, commercial-free news broadcast that teachers can tape and use in
classrooms. The accompanying lesson plans for these materials are
available on-line at the CNN Newsroom site. A noteworthy feature of these
Newsroom broadcasts is that they incorporate both up-to-the-minute headline
news as well as the feature broadcasts found in publications such as the Focus
On series. As Mejia (1989) has pointed out, headline news, although
it quickly becomes dated, has the advantage of being of immediate importance to
the student. In addition, a story of some impact, such as the wreck of
the Exxon Valdez, will generally take several weeks to resolve itself, giving
students an opportunity to enhance their listening with each news update. Apart
from the obvious interest factor, news broadcasts have their formulaic
rhetorical structures to recommend them as teaching tools. A casual viewing
of an hour of CNN news will show even the most casual viewer that there is an
easily discernible pattern of organization and language features.
Most news episodes start with a newscaster raising the issue of the
upcoming episode with a teaser, a brief overview of the issue to stimulate
interest and get the viewer ready to listen.
News is often presented in a general to specific pattern,
with many of the basic journalistic questions (who, what, when, where, why, and
how) partially answered at the beginning of the broadcast. Newscasters
generally provide summary-style lead-ins to comments made by persons
interviewed on the news. News is often divisible into the categories of
issue-based news (such as whether a certain bill will pass in Congress) and factual
recounting (such as news updates regarding the death of Princess Diana).
Usually, in issue-based news broadcasts, an attempt is made to provide a
viewpoint from both sides of the issue.
Finally, the news provides an excellent model of the dialect
known as Network Standard (McCrum et al., 1992). This dialect is the
closest American English comes to a standard dialect that is recognized as
uniformly acceptable to all levels of American and Canadian society.
2.
How
to Use News Videos to Teach Language Skills
The Looking Ahead series provides a free video of CNN
news clips when you adopt a book in the series. These CNN materials
are thematically integrated into each of the chapters in each of the books,
offering us a method for enhancing our classroom lessons.
The following suggestions are offered to help us get started
in developing lessons with these broadcasts. In planning a lesson that
incorporates video, one must first consider several questions:
·
When
will the video be used--before, while, or after using the accompanying book
materials?
·
What
is the level of the class and the particular strengths and weaknesses of the
students?
·
What
is the level of video access?
·
What
pitfalls should be avoided in planning the lesson?
a.
Developing Listening Skills
Consider a discussion activity before turning the t.v.
on. For example, if the broadcast is about heroism, we may wish to ask
students to discuss a question Listening is always enhanced if the students are
well prepared to listen. The following are some pre-teaching strategies
to use with video lessons. We may wish to use one or more of these activities
to help students get ready to listen. Such as “What is your personal definition
of heroism?” in small groups before watching. Responses can also be
enhanced by having students free write on the question before discussing it.
Before listening, show the entire clip with the sound off
(press "mute" on your remote control). Have students focus on the
images and discuss what they think the video broadcast will be about.
This works particularly well with small groups.
Preteach any unusual vocabulary before listening. A
caution here: one of the goals in teaching listening is to teach students
to understand vocabulary in context. Preteaching of vocabulary
should be kept to a minimum. However, Katchen (1993) has pointed
out that a difficulty in using news broadcasts is the large number of
references to places and the extensive use of proper names that one hears in
such a broadcast. We may want to preteach such references.
Any preteaching should give students an opportunity to pronounce words
several times so that they can develop their aural perception of the words.
Play the teaser (introductory material) to the broadcast two
or three times. Have students give answers to the six journalistic questions
- who, what, when where, why, and how - from the information they have
heard in the teaser. Students can share this information with each other
and the teacher can compile a list of the information on the board and
questions that remain unanswered.
The following are suggestions for teaching with a news
broadcast. As Stempleski (1987) has noted, repeated viewing is one of the
keys to success with using video in the ESL classroom. After any
preteaching, you will probably show the video clip about five times. Here is a
possible sequence of activities:
Listening
#1. Play the entire
broadcast. Have students listen without taking notes. The purpose
of this listening is to relax them and make them comfortable with the language.
Listening
#2. Play the entire
broadcast. Have students listen and write one sentence in which they
identify the main idea of the broadcast and write a question they have about
what they heard. Have students circulate throughout the class, sharing ideas
and questions with other students in the class.
Listening
#3. Before you begin, divide the
tape into segments of approximate thirds. Develop who, what, when,
where, why, and how questions for each third. Provide students with a
copy of these questions. Play the tape in thirds, stopping after each
third at least a minute to give students enough time to answer the questions
and then share the answers with a partner. Review the answers to all the
questions after the last third has been played.
Listening
#4. If the news broadcast
includes interviews with different people, assign students to listen for the
parts spoken by different people. For example if there are three people
interviewed, assign each student a number 1-3. Students assigned #1 will
listen for the first interviewee; students assigned #2 will listen for the
second interviewee; students assigned #3 will listen for the third
interviewee. After listening, have the students get into groups by
numbers (e.g. all the #1 students in one group), and decide what were the most
important points that the interviewed person made to contribute to the news
story. Then, have the groups report their results to the entire class.
Listening
#5. Play the entire tape through
one more time. Divide students into small groups of three and have them
group write a short one-paragraph summary of what they have heard.
After you have ensured that students understand the
broadcast, you may wish to have students do one of these follow-up activities
for a given broadcast: Listen to another CNN broadcast on a similar
topic. Do one of the speaking or writing activities that are given in the
following sections of this article.
b.
Developing Speaking Skills
Although many of the listening activities suggested above
require some speaking, after working with listening, you may wish to consider
some of the following activities for more focused speaking activities:
Intonation
activities.
The introductory material in news broadcasts is often
carefully written to provide a good model of intonation and stress
patterns. Have students mark a copy of the script provided with
your materials, underlining those content words that receive the heaviest
stress and indicating with arrows where intonation rises and falls.
Then, have pairs of students practice repeating the sentences,
trying to mimic the model on the tape as much as possible.
Have students produce their own version of the newscast by
reading their summaries of the broadcast. Students can do this in small
groups. This can be made into a focused pronunciation lesson by asking
students to tape their summaries (this can be done outside of class) and then
reviewing their tapes for pronunciation and intonation features.
Have students develop a follow-up interview about the
broadcast. For example, if the broadcast is a feature about what it means to be
a hero, students could develop an interview in which they ask other students,
or Americans, about heroism. The presentation of the results of these
interviews can be audio-taped or video-taped as well, depending on available
technology.
Have students produce a video news broadcast of their own on
a related topic, using the CNN broadcast as a model. A less technologically
demanding alternative is to produce a radio broadcast on a related topic, using
audio-tape. In large classes, the class can be divided into small
groups, with each group producing a part of the final broadcast. For more
information on classes in which this has successfully been done, see Alsop
(1984) and Tupper (1995).
c.
Developing Writing Skills
Although the listening and speaking activities listed above
do incorporate some writing, you may wish to consider the following activities
when preparing more direct writing-based lessons:
·
As
a previewing activity, consider a free write about the topic of the broadcast
before you do any of the listening activities. Students can then share
their free writes with each other as a preparation for listening.
·
As
a post-viewing activity, have students develop a list of questions they still
have about the video broadcast. Students can then share their questions
with each other and get answers.
·
A
class newspaper is another possible writing activity. Have Students write
up what they heard in the broadcast in article format, complete with a
headline, a byline, and possibly student-developed art work. This will
give them opportunities to review journalistic writing (getting the general
answers to the journalistic questions into the first sentence or two) and
quotation and citation as well. This class newspaper can be expanded to
include newspaper articles about genuine local news of interest to the
students.
·
A
WEB version of the newspaper is another option. Another possible post-viewing
activity is a follow-up letter to one of the people interviewed in the
broadcast. For example, if a scientist is interviewed about a new
technology, students might want to write a letter to the scientist asking for
more information or posing questions that they have. In some cases,
careful WEB searching may locate the address of the actual person, in which
case the letters can be e-mailed to the person.
·
Depending
on the level and academic goals of the class, students can do library or WEB
research on the topics raised in the video. The results of this research
can be written up in short report form.
Ø When to Use the CNN Video Clips
This will depend on your particular goals. There are
many possible configurations for working with video. Some teachers like
to do all of the book material for a given unit first, then the video
material. Some like to do some of the video material first (perhaps the
listening), then some of the book material, and then more video material
(perhaps a writing assignment). There is no one correct way to use video
(Stempleski, 1987); flexibility of approach will help you determine the
best way for you to feel comfortable with working with video.
Working with the Level of the Class The operative word here is
flexibility. A class with advanced listening skills may not need all of
the activities suggested in the section on listening activities. A class
with low-level listening skills may need many more than five listening per
broadcast episode. A shy class of timid speakers may need more guided
activities, such as the radio summary-reading activity, before trying something
as free as producing their own news broadcast. A class with beginning
writing skills may have difficulty writing and may need a free-write to loosen
their inhibitions. A more advanced class might skip this step. Only
you can determine what works best for your students, but the rule in video
education is always: be prepared to be flexible.
Ø Issues of Video Access.
We don't all live in a technologically perfect world.
Before using your videos, you may wish to consider some of the following access
constraints, which will impact the way in which you conduct video lessons:
The Ideal Situation: This is a set-up in which you can
show and control the video in the individual classroom or in a special
media-equipped classroom to which he or she can take the class. Options
here include VCRs on carts, built-in video players, and beamed-in video from a
remote projector. Such a situation allows for maximum flexibility in
lesson planning. All of the suggestions given above are possible.
The Average Situation: This is a set-up in which you
do not have access to video facilities for a class to use, but the
students must use a laboratory type facility for individual or small group
viewing. In such circumstances, listening activities may need to be
modified to provide students with worksheets of comprehension questions rather
than the more class-interactive suggestions given above. A model
listening lesson in such a situation might involve a free-write in class
to discuss the idea and perhaps some vocabulary preparation.
We will need to ensure that students know how to use the
technology. Students can then go to the lab with a worksheet of questions
and watch the tape. Questions are checked in small groups or in class the
next day. Most of the speaking and listening activities can still be
managed without undue difficulty.
The Most Difficult Situation: This is a situation in
which there is no video access on campus, either in the classroom or in a
lab. Even in this situation, you can still use video. Possible
solutions might involve checking to see if the local public library has video
facilities and whether or not a tape can be left on reserve for students.
Another solution is to determine if students in the class have video players at
home. If so, small viewing groups can be organized and groups can check
out the video over a period of several nights.
Ø How to
Have the Best Possible Video Lesson
You are ready to start. You have a video, some
activities lined up, video access available. You are excited to try this
innovative tool, but maybe you are also just a little scared. This is
normal whenever any type of teaching technology is involved. Not so many
years ago, teachers went to inservices to learn how to use transparency
projectors! To ensure your best possible success with the video, you may
want to consider these tips:
Planning is everything. Cue your video ahead of time,
using the counter, a visual cue, and a time cue. Always keep your video
in its case so that nothing can happen to the tape itself. Watch your
video several times before you use it. The more comfortable you are with
the video, the more comfortable your class will be.
Practice with your technology ahead of time. All VCRs
are not the same. Learn how to use yours before you do your first video
lesson. If there is a remote, practice with it. Feel comfortable
with using mute, volume adjustment, tracking, and cueing functions. Make
sure you know where the electrical outlets are in the classroom and be sure you
have an extension cord if necessary.
Enlist a student helper. Students often know more
about technology than teachers do. If something does go
wrong, don't hesitate to ask your helper for help. Any time you are using any
type of technology, have an alternate plan. Electricity does go
off. Tapes have been known to break in the machine. In situations in
which the tape is beamed in from a remote station somewhere else on campus, it
is possible that someone at the remote station will forget to turn on your
tape. One suggestion is to have a learner's notebook planned and
ready at all times. If something does go wrong, you can use the writing
activity and not miss a minute of valuable class time. Television news
broadcasts are a proven, effective tool to enhance the learning experiences of
your students. As you plan your lessons, you may find some of
the materials listed in the list of references of help in planning
your most effective lessons.
CONCLUSION
Teaching
language skills can vary in terms of method or technique. It has been indicated
that most of the students love learning with enjoyable way. One thing that can
make teaching and learning process more enjoyable is the media used by the
teacher in teaching. In terms of using ICT in teaching language, video can
cover teaching the four language skills. Katchen (1993) says that video has so
much to offer. Furthermore, students love video because video presentation is
interesting, challenging, and stimulating to watch. It also brings how people
behave in culture whose language they are learning into the classroom. It
enables students to have authentic experience in controlled environment. It is
also contextualizing language naturally by showing real life into the
classroom.In
planning a lesson that incorporates video, one must first consider several
things: they are the time the video be used (before, while, or after using the
accompanying book materials), the level of the class and the particular
strengths and weaknesses of the students, the level of video access, and the pitfalls
should be avoided in planning the lesson.
Questions and Answers
1. What
is definition of video?
Answer:
The word ‘video’ has come to refer to many different classroom tools. "Video" in language learning may
mean the use of popular films on video to provide content. "Video"
can also mean the use of smaller pieces of broadcast material, used both in whole
and in part. Short documentaries and
television advertisements are examples of broadcast material that can be used
to provide content and teach structure.
"Video" can also refer to professionally produced tapes
specifically written and designed for classroom instruction
2. Why
video is used in teaching language?
Answer:
Katchen (1993) says that video has so much to offer. Furthermore, students love
video because video presentation is interesting, challenging, and stimulating
to watch. It also brings how people behave in culture whose language they are
learning into the classroom. It enables students to have authentic experience
in controlled environment. It is also contextualizing language naturally by
showing real life into the classroom.
3. Give
example the using of video relating to ICT!
Answer:
News has always been a focus of modern language teaching lessons. Since the news is of vital importance to all,
it usually requires no effort on the part of the teacher to motivate students
to listen to the news. In the early 1990s, Cable News Network (CNN) joined the
broadcasters who were working with news as a teaching medium. It now offers the nightly CNN Newsroom
broadcast, a 30 minute, commercial-free news broadcast that teachers can tape
and use in classrooms.
4. Give
categories for the news in relating to the ICT!
Answer:
News is often divisible into the categories of issue-based news (such as
whether a certain bill will pass in Congress) and factual recounting (such as
news updates regarding the death of Princess Diana). Usually, in issue-based news broadcasts, an
attempt is made to provide a viewpoint from both sides of the issue.
5. What
are the activities for teaching with a new broadcast?
Answer:
Listening #1. Play the entire
broadcast. Have students listen without
taking notes. The purpose of this
listening is to relax them and make them comfortable with the language.
Listening
#2. Play the entire broadcast. Have students listen and write one sentence
in which they identify the main idea of the broadcast and write a question they
have about what they heard. Have
students circulate throughout the class, sharing ideas and questions with other
students in the class.
Listening
#3. Before you begin, divide the tape
into segments of approximate thirds.
Develop who, what, when, where, why, and how questions for each
third. Provide students with a copy of
these questions. Play the tape in
thirds, stopping after each third at least a minute to give students enough
time to answer the questions and then share the answers with a partner. Review the answers to all the questions after
the last third has been played.
Listening
#4. If the news broadcast includes
interviews with different people, assign students to listen for the parts
spoken by different people. For example
if there are three people interviewed, assign each student a number 1-3. Students assigned #1 will listen for the
first interviewee; students assigned #2 will listen for the second interviewee;
students assigned #3 will listen for the third interviewee. After listening, have the students get into
groups by numbers (e.g. all the #1 students in one group), and decide what were
the most important points that the interviewed person made to contribute to the
news story. Then, have the groups report
their results to the entire class.
Listening
#5. Play the entire tape through one
more time. Divide students into small
groups of three and have them group write a short one-paragraph summary of what
they have heard.
6. Give
example for the students how to conduct an interview about the broadcast!
Answer:
Have students develop a follow-up interview about the broadcast. For example,
if the broadcast is a feature about what it means to be a hero, students could
develop an interview in which they ask other students, or Americans, about
heroism. The presentation of the results
of these interviews can be audio-taped or video-taped as well, depending on
available technology.
7. Give
some activities in developing writing skills!
Answer:
the following activities when preparing more direct writing-based lessons:
•
As a previewing activity, consider a free write about the topic of the
broadcast before you do any of the listening activities. Students can then share their free writes
with each other as a preparation for listening.
•
As a post-viewing activity, have students develop a list of questions they
still have about the video broadcast.
Students can then share their questions with each other and get answers.
•
A class newspaper is another possible writing activity. Have Students write up what they heard in the
broadcast in article format, complete with a headline, a byline, and possibly
student-developed art work. This will
give them opportunities to review journalistic writing (getting the general
answers to the journalistic questions into the first sentence or two) and
quotation and citation as well. This
class newspaper can be expanded to include newspaper articles about genuine
local news of interest to the students.
•
A WEB version of the newspaper is another option. Another possible post-viewing
activity is a follow-up letter to one of the people interviewed in the
broadcast. For example, if a scientist
is interviewed about a new technology, students might want to write a letter to
the scientist asking for more information or posing questions that they
have. In some cases, careful WEB
searching may locate the address of the actual person, in which case the
letters can be e-mailed to the person.
•
Depending on the level and academic goals of the class, students can do library
or WEB research on the topics raised in the video. The results of this research can be written
up in short report form.
8. How
do the teachers give the material in using video?
Answer:
There are many possible configurations for working with video. Some teachers like to do all of the book
material for a given unit first, then the video material. Some like to do some of the video material
first (perhaps the listening), then some of the book material, and then more
video material (perhaps a writing assignment).
There is no one correct way to use video (Stempleski, 1987); flexibility
of approach will help you determine the best way for you to feel comfortable
with working with video
9. Describe
the situation how to use video in classroom!
Answer:
a. The Ideal Situation: This is a set-up in which you can show and control the
video in the individual classroom or in a special media-equipped classroom to
which he or she can take the class.
Options here include VCRs on carts, built-in video players, and
beamed-in video from a remote projector.
Such a situation allows for maximum flexibility in lesson planning. All of the suggestions given above are
possible.
b.
The Average Situation: This is a set-up
in which you do not have access to video facilities for a class to use, but the
students must use a laboratory type facility for individual or small group
viewing. In such circumstances,
listening activities may need to be modified to provide students with
worksheets of comprehension questions rather than the more class-interactive
suggestions given above. A model listening lesson in such a situation
might involve a free-write in class to discuss the idea and perhaps some vocabulary
preparation.
c.
The Most Difficult Situation: This is a
situation in which there is no video access on campus, either in the classroom
or in a lab. Even in this situation, you
can still use video. Possible solutions
might involve checking to see if the local public library has video facilities
and whether or not a tape can be left on reserve for students. Another solution is to determine if students
in the class have video players at home.
If so, small viewing groups can be organized and groups can check out
the video over a period of several nights.
10. What the teachers have to do if
something related to the video go wrong?
Answer:
If something does go wrong, don't hesitate to ask your helper for help. Any
time you are using any type of technology, have an alternate plan. Electricity does go off. Tapes have been known to break in the
machine. In situations in which the tape is beamed in from a remote station
somewhere else on campus, it is possible that someone at the remote station
will forget to turn on your tape. One
suggestion is to have a learner's notebook planned and ready at all times. If something does go wrong, you can use the
writing activity and not miss a minute of valuable class time. Television news
broadcasts are a proven, effective tool to enhance the learning experiences of
your students. As you plan your lessons,
you may find some of the materials listed
in the list of references of help in planning your most effective lessons.
REFERENCES
Alsop,
T. (1984). Planning a radio broadcast -- an opportunity to increase
interest in foreign language courses. Foreign Language Annals, 17
(3), 191-194.
Katchen,
J. (1993, April) Turning the tables: choose the videos, construct the
course. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Teachers of English
to Speakers of Other Languages, Atlanta, GA.
Mejia,
E. (1989, October). Tuning into the news. Paper presented at the
meeting of the Washington Association for the Education of Speakers of Other
Languages, Seattle, WA.
Stempleski,
S. (1987, April) Short takes: using authentic video in the English
class. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Teachers of English to
Speakers of Other Languages, Westende, Belgium.
