An Evaluation of Two Pedagogical Applications of Video in an ESP Context

【Abstract】In response to the diversified needs of language learners, technology has been widely used in language education. Videos, as one of pedagogical tools, help stimulate language learners’ interest and motivation and enable them to experience authentic language in a controlled environment. This article introduces and evaluates two pedagogical applications of video in an EFL context. It is evident that despite certain constraints, videos, if used in a pedagogically sound way, proves effective especially in ESP contexts.

【Key words】video; pedagogical application; evaluation; ESP

【作者簡介】杨小婉，广东外语外贸大学英语教育学院。

1. Introduction

Continuing development of technology has transformed our societies and heavily influenced the way we think, work and live (Grabe & Grabe, 2007). It has also changed the way educational institutions reach their learners and it is interesting to investigate how technology is integrated in educational curriculum as well as daily teaching and learning.

A wide range of tools offered by technology have been frequently used in language teaching and learning. Video, for example, plays a more integral role in language education. The use of videos can stimulate students’ interest and motivation, enable students to experience authentic language in a controlled environment, function as a basis for project work and help students analyze their performance.

Two pedagogical applications of video will be discussed in this article: making video recordings of students’ performance and using video clips to provide authentic materials. Existing literature will first be reviewed in relation to these two applications. Following this, how video is used in an English for Journalism class in a university in China will be described and underlying theories and approaches will be discussed to justify these applications. Finally, video as a pedagogical tool will be evaluated and its constraints will be examined.

2. Existing literature

MacWilliam (1990, p. 157) pointed out that there is a growing consensus among researchers and practitioners on using video in the classroom and considerable research has been conducted to investigate the use of this pedagogical tool.

2.1 Recording students’ work on videos

A number of studies have found that learners can benefit from recording their own performances on videos. Boonkit (2010), for example, argues that video serves as a “mirror” to students’ learning as it is a representation of students’ real language in use. It can enhance the speaking skills for non-native speakers of English and help them speak English with lowered fear and increased confidence (Mund, 2012). It can also give learners an opportunity to rectify their own errors by observing themselves in the playback (Savas, 2012).

Some researchers also suggest that when creating video artefacts is used as a task, learners can learn more about the language they are using. Gromik (2009) reports that making video recordings can help Japanese students to use their prior knowledge to express their opinions. Brinton et al. (2003) claim that video recording is especially helpful in the Content-based second language instruction. His claim is supported by Miller et al. (2012, p. 132) with their EAP course project, in which students work collaboratively in groups to plan, film, and share short science documentaries through video. The authors report that students find the task engaging and highly motivating, and by working on the task, their language skills are improved.

2.2 Using videos to provide authentic materials

Video materials have been reported to have lots of advantages over traditional text-based learning. It is argued that using video materials in teaching language is usually more motivating, challenging and useful. Authentic video materials show real life situations and can help learners to easily comprehend the message with extra-linguistic signs, like sights, sounds and gestures (Berwald, 1986). Clarke (2009, p. 960) also reports that learners find “video clips”, compared to texts, more “honest” in conveying emotions and complexity.

Research has also been conducted to investigate how authentic video materials can be used in language classrooms. Ismaili (2013) suggest that exposing learners to authentic video can enhance listening comprehension of learners and has a subsequent effect on communicative competence. Research also suggests that video materials can be used to develop learners’ motivation (Choi & Johnson, 2010). Basaran & Kose (2013) investigate the use of video in more detail about how captions and subtitles can be used in different ways to fulfill various pedagogical purposes in language learning.

3. Teaching Context

The students, the course, the teacher and the course book are the key elements that make up the specific teaching context in discussion. They will be introduced in this part to justify the need for the applications of video, and will be discussed further in Part V to link the pedagogical use of video to the theories of teaching and learning.

3.1 The students

The course (English for Journalism) participants are 3rd-year journalism majors in a university in China. They are aged between 20 and 22 and there are around 50 students in each class. Most of them have passed National College English Test 61 during their 2nd year at university.

As journalism majors, students have already learnt the basic theories of Journalism in their first two years at university, with all their courses taught in Chinese. However, as most of them do not have any work experience in this field, what they’ve learned in class remains largely in theory and seldom translates into practice.

The students welcome this course in general because of its relevance to their current major of study and their future career as well.

3.2 The course

English for Journalism is a 16-week compulsory course for journalism majors in the 2nd semester of their 3rd year at university. It is quite typical of an ESP course, which integrates content and language learning. At the same time, as this course is within the broad framework of College English Curriculum, more focus is put on language while content is mainly used as the vehicle for English learning. English is the default language of instruction in this course.

This course has three aims:

(1) familiarize students with basic English expressions for journalism concepts;

(2) improve students’ English communicative skills in the field of journalism; and

(3) allow students to put into practice their content and language knowledge.

3.3 The teacher

The teacher for this course has 10 years of English teaching experience. However, this teacher does not have any prior experience or training in the Journalism industry and it is thus difficult for the teacher to model the use of language in this specific field as General English teachers usually do.

3.4 The course book

The university has made A Practical Course for Journalistic English the main text for this course. This book intends to integrate English learning and Journalism study, with a focus on reading, listening and writing skills and most materials date back to at least 2009. The teacher has to make frequent adaptations or supplements to the course book.

4. Applications

This part will demonstrate how video is used in a particular unit of this course and how the use of it addresses teaching and learning needs.

The lesson plan below shows how the unit on Features of English TV News Reports is designed. In this unit students are expected to identify the key elements of TV news and their functions, and explore the linguistic features of TV news (grammar of TV news, the use of rhetorical questions, informal vs formal language, etc.).

A task-based approach is adopted and students are asked to work in groups of 4 or 5 to make a 5-minute news video on a recent campus event. The whole unit will take two 80-minute classes.

Lesson Plan

Stage 1: Preparation

In this stage, two news clips are used as authentic materials to supplement the course book and model the language.

In the first 80-minute class, students will watch two news clips, one from Newsroom, CNN2 and the other News Desk, CCTV-NEWS3. Students will work in groups to first discuss the content of the news and then analyze the features of English TV news reports in terms of its genre, key elements and functions, and language features. They will also work together to create a list of things which are important in a good TV news report. This list will serve as the foundation for the rubrics that will be used in the final stage to assess their learning outcomes.

Stage 2: Discussion & Implementation

In this stage, students work in groups and film their news videos.

After class, students will brainstorm, plan and decide on the event for their news videos. They will also negotiate and allocate roles (anchor, field reporter, expert, the public, etc.) and jobs. Then they will execute their ideas and produce their news videos with proper scripting, subtitling, filming and editing.

Stage 3: Presentation & Assessment.

In this stage, students share and assess their news videos.

In the second class, students will show their news videos to their classmates. Based on the rubrics produced in Preparation stage, students’ final product - news videos will be assessed by their peers.

Two applications of video are integrated into the task.

(1) Video as a medium for the task. Through filming their TV news, the students can practice English in a setting that is similar to the real world and integrate content and language learning.

(2) Video as authentic materials. TV news videos are used to supplement the course book with authentic and up-to-date materials and model the use of English in the area of journalism for the students.

5. Theories behind the two applications

In this part, the theories and pedagogical approaches behind the above two applications will be investigated and how they benefit students in the above teaching context will be discussed.

5.1 Social Constructivism

The use of video to support task-based learning in the above lesson plan is in line with Social Constructivism, which sees learners as active individuals with prior knowledge and understanding, constructing their new knowledge and understanding by assimilating and accommodating new information. As is proposed by Vygotsky (1978) and Bruner (1973), Social Constructivism extends Constructivism by focusing more on the social context of learning and incorporating the role of other actors in learners’ development. It gives us an insight into learning processes and can be translated into some of the most popular approaches in ESP course design, like task-based or content-based learning (Luzón-Marco and Gonzàlez-Pueyo, 2006; Hampel, 2006; Arnó-Macià, 2012).

5.1.1 The importance of context

Social Constructivism views the context as central to learners (McMahon, 1997). It is argued that knowledge without context does not help us apply our skills in real-world tasks (Dyffy and Jonassen, 1992). This is particularly true with ESP courses. Because of the “hybrid nature of ESP” (Butler-Pascoe, 2009, p.1), the language classroom has to integrate the language and the “field-specific content”.

In the above English for Journalism class, the teacher creates a context for learning in which students can actively engage themselves in a task that interests them and thus encourages and facilitates learning. This task, with the help of video technology, is rooted in real life situations and satisfies the needs for the acquisition of both content and language. It is with this video recording task that the teacher helps students to bridge the gap between classroom learning and the specific professional environment. Thus learning occurs in a meaningful context and is not separated from the knowledge required in the real world.

5.1.2 Collaborative learning

One of the core assumptions of Social Constructivism is that learners are varied and they bring their different skills and backgrounds to the classroom. With collaboration in tasks and discussions, they can negotiate meaning and reach a common understanding in a specific field (Duffy and Jonassen, 1992).

Students in the above teaching context do not compete with each other as they usually do in traditional approaches. Instead, by using video recording as a medium, they collaborate with their group members. They need to share individual perspectives and knowledge in their discussion, negotiate their story, allocation of roles and decisions of every step they take, and engage each other so that they can successfully video record their TV news and accomplish the task. Learning and development is not individual anymore and becomes a social, collaborative activity.

5.1.3 Motivating learners

Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (1978, p. 86), which can be described as “the distance between the actual developmental level (as determined by independent problem-solving) and the level of potential development (as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers)”. It suggests that if teachers want to motivate learners, they should keep learners challenged by tasks that involve knowledge just beyond their level of mastery (Brownstein, 2001). In this way learners can build on their prior knowledge to construct new meanings and their confidence can be enhanced.

In the above case, the teacher designs a task which reflects the complexity of a small part of the Journalism industry but is in a way simplified to suit the students’ English level. The students find the task interesting and engaging but not too difficult. In this way, the students are fully challenged and motivated without being intimidated.

5.1.4 Learner-centeredness

Glasersfeld (1989) argues that learners take the responsibility to construct their own understanding. They try to making meaning out of the world in which they might not even have complete information. This fits well with the CLT approach that leaners do not acquire knowledge passively from the teacher and they need to get actively involved in the “learning by doing” process to grow intellectually (Nunan, 2004, p. 12). From the Social Constructivism perspective, teachers are only facilitators and help providers. Students are the center of the class and knowledge is constructed through interacting with other learners.

The whole lesson plan above is designed around a task, in which students decide on their stories, work out their strategies, and make their own video recordings. Students can also build up their own learning routes, work at their own pace, and become more autonomous. During the process, students are the absolute center and the teacher only works as a facilitator, providing guidance and technical support when needed.

In conclusion, the use of video gives students opportunities to integrate content and language learning and practice real-world skills in communication, knowledge sharing, and critical thinking in the specific professional settings.

5.2 The need for authentic materials in ESP learning

There are various definitions of “authentic materials”. Rogers (1988) defines it as “‘appropriate’ and ‘quality’ in terms of goals, objectives, learner needs and interest and ‘natural’ in terms of real life and meaningful communication”.

With its hybrid nature, ESP classes usually integrate the teaching of language and field-specific content. This may become very challenging for teachers who are not a content expert, so they have to reply mostly on the available course books. However, compared to General English learners, ESP students often have more varied and very specific learning needs. Locating the right course book is not always an easy task. For some ESP courses, there might not be course books available; for others, the language and tasks might not reflect those in real life. Besides, most course books take years to be published and by then, the content, or language in use might be outdated and therefore has no validity.

In such cases, ESP teachers often find themselves having to collect or design materials (Arnó-Macià, 2012). They have to either adapt/supplement the course books or create the materials for the entire course. Video as a technology becomes a key means for teachers to access the specific language that they need to meet students’ needs.

In the above lesson design, news videos from CNN and CCTV-NEWS are used in the Preparation stage to show students the authentic environment in which the professionals work and give examples of language that functions in operation. With these two videos, students can be exposed to authentic language interaction and nonverbal components, like facial expressions and body language, which cannot be shown in texts. These video materials provide students with situations that they are likely to encounter in their future profession and thus motivate them to learn language and content.

6. Constraints

The use of video in the above teaching context is effective, because it is introduced to address several issues with the course itself: (1) the course book with outdated and unrealistic materials; (2) the teacher with no field-specific training or experience; (3) the students with a need to integrate field-specific content and language.

However, this does not mean that video can be used in all language teaching/learning contexts. Some of its constraints are as follows:

(1) When using video in the language classrooms, teachers and students should always bear in mind that it is not the center of the course/task. Instead, the use of video should always revolve around the course/task and facilitate the achievement of the desired learning outcomes.

(2) As Garrett (2009) warns, the use of authentic videos itself does not benefit language learning. Teachers should find ways to integrate this tool into the lesson and develop real-world tasks to go with the authentic materials.

(3) For most students using video technology does not require specific training. However it is still of importance that the teacher should provide technical support in case there is the need.

(4) The teacher should consider whether video materials used suit students’ language level and cognitive development. Video materials that contain difficult language points or complex/unnecessary structures can be a heavy burden for both teachers and students. Some videos could also be either culturally biased or sensitive (Martinez, 2002). Such materials should be excluded from language classrooms as “applied inappropriately, the video clip can distract and decrease learning” (Berk, 2009, p. 7). Berk (2009, p. 7)also proposes that teachers should be very careful when using videos for pedagogical purposes and main factors that need consideration include “students’ characteristics, the structure of the video and the offensiveness of the video”.

7. Conclusion

In this article, two pedagogical applications of video in the language classroom are introduced and evaluated. Despite certain constraints, the use of video proves effective in EFL, especially in ESP contexts. However, just as other technological tools, it does not automatically fulfill teacher/student needs. It needs to be integrated into specific teaching/learning contexts “in a pedagogically sound way” so as to have a “value for language learning” (Levy, 2009, p. 775).

Notes:

(1) The National College English Test is a large-scale standardized exam administered by the Ministry of Education in China to evaluate English education. Compared with CET 4 (College English Test Band 4), the design of CET 6 (College English Test Band 6) corresponds to the “higher standard” described by the Teaching Requirements.

(2) CNN Newsroom is a news program of Cable News Network which presents the day’s headlines and breaking stories live from CNN headquarters in Atlanta.

(3) CCTV-NEWS is a 24-hour English news channel, of China Central Television, based in Beijing. News desk keeps viewers up-to-date on all China and global news in regular updates from Beijing.

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