ELT News Think Tank

This Month's Think Tank Panel

Marc Helgesen

Peter Viney

Curtis Kelly

Panelists: Marc | Curtis | Peter
Date: March 2004

Topic: "What ever happened to video in the classroom?"

Marc Helgesen

A while back, I saw an absolutely dreadful video-based lesson (actually, calling it a "lesson" is being pretty charitable.) It was a mixed group of Japanese and Thai students. Everyone was at the false beginner level. The teacher put a Hollywood movie in the player, gave everyone a worksheet of comprehension questions and turned on the film. It was in English with Thai subtitles. The film ran through the whole class. For the Thai students, it was very difficult to focus on English. The Thai subtitles gave them all the information they needed. In language teaching, comprehensible input – reading or hearing something understandable – comes at the "i+1" level: input that is just a bit above your current level. For those Thai students, there was no i+1. For the Japanese, it was what? Maybe i+50, so far above their level that they understood almost nothing of the soundtrack. They had to use the action to try to follow the story. No surprise that most of them fell asleep.

“In language teaching, comprehensible input comes at the "i+1" level: input that is just a bit above your current level.”

Peter talks about the advantages of two-minute videos and the over use of full-length films. Mostly I would agree with him. I find 2-3 minutes about the maximum for most video bits I use in class. This is the same if produced for ELT or if a scene from a Hollywood film *.

So why have a recently started showing full-length films (during lunch, not actual classtime)?

Last fall at JALT, Rob Waring and Ronan Brown did a very interesting session on Extensive Listening. They were advocating having students listen to large amounts of material at an easy level. Rob and Ronan have both been involved with promoting Extensive Reading for many years. Extensive Reading (ER) is recognized as an important part of learning to read. In ER, learners read large amounts of EASY material. Easy is essential. This is about building fluency thought comprehensible input. If comprehensible input is i+1, what we want in ER is what Richard Day of the University of Hawai'i calls i-1. It needs to be easy.

Rob and Ronan were suggesting something similar to help learners develop listening fluency. After JALT, Rob started a yahoo discussion group. One of the first discussions was about using DVDs for EL. This got me to thinking – how can I make use of these ideas for my own students?

I bought some Hayao Miyazaki DVDs, like Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro), Kiki's Delivery Service (Majo no Takuyubin), etc. I already had a couple of his videos in English with closed captions. Why anime? Comprehensible input. The stories are fantasy but they can be understood. At the same time, they don't have the childish feeling that Doraemon or Crayon Shinchan would. Maybe I chose Miyazawa because Tonari no Totoro was one of the first films I understood in Japanese without subtitles. Also, many students have seen the films in Japanese. They know the story so the background knowledge helps them follow the English.

About once a month, we have a "movie and lunch" event. Students bring their bentos and we watch a film, in English with English subtitles (and this is for pleasure – no comprehension questions).

I think there are several benefits.

• Additional exposure to English. I do this during lunch time and it is voluntary. The students are there because they want to be. They are getting a couple hours of English practice they would not otherwise get.
• I am a reading teacher. The audio and the film itself supports the students in reading – and reading quickly – the English subtitles.
• This is English practice, but it is also pleasure. Learning English can be a lot of work. When we can provide an enjoyable way to practice, it's got to be good.

Of course, there are some problems, or at least questions.

Very often, subtitles aren't exactly the same as what is being said. I haven't found that to be a big problem. With EL, you want input that is easy. Students are listening and reading simultaneously and going for general understanding. They don't need to worry about specific words and phrases. Some DVDs have an "English for the hearing impaired track" with is different than the English track **. This track is much closer to what is actually spoken. (The down side of that is the spoken track is often more colloquial so may be more difficult to understand.)

Some might argue that I don't know (and the students don't know) if they are getting the meaning through the listening, or through reading the subtitles or just through the visuals. That's true. But does it matter? Just as Peter is arguing for the variety and richness of video, I would say, yes, they are getting all these types of input. And it is that mixture that provides the benefit. Besides, one of the important ways we all learned to read was, when we were kids, being read to by our parents and teachers. We followed the words on the page and soon started connecting those written symbols to their sounds and meaning. Extensive listening/reading with DVDs is one way to provide a similar experience.

I've been doing this with groups of students. Tom Robb of Kyoto Sangyo University suggests students use DVDs on their own. He suggests this pattern for practice:

1. First viewing: Japanese soundtrack / Japanese subtitles (for meaning)
2. Second viewing: English soundtrack/ Japanese subtitles.
3. Third viewing: English soundtrack / English subtitles.
4. Forth viewing: English soundtrack/ no subtitles.

I plan, over the next year, to continue with this. And I will probably go beyond anime. But to what? I am sure Pirates of the Caribbean would be popular. But I'm not sure it would be Extensive Listening. We are back at the i+50 issue. It would mostly be watching, remembering and imagining. Nothing wrong with those. But where's the comprehensible input?

* Hollywood movies and copyright
The question of copyright vs. fair use comes up. Jack Valenti, President of the Motion Picture Association of America says that a teacher showing a movie in class is fair use. He does caution against copying movies: "We're breeding a new group of young students who wouldn't dream of going into a Blockbuster and putting a DVD under their coat. But they have no compunction about bringing down a movie on the Internet. That isn't wrong to them. Why? I don't know." (This is from an interview with the Harvard Political Review.

** Audio tracks, subtitles and buying DVDs in Japan
If you buy your DVDs in Japan, you'll need to check that they have the audio you want. If you order from amazon.co.jp, you can check by clicking . This appears in the DVD specifications, just above the image

On the next page, you can find the information:
language(s) of subtitles
language(s) of audio track(s)

If the DVD you want doesn't have English, you might have to order from abroad (e.g., amazon.com). In that case, keep in mind that it probably won't play on a regular DVD player because of regions (Japan is region 2, USA and Canada are region 1). You can get a region-free DVD player from TheFlyingPig.com for around ¥10,000 depending on the model. If you want to play PAL DVDs (Britian, Australia), be sure to get one that is not limited to NTSC (the format Japan, the US, etc. use).

Panelists: Marc | Curtis | Peter

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Marc Helgesen, Miyagi Gakuin Women's College

Co-author of English Firsthand and Active Listening

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