using video in efl: tesol france nov. 2012

VIDEO �CLIPS�

What We Now Know About Teaching EFL With

Paul Maglione, Co-‐founder, English A@ack! TESOL France 2012

Video Lesson Experience To Date Q1 –Q2 2009

Compara5ve review of Video-‐based EFL pedagogy

Q3 – Q4 2009 Crea5on of English AAack! plaDorm and first 100 video–based learning units (Video Boosters)

Q1 2010 – Q2 2011 Beta version with 350+ Video Boosters, tested by 25k Beta users

July 2011 Launch of site

January 2012 Launch of Premium Subscrip5on; Schools PlaDorm

November 2012 -‐  250k registered users -‐  2 million+ video lesson plays / month

Why Video?

Why Video?

•  Our brains are wired for it à hun5ng / danger

•  Closest to life, to human experience

•  The human eye is aAracted to movement, even more than our ears are to sound

•  YouTube, Facebook, smartphones, tablets have made short-‐form entertainment video ubiquitous and available 24/7 à no longer a special occasion, but a must-‐have.

TESOL France Colloquium 2012

Graded or Authen5c?

•  BeAer at sparking emo5on à creates the intellectual opening for learning to occur

•  Huge choice omeans we can mo5vate anyone according to their interests

BUT: -‐  Impossible to shoehorn into structures like

CEFR -‐  If not packaged properly, can be too

difficult for beginners

•  Can be 5ghtly targeted at specific skills or tasks

•  Created for specific levels / consistency re level

BUT: -‐  Produc5on values / entertainment

ocen lacking -‐  Can be perceived by learners as

“talking down” to them

Subject MaAer of Authen5c Video (in order of popularity with English AAack! users)

1.   Current Movies 2.   TV Series 3.   Music Videos 4.   Documentaries

5.   How-‐To

Subject MaAer of Authen5c Video Other topics of interest

•  News (“evergreen” best, normal headline stories age fast)

•  Business (movie scenes can be effec5ve)

•  Adver]sing (especially crea5ve / humorous extended ads)

CHOICE = AUTONOMY = MOTIVATION

Ideal length


•  Too short (sub-‐1 minute): liAle chance to build up dialogue in context

•  Too long (5 minutes+) : to many linguis5c elements upon which to focus à confusion

•  Ideal length is between 1 and 4 minutes –  Average length of Youtube video is 4 minutes

–  87% of video shared on Facebook is between 1 and 4 minutes long

Difficulty Level •  Subject maAer •  Vocabulary •  Speech speed •  Speech clarity •  Accent •  Idioms •  Slang •  Visual clues •  Is there a story or an

understandable context?

Related exercises need to be calibrated to the video’s intrinsic difficulty level

Difficulty vs Content

•  Our experience to date shows that the content type is the primary mo5vator. Learners don’t mind a difficulty “stretch” if the video content is of interest to them.

5,580,000 searches

22,000,000 searches

(learn English)

(songs in English)

Google France searches:

Sub5tles? Can with comprehension but creates listening “tune out” in favor of reading.

So call me maybe..

Donc appelle-‐moi peut-‐etre…

♫ ♪ ♬♭ ♭ ♫ ♪ ♬♭ ♭

English

L1

None

Great… if you want learners to improve their L1 reading skills.

Full emo5onal impact of source; no skills confusion; forces learner to focus and to look for visual clues.

Video Transcript? •  Be clear on purpose of providing: to work reading skills

•  Thus, do not mix with gist comprehension exercises à provide only sequen5ally, acer listening skills have been covered

•  Can be used for Detail comprehension and to prac5ce scanning for informa5on.

Structuring the Video-‐based lesson •  The fun-‐factor of video should not obscure the need for a pedagogical structuring of the video-‐based lesson.

•  The sequencing of video-‐related ac5vity must be planned as carefully as any other lesson


Gist Comprehension

Listening Skills

Detailed Comprehension

Vocabulary Grammar

& Usage

Structuring the Video-‐based lesson •  Pre / Tasks / Post à jumping-‐off point for class discussion


PRE

TASKS

POST •  Summary

•  Target Vocab •  Prac5ce Games •  Discussion

Structuring the Video-‐based lesson •  Error Correc5on / Posi5ve Reinforcement


Structuring the Video-‐based lesson

•  Score vs Grade: integra5ng the mo5va5onal dynamics of gamifica5on into the video exercise scoring logic


Structuring the Video-‐based lesson •  Providing assistance à dic5onaries, transla5on

Structuring the Video-‐based lesson •  In-‐class vs. Homework

Requirements: interac5vity, good design, visibility, s5mula5ng content

Requirements: large selec5on of s5mula5ng content, Teacher Tools for assignment and compliance monitoring

Achieving Repe55on for Memoriza5on


Prac5ce Game: Swap Mania

Prac5ce Game: Word Rescue

Prac5ce Games are dynamically driven by target vocabulary

items in learning units

Making video-‐based learning Social •  Pos5ng comments •  Facebook •  TwiAer


Sample Video Lesson

Pre-‐Task

Target Vocabulary

Clip Summary

Task Se-‐Up Instruc5on

First Exposure to Video Clip

Learners can start, pause, and replay video

Gist comprehension exercise set-‐up

Gist comprehension exercise

Video resource

Expandable vocab resource

Instant error correc5on

Gist comprehension exercise debrief

Inters55al Score

Posi5ve Reinforcement

Listening exercise set-‐up

Listening exercise

Learners can do the exercise in parallel with video playback

Gap-‐filling from three similar-‐sounding alterna5ves actually completes the transcript,

which will be available for next exercise.

Listening exercise debrief

Detail comprehension exercise set-‐up

Detail comprehension exercise

Full video transcript available as a resource; learners can either review

video or scan transcript to find details in exercise.

Detail comprehension debrief

Vocabulary exercise set-‐up

Vocabulary exercise

Vocabulary resource

automa5cally switches to

selected answer op5on

Vocab exercise: using target lexis in similar

story context

Vocabulary exercise debrief

Grammar / Usage exercise set-‐up

Grammar / Usage exercise

Sample line of dialogue taken from video clip

Explana5on as to why this form was used

Exercise working same grammar or usage

concept (with instant answer feedback)

Grammar / Usage exercise debrief

Final Video Booster Debrief screen

Points total and breakdown

Skills performance graph

Prac5ce Games op5ons

Learner comments

Sugges5ons for further learning units

Post-‐task: Prac]ce Games

Lexical items from the video clip

Defini5on clues and sample sentence reveal

Post-‐task: In-‐class or Online Messenger discussion

•  How would you feel about asking your parents for money if/when you are an adult?

•  How would you feel about your son or daughter asking you for money when they are adults?

•  Have you even had someone try to discourage you from your dream occupa5on or goal? Describe what that felt like.

•  What does “Being A Man” mean to you?

Sample Class Discussion Topics

User feedback

Conclusions •  Video is a powerful, emo5ve s5mulus to learning. •  Short-‐format authen5c video without sub5tles

can be a highly mo5va5onal and effec5ve pedagogical tool for helping build EFL/ESL competence.

•  Video-‐based lessons need to be engineered just as carefully as any classroom lesson, with pre-‐ and post-‐tasks and a natural flow from exposure and gist comprehension through to more detailed or nuanced skills.

•  Specialist online learning plaDorms such as English AAack! package authen5c video together with exercises to offer a huge choice of learning units of all difficulty levels across many topics and categories.

Paul Maglione, Co-‐founder, English A@ack! TESOL France 2012

License packages English AAack! is a “freemium” site, with limited content refreshed daily (soon to move to weekly) available free of charge. Access to all content and func5onali5es is available under several license plans:

English A@ack! for Companies Flexible, Company co-‐branding,

trainer packages, possibility of specialist content.

English A@ack! for Schools, Language Ins]tutes, Universi]es Flexible, affordable, school co-‐

branding, Teacher Tools

Independent Teacher License Full suite of Teacher Tools; for

situa5ons where learners will pay for their own Premium access.

Contact us at pro@english-‐[email protected] to set up a pilot program in your school or company

•  English AAack! •  English AAack Blog

paul.maglione@english-‐[email protected]

•  English AAack for Schools •  English AAack for Companies

For more informa]on:

using video in efl: tesol france nov. 2012

Education