10 ways to use dvd and video in your esl class

8/13/2019 10 Ways to Use DVD and Video in Your ESL Class

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10 ways to use DVD and video in your ESL class - Part oneHave you ever wondered how to use movies in your ESL classes, without just sitting your students

down in front of the screen, hitting Play and sitting back to watch which, lets face it, they could

do at home!"#

Here are a few ideas to get you started, using very short e$tracts from movies to %resent and

%ractise new language, and develo% communicative skills&&&

1 No picture

'hoose a short video e$tract ( or ) minutes" with a lot of sound effects&

Play it with the screen turned away from the students, or cover the screen& *f two of the

sound effects are birds singing and a baby crying, your linguistic focus either as %resentation or

%ractice" could be+

Present continuous+ Some birds are singing - baby is crying

Past sim%le+ Some birds sang - baby cried

Past continuous+ Some birds were singing - baby was crying

.aking deductions+ *t must might cant be birds singing or*t must might cant have been

birds singing

-fter %laying, elicit the language from your students, then show them the e$tract with the %icture

and sound&

2 No sound

Show a short e$tract again, ( or ) minutes is enough" with a lot going on, or where characters

convey a lot of emotion in their e$%ressions, without sound& Students can then do many things

without having to worry about understanding dialogue&

/hey can describe what ha%%ened using narrative tenses0 describe the scene0 antici%ate dialogue or

reactions0 arrange the cut u% dialogue which you have given them&

1inally, %lay the e$tract again with sound, and your students will be able to fit what they hear into a

conte$t much more effectively than viewing the e$tract cold&

3 Jigsaw viewing

2ou may have done jigsaw reading activities in your class, where students have half the information

and have to share what they have read to recreate the whole story& 2ou can also do this with short

video se3uences+

Half the class watches with no %icture, then the other half with no sound youll have to take half

the students out of the class in each case"& *n %airs they 3uestion each other to recreate the scene&

Half the class have %icture and sound, the other half just sound& 2ou can do this by sitting students


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in two rows, back to back, so that only one row can see the screen& /he half who only had sound

3uestion the other half&

4ne student listens with head%hones, the others view without sound& /he student with head%hones

3uestions the others&

!ac"wards viewing

'hoose a short se3uence with a lot of action& 1or e$am%le, a woman enters an a%artment, %icks u%

the tele%hone, s%eaks, looks terrified, runs out of her a%artment and down the stairs, and runs off

down the street& .ovies are a good source for this sort of material& Play the se3uence backwards to

the students, then have the students reconstruct the story in chronological order, using narrative

tenses, or future tenses, or whatever you want the linguistic focus to be& Play the se3uence

normally so students can com%are it with their version&5

# $ree%e &ra'e

6o you use %ictures in your classroom for introducing new vocabulary, describing %eo%le and

scenes# 2ou can add a new dimension to this with the free7e frame button of your video or 686

%layer& Hit free7e frame when a character has an interesting e$%ression on his her face, is about

to react to something or answer a 3uestion, or when there is a lot of colourful new vocabulary on

the screen9 Have students describe the characterscene, or antici%ate what the character will say or

do ne$t& :elease free7e frame to com%are with what actually ha%%ens&

8ideo is a motivating and effective way to bring variety in to your ESL classes& ;sing short, shar%

se3uences with a clear linguistic focus, your students will go away from your class with more than if

you sit them down in front of the screen and hit %lay!9

10 ways to use DVD and video in your ESL class - Part two

*n %art one, we asked the 3uestion e suggested some ideas using very short e$tracts from movies to %resent and %ractise new

language, and develo% communicative skills& Here are a few more&&&

( Voca)ulary in conte*t

'hoose an e$tract of about two or thee minutes which is rich in vocabulary drama and

documentary films work well for this"&

.ake a sheet with ten to twenty words that are used in the e$tract& ?ive one sheet to each

%air of students and go through it discussing meanings and %ossible conte$ts& ?iving them the

conte$t of the moviedocumentary as a whole can make it easier to guess %ossible conte$ts of

individual words within this&" Play the e$tract through once, asking students to listen for the

conte$ts in which the words are used& Students can then %ool their information and %roduce a list of

conte$tualised vocabulary on the board&


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+ Su)titles

- big advantage of 686 over video is the subtitle feature&

- good e$ercise for building confidence is to %lay an e$tract with subtitles in the students= own

language& Play it first with the sound down and let them read the titles, then with the sound u%,again reading the titles, and finally, with the sound u% and the titles covered&

-s reading %ractice for higher level students, use an e$tract with subtitles in English&

, .e news

:ecord the /8 news and choose an item with a lot of visual footage& .ake a list of vocabulary

essential to the understanding of the item& Play the item with the sound down and have your

students discuss in grou%s what they think the item was about& @e$t, hand out the vocabulary list

and have the grou%s use it to reconstruct the story& 1inally, %lay the item with the sound u% for

students to com%are their version with the original&

/ ultural di&&erences

Here=s an activity to fit in with a to%ic on cultures& 1ind a short e$tract which shows a ty%ical as%ect

of Aritish or -merican culture& *n grou%s, have students discuss the differences between what they

saw and their own culture& Students do not necessarily need to understand the dialogue for this B

the visual as%ect of the cultural scene is usually enough&

10 Voices in 'y .ead

'hoose a short e$tract with some interesting and e$%ressive dialogue

between two or more characters& Show the scene and check students= com%rehension& Put

your students into grou%s, one grou% for each character B if there are C characters in the scene, you

will need four grou%s& *t is the grou%s= task to imagine what is going on in the head of their

assigned character9 Play the scene again several times if necessary, for students to familiarise

themselves with the character, and allow them to work together to imagine the character=s

thoughts& 1inally, %lay the scene again, %ausing after each character has s%oken, at which %oint the

grou%s add what they think heshe is thinking&

8ideo is a motivating and effective way to bring variety in to your ESL classes& ;sing short, shar%

se3uences with a clear linguistic focus, your students will go away from your class with more than if

you sit them down in front of the screen and hit =%lay=&&&9

10 ways to use dvd and video in your esl class

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