I love using videos in my university conversation classes
in Korea. I frequently incorporate enticing 1- to 3-minute clips or short films
to set the context, activate schema, and elicit and model the target language. When properly integrated, videos can encourage creative or critical
thinking, don’t require much time, can help students connect target language with real life situations, and can generate examples of the target
language for a more inductive approach to grammar instruction.
I tend to prefer videos that are easily understood,
with minimal or no dialog, so students can focus on the situation. In no particular
order, here are five of my favorite videos for function- and grammar-based
classes, along with a few ideas for grammar and functions they might suit:
1. Shark vs. Octopus (comparatives,
predictions)
If a shark and an octopus got into a fight, who would
win? Why?
Did you just pause for a moment to wonder about it? I’ve
found this question immediately grabs students’ interest and gets them talking
animatedly with a partner. It naturally elicits a wide variety of comparatives—or
observations that can be turned into comparatives. These, in turn, can be used
to guide students to the rules for comparatives. Best of all, it’s not a
hypothetical question! The debate can be settled with this clip (I recommend starting around 1:15 and muting the narrator):
2. Egyptian
panda commercials (excuses, explanations)
This is a little bit of a cheat, because instead of a
single video I’m including three videos that can be used back-to-back. There’s actually
a whole series of these commercials from Egypt; these are my favorite three, in
the order that I show them. I love these because the punchline is immediate,
obvious, and needs no translation.
3. The Black Hole (second conditional, modals,
sequencing, predictions)
Watch just the first part of this. Stop it at 1:15
and ask yourself, “What could he do next? What should he do next? What would I
do next?” Or just try to guess what happens next.
4. Jumpstart (comparatives, predictions,
emotions)
In the past, when we’ve done predictions, I used this amazing clip from an Indian movie called Magadheera (2009, Bhaskar, India), stopping it at 3:03, 3:12, and 4:00
to ask, “What’s going to happen next?” It's a little violent (in an over-the-top, hilarious way); generally, my university boys loved it, but a couple of the girls cringed
a little.
I've since changed to this simpler (but just as funny, in
its own way) video, an animated short called Jumpstart. Watch the first 55 seconds, then stop it and try to guess
what’s going to happen next:
5. Wallace & Gromit’s Cracking
Contraptions: The Tellyscope (giving instructions, sequencing)
Explaining how to do something can be an interesting
and practical challenge for students. There are thousands of instructional
videos online that can serve to model and elicit this kind of target language,
but here’s my favorite. I ask students to watch it and explain how to use
Wallace’s machine:
When students try to explain how to use the “tellyscope,”
their responses naturally include useful vocabulary such as “push,” “pull,”
“button,” and more. To achieve their goal, they also require new vocabulary
such as “release” and “lever.” They have to use sequencing words combined with
commands. It could be an excellent introduction to a more creative production
activity, such as building and marketing an invention.
Sometimes the “instructions” units in textbooks focus
on cooking and ask students to explain how to prepare their favorite recipe. In
that case, I use this video,
instead.
Do you use authentic videos in your classroom? Do you
use them in conjunction with a workbook, or on their own? What do you do with
them?
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