The Use of Videos in English Teaching and Learning英语专业毕业论文.doc

The Use of Videos in English Teaching and LearningA Thesis submitted to the Foreign Languages Departmentof Dehong Teachers CollegeBy In partial Fullfillment of the Requirement for theGraduation DiplomaUnder the Supervision ofYang LidanMay 2010Acknowledgement This paper was completed in May, 2010. For its being, I owe a great deal of thanks to many people. First, I would like to dedicate my most sincere gratitude to Yang Lidan. My supervisor whose careful and insightful guidance in the formwork shaping and paper writing, and whose words of encouragement in time of difficult have been of great worth. Without her insightful advice, generous gudance and persistent encouragement in time of difficult have been completed. Her strict attitude towards study deeply impressed me.Therefore, I owe a merit in this thesis to her and of course, for the mistakes, I bear the whole responsibility.Professor Wang Jing, Li Jiyun, Gongshan, Liao Zichang,whose course have enlightened my mind, enriched my knowlege and enhanced my competence. Without their instruction, I could not have achieved todays progress. I must offer specific thanks to Wang Jing who has give me patient guidance whenever I turn to them. Third, I thank to Professor Zhang Jingbo, Dean of English Department of my college , for recommending this paper and offering her advice on my dissertation. Fourth, additional thanks the teachers and students of my practice shool-Mangshi Yixiao primary school. Lastly, I thank my family members who have given me their constant encouragement and support in my academit terms. Without all these poeple , I could not have completed thesis. 【Abstract】 Since the development of science and technology and the quality-oriented education are gradually valued by the whole society in recent years, the reform of the English class has been increasingly recognized, the aim of which is to enable students to use English effectively. Teaching English through the original movie series as a new teaching method has been carried out in many schools. The feedback from students has proved that with the broad development of this teaching method involved in intonation, wording, speech, thinking and culture, students can make further progress. As the communicative approach is gradually valued by the people, videos not only provide a form of entertainment to people, but also are as a good way to teach or learn English. Based on the situation of them and their advantages and disadvantages, this article emphasizes the importance of the teachers role and requirement，the video option and time arrangement in the whole teaching process. At last, this article also offers some teaching methods and activities from pre-watching, while-watching to post-watching in the hope of making the videos produce a marked effect in English teaching and learning.【Key words】 English videos， situation, advantages and disadvantages, teaching methods and activities 【摘要】 近年来，随着科技的发展和素质教育越来越受社会的重视，英语教学的改革也不断受到重视，其目的是使学生更有效地运用英语。而通过英文原版影视剧进行英语教学作为一种新的教学方法，已在许多学校得到开展。这种这种教学方式可以在语音、用词、会话、思维和文化等进一步提高学生学习英语的能力。如今英语影视不仅是一种娱乐方式，更是人们学习外语的好帮手，它具有广大的发展空间。本文根据影视英语教学现状及优缺点的分析，着重强调了教师在影视教学中的作用及要求、影片选择和时间安排的重要性。最后本文在对英语影视教学中如何更有效地使用英语影片分别从课前、课时、课后三方面来提出一些教学方法和活动类型。本文的目的是为了使影视片在英语教学中发挥最大的效用。【关键词】 英语影视、教学现状、优缺点、教学方法和活动类型CONTENTSAcknowledgementiAbstract in ChineseiiAbstract in Englishiii1. Introduction. .11.1 Research objectives.11.2 The significance of the research. 12. Literature Review.22.1 The present situations of using videos in English learning and teaching.22.2 Advantages and disadvantages of using videos32.2.1 Advantages of using videos.3 2.2.1.1 Videos provide motivating materials to both students and teacher32.2.1.2 Videos show real-life situations in which characters speak their own language.4 2.2.2.3 Videos are also a good source of classroom activity.52.2.2 Disadvantages of using videos.5 2.2.2.1 Only some videos can be adopted as teaching and learning materials.5 2.2.2.2 Videos cant satisfy different students6 2.2.2.3 Videos can be a distractive thing during the learning6 2.3 Some points worthy of attention in teaching through videos.73. Research Design.8 3.1 The subjects of survey.8 3.2 The instruments of research.8 3.3 Research method.9 3.4 Research question93.5 The answers of questions.94. Research Result and Discussion.9 4.1 Research results.9 4.2 Some methods and activities used in video course10 4.2.1 Pre-watching.11 4.2.2 While-watching.12 4.2.3 Post-watching.135. Conclusion.146. Limitation14 References16 The Use of Videos in English Teaching and Learning1. IntroductionWith the open-up in China these decades and the development of science, videos are widely used in English class. A shift of emphasis in foreign language teaching and learning from Grammar-Translation Approach to Communicative Approach has taken place in recent years. Now the communicative competence of English is essential for English learners. Meanwhile, there have been remarkable developments in English language teaching and learning. Teachers have been employing various ways to develop students abilities and improve the quality of ELT. Although various methods and techniques have been used to improve students ability to communicate in English, studies have proved that videos are quite an effective medium for English teaching and learning. “Harmer (1983:21) thinks that the idea of simulation is to create the pretence of a real life situation in the classroom where students simulate the real world.” 1 The videos just have this effect as it can offer us a real life world. Teaching and learning English through videos makes the process natural, educational and enjoyable1.1 Research objectives In order to understand the effect of videos in English teaching and learning, I made a investigation, I want to clear about the advantages and disadvantages.1.2The significance of the researchThis article reveals the situations of using videos in English teaching and learning, and its advantages and disadvantages. This paper also discusses how to improve English teaching and learning with this effective medium. 2. Literature Review2.1 The present situations of using videos in English learning and teachingIn recent years, the use of videos in English classes has grown rapidly in China as a result of the increasing emphasis on communicative teaching techniques. Being a rich and valuable resource, videos are popular with both students and teachers in China, now videos not only provide a form of entertainment to people, but also are used as a way to learn English language. “The video course offered to college and university students of a conversation class is called shitingshuo. In Chinese shiting means watching and listening and shuo means speaking. As listening and speaking are the two major skills students should acquire, the video course not only teaches English through video but also gets students to use the English they have learnt in talking about the video.”2 Some students like video course, because they can learn a lot from people about their personality, their attitudes towards life, and cultural background in different countries besides language. They can also enjoy many activities such as role-play, group discussion, debates and so on. While other students who are used to spoon-feeding teaching method are worried about the video, they think watching videos will waste their limited learning time and large class size brings about great difficulties in oral practice activities. Teachers also have their opinions on it, some think that videos can help them motivate their students activity, encourage them to practice their oral English and provide a lot of cultural information. However, there are also some teachers not good at using machines and are uncomfortable with using new equipment. They just play the video from beginning to the end in class.    Therefore, in video course, if the students just take watching video for fun or entertainment; if the students lack in due attention or anxiety; if the time of watching is so little that they cannot thoroughly understand the plot; if there is even no activity or exercise after a video sequence and teachers let it go at that, video becomes totally an entertainment rather than serving as a teaching aid for certain purposes, whichever will cause a great waste to the basic modern appliances or equipments in the facility, and teachers should pay more attention to English teaching through videos, as they are not only widely used in English teaching but also their advantages more than their disadvantages. 2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of using videos 2.2.1 Advantages of using videosEven though a great number of media have tried to improve students English especially their speaking and listening ability, there are few that can be compared to videos. This effective medium can be seen in the following reasons.2.2.1.1 Videos provide motivating materials to both students and teacher“Motivation and attitudes are important factors, which help to determine the level of proficiency achieved by different learners.”3 An original video can be very motivating and interesting if it describes real-life situations, real-life people and real-life language. During the learning process, if we employ films as the teaching material, language learning will become enjoyable. The materials that films provide are both audio and visual, which help students learn English more easily. Thats because while students are watching a film, students not only listen to the characters speech but also watch their movements, beautiful heroines and handsome heroes, appreciate beautiful scenery and listen to pleasant songs and fluent dialogues. These can really motivate students initiative and enable them to learn in a relaxing and cheerful atmosphere. In addition, the scenes, the lines or other aspects that films bring will probably influence learners capacity as they do in real life. When they finish the film and return to the real life, they may think of some topics related to the film and speak out the language more spontaneously. For example, when they watch Kramer vs. Kramer, they may think of the women problems in present society: Should a womans place be limited to her own home or not? After they watch Saving Private Ryan, they may think about the problem between war and humanist: Is it worthy of risking eight soldiers lives to save Ryan for the purpose of booting morale on the homefront? 4 The teachers can also ask students to discuss these questions after seeing the film. Films are the motivating materials of learning English for students and teachers. 2.2.1.2 Videos show real-life situations in which characters speak their own languageFor most Chinese learners, they lack the authentic English language-learning environment. So in most cases, they always speak English in their own ways and dont consider whether its accurate or not. As time goes by, they get used to expressing “Chinese English”, which is full of mistakes and feels so strange to foreigners. On one hand, they are also amused in some sentences. Because the language in a book they usually learn has been polished again and again by the writer, and even the communication in it is polished. Thus it is unreal and not suitable for being used in films. 5 Whats more, there are many calumnies, slangs, idioms in videos, so it is hard enough to become proficient in different styles of the language. However, learning to speak depends upon hearing someone else speak，so English films do have positive effects in this respect. For example:    (1) You dont say. (2) Cops, freeze. The first sentence is wrong if you understand it in this way “Youd better not speak more”. The real meaning is “Really?” The second sentence is often heard in some action films. “Freeze” here not means cold storage. In America, it means “Dont move” The whole sentence means “We are polices, dont move.” Sometime the same sentence has different meanings, such as “take care of him” (from the film Graduation), surface meaning is “look after”, while the deep meaning is “deal with”. It also has different meanings in different situations. The police said it with his teeth gnashed means “kill him”. 6 In a word, the language that characters speak is original; therefore, students can use English in more appropriate way through videos. 2.2.2.3 Videos are also a good source of classroom activityThe source of classroom activity is a concern for most English teachers. Because of the difficulties in looking for suitable video materials, teachers often cancel classroom activity. Then teachers actually become speech deliverers and students play the part of listeners instead of active participants in this teaching and learning process. But films provide a good source of classroom activity and motivate students to join in it. While watching the video, teachers can pause the film to let the students think about some certain questions in the film, for example answer some questions, and act out the play and so on. In a word, during watching the video the teacher can provide more opportunities for students to take part in it, as videos are a good source of classroom activity. 2.2.2 Disadvantages of using videos Although there are many advantages of using videos through English teaching and learning, the problems rose during practical teaching and learning cannot be ignored. 2.2.2.1 Only some videos can be adopted as teaching and learning materials On one hand, class teaching is based on textbook; teachers only can choose some videos that are fit for the content in the textbook. “On the other hand due to different cultural background and social value, some of the video from the West World contain some certain kind of content, which is not appropriate for the unprepared and immature minds, such as films with some scenes of violence, despair, drugs,