Russell Stannard sends his students into the past to do their homework.
I enjoy using videos in class because you can do so much with them: they are great for groupwork, pairwork and for lecturer fronted listening comprehension work. However, I also like using them for homework. More and more students have access to the internet outside of class, and so setting homework which involves watching videos is becoming more and more possible. Here, I want to focus on another wonderful site that I have found and explain some of the ways I have used the material.
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/aboutfilms.htm
This site has UK government information films that go back right to the 1940s. These are historically and culturally very interesting, and sometimes, seen from the perspective of 2008, really funny. You will notice a set of dates at the top. Just click on any time period and then choose the films you would like to see. You often have about 20 or more to select from. You can choose all sorts of formats and download speeds, so even if you have a dial-up connection, you should be able to watch them. Most also have screen shots and text, which you can use for prereading and pre-listening activities.
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1945to1951/filmpage_pc.htm
This is very funny, though the intention is serious. It is, quite simply, an information film about crossing the road. When I used this in class, we first looked at the screen shots – there are some amusing pictures and they are great for getting the students focused. I asked the students to work in groups and discuss what they thought the film was about, based on the screen shots. I then got the groups to feedback their ideas to the rest of the class and we wrote some of the key vocabulary that had come up on the board. This included words like pedestrian crossing, pavement, hazard, etc. I then played the video twice through without the sound. Afterwards, on the board, we listed the basic stages of the video. It starts with a man trying to cross the road and getting knocked over; moves on to show what the pedestrian crossing is for; gives some tips on crossing at the pedestrian crossing, and then finally the man actually manages to cross the road. Once we had the stages written up, I got the students, still working in groups, to write their own commentary – just a few lines for each stage. It took them about ten minutes. Finally, I played the video again without the sound, and representatives from two of the groups took turns to read out their commentary as we watched. (I only got two groups to read their scripts as otherwise it would have become a little repetitive.) Finally, I played the video with the real commentary. It still made the students laugh.
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1945to1951/filmpage_jbalb.htm
Another amusing video is ‘Journey on a London Bus’, which I used for homework. I asked the students to watch the video at home and complete these simple sentences:
- London is the largest city _______________
- The African students went to _______________
- They have to get back to _______________
- Buses are always _______________
- The conductor controls everything _______________
- Collecting fares and giving tickets _______________
- The driver keeps a steady _______________
- A mother with a little child always hopes for _______________
- There are 7 million passengers carried by _______________
- Back home right on _______________
In the next lesson we went through the video and checked the answers. As my students are actually studying in London, we ended up talking about how things have changed in the city since the video was made, including the number of cars, the fact there is little countryside to be seen now on London bus routes, the fact that there are no conductors on most buses, the different types of buses you see now, etc. Even if you aren’t in the UK, these videos are still a great resource and you can choose them according to your teaching situation.
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1945to1951/filmpage_la.htm
The video about Heathrow Airport is fascinating. I used it in a similar way to the bus journey one, but gave the students a series of listening comprehension questions to answer at home. At the start of the next lesson, I put them in groups to compare their answers.
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1951to1964/filmpage_bpolice.htm
- Here is a format you can use with any of the videos. I used it for this one, about the police. Put the students into groups and get them to watch the video and write down all the things they see or hear that are connected to the topic. (For the police video, my groups came up with telephone, station, helmet, uniform, pencil, bicycle, etc.)
- Ask representatives from one or two groups to read out their lists and then teach a few more useful words that they didn’t know (I added truncheon, handcuffs, etc).
- Give each group a piece of paper and tell them to watch the video again and create a minimum of six comprehension questions about it. Encourage them to take notes as they watch. When they write their questions, tell them to leave a gap under each one so that another group can answer it.
- Swap the questions around and get each group to write answers to another group’s questions.
- Pass the questions back to the original groups for marking.
Some videos are quite long, so I recommend choosing carefully and watching one yourself a couple of times to see how long it is and to assess its suitability. One of the great things about these videos is that in most cases the language is simple, clear and easy to follow, even if slightly old-fashioned. There are generally lots of pauses, giving students time to take notes. I have found the videos really fun to use in the class. At the moment, I am searching through the net to find similar types of material from governments of other English-speaking countries.
Russell Stannard is a principal lecturer in ICT and Multimedia at the University of Westminster, UK. He is currently working on the CD-ROMs and Teacher’s Books for Hello English, published by Balberry.
This article first appeared in English Teaching professional, Issue 54, 2008
