TOPIC 24.

TECHNOLOGICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS IN USING

AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS (NEWPAPERS, TV, TAPE RECORDERS,
VIDEO, ETC.). COMPUTERS AS AN AUXILIARY RESOURCE FOR
LEARNING AND IMPROVING FOREIGN LANGUAGES

INDEX

0. INTRODUCTION
1. AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS
2. COMPUTERS AS AN AUXILIARY RESOURCE FOR LEARNING AND
IMPROVING FOREIGN LANGUAGES

0. INTRODUCTION

A number of new techniques for teaching English have been developed during the
last ten years thanks to the fast development of new technologies and the decrease in
price of appliances such as TV sets, video machines, camcorders or computers.
Besides, the educational authorities have tried to develop their use, lately the use of
computers in particular with programmes such as Aldea Global, Info XXI, Educared,
etc.

These machines have not only made our lives easier but have also greatly
contributed to the diversification of teaching activities when teaching a foreign
language. Consequently, new products have been launched. New video methods,
new computer programs, make the learning more enjoyable and enable the teacher
to widen current classroom teaching techniques. We could say that these audiovisual
technologies started to expand in the late 1970s or early 1980s and are getting more
and more widely used.

However there are other techniques based on technological development which are
still used in the classroom and which date back a little farther. These techniques are
not really audiovisual, but we will study them: newspapers, radio, cassette
recorder, etc.

When talking about the use of technology in the classroom advantages and
disadvantages should be taken into account.

Advantages:
- language is taught in its context
- high motivation
- it provides creative opportunities
- it broadens horizons and extends contacts
- it means a great potential for a wide variety of activities
- it provides flexible responses to learning problems

Disadvantages:
- ephemerality

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 - difficulties in comprehension (language and structural)
- it requires a lot of commitment on behalf of the teacher, who has to think
that technology must serve him/her, but will never replace him/her.

1. USING AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS

1.1. VISUAL MATERIALS

The student belongs to the image and sound generation. Therefore, the learning
process must include visual and audiovisual materials which are so familiar to them.
These images will encourage the student to communicate, as they are natural and
motivating stimuli for them. They make the language used in the classroom look
more real.

The main functions of the image in the English classroom are:

- motivating function: the students becomes active.
- it replaces reality: the image is used in substitution of reality.
- it creates situations: the student gets involved with it.
- it suggests experiences: the student is suggested interpretations or
experiences that will lead him/her to real communication situations
- informative function: it transmits cultural aspects (customs, landscape,
art, politics, celebrations of the country)
- checking function: the image is used for checking the students
understanding of the verbal message.
- concentration function: it focuses attention on something.
- reinforcing function: the image supports understanding and memorising.

We will talk about the newspaper because it is an essential visual material used in
the English classroom. English-language newspapers are available world-wide on a
daily basis. Some originate from English-speaking countries, others are locally
produced. They are cheap and plentiful so newspapers can be useful in the
classroom (the same happens with magazines).

Newspapers contain a very wide variety of text types and an immense range of
information. They are therefore a natural source of many of the varieties of written
English that become increasingly important as learners progress.

Reading newspapers is a way to transfer latent skills from the mother tongue to the
language learning classroom. Those pupils who normally read newspapers in
Spanish will be receptive to the use of English newspapers in the classroom.
Reading newspapers we exercise skimming and scanning skills. These skills are
very useful for our pupils. Newspapers are about the outside world so using them in
the classroom is an interesting way to bring the real world into the learning situation.

Using newspapers is also useful to integrate skills. The reading material leads easily
into discussions and writing activities. This integration of skills is also authentic as
the response to what we read in newspapers is likely to be authentic and personal.

Topicality is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Contemporary stories are

motivating, but also date quickly. For this reason, it may be better to collect human

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interest stories which do not date over a long period of time. Finally, we can say that
newspapers are probably the best source of information about the target language
culture.

However, there are also drawbacks. Most learners find newspapers difficult: special
grammar conventions, obscure cultural references, large amounts of unknown
vocabulary Letting our pupils choose the text they wish to work with can get rid
of many problems. Before the third cycle authentic newspapers shouldnt be used, as
the students could demotivate. In the third cycle we can teach them some of the
conventions of the newspaper style at a basic level.

The activities we may use will include:

- writing and replying to small ads
- writing and replying to letters to agony aunts
- re-ordering jumbled paragraphs
- re-ordering jumbled cartoon strips
- completing cartoon speech bubbles
- predicting horoscopes for class members
- matching property ads with pupils needs
- replying to job ads (role plays)
- designing and elaborating a newspaper

All these activities can only be done at a very basic level with our pupils. However,
it is important to familiarise them with newspapers. They will be used by secondary
teachers more extensively and we must not forget that most educated people read
one or more newspapers daily.

Other visual materials are photographs, the overhead projector, realia, flashcards or
drawings on the blackboard, rods, wall pictures, slides, etc.

1.2. AURAL MATERIALS

Here we can include the radio, the cassette recorder, the laboratory. The radio is not
very common in the English class. Though it is a very useful way to develop
listening skills, our students do not have the necessary linguistic abilities to cope
with radio programmes. The foreign language lab is hardly used now and it can be
replaced by a computer lab.

We will speak more about the cassette recorder. Though much can be done by
simply speaking while all the children follow what we say, it is clear that the
development of listening skills in our classroom situation relies heavily on the
universal availability of a cassette of pre-recorded material.

All new Primary English coursebooks have a teachers cassette with the
corresponding texts and songs. These cassettes provide a good model of spoken
English and real language.

We can accustom our pupils to listen to recordings of simple stories or fairy tales
with activities to follow if we set up a listening corner in our classroom where we
can have two or three cassettes and the activity books. The children will of course

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need to be trained in how to use a cassette player on their own, but they probably
know how to play it already. It is a good reinforcing material for slower students,
who can work autonomously.

If we use the cassette player to introduce new language we can always give our
pupils the possibility of listening to the recording more than once. Listening
materials suitable for our levels are very simple and the range of activities they
include are somehow limited. We must try to widen the range of activities including
pre-, while- and post- listening activities which will improve the listening skills of
our pupils.

Recording devices can also be used to improve our pupils oral skills. They can
record themselves noticing differences between their own pronunciations and the
pronunciations of the cassette. This is also motivating for our pupils. One activity
which promotes oral skills and motivates our pupils is recording their own songs in
a tape.

2.3. AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS

Audiovisual materials proper include both sound and pictures. We next study how to
use the television, the video and the camcorder in the classroom.

Television

In relation to television, we can say that it is inherently a medium that has a great
potential for motivating learners. It provides a wide variety of situations, accents,
topics and presentation techniques. The real situations provide a context for
language exploitation. The language used offers the necessary authenticity. It offers
the possibility of exploiting students current interests. Television provides a wide
range of paralinguistic clues facial expressions, body movements, etc. that are
very useful for comprehension. Television can introduce the culture of the country
food, clothes, buildings, etc. -. A major advantage is that the same programme can
adapted to different levels, depending on the task students are asked to do. The role
of the teacher becomes crucial to take the decision as to how to work the
programmes. As one of the major problems of using television and video in the
classroom is the ephemerality of the medium, our task as teachers is to confront the
pupils with activities that build and reinforce the viewing experience.

Children may not understand a real TV programme, but that is not a problem.
Watching regularly TV programmes especially made for native children is very
beneficial. But we cannot expect children to answer questions or reproduce what
they hear, even if they spend hours watching programmes in English. TV
programmes, such as cartoons, do not teach the language, but help internalise it.
This kind of material must be authentic and interesting.

The problem of using TV is that we cannot stop it. Although TV is an important aid
for study, it fulfils its real importance in the classroom on videocassette.

Video

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As an addition to the teachers resources, video offers an interesting and motivating
aid to learning. It brings the outside world into the classroom, it offers examples of
new language and is a stimulus to the classroom communication.

Video materials used in language teaching come from a wide range of sources:
- video recordings of language-teaching broadcasts and films
- video recording of domestic television broadcasts, such as comedy and
news programmes
- video recordings of specialists films and television programmes such as
documentaries produced by industry, or educational programmes
- video language-teaching materials made for the classroom rather than for
public transmission or broadcasts
- self-made video films, involving the teachers and learners.

The combination of sound and vision is dynamic, immediate, and accessible. This
means that communication can be shown in a context; it is what we could call
language in action. We find out straight away about the speakers in dialogues since
they can be seen and heard. This way, we find out about their ages, their sex,
whether they are related or not to each other, the place where the situation is taking
place, etc. With all this information the learner can clarify whether the situation is
formal or informal, etc.

Register is the way in which we say things depending on the people we are talking
to and our relationship with them. The learner can see why things are said in a
different way. Watching the video, s/he can judge relationships and feelings from the
speakers gestures, facial expressions, posture, distance from each other, dress and
surroundings. All these factors influence or reflect what people say and how they say
it, and only video can show them fully.

Like any feature film or TV programme, a video will use close-ups of people, places
and things to emphasise or explain what it is going on. The camera technique helps
learners to understand the narrative and the characters behaviour and motivation.

One more important aspect to think of is that learning a language is not only a matter
of structures and words. Cultural factors are a very important part of language
learning. Video allows the learner to see the target language at work.

Although the audiovisual features of video films are found in cinema films and
television broadcasts too, they do not offer the same facilities for classroom
exploitation. On top of that we must not forget the electronic tricks to create special
effects and images.

All these previous aspects make the video material interesting. At their best, video
presentations will be intrinsically interesting to language learners, and they will want
to watch more, even if comprehension is limited, and should ask questions and
follow-up ideas and suggestions. By generating interest and motivation, the video
films can create a climate for successful learning.

We have to make it clear that the video recorder cannot and does not replace the
teacher. It changes his or her role so that teachers become more facilitators adapting

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the materials to the needs of individual classes or pupils. Learners should not be
exposed to long excerpts whose body of texts would be so demanding that could
create more frustration than encouragement. As a general rule, it is much better to
choose a short excerpt and to work thoroughly on it.

An adequate approach could consist of three phases:

- in the first phase the video is just being played so that pupils become
familiar with the materials they are going to watch
- before the second phase takes place, some vocabulary might be taught
but it is not necessary. In this phase the video is paused frequently so that
attention can be focused on specific items of vocabulary and the actual
teaching and learning activities can be initiated.
- phase three is aimed to reinforce the work that has been done. Depending
on how challenging the materials have been, the video can be played
through or paused at different stages for pupils to process what is being
said.

Some techniques for the use of video are:

1 Silent viewing: playing the video with the sound turned down
for no more than two minutes. The learners watch it and decide
what is happening and what the speakers are saying.
2 Freeze frame: pressing the Pause button on the video recorder
to freeze the motion of the screen. This allows the learner to
look more closely at individual images or utterances within a
sequence. It is useful for detailed language study, observation,
and description.
3 Roleplay: it is, together with acting, one of the most useful
ways of using new language through a video. Acting out
involves practising the exact words of a dialogue, while
roleplaying means that the learners use their own words and
personalities to act out the situation they have seen on the
screen.
4 Behaviour study: it concentrates on the non-verbal ways in
which people express themselves facial expressions, gesture,
posture, dress, physical contact, etc. The main aim is to
sensitise learners to conventions of behaviour in another
culture.
5 Prediction: the teacher stops the video and elicits from the class
what happens or what is said next. They can predict the topic
after looking at the title, predict the end, guess the title, write
the dialogue, the synopsis, etc.
6 Thinking and feeling: this technique is designed to focus on the
thoughts and emotions of the characters in a sequence, and their
relation to what is said. The learners have to say how the
speaker is feeling, giving reasons for their choice. The teacher
can also as What are the characters thinking? or even How
would you feel in a situation like this?
7 Sound only: the opposite of silent viewing. Instead of not
listening, the learner can listen but has to imaging the picture.
The technique provides practice in describing things or people,

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 identifying things or people from their description and
following an oral description of something.
8 Watchers and listeners: half the class watch the screen and the
other half listen. Then the watchers explain to the listeners what
they have seen. This provides practice in speaking, observation
and accurate reporting.

Video improves both listening and speaking skills, but it can also be used to improve
writing ones, with exercises and activities, jumbles, word soups, etc. Even at higher
levels learners can be asked to complete a script, to take short notes about what is
being said, or produce short summaries.

The video camera

At a certain stage (after rehearsal, but at any level) students can be invited to
produce their own material and record it in video. It is a high motivating task, but it
requires time and technical mastery.

The teacher and/or the learners should operate the video camera and equipment
competently. Then a wide variety of stimulating projects can be undertaken.
Speaking abilities are developed, but also self-confidence, work in groups,
organisation and order, care for the class materials, etc.

Four steps can be suggested to make use of the camcorder:

- a talking head: one person talks to the camera
- dialogues: two or three people are filmed talking together
- group discussion: a larger group of people are filmed in discussion
- project work: a freer use of the video facilities

The activities that can be carried out can be categorised in groups:

- language-training video: which presents to the learners some aspects of
communication in the target language
- recordings of the learners: which allow them to see and hear themselves
performing in the target language
- video projects controlled by the learners, which offer the learners the
opportunity of working together in the target language

With small children the exploitation of the video camera will be on the part of the
teacher, but it will be as stimulating and instructive as with older students. The
viewing will be, in this case, the most important part of the process. For both small
and older students the viewing is enjoyable and surprising, and means the moment
of feedback.

2. COMPUTER AS AN AUXILIARY RESOURCE FOR LEARNING AND

IMPROVING FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Although they have been used for teaching since the 1960s, computers only became
practical and affordable for language learning in the early 1980s, when relatively
inexpensive personal computers first became available. The first Computer-Assisted
Language Learning (CALL) programs were mainly used for manipulating words

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and sentences, playing games with students, testing them, and giving them feedback
on their performance. Used in this way the computer has often been described as the
medium of the second chance (because the activities usually let you try more than
once to get the answer right) and of risk-taking (because you can make mistakes in
your answers without other students knowing).

As computers became more powerful, and multimedia software became practical,

the early 1990s saw the emergence of CD-ROMs, storing complete encyclopaedias
or language courses with text, graphics, and audio or video. Commercial products of
this sort, which are professionally produced, reliable, and straightforward to use,
have a place in many classrooms.

Of course, the teacher must know how to work the computer and the program. The
students have the mastery already. Every school has now its computer room and
each learner can sit down and work.

The use of a computer is an excellent way to set remedial work. Not only does the
learner have access to it at any time (with a computer at home), but has a reliable
source if the program has been properly developed, and, what is more, the computer
never gets tired, irritable or impatient. It is particularly good for learners who cannot
cope with a more traditional teaching approach. As in video learning, computer
learning makes use of a series of techniques that eases the task and makes it more
enjoyable and entertaining. And pupils find that using computers is highly
motivating.

The number of interactive programs on the market has increased a lot, but not all of
them are useful for the class. Many are for adults and are still focused on the
language, not on the content, as the machine cannot grasp meaning. They work on
pronunciation, repetition, grammar and vocabulary exercises. The communication is
still something that has to do with human beings.

Programs that children can use are made specially for them, some are for the
learning of English but do not focus on grammar, but on concentration games,
memory games, tales, cookery recipes, numbers and letters, paintings, etc. Others
are not specially sold for learning English, but has the option of using it in this
language. They are very motivating for our students and they learn the language
unconsciously and in a playful way.

In many ways, however, the challenges presented to both students and teachers by
the Internet can provide a more interesting, rewarding experience. The Net is a
huge, rich resource. Its main distinguishing feature is that it is a medium of
exploration, which releases creativity and imagination.

The Internet is beginning to transform language learning:

- first of all by making available to teachers and students an enormous
range of information and resources
- as a means of communication
- not only in writing, but it is beginning to allow audio and video
communication
- it leads to more cross-curricular work

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 - for their potential to motivate.

The students, once they are working on the computer, unless they need help, take the
attention away from the teacher, though the teacher must co-ordinate and assess.
This allows more flexibility in managing the lesson, and in particular there is often
more time to work with individuals and groups than in an ordinary class. Most of the
activities with the Internet require small groups, they are not usually done
individually.

Materials from the Internet can be used with a variety of levels by allowing students
themselves to choose the kind of material they work with, and by varying the kind of
task they are asked to perform. For example, if students have to visit newspaper sites
in order to produce their own newspaper, they can be given a choice of Websites, of
the kind of news they select, and of the task they are to carry out with the news they
find.

There are also steps to work with computers:

1.Pre-computer work: in some cases, before beginning an activity on the computer,
it will be necessary to pre-teach vocabulary, or a specific function or structure. In
every case, however, you will need to ensure that the students know exactly what
they have to do when they begin work on the computers.
2. Computer work: If the activity has been well prepared, and the students suitably
trained, the teacher should intervene only if s/he is asked for help. Instead, the
teacher will monitor what the students are saying and doing.
3. Post-computer work: it is important that anything done in the computer room
should be transferable to the normal classroom, and any Internet activity should
be planned from the outset with some kind of follow-up activity in mind.
Wherever possible, students should have something physical that they can take
away with them from the computer room, so that they have a record of what
they have done for follow-up work or for end-of-course- revision.

One drawback of the Internet is that it is a huge, rich resource, much of it yet
unplanned. The variety of resources is so great that deciding how to exploit
resources once you find them can be a challenge in itself. You have to plan the
lessons very well in order to ensure your students Internet time is productive in
terms of language learning.