TOPIC 24.

TECHNOLOGICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS IN USING AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS (NEWPAPERS, TV, TAPE RECORDERS, VIDEO, ETC.).
COMPUTERS AS AN AUXILIARY RESOURCE FOR LEARNING AND
IMPROVING FOREIGN LANGUAGES

TOPIC OUTLINE
0. INTRODUCTION
o What is audiovisual?
o Advantages and disadvantages of using audio-visual material
1. AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS
o Visual materials: the newspaper
o Aural materials: the cassette recorder and the CD player.
o Audiovisual materials:
-

The Television

The Video and DVD player

The camcorder or video camera

2. COMPUTERS AS AN AUXILIARY RESOURCE FOR LEARNING AND

IMPROVING FOREIGN LANGUAGES
o Types of software suitable for the English classroom.
o The Internet

TOPIC 24.
TECHNOLOGICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS IN USING AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS (NEWPAPERS, TV, TAPE RECORDERS, VIDEO, ETC.).
COMPUTERS AS AN AUXILIARY RESOURCE FOR LEARNING AND
IMPROVING FOREIGN LANGUAGES

TOPIC DEVELOPMENT
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
- 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
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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 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 and/or CD player. 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 prerecorded material.
All new Primary English coursebooks have a teachers cassette or CD 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 or CDs and the activity books.
The children will of course 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/CD 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 and DVD
As an addition to the teachers resources, video (both magnetic or digital)
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 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.
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.
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?
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, identifying things or people from their
description and following an oral description of
something.
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 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
- 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 coordinate 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.

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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.

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