Content introduction chapter Developing students critical thinking skills through video materials

CHAPTER 1. THE CONCEPT OF "VIDEO MATERIALS" AND DEVELOPING STUDENTS CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS THROUGH VIDEO MATERIALS
1.1. Classification of video materials and their advantages
The term "video" (from lat. video - I look, I see) is understood as a wide range of technologies for recording, processing, transmitting, storing and playing visual and audiovisual material on monitors. When they say “video” in everyday life, they usually mean video material, a television signal or a movie recorded on a physical medium (video cassette, video disk, etc.).
In this thesis, video materials are understood as one of the types of technical teaching aids that provide the function of transmitting information, as well as receiving feedback in the process of its perception and assimilation with the aim of subsequent development of certain skills in students in English lessons (including speaking skills). Video materials used in English lessons must be authentic, i.e. created by native speakers, while they often may not be of a teaching nature, not related to the learning process.
The use of video recordings in English lessons contributes to the individualization of learning and the development of motivation for the speech activity of students. The specificity of video materials as a means of teaching English in the 4th grade of a secondary school ensures communication with real objects that stimulate almost genuine communication: students, as it were, become participants in all the situations they play out with their help, play certain roles, and decide "real", life problems. The resulting effect of participation in the daily life of the country of the language being studied not only contributes to learning a natural, living language, but also serves as a powerful incentive to increase students' motivation. When using video films in foreign language lessons, two types of motivation develop: self-motivation, when the film is interesting in itself, and motivation, which is achieved by showing the student that he can understand the language he is learning. This brings satisfaction and gives confidence in their strength and desire for further improvement. It is necessary to strive to ensure that students get satisfaction from the film precisely through understanding the language, and not only through an interesting and entertaining plot.
Another advantage of the video is the power of impression and emotional impact on students. Therefore, the main attention should be directed to the formation by students of a personal attitude to what they see. Successful achievement of such a goal is possible only with the systematic display of video films and with a methodically organized demonstration.
The use of video contributes to the development of various types of mental activity, primarily attention and memory. During the viewing in the classroom, an atmosphere of joint cognitive activity arises. Under these conditions, even an inattentive student becomes attentive. In order to understand the content of the film, students need to make some effort. So involuntary attention turns into arbitrary. And the intensity of attention affects the process of memorization. The use of various channels for the receipt of information (auditory, visual, motor perception) has a positive effect on the strength of the imprint of regional and linguistic material.
The use of video in the lesson contributes to the solution of the following tasks:
- increasing motivation for learning;
- creating a comfortable learning environment;
- contributes to the intensification of learning;
- increases the activity of trainees;
- creates conditions for independent work of students.
Responding to the principles of developmental learning, video also helps to teach all 4 types of speech activity (reading, speaking, listening, writing), to form linguistic abilities (through language and speech exercises), to create situations of communication and to provide direct perception and study of culture, history of the country of the language being studied. Learning aids are objects created by man, as well as objects of natural nature, used in the educational process as carriers of educational information and a tool for the activity of a teacher and students to achieve the goals of training, education and development . Teaching aids (TUT) - teaching aids, consisting of screen-sound carriers of educational information and equipment, with the help of which this information is displayed. Screen-audio means (ESS) are subdivided into sound (auditory) - gramophone records, magnetic recordings, radio broadcasts; screen (visual) - "silent" films, filmstrips and others; screen-sound (audiovisual) - sound films, television programs. A special group of teaching aids are language devices (language laboratories), as well as teaching machines and computers. The specificity of all EZS lies in the ability to communicate such educational information that cannot be learned without special equipment. The main means of transmitting educational information is visual, sound or sound-visual images, which extremely realistically model an object, phenomenon and process. An important feature of EZS is their documentary basis, fixation of facts, events, scientific experiments, etc. EZS are divided into static (filmstrips, transparencies, banners, etc.) and dynamic (movies, television programs, video recordings). New prospects for the use of TSS, for example, their combination with computers and microprocessor equipment, create conditions for the accumulation and storage of significant amounts of educational information, its rapid application, for the development of new forms of communication between the teacher and students, as well as for independent work of students [24].
The use of video in a foreign language lesson should always be more than a symbolic trip to the cinema or watching a TV show. While watching the video, the teacher comments on certain points, and then the students share their impressions of what they saw. You can use various films - regional studies, documentaries, educational ones. Artistic adaptations of works provide a wide opportunity for organizing discussions, which makes it easier for students to perceive them. Thus, the psychological features of the impact of educational videos on students (the ability to control the attention of each student and group audience, influence the amount of long-term memory and increase the strength of memorization, have an emotional impact on students and increase learning motivation) contribute to the intensification of the educational process and create favorable conditions for the formation of communicative (linguistic and sociocultural) competence of schoolchildren. As teachers, we have all heard about the benefits of using new technologies such as computers and internet in the classroom. These aides are powerful tools because of the varied input that they provide students as they cater to different learning styles. However, if used through thoughtfully planned activities, they can also help our students develop critical thinking skills.
One thing to consider is that, in a writing course, input is mostly through written text in a textbook, and while these texts and activities help students develop most critical thinking skills, students respond better to more stimulating input. Through the use of video in a writing course, we can address students’ topics of interest in class and at the same time, students can deepen their understanding of certain writing structures or use the main ideas in video for different purposes through the use of their verbal, artistic, logical, and other abilities.
Depending on the type of essay, you will want to find videos that are suitable for analysis of the structure that you are teaching. With internet resources such as YouTube, you can find videos that are relevant and related to any given writing structure. For example, a global warming video could be used to study the structure of a cause-effect essay by asking the students to infer the main ideas in the video and share how they relate to the causes and effects of global warming; this could later be developed into a visual brainstorm for an essay. You could also use one of the PC vs. Mac ads to spark a discussion for a comparison essay. Since these ads target the weaknesses of PCs, students that use PC could help list advantages over Mac. Additionally, a general rule of thumb is that the video should not exceed 10 minutes of duration; this will help students keep focused on the task. Also, don’t forget to introduce the video and give your students instructions as to what to look for. Critical thinking is commonly defined in terms of six core skills: interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation and self-regulation.What follows is a list of four of these skills with a suggested activity you can do with your students after you watch a video:
Analysis: Students can identify the different elements in a video and organize them into an outline for an essay.
Inference: Students can infer the main ideas in a video and develop a brainstorm for an essay on the topic.
Explanation: Students can explain, either visually or orally, the organization of the main ideas in a video.
Evaluation: Students can evaluate the ideas from a video to form their own opinions for an argumentative or persuasive essay.
These are simple activities that will enable you as a language teacher to add new stimuli in the presentation of writing objectives and that will aid in the development of students’ critical thinking. Furthermore, by engaging students through mixed input and allowing them to express their diverse interests (by asking them to suggest videos or topics) and abilities (by offering different activity options such as pair or group discussions, developing visuals to explain concepts, or thinking on their own what a given video is communicating to them), you will find that your students become more creative in their tasks and achieve better outcomes.
A framework for 21st century learning developed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skill outlines a vision of a successful student functioning in the new global economy. This framework presents an overview of 21st century teaching and learning techniques and explores relevant outcomes across three key areas: 1) content knowledge, 2) specific skills and 3) expertise and literacies. For success in today’s world, students require core academic subject knowledge and understanding, in addition to other skills such as critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration. Critical thinking has been defined as an important educational goal and is understood to mean reasonable reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do. In this research study, critical thinking skills were specified in six elements according to Norris and Ennis (1989). These elements include 1) determining the credibility of sources and observations, 2) inferring and judging deductive conclusions, 3) definitions and identification of assumptions, 4) planning induction experiments and predicting probable consequences, 5) inferring and judging inductive conclusions and 6) semantics (Wannapiroon, 2008). Previous research has shown that students’ critical thinking abilities are significantly higher when these skills are taught through inquiry-based learning than traditional teaching methods (Wongkam et al.). In the current study, critical thinking skills were taught using the BSCS 5E instructional model. This model consists of five phases as follows: 1) engagement: the teacher assesses the student’s prior knowledge and engages the student’s interest in new concepts through short activities that promote curiosity and elicit prior knowledge, 2) exploration: the teacher provides a number of cooperative exploration activities designed to help the student to use their prior knowledge to generate new ideas, explore questions and possibilities and to design and conduct an investigation, 3) explanation: this phase focuses on the student’s exploration, provides opportunities to demonstrate conceptual understanding and processing skills or behaviors and gives the teacher an opportunity to guide the student toward deepening their understanding, 4) elaboration: the teacher challenges and extends the student’s conceptual understanding through new experiences. The student is then able to develop a deeper and broader understanding and apply this to other activities. Finally, 5) evaluation: this phase encourages the student to assess their understanding and abilities and provides opportunities for the teacher to assess progress towards educational objectives (Bybee et al.). Information and communication technologies and social network can be used as effective tools to improve instructional approaches and enhance critical thinking skills using the online environment (Haghparast et al., 2013). Social network are defined as any site or service that allows people to connect with each other, to inform others about events and activities and to share news, photos, videos and other items of interest. Social networking is a relatively new way to communicate and share information (Poore, 2013). The current study used Facebook as the social networking tool of choice given that 85% of the 21 million social network accounts in Thailand are Facebook accounts (Zocialinc). Cloud computing can help educational institutions to resolve a number of their common challenges, including cost reduction, enabling quick and effective communication, security and privacy and ensuring flexibility and accessibility (Alshuwaier et al., 2013). Cloud computing contributes to the growing number of useful services that are now available on the internet and provides a range of services useful to students and teachers, such as direct access to different academic resources, research applications and higher education tools. Cloud computing enables the user to access a network of ubiquitous, convenient and on-demand configurable computing resources such as networks, servers, storage applications and services (Mell & Grance). The learning steps and activities of social learning environment as inquiry-based on cloud technology were appropriate for developing the student’s critical thinking skills (Meepian & Wannapiroon, 2013). The aim of the present study was to explore if students’ critical thinking skills could be improved through teaching and learning by inquiry-based learning activities using social network and cloud computing. This approach is seen as a potentially effective way to facilitate learning in the 21st century learning
The video is an excellent supplementary material for learning English, as it is as close as possible to the language reality. The video contains visual images and the necessary audio material, which makes the memorization process efficient and easy. Video can be used in the lesson to familiarize and study new material, as well as for repetition.
There are several types of video materials, let's present the data obtained from the analysis of the works of Rogova G.V., Sokolova E.N., Filatov V.M.
1 .Authentic (original) video:
•Movies,
• Cartoons,
•Documentary film,
•News,
•Interview,
•Show, Advertising
• Realistic
•Interesting
• Original
• Naturally
• Public
• Focused mostly on trained pupils/students
• There are no additional materials for this video (textbooks and exercises)
2. Video intended for teaching a foreign language:
• Language courses
• Listening practice
• Business course
• Adapted to a certain level

• Emphasis on specific vocabulary grammatical material

• Comes with tutorials and exercises
• Time frames are taken into account
• Not quite realistic
• Can be boring
•Expensive
•Quickly outdated
Video playback methods:
• Picture with sound
• Picture without sound
• Sound without picture
• Seamless playback
• Playback with pauses
• Playback with subtitles
• No subtitles
Working with video-based language:
1) grammar:
• English tenses
• prepositions
• timing
2) listening:
• general retelling
• specific information (names, dates, numbers)
- “silent viewing” (showing part of the film without sound, students must guess what the characters are talking about);
- guessing the further course of events;
- the task “to finish the script”;
- role-playing game (distribute roles and act out a scene from the film);
- listening without viewing (turn off the image while listening to the sound, tell what is happening on the screen);
- restore the text (in the course of viewing, fill in the gaps in the text written on the board);
- retelling of the viewed part (one half of the class watches the episode and transmits the content to the other half of the class).
The purpose of the third stage is the organization of speech creative activity of students. [22, 108]
Types of exercises aimed at teaching speaking:
- discussion of the film as a whole;
- an exercise to restore the missing line of dialogue from the film;
- etude work with acting techniques;
- false information;
- Criticism of the film;
- personalization;
- compose a sequel to the film;
- Film advertisement.
The choice of video material for a foreign language lesson depends mainly on the level of the trainees. The same commercial, for example, can be used at different levels of education, only the purpose and objectives of its use will be different. [22, 121] Among the video materials used in foreign language classes are:
- Movie clips
- Instructional video
- Reporting
-TV magazines
-Documentaries
-Music videos
- Advertisements
- Cartoons
Optimizing the process of teaching speaking, as well as increasing the motivation of students, are important tasks for the teacher. Pedagogical interest in the use of video materials is growing, and the reason for this is, firstly, the nature of these materials, which is based on realities, modern trends in the language and the country of the language being studied. Secondly, the material in question is often not created for learning, not related to its process, which attracts the attention of students when they encounter the same clip of a famous singer, and this undoubtedly increases the level of motivation among students. Thirdly, sound video material is considered to be an effective means of stimulating spontaneous speech, a valuable feature of which is the organic combination of sounding speech with dynamics within frames that reproduce a variety of life situations that help create speech patterns that serve as a standard for the student's speech activity, and, thus, they contribute to the development of speaking skills.
We found out that the use of video recordings in English lessons contributes to the individualization of learning and the development of motivation for the speech activity of students. Video is an excellent supplementary material for learning English, as it is as close as possible to linguistic reality. Viewing authentic video materials helps to create speech samples that serve as a model for the student's speech activity, and thus contribute to the development of speaking skills.
There are several methodological recommendations for using video materials in English lessons in order to develop speaking skills:
1. The use of video materials in an English lesson should be relevant to the topic of the lesson for better memorization by students of the topics provided for by the program;
2. There should not be more than three video lessons on one topic of the calendar plan, since with frequent use of video, you can be far behind the calendar and thematic planning;
For high-quality use of video material, you need to take care of the presentation of the material itself, of a convenient method for showing videos for students.
Over the past decade, a lot has been said about changing the concept of education, developing innovative teaching methods, and using new technologies in the learning process. At present, teachers have wide opportunities for teaching theoretical and practical disciplines using various technical means. Many educational institutions can boast of language laboratories, multimedia classes, and video rooms. In the classroom, audio and video equipment, computer technologies, including the Internet, projectors of various types (overheads, digital projectors, etc.), interactive whiteboards are actively used .
At the same time, the methodology for using the modern fleet of technical means, apparently, cannot be considered fully developed. Often, work in a video class comes down to watching a movie and discussing the issues raised in it. However, the possibilities of using video clips are much wider. In other words, it is necessary to develop a methodology for using various technical means, including video materials, in the teaching process. Let us dwell on the possibilities of using feature films, various video clips, including advertising trailers, as well as video recordings. Watching videos while learning foreign languages ​​has been actively used in higher and secondary schools for several decades. Video technology has undergone a number of improvements in recent years and has become widespread. At the disposal of teachers there are DVD-players, digital video cameras, multimedia classes. On the one hand, this opens up great prospects and opportunities for using video in practical classes. On the other hand, wide access to the technical means mentioned above and limited classroom time pose new challenges for teachers. It is necessary to develop a methodology for using fragments of feature films and additional materials. Consider possible options for using video materials of various types in foreign language classes. Video materials can be divided into the following groups:
- staged training videos;
- music and advertising video clips;
- full-length feature films and television series;
- additional materials accompanying feature films on DVD, including promotional trailers;
- video recordings of various performances
- video programs for studying certain aspects of the language.