O’quv mashg’ulotining shakli

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 

Teachers of English as a Foreign or Second Language (EFL/ESL) today have the ability to stimulate and engage their learners with a powerful resource: current, authentic video. However, the attraction of the medium – and the vast choices it allows – should not obscure the need to plan its use as carefully as you would any other input material. Years of experience with authentic video points to an optimum length for the video of roughly between one and two minutes. Also highly recommended is a structured approach, with clearly distinct pre-task (key vocabulary), task (viewing; comprehension; vocabulary checking; grammar) and post-task (discussion, pairs or group work) phases.

Determining the right video for your learners should of course be based on the level of language it contains, but should also factor in elements (speed and clarity of speech, presence or not of non-verbal clues, background noise, subject matter, accents) specific to the audiovisual medium. Because it is so engaging – particularly for the “digital native” generation of learners who have grown up with it in various on-demand formats – and because it lends itself so well to follow-on discussion and derived exercises, authentic video is ideal for the “flipped classroom” approach to English language teaching, as it allows teachers to focus precious time and energy on communicative interaction based on the video lesson with and among their learners.

Finally, the value of properly structured lessons based on authentic video should not detract from its usefulness, when used as an open, self-study resource, in promoting a highly motivated autonomous learning mindset in the learner, one which will help him or her play a much more active role in their continued journey towards English language proficiency.