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- Herausgeber: GRIN Verlag
- Sprache: Englisch
Master's Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Speech Science / Linguistics, grade: 1,0 (A), Carthage College, Wisconsin (Department of Education), course: Master of Education, language: English, abstract: The main purpose of this study is to demonstrate how new audiovisual media, such as YouTube, can be effectively combined with task-based teaching approaches for communicative language teaching at the advanced level. Based on an examination of prior research, this study generates a set of criteria which are essential to the development of task-based units that utilize authentic video material to increase students’ cultural awareness and communicative skills. The proposed sample units serve as models for instructors to use the presented criteria for the creation of further language activities and units that will effectively incorporate new media and task-based teaching within an engaging, student-centered learning environment.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009
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ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this study is to demonstrate how new audiovisual media, such as YouTube, can be effectively combined with task-based teaching approaches for
communicative language teaching at the advanced level. Based on an examination of prior research, this study generates a set of criteria which are essential to the development of task-based units that utilize authentic video material to increase students’ cultural awareness and communicative skills. The proposed sample units serve as models for instructors to use the presented criteria for the creation of further language activities and units that will effectively incorporate new media and task-based teaching within an engaging, student-centered learning environment.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Writing a thesis is mostly an inspiring process. At times, however, it can be challenging and lonely as well. In those moments, the personal and practical support of numerous people was priceless and contributed significantly to the successful completion of this thesis. First, I would like to thank my parents, who mean so much to me. Thank you for always believing in me and for all the love you give me, even though there is an ocean between us.
My thanks go out to my wonderful host family, Richard and Bev Jessen, who always make me feel at home. To all my friends here, I appreciate your support and the great times we have had. I am so grateful that life has brought you in my way. You have truly turned these two years at Carthage into the best time of my life so far. I am particularly grateful to my advisor Greg Baer, whose motivating personality helped me through this whole project and allowed me to believe in myself. Thank you for providing resources and expert guidance all the way. I also wish to express my appreciation to Richard Sperber and Jacqueline Easley for serving on my master’s committee and offering valuable advice.
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Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
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Background of the Topic
Second Language (SL) teachers have been using video materials in the classrooms at all levels for quite some time now. Affordable technical equipment, the wide availability of authentic video materials, and the
students’ high level of sympathy and familiarity with new media, all make it easier than ever to provide students with a glance at authentic filmic texts and life within the target culture.
Providing effective instruction, teachers can allow their students to derive more from video than passive enjoyment. Within well-planned, engaging activities, video can be an excellent tool for communicative classes, such as conversation classes. Not only can authentic audiovisual material raise the cultural awareness of students, it will also improve their communication skills.
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The integration of culture in language curricula is both beneficial and desirable because it is difficult to communicate effectively in a language while being ignorant of its culture. Many students have not had the opportunity to have a meaningful and extensive first-hand encounter with the target culture by travelling to the target country, nor may they ever be able to experience the culture in that way during the years of their language instruction. Filmic texts can provide a window to the target culture and allow teachers to establish a controlled classroom setting, where students have the possibility of observing native speakers in contextualized situations. Therefore, Second language (SL) Teachers are well-advised to explore and utilize audiovisual media to provide their students with a taste of the target culture and teach them to communicate effectively.
One of the foremost goals of any SL teacher should be to improve the communicative competence of their students for real-life purposes. Teachers want their students to be able to communicate in the Target Language (TL).
Communication essentially revolves around tasks, whether it is ordering food in a restaurant, making small talk about the weather, scheduling an appointment on the phone, or
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trying to acquire a position through a job interview. Communication is not arbitrary. There is a purpose to it, it is a practical act that leads to an outcome which the speaker, native or not, wants to achieve (Littlejohn & Foss, 2004). All the situations mentioned above, as well as many others, present tasks the SL students need to master as they develop their communication skills in the TL. In recent years, advocates of communicative and taskbased approaches to language teaching have been recognizing the usefulness and potential of utilizing tasks as the core units of language instruction. This study focuses on how teachers can utilize video materials, especially new media like the video sharing website YouTube, as effective language input for introducing task-based activities that aim at improving the learners’ communicative skills and cultural knowledge.
Statement of the Problem
The ways in which languages are taught have undergone shift and development over time. As instructors and researchers gain new insights into language teaching, the media that are available to aid language teaching are subject to constant change and expansion. With the ubiquity
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of the internet and new media, like YouTube, which are accessible through it, language teachers have an immense variety of video materials at their disposal. Now, rare authentic SL video material, ranging from home videos to TV commercials, is just a mouse click away. Unfortunately, many teachers do not recognize the benefits and the potential of video material for their teaching (Davis, 1998). Teachers must adapt their methods and move with the times, but, as Pusack and Otto (1997) point out, this can be quite challenging: Those who venture in this arena soon find that it is not for the fainthearted, not only because of the constant and inexorable evolution in the technologies themselves, but because of the ever-present challenge to determine how best to exploit new technologies to improve language instruction. (p. 2) Therefore, educators in today’s classrooms face the
challenge of finding effective teaching strategies that employ and integrate new media in engaging ways for the teaching of second languages. Further research must show how this new arsenal of media can be incorporated and maximized for language instruction.
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Purpose of the Study
Both task-based teaching approaches and new media are recent phenomena of promising efficiency in the field of SL instruction that demand further attention. This study is an attempt to demonstrate how new media and task-based teaching approaches can be joined for effective language instruction at the advanced level. After an investigation of educational research on the use of video materials for SL teaching in the context of task-based language
instruction, this study generates a set of criteria based on the previous research. These criteria will be applied to develop effective teaching strategies and techniques that integrate video material, especially new media, for communicative language classes, such as conversation
classes, in a task-based learning environment. The same criteria can also be used to assess learner outcomes. The resulting activities can be integrated into existing curricula, while both fostering the students‘ communicative competence in the target language (TL) and enhancing their cultural awareness of the target culture.
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Definition of Terms
Audiovisual media:Transmission tools that deliver information through both sound and visual components. In this study, the termsaudiovisual media, filmic texts, movie clips, movie segments, video,andvideo materialare used interchangeably.
Authentic video material:Video material in the TL that was originally produced for an audience of native speakers of the TL rather than SL classroom settings.Communcative language teaching:“An approach to
teaching that is directed at developing communicative abilities in the learners either by teaching aspects of communicative competence (the weak version) or by creating conditions for learners to learn through communicating (the strong version)” (Ellis, 2003, p. 340).Conversation:“An interaction sequence with a defined beginning and end, turn-taking and some sort of purpose or a set of goals” (Littlejohn & Foss, 2004, p. 142).Culture:The concept of culture represents the “system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of a society use to cope with this world and with one another” (Bates & Plog, 1988, p.7).
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Motivation:Biehler and Snowman (1997) define
motivation as “the forces that account for the arousal, selection, direction, and continuation of behavior” (p. 399).
New media: Mediaof high authenticity that are produced by native TL speakers and made available to the public through the internet.Second language (SL):A language being studied other than the learner’s native language. The terms ‘secondlanguage’(SL) and ‘targetlanguage’(TL) are used interchangeably in this study.Task:
A piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing, or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form. The task should also have a sense of completeness, being able to stand alone as a communicative act in its own right. (Nunan, 1989, p. 10)
Ellis (2003) additionally emphasizes that tasks should foster the pragmatic use of the TL and should ideally involve real-world processes of language use.
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Task-basked language teaching:Language instruction that is based on practical tasks to be performed by the learners.
YouTube:A video-sharing website, created in 2005, where users can upload, view and share video clips.
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In order to investigate the importance of video materials for language teaching and to study the effectiveness of audiovisual input in task-based
communicative activities, the existing research needs to be reviewed. This review will illustrate the emergence and history of foreign movies in the SL classroom, as well as the benefits of video and movie segments as a teaching medium for second languages and culture. Strategies that researchers have been proposing in order to successfully integrate such material into the SL learning process will be described. This review will also present findings from several researchers (Kasakow & McClurg, 1984; Lin & Fox, 1999; Newmark, 1967; Suh, Wasanasomsithi, Short, & Majid, 1999; Van Lommel, Laenen, & d’Ydewalle, 2006) studying the effect of video materials on SL acquisition and student motivation. Included is an overview of the content
