Teaching TEFL Using Videos by Hall Houston. Click here for Part 1 or Part 2 or Part 3
In this part of this series, I’m going to share a few of my own teaching TEFL using videos based lessons:
1) Men and Women Drivers
Before Phase:
Dictate the first sentence of the video. Read it a couple of times. Then ask a student to write it up on the board. You correct errors. Ask a student to guess what they will be watching in the video. Introduce some new vocabulary: whiplash, stockings, license.
During Phase
Play the video once. Then ask students to write down one thing that the men do and one thing the women do. Play the video a second time. Ask a few students to tell you their answers. Now ask students to list adjectives describing the men’s behavior and the women’s behavior. Play the video again. Create a chart on the board and ask students to call out their adjectives.
After Phase
Put students into pairs. Assign them to write two brief dialogues, each one demonstrating how men and women react differently in different situations. You might give them a few ideas: a beautiful woman walks down the street, OR two people are fighting in a store, OR a bar is giving away free beer. Give students about 15 minutes to write out their dialogues and practice. Then choose a few pairs to come to the front of the class and perform.
2) Amateur – film clip
Title of Clip: Amateur (1994) Opening Credits
Uploaded by: 1accon
Before Phase
Show students the first image of the video (0:02). Ask these questions:
- What is happening in this scene?
- What is this man doing?
- What’s going to happen next?
Ask a few students to give you answers. (You may wish to give them a minute or two to write answers before speaking.)
Play the video until (0:16) then pause. Ask students:
- What happened?
- What’s going to happen next?
Call on students for answers.
Play the video until (0:34) then pause. Ask students:
- Who is this woman?
- Why is she standing over the man?
- What is she going to do next?
Call on students for answers.
Play the video until (0:53), then pause. Ask students:
- Where is the woman going?
- What is going to happen next?
Call on students for answers.
During Phase
Tell the class you are going to play the scene again. Ask students to consider these questions:
- What is the woman thinking?
- What is the relationship between the man and the woman?
Play the video (0:03 to 0:54), then stop.
Invite a few students to give their answers to the two questions.
After Phase
Put the students into four groups: A, B, C, and D. Give each group a task.
The A group must create a description of the man: age, appearance, occupation, hobbies, personality, plans for the future, etc.
The B group must create a description of the woman: age, appearance, occupation, hobbies, personality, plans for the future, etc.
The C group must decide what happened five minutes before the scene they just watched (what the man was doing, what the woman was doing)
The D group must decide what will happen after the scene (where the woman went, what happens to the man.)
Give the four groups 15 minutes to work on their task. Circulate, and make sure they are all participating.
Next, create new groups, each with a member of the four groups. They will discuss what they did in their tasks.
When teaching TEFL using videos, if you have extra time, you can give this additional task: Put students into pairs and ask them to create a scene that happened before OR after the scene in the video. Give them a few minutes to develop their scene. Ask several groups to perform their scene for the class.
Hall Houstonteaches at National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Science. His articles have been published in periodicals such as It’s for Teachers, Modern English Teacher and English Teaching Professional. He has written 5 books includingBrainstormingandCreative Output, both available on Amazon.
