- Email: [email protected]
Bringing online video into the classroom
100
Book reviews / System 51 (2015) 88e101
Language teaching approaches, including the grammar-translation method, audiolingualism, and task-based language teaching, are the focus of Chapter 5, which also touches on classroom issues such as form-focused and meaning-focused instruction and the role of corrective feedback. Chapter 6 examines the interlanguage of second language learners, exploring the development of various aspects of learner language including formulaic language, grammatical competence, vocabulary, pragmatics, and phonology. A whole chapter (Chapter 7) is given to the topic of age and its effects on SLA, but is entirely devoted to a single learning context, that of immigrants to a country where another language is spoken. Given the emphasis placed on the six different language learners and the identification of multiple learning contexts (even with the notable absence of instructed child L2 learning), this unilateral approach to the factor of age in SLA is odd. Chapter 8 brings to focus other individual differences that have received research attention, such as intelligence, aptitude, motivation, and learning strategies, and the final main chapter (Chapter 9) explores different forms of bilingualism and their effects (although, the chart that lists 27 distinct forms of bilingualism is confusing and surely excessive for an introductory text). The ordering of the main chapters is slightly strange, with the chapters focusing on age (including what differentiates FLA from SLA) and bilingual FLA so far separated from the initial discussion of FLA, but as chapters are for the most part selfcontained instructors can of course assign them in an alternate order if desired. As is necessary in an introductory-level textbook, material is rarely engaged in depth but instead key concepts are outlined and sometimes accompanied with findings from research studies, and readers are then left to their own devices to explore further. This problem may be related to the nascency of SLA research and the lack of consensus among researchers and theorists, but Hummel often introduces concepts and research perspectives that appear to go nowhere and lack a satisfying conclusion. Of course, it may be useful for readers to know that such ideas are currently under investigation in order to guide their literature searches, but this approach leaves the book with far more questions raised than answered and may leave readers with a somewhat hollow feeling. An alternative approach for an introductory-level textbook would have been to focus in more detail on older, more established ideas with some semblance of research consensus, and to draw out some basic guidelines that readers could hold on to as they explore the research literature further. However, if the goal is to prepare students for further study in SLA, Hummel's approach provides for a broad, if shallow, introduction to many of the various research directions currently underway in the field. Despite some questionable design features, Introducing Second Language Acquisition: Perspectives and Practices largely succeeds in its goal to provide an accessible introduction to SLA for learners with no previous knowledge of the field. It offers an overview of key concepts and theories, as well as current trends in research, in a style that neither assumes nor requires prior study. It would be an excellent option to consider for instructors teaching introductory SLA courses at the undergraduate level. References Krashen SD. Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon; 1982. Murphy VA. Second language learning in the early school years: Trends and contexts. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2014.
Glenn M. Davis Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China E-mail address: [email protected]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2015.04.008
Bringing Online Video into the Classroom, Jamie Keddie. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2014). 160 pp.
Videos have always been a very useful resource for teachers, in that they enhance the students' skills, while motivating them (Flynn, 1998; Sherman, 2003). Moreover, the advent of Youtube with hundreds of millions of videoclips available to everybody has brought new life into multimedia teaching in the EFL classroom (Berk, 2009; Watkins & Wilkins, 2011). Jamie Keddie's guide touches upon the various ways in which online videos can be used for teaching learners aged 6e16. It is part of the Oxford Into the classroom series and as in the previous volumes e on creative teaching and extensive reading e it explicitly aims at explaining a new development in teaching, i.e. online video in this case. The book, divided into four parts, also has a valuable website which provides access to the videos mentioned. The first section, a sort of technical introduction, illustrates the hardware and software components required and considers the basic competencies needed to deal with them. The graphic layout and the considerable amount of images make the section very reader-friendly. The reader can often feel the presence of the author and his experience as a teacher and teacher trainer, in his lexical choices (“in our perfect teaching word” (sic) and “frustrating moments”, p. 21), his practical suggestions for everyday
Book reviews / System 51 (2015) 88e101
101
problems (poor quality projectors or audio systems, the lack of an internet connection, incompatible file formats, distracted students…), and his didactic approach even when dealing with specific terminology. Keddie is aware of the problems a teacher has to face on a daily basis and the issue of the distance between theory and practice appears throughout the first chapter as a sort of refrain: “our perfect classroom”, “in our perfect world”, “in an ideal world” (p. 15), “dream possibilities” (p. 17), “in a world of wishes” (p. 21). Chapters 3, 4 and 5 make up the second part of the book, Video content for the classroom. In Chapter 3, after providing a brief overview of the features of online videos which make them appropriate teaching tools, such as interactivity, accessibility and length, the author identifies different genres of online video while offering a variety of ways to exploit them. Chapter 4, on finding and selecting videos, also includes a short question-and-answer section on copyright, while Chapter 5 is dedicated to teachers who want to create their own “films” and use their video-recordings. The nucleus of the book is its third part, Using video in the classroom, which gives the rudiments (Chapter 6), shows how to deconstruct videos (Chapter 7), how to use spoken texts (Chapter 8) and video narratives (Chapter 9). Teachers are offered a whole series of hands-on creative activities, some of which are photocopiable and ready for use. The variety of the video-clips selected is remarkable, as is the quality of the activities proposed. Before reading this book, as a teacher, I happened to use one of the videos indicated by the author, a nature documentary form BBC where animals are given voices, but I didn't think of adapting the transcript, or doing a text memory game, which are some of the excellent activities the author proposes (pp. 100, 101). The last part is rather controversial, in that it is dedicated to using video cameras in the classroom, which is partly banned for privacy reasons in many countries, and out of the classroom, leaving cameras in the students' (Chapter 11) and the teacher's hands (Chapter 12), a no less problematic issue. The reading of this resource book is highly recommended to all teachers who wish to engage with technology and want to find a new way to teach to the millennial generation. References Berk RA. Multimedia teaching with video clips: TV, movies, YouTube, and mtvU in the college classroom. International Journal of Technology in Teaching and Learning 2009;5(1):1e21. Flynn KF. Bring language to life! Using video in your ESL/EFL Program. ESL Magazine 1998;1(2):18e20. Sherman J. Using authentic video in the language classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2003. Watkins J, Wilkins M. Using YouTube in the EFL classroom. Language Education in Asia 2011;2(1):113e9.
Caterina Allais Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo A. Gemelli, 1, 20123 Milano, Italy Universita E-mail address: [email protected]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2015.04.005
Book reviews / System 51 (2015) 88e101
Language teaching approaches, including the grammar-translation method, audiolingualism, and task-based language teaching, are the focus of Chapter 5, which also touches on classroom issues such as form-focused and meaning-focused instruction and the role of corrective feedback. Chapter 6 examines the interlanguage of second language learners, exploring the development of various aspects of learner language including formulaic language, grammatical competence, vocabulary, pragmatics, and phonology. A whole chapter (Chapter 7) is given to the topic of age and its effects on SLA, but is entirely devoted to a single learning context, that of immigrants to a country where another language is spoken. Given the emphasis placed on the six different language learners and the identification of multiple learning contexts (even with the notable absence of instructed child L2 learning), this unilateral approach to the factor of age in SLA is odd. Chapter 8 brings to focus other individual differences that have received research attention, such as intelligence, aptitude, motivation, and learning strategies, and the final main chapter (Chapter 9) explores different forms of bilingualism and their effects (although, the chart that lists 27 distinct forms of bilingualism is confusing and surely excessive for an introductory text). The ordering of the main chapters is slightly strange, with the chapters focusing on age (including what differentiates FLA from SLA) and bilingual FLA so far separated from the initial discussion of FLA, but as chapters are for the most part selfcontained instructors can of course assign them in an alternate order if desired. As is necessary in an introductory-level textbook, material is rarely engaged in depth but instead key concepts are outlined and sometimes accompanied with findings from research studies, and readers are then left to their own devices to explore further. This problem may be related to the nascency of SLA research and the lack of consensus among researchers and theorists, but Hummel often introduces concepts and research perspectives that appear to go nowhere and lack a satisfying conclusion. Of course, it may be useful for readers to know that such ideas are currently under investigation in order to guide their literature searches, but this approach leaves the book with far more questions raised than answered and may leave readers with a somewhat hollow feeling. An alternative approach for an introductory-level textbook would have been to focus in more detail on older, more established ideas with some semblance of research consensus, and to draw out some basic guidelines that readers could hold on to as they explore the research literature further. However, if the goal is to prepare students for further study in SLA, Hummel's approach provides for a broad, if shallow, introduction to many of the various research directions currently underway in the field. Despite some questionable design features, Introducing Second Language Acquisition: Perspectives and Practices largely succeeds in its goal to provide an accessible introduction to SLA for learners with no previous knowledge of the field. It offers an overview of key concepts and theories, as well as current trends in research, in a style that neither assumes nor requires prior study. It would be an excellent option to consider for instructors teaching introductory SLA courses at the undergraduate level. References Krashen SD. Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon; 1982. Murphy VA. Second language learning in the early school years: Trends and contexts. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2014.
Glenn M. Davis Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China E-mail address: [email protected]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2015.04.008
Bringing Online Video into the Classroom, Jamie Keddie. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2014). 160 pp.
Videos have always been a very useful resource for teachers, in that they enhance the students' skills, while motivating them (Flynn, 1998; Sherman, 2003). Moreover, the advent of Youtube with hundreds of millions of videoclips available to everybody has brought new life into multimedia teaching in the EFL classroom (Berk, 2009; Watkins & Wilkins, 2011). Jamie Keddie's guide touches upon the various ways in which online videos can be used for teaching learners aged 6e16. It is part of the Oxford Into the classroom series and as in the previous volumes e on creative teaching and extensive reading e it explicitly aims at explaining a new development in teaching, i.e. online video in this case. The book, divided into four parts, also has a valuable website which provides access to the videos mentioned. The first section, a sort of technical introduction, illustrates the hardware and software components required and considers the basic competencies needed to deal with them. The graphic layout and the considerable amount of images make the section very reader-friendly. The reader can often feel the presence of the author and his experience as a teacher and teacher trainer, in his lexical choices (“in our perfect teaching word” (sic) and “frustrating moments”, p. 21), his practical suggestions for everyday
Book reviews / System 51 (2015) 88e101
101
problems (poor quality projectors or audio systems, the lack of an internet connection, incompatible file formats, distracted students…), and his didactic approach even when dealing with specific terminology. Keddie is aware of the problems a teacher has to face on a daily basis and the issue of the distance between theory and practice appears throughout the first chapter as a sort of refrain: “our perfect classroom”, “in our perfect world”, “in an ideal world” (p. 15), “dream possibilities” (p. 17), “in a world of wishes” (p. 21). Chapters 3, 4 and 5 make up the second part of the book, Video content for the classroom. In Chapter 3, after providing a brief overview of the features of online videos which make them appropriate teaching tools, such as interactivity, accessibility and length, the author identifies different genres of online video while offering a variety of ways to exploit them. Chapter 4, on finding and selecting videos, also includes a short question-and-answer section on copyright, while Chapter 5 is dedicated to teachers who want to create their own “films” and use their video-recordings. The nucleus of the book is its third part, Using video in the classroom, which gives the rudiments (Chapter 6), shows how to deconstruct videos (Chapter 7), how to use spoken texts (Chapter 8) and video narratives (Chapter 9). Teachers are offered a whole series of hands-on creative activities, some of which are photocopiable and ready for use. The variety of the video-clips selected is remarkable, as is the quality of the activities proposed. Before reading this book, as a teacher, I happened to use one of the videos indicated by the author, a nature documentary form BBC where animals are given voices, but I didn't think of adapting the transcript, or doing a text memory game, which are some of the excellent activities the author proposes (pp. 100, 101). The last part is rather controversial, in that it is dedicated to using video cameras in the classroom, which is partly banned for privacy reasons in many countries, and out of the classroom, leaving cameras in the students' (Chapter 11) and the teacher's hands (Chapter 12), a no less problematic issue. The reading of this resource book is highly recommended to all teachers who wish to engage with technology and want to find a new way to teach to the millennial generation. References Berk RA. Multimedia teaching with video clips: TV, movies, YouTube, and mtvU in the college classroom. International Journal of Technology in Teaching and Learning 2009;5(1):1e21. Flynn KF. Bring language to life! Using video in your ESL/EFL Program. ESL Magazine 1998;1(2):18e20. Sherman J. Using authentic video in the language classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2003. Watkins J, Wilkins M. Using YouTube in the EFL classroom. Language Education in Asia 2011;2(1):113e9.
Caterina Allais Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo A. Gemelli, 1, 20123 Milano, Italy Universita E-mail address: [email protected]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2015.04.005