Introduction
This assignment pertains to the use of a non- ELT video as an effective means of presenting and eliciting language in a Greek primary school context. The teacher discusses the criteria she employed to select an appropriate video sequence, presents the lesson she designed and the teaching procedures justifying her choices and finally focuses on the anticipated outcomes.
- Teaching situation
The video-based lesson is specifically designed for a group of 6th grade primary school learners whose level ranges from A1 to A2 (Breakthrough-Waystage). Most of the students are of Greek origin and three of them come from different cultural backgrounds. The materials used in class are the textbook (student’s and activity book) and a set of accompanying CDs for the listening tasks. Therefore, the language input is limited to the reading and listening texts of the outdated course book and language practice is based solely on the book’s activities which lack visual stimuli and most of them are unimaginative. The lack of variety and authenticity has led the learners to feel demotivated and lose interest in the language since they cannot relate to the situations being taught and as members of the E-generation cannot be attracted by the static representation of a text or a sound-only recording. They need a more dynamic and stimulating medium such as the video which can “compensate for all the shortcoming in the EFL learning experience by bringing language to life” (King, 2002, p.2). However, for a video to be effective certain criteria should be taken into consideration during the selection process.
