(teach) Watch - Read - Watch

[dk-5]

Though this is similar to many listening tasks in coursebooks, I've never
tried it with films. My students really like this and think it's effective.
Watch - Read - Watch. I was using an episode of the American TV show, "The
Office". The procedure we followed this time was to:

1. Play a scene (about 1-3 minutes long), no subtitles, and then the
students tell me what they understand.

2. Read the transcript of the scene together, talk about new words.

3. Watch the scene again, no subtitles.

When the students watch it the first time they are listening hard to try to
understand. The crazy antics and office politics and of the characters holds
their attention and makes them want to try to understand. After the first
watching they are curious and want to see if they understood it well. They
tell me what they understood and this is an opportunity to see if the task
is right for their level and if they understood the gist but not the
details.

Reading the transcript helps them to confirm their ideas about what they
understood and also get introduced to some new vocabulary.

When we watch the segment the second time it is like a test to see how well
they understood what we went over in the transcript. It is like a review of
the language. They listen very carefully because they want to see if they
can understand it 100% and also because the show is so goofy that it's
interesting.

I don't like to pre-teach. I find pre-teaching to be quite boring for
students. It's like telling someone everything about a movie before they
watch it and then when they watch the film it is just boring.

I like to first throw the student into the English unprepared. Hunter
Thompson, author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, said he will "drag the
reader relentlessly up a hill and then drop him off a cliff." Of course, I
like to give them English that is close to their level, perhaps i+1 or i+2.
If the material is interesting the student will make the effort to try to
understand it and form ideas about what is happening. Then the student is
ready to test his theory, his idea about the material and is very receptive
to see the transcript or whatever to see if he is right or wrong. Following
that with a second showing of the clip is like a further test, and I'll say
a pleasurable test, of the student to see if he can now follow it when he
couldn't follow completely before. Any kind of a third showing of the
material for whatever purpose usually crosses the line into boredom and I
always try to avoid it.

Dave Kees

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