UNDERSTANDING ACTIVITIES

1- Description and narration of a video sequence. It is a pair work activity. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=55TdqC9Luck (Climate change).

Description: The teacher should sit students in pairs one facing the other one. But one of them should be watching the screen, the other facing the back of the class. The teacher should select a short fragment of the video that contains visuals actions and the students who face the screen will watch it but without any sound, so the watchers will describe what is on the screen to their partner. After that, the student who did not watch the video, should talk about it, taking into account what his/her partner described to him/her.

Objectives: The idea of this activity is to develop in students the description and narrative abilities and also to engage students with the topic. This kind of activity offers them a lot of fun due to the watches should describe to the partners the sequence of video quickly.

Example:


2- Circle the words from the list. List: (life, early, usually, government, climate, surround, warmer, issue, gases, challenge) http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=55TdqC9Luck(Climate change)

Description: The teacher will present a list with some words to students and while they are listening to the video, they should circle the words they listen to. They will do it individually and when finishing, they can consult their answers with the partner.
List: life, early, usually, government, climate, surround, warmer, issue, gases, challenge.

Objectives: This activity highly develops and improves the listening skill in the students, due to they should pay a careful attention to the video in order to do circle the words.

Example:


3- Predicting the content of the video. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=55TdqC9Luck
Description: The teacher should select a fragment of the video and let students to watch it and listen to for a minute. Then, the teacher will make a pause and students should predict what will happen next. It is a Pair work activity.

Objectives: The idea of this activity is to develop the creativity and imagination in the students, but also to engage them with the video they are watching.
Example:


4-Some comprehension questions (Climate change).
a)Does the change in the climate affect our ways of life?
b)Life depends on the warmth of the sun being trapped by the layer of gases that surround the Earth.
c)Does the video mention the solutions to tackle the problem?
d)Do we still have time to stop the problem?

Description: The teacher will present some comprehension questions to students and will give 1 minute to read them I silence. Then, the teacher asks them to determine which of the questions are answered through the video? They should give reasons.

Objectives: This activity allows students to improve their listening skills forcing them to pay a special attention to the video, due to they should realize if the video provide the answers to those questions or not.

Example:


5-Students should discuss in small groups some general questions such as:
-What is happening in the video?
-Which could be the causes of the problems from your point of view?
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=55TdqC9Luck (Climate change)

Description: The teacher will give students some general questions and ask them to discuss them in small groups of four or five students. They have around 5 minutes to do the activity. After that, one member of each group will provide the answers. The teacher should guide the activity and clarify any doubt or mistake students might produce.

Objectives: It allows to support the understanding of the content and to promote the active reflective and critical observation.

Example:


6-Listen to a sequence from the video without watching it. Pair Work activity. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=55TdqC9Luck (Climate change)
Description: The teacher should select a sequence form the video and will let students to listen to it with out watching it. Then students should write a paragraph describing in pairs what they listened to. After checking the activity the teacher will play the same sequence of video but this time they will have the possibility to watch it. So, they can compare their description with the real scenes.

Objectives: This activity will allow students to improve their listening skills and creativity, besides it offers them the possibility to work in pairs helping each other, trying to do the activity successfully.

Example:


7-Watch a fragment of the video with out any sound and write a script. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=55TdqC9Luck (Climate change)

Description: The teacher will select a fragment from the video and let students to watch it without any sound. They should take some notes because after that they will create a narrator’s script in pairs. The main issue is that the script should synchronize with the images. So, the teacher will play the segment again and students will report what the characters are saying.

Objectives: This activity enriches the vocabulary in the students, due to they should create what the characters are saying based on the images. It also develops the writing skills in the students due to they should take some notes and at the same time it enriches the speaking skills and improves their pronunciation, because when reporting the teacher will correct the mistakes or errors students might produce.

Example:


8-Watch a fragment of the video without any sound and do a performance to the partner. (Anyone Can Dance - Salsa: Beginner Clip).
Description: In this activity the students should work in pairs, one of the members will watch a fragment of the video but without listening to it and should do a performance (just with gestures and body language) about what is happening in the video to the partner. So, the student who is not facing the screen should guess what is happening in the video.

Objectives: The idea of this activity is to develop the creativity in the students, and if you are a teacher trainer, this activity shows students how to teach a foreign language not only by means of the knowledge or materials as a support of it, but also by means of the gestures and mimics which highly contribute to the acquisition of a target language.

9-One of the members will watch a video sequence while the other one will read the script without watching it. Discuss in pairs their criteria about the video sequence. It is a pair work activity

Description: In this activity the teacher will select a video sequence and ask students to work in pairs. One of the partners will look at the video without any sound and the other one will read the script without watching the video. Both activities occur at the same time. After that the two members will sit together and interchange criteria about the video.

Objectives: The main goal with this activity is to increase the students’ motivation towards the video and forces them to be more observers due to the watchers should decode the information presented through the visual images that will be compared with the ones reported by the partner who read script.

Example:


10-The students should narrate and describes a fragment of a video which contains lots of actions without any sound.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=55TdqC9Luck (Climate change)

Description: It is a game in which the teacher should select a fragment of the video which contains lots of action but without any sound, so students while watching it should narrate and describe the events being creative. It means that they should use as many adjectives as they can. The teacher will select a team of students (who will be the advanced ones) and they should select the winners or the winner, who will be the student who describes and narrates the events committing few or any mistakes and using a huge variety of adjectives.

Objectives: The idea of this activity is to develop in the students the speaking skill and the ability to describe using different adjectives according to what is happening in the video sequence selected by the teacher. It also contributes to expand the lexical items in the students due to they should find out the most appropriate words in order to narrate the events.