August 2016
ARTICLES
UTILIZING AUTHENTIC VIDEO IN PREPARING FOR GENERAL EDUCATION COURSES: A PROJECT IN PROCESS
Erin Kuester, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA

Currently teaching in an intensive English program (IEP) at a large, public state university, I regularly hear complaints from faculty teaching general education classes that English as a second language (ESL) students who have matriculated into their classes are struggling through the lectures. Therefore, I wondered, as ESL teachers how can we better prepare nonnative speakers for listening and participating in academic lectures and consequently improve their academic experiences after they leave our classes. To address this issue, I am currently working on creating a video database of recorded lectures at the University of Iowa to be used in higher level listening classes to help learners prepare for their academic listening loads. This article details my project and offers tips for implementing a similar project within your own department.

Struggles With Listening

Academic listening is especially difficult for nonnative speakers of English for several reasons, including the noninteractive nature of the academic lecture, specialized vocabulary, speed of delivery, and lecture organization (Huang, 2005). Matriculated students also have difficulties with classroom culture (including both explicit and implicit cultural expectations). Instructors of general education courses may also assume a certain level of background knowledge or personal, culture-related experiences that international students simply do not have.

How Do We Currently Teach ESL Listening?

In general, IEP students appreciate a multimedia approach to learning listening. Consequently, using multimedia would appear to be an effective way to teach listening. In the classroom, a multimedia approach to listening not only improves this skill, but it can also help students enhance their vocabulary (Wenhua, 2014) and encourage students to think creatively (Ananyeva, 2014).

So what are the ways academic ESL teachers currently teach listening, and how effective are they at preparing ESL students for general education courses?

Textbooks

Most instructors use textbooks to teach academic listening. However, ESL textbooks are skill-based, while target native-language textbooks are content based. Additionally, the listenings and lectures included in ESL textbooks tend to be short—these listenings are sprints, while academic lectures are marathons. If we acknowledge this mismatch, we have the opportunity to improve language instruction.

Podcasts

The most beneficial aspect of podcasts is that they are about the same length as an academic lecture (depending on the podcast). There is a variety of topics available through podcasts. While podcasts can help with vocabulary and speed of delivery, they can be paused and relistened to, unlike an actual academic lecture.

TED Talks and YouTube Videos

Many listening teachers utilize TED videos, which are interesting and informative, for the classroom. They promote critical thinking, generate discussion, and can be used to teach presentation skills (Donovan, 2014). However, TED Talks are completely unlike an academic lecture—they’re funny, captivating, and entertaining. A Chemistry 101 lecture is not likely to be as exciting.

Most listening instructors have used a YouTube video in the classroom. They’re short, easily available, and enjoyable. However, it takes ESL teachers a lot of time to sift through all the videos on YouTube to find just the right one.

All of these materials have their purposes in the classroom; all are helpful for students practicing listening skills. However, they are not always successful in preparing nonnative speakers for academic lectures. None of these materials address lecture organization or classroom culture; they also tend to be entertaining. Furthermore, these materials can be controlled by the instructor—number of times played, speed, pausing, and so on. They are usually bookended by prelistening activities and postlistening activities generally not present in an academic lecture.

The Project (Thus Far)

The purpose of my project is to create a database of general education lectures from the University of Iowa. These videos will be accessed solely by the university’s three different ESL programs for educational purposes. In an informal survey of participants in this project, teachers indicated that matriculated ESL students struggle more than their native-English-speaking counterparts with the lecture format, critical thinking, analysis, and application of materials. Instructors will be able to use this video database to help better prepare learners for general education courses.

The benefits of creating this video database are threefold. ESL lecturers will have access to a database of readily available materials. They may also use the database as a source of secure materials for assessment. Because the videos will only be used within the department, there is no chance that students will have already seen the material (unlike with Internet sources).

For ESL students, the main benefit is being able to practice extended listening in a low-stakes environment before being thrown into the sink-or-swim atmosphere of academic classes. They get a chance to figure out what listening, note-taking, and participation strategies work for them before their grade depends on it. They also may feel a connection to the greater university community—if they see actual University of Iowa professors teaching in classrooms located on campus, students may be more able to visualize themselves taking those classes.

General education lecturers will also benefit from the video database project. Their incoming nonnative speakers of English will be better equipped to handle lectures, ensuring greater academic success.

Collection and Current Progress

The project was proposed in the spring of 2015. In the fall of 2015, I sent out approximately 60 emails asking general education lecturers if they would be interested in participating. Of those who responded, I followed up with additional emails at the beginning of the spring 2016 semester confirming participation. I also sent an additional 20 emails to search for more participants. I started recording in Spring 2016.

Out of the approximately 20 replies, I confirmed 11 lecturers willing to participate (and many allowed me to film more than one class). So far, 12 full-length lectures have been recorded and include courses such as Social Problems, Human Impacts on the Environment, International Relations, Food in America, Media Uses and Effects, Ancient Sports and Leisure, Fundamentals of Public Health, and Introduction to Macroeconomics. So far, all professors have been very accommodating and excited to participate.

Setbacks and Solutions

If you are interested in attempting a similar project in your own department, there are some potential problems to consider.

  • Time: The beginning of the semester has the most accessible information in any academic course, but this is also the busiest time of the year for ESL programs. Additionally, for ESL instructors with full course loads, there may be only small windows throughout the day in which to film.
  • Interest of lecturers: Out of about 80 lecturers I contacted, I received around 20 responses, and 11 participants.
  • Privacy Issues: Be sure to check your institution’s privacy policy with regards to filming student presentations or discussion groups.

To solve the problem of time, I hired an undergrad work-study student to film the lectures. Hiring a work-study student is especially beneficial because our department does not pay them—they are paid through a financial aid grant.

I created an online Excel spreadsheet that included the student’s class schedule and the classes to be recorded. As lecturers confirmed their participation, I filled in the filming schedule with the class title, location, and time. I also scheduled specific times for the student to stop by the ESL offices to pick up and drop off the equipment. So far, this has been satisfactory.

To secure enough participants for the project to be successful, you may need to send out many invitations in order to record sufficient materials.

Always ensure that you are properly following your institution's guidelines regarding student privacy.

Future Plans

I would ultimately like to create a test bank of lectures that the higher level ESL listening classes can use for midterm and final exams. However, I do not have nearly enough videos to do this. Taking into consideration the different classes and a video rotation schedule, I’ve determined that we would need at least 24 videos in the testing bank. This may not be possible due to low lecturer interest. However, I plan to continue filming throughout the summer and fall of 2016.

Additionally, I would like to use the videos I’ve collected to create content modules for the higher level ESL courses. These modules would include not only listening to the lecture, but would also integrate reading, writing, and communicative tasks. Each module would contain a content-based lesson similar to what students experience in academic classes. In order to do this, I would like to survey the participating lecturers about supplementary materials they use with their lectures. For example: What readings are students required to do before the lecture? What homework assignments are they expected to complete after the lecture? It would be especially helpful if participating lecturers either shared already existing homework assignments or assisted in creating similar assignments for the ESL content module, or came to the class as a guest lecturer.

Conclusion

Although this is still a work in progress, the positive implications of such a project should be obvious. The main goal is the academic success of our ESL students, and the authenticity of actual lectures from the university they are attending. As can be seen, though, the project doesn’t just benefit the students but also the ESL and general education lecturers, creating a positive collaborative environment all around. Therefore, I encourage you to use (or adapt) my project for use in your own department.

References

Ananyeva, M. (2014). “Blogfolios” and their role in the development of research projects in an advanced academic literacy class for ESL students. Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 58(5), 22–26.

Donovan, J. (2014). How to deliver a TED talk. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education.

Huang, J. (2005). Challenges of academic listening in English: Reports by Chinese students. College Student Journal,39(3), 553–569.

Miller, D. (2011). ESL reading textbooks vs. university textbooks: Are we giving our students the input they may need? Journal Of English For Academic Purposes,10(1), 32–46.

Wenhua, H. (2014). The effects of audiovisual support on EFL learners’ productive vocabulary. Recall, 26(1), 62–79.


Erin Kuester is currently a lecturer in the Iowa Intensive English Program at the University of Iowa, where she also coordinates a campus conversation program and serves on a university-wide women’s council. Her main research interests are international student and community integration, teacher materials creation, and project-based learning. She holds an MA in applied linguistics from Ohio University.