S8E8: Using TV Shows in the Language Classroom

Teacher Samvidha Srinath talks about using clips from popular TV shows in her classes, the benefits it brings to her teenage learners, and how she uses the material in class.

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Key talking points

Advantages of Using Authentic Media:

Samvidha explains how using clips from films and TV shows in the classroom motivates and engages students. Authentic material also exposes students to the target language and various topics covered in the media. Examples from Samvidha's classes, including the TV show "Young Sheldon," illustrate the effectiveness of using relevant media.

Selecting Appropriate Material:

Samvidha shares her top priorities when choosing media for language classes, emphasising cultural appropriateness and relevance to students, and matching the material to students' language proficiency levels.

Implementation Strategies:

Differentiated materials and support are essential for addressing the diverse needs of learners in the classroom.

Long-term media use (2 to 4 months or a school semester) allows for deeper engagement and language production from students.

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About Samvidha

Samvidha is currently training to become a teacher at secondary school level and specialises in teaching languages. She not only loves teaching, but is also a passionate language learner herself. She is fluent in five languages and is learning Korean and Japanese. 

Apart from this, Samvidha is also a writer and blogger. She runs her own blog called books and coffee (BOCO for short) where she writes about language learning, education and everything else she’s passionate about.

To learn more about Samvidha's work, visit her blog space.

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Watch the video with closed captions or refer to the transcript below.

Transcript

00:00:00:11 - 00:00:25:06

Laura

TESOL Pop Season eight Episode eight Hello and welcome to TESOL Pop, the mini podcast for busy teachers. My name is Laura and joining me today to talk about using authentic media in the language classroom is Samvidha Srinath. Samvidha is training to become a secondary school teacher who specialises in teaching languages. She's not only a teacher of languages, but also a passionate language learner herself.

00:00:25:08 - 00:00:42:07

Laura

In today's episode, she's going to share how she uses clips from films and TV shows to motivate and support learning within the teenage classroom. Let's jump to where I ask somebody about the advantages of using such modern media in the classroom setting.

00:00:42:09 - 00:01:12:04

Samvidha

When the students hear that, you know that they're going to be watching a show on Netflix in class, they're going to be so excited. So it really acts as a motivator for them. And you as a teacher can work with them motivation and also try to push the students to the limits because they're all they're so motivated. Yeah, that's point number one.

00:01:12:04 - 00:01:48:09

Samvidha

Point number two is you can use authentic material to with any kind of student. For example, I teach teenagers. So you can imagine the level of excitement that teenagers would show and it's it's pretty much the same thing with adults. So, for example, an adult or someone who was working 9 to 5 might also have to learn English, and then they would just walk into the classroom and find themselves again doing a boring grammar lesson.

00:01:48:11 - 00:02:30:15

Samvidha

So this kind of thing really opens up their minds to new experiences and it exposes them to the target language. Apart from this, this teacher can present different topics that the show talks about. For example, if your for example, if you're using slides, a slide, you can just take everyday situations, maybe do a role play, maybe do a question and answer an interview or something like that, or maybe just ask the question I asked the students the question, like, what would you do in the situation or to whom or to which character do you relate to the most?

00:02:30:17 - 00:02:44:12

Laura

This is brilliant! I'm really excited now to unpack a few examples so listeners can try out some of these clips with their own learners. Would you mind sharing an example from one of your classes with your teenage students, the material you've used and yeah, how it worked.

00:02:44:14 - 00:03:15:02

Samvidha

Of course, of course. So the TV show I've watched with my students was called Young Sheldon. And just to give a context, young Sheldon is actually a spinoff of Big Bang Theory. But young Sheldon is about a nine year old boy who's practically a genius, and he's so interested in physics that he can't stop talking about it. So his primary school teachers got fed up of him, and they just said, okay, you know what?

00:03:15:02 - 00:03:48:19

Samvidha

This go to high school. You can just survive there. And that's the story. He annoys the mind of all of his teachers. He corrects them in class, which embarrasses the teachers so much. And he tries to make friends, but all of them are beyond the age group. So this is exactly why I chose young Sheldon. First off, it is based in high school, so it is closely tied in with the students lives and interests.

00:03:48:21 - 00:04:19:19

Samvidha

And secondly, the students are actually exposed to the type of language, as we just said. So a pre listening exercise would usually be to predict what the students can see on screen. For example, I would take a screenshot of the scene from the clip that they're going to watch and then they would talk about it, or it would be a vocabulary exercise and they would get chunks of vocabulary so that they can actually deal with that first.

00:04:19:19 - 00:04:48:13

Samvidha

And they won't have much difficulty when they're trying to understand what they're watching later on. And in the while exercise, it's usually a regular listening comprehension where you just watch the video plus the click course, and then you just answer the questions based on what you're watching. And the post exercise is usually a question where you actually reflect on what you've watched.

00:04:48:15 - 00:05:12:17

Samvidha

The questions can be, for example, what did you like about this clip or what did you find interesting? Talk about it with your peers, with your partner. And one question was actually which to whom can you relate the most or to which character you relate to the most? Because in a family setting, you are kind of like the sandwich

00:05:13:12 - 00:05:29:20

Samvidha

child and you're also treated differently. You're also being protected. So yeah, those kind of aspects really flow into the lesson and students can really think about and share their opinions and thoughts in English.

00:05:29:22 - 00:05:41:21

Laura

There are a lot of things you have to keep in mind when we're selecting materials for our classes, particularly authentic material. Could you share what your top priorities are when you're choosing a media clip for your students?

00:05:41:23 - 00:06:15:05

Samvidha

I have tried my best to narrow it down to my top three, which are briefly said: appropriately accordance with the lesson plan and the students interests and needs. So if I were to explain it a little bit appropriately, I mean, the use of language, there's genre. For example, I can't use a show that uses a lot of foul language or uses incorrect or inappropriate language.

00:06:15:07 - 00:06:46:17

Samvidha

I have to look at where my students come from. So that's the show is also culturally appropriate. So are there any stereotypes or something like that? So cultural appropriation is really important. Students can be really sensitive when it comes to using incorrect language or foul language, or if they feel like their culture is not respected or even insulted.

00:06:46:19 - 00:07:20:24

Samvidha

So that's a very important point to consider. And how relevant is the show for the students and how much can they take away from this? For example, young Sheldon, he was a perfect example of a boy attending high school when dealing with everyday situations. So that was really good relevance wise. But if you're choosing to use a fantasy show or any other show with a different genre, then you have to keep in mind, okay, are the students really interested in this?

00:07:21:01 - 00:07:46:15

Samvidha

And so some genres have a set of vocabulary, so you need to be able to kind of define that and try to get around it. So you have to really choose a genre that is appropriate for the students. And yeah, I think what I just said kind of leans into the last point of prophecy, which is the level of difficulty.

00:07:46:17 - 00:08:13:09

Samvidha

So you have to consider where your students are at the moment. If the students can go really fast. But the slowest students in your class can also be really slow. So you have to kind of find the middle ground and try to differentiate from there. So what can I do for the more advanced students? What, instead of giving them more material, how can I have them engage with the material that I have at the moment?

00:08:13:11 - 00:08:42:15

Samvidha

And the same goes for the lower, lower level students. How can I make the lesson in a way? Or how can I create the lesson in a way that is easy for them to understand and easy for them to follow so that they do not fall behind each school or each institution. Wherever you're teaching will have a curriculum that you need to follow.

00:08:42:15 - 00:09:13:19

Samvidha

So the curriculum is basically, as you note, a set of guidelines. The place where I'm teaching at the moment is actually government school. So you have a set of objectives and you have to see where your show fit. And so that's again the topic of relevance. And you have to really ask yourself the question whether the show meets the objectives or will lead to the students meeting the objectives of the curriculum.

00:09:13:21 - 00:09:41:04

Samvidha

And finally, this would actually be the most important point. What are the students needs and what are the student's interests? You could choose as, let's say, a nature documentary about whales or nature that the students are just about to doze off. So keeping that in mind, do not choose the documentary. Do not choose a horror show that might scare them off their seats.

00:09:41:10 - 00:10:09:16

Samvidha

So you have both extremes. Try to keep it in the middle. I know you have your own personal interests that you want to bring across, but you have to keep your students in mind and that this point really applies to me as well. Furthermore, it is also really important to consider. Consider what kind of support students need, like how well can they understand materials.

00:10:09:18 - 00:10:21:16

Samvidha

You have to think about that and think about what kind of resources, additional resources on material or support I can provide as a teacher. Yeah.

00:10:21:18 - 00:10:36:21

Laura

And like you say, that could be differentiated materials because whenever you have a class, you will have some people that are particularly strong in their listening, but others that may struggle with it. So really thinking about what barriers may my learners encounter and how can I remove them.

00:10:36:21 - 00:11:11:05

Samvidha

Exactly. Yes. So using authentic material is actually really great because you are not only using audio, especially when it comes to video clips and shows, you're also using video, which means that you're using images and things are moving around and you can actually interpret the situation a bit easier. So sometimes instead of actually listening, you can just rely on the video to help you understand the things that you're watching at the moment.

00:11:11:07 - 00:11:41:01

Samvidha

And this and this is one final point that I would mention. I would like to mention that, and I find it's really important to consider if you're choosing the show, then think about how long you want to use it. If you're just using it for one lesson, then it's not going to be worth it because the students are not going to be able to take away some things and you might have to just leave things in half and not complete them.

00:11:41:03 - 00:12:11:07

Samvidha

So you might want to think about taking such a show and talking about it and teaching it long term. So I would say 2 to 4 months or even an entire school semester is a great way and this way you're going to get your students to produce more, be more active in class, and also to they're really going to get exposed to the language and really look forward to coming to your English class.

00:12:11:07 - 00:12:20:14

Laura

Samvidha, t's been lovely talking to you today. I feel really inspired to explore Young Sheldon as a show and think about how I can use it with my students. Thank you so much for sharing your tips today.

00:12:20:16 - 00:12:22:17

Samvidha

Thank you so much, Laura, for having me.

00:12:22:18 - 00:12:42:14

Laura

To learn more about Samvidha’s work, you can follow her on Instagram or visit her website, books and coffee.me As always, I've included those links in the show notes so you can access those easily. And just so you know, if you want to learn one of the many languages that Samvidha speaks such as English, German or French, then you can sign up to take classes with her.

00:12:42:16 - 00:13:03:24

Laura

If you have a question you'd like us to answer, we have a topic to pitch for TESOL Pop Then you can contact us via Facebook, Instagram or the website here. Finally can support the work we do at TESOL Pop by leaving a rating and review wherever you listen to the podcast by sharing today's episode with your community or by even buying a coffee at ko-fi.com/tesolpop

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