Views and perceptions of the use of text and video in English teaching

Abstract: This essay investigates how students studying at upper secondary level perceive the use of text and video as teaching aids as part of their English studies. Students that came from both vocational and preparatory programs completed an online survey and seven of them subsequently took part in interviews. Both the survey and the interviews show that a large majority of students would like much more video based teaching material as part of their English courses - some would even prefer all the course material to be video based. The results also show that even though the students want more video, opinion is divided when it comes to how much, and in what way video is best used or incorporated into English teaching. Many of the students that asked for more video said that they found it difficult to read and to understand longer texts, furthermore they found texts to be boring. They pointed out that video was more interesting and motivating. Video was generally seen as being the preferred choice when it came to authentic language, help with pronunciation and access to the culture of different English speaking countries. Text, on the other hand, was seen to provide a much richer and more detailed information which was especially helpful when it came to spelling and grammar. It was also clear that the preference for video was greater among the students from the vocational classes. There was also a general agreement that, although video is used as a teaching aid, it is more usually used by their teachers as a time filler or reward. Finally, even if learning English continues to be based on text and course books, there is a broad consensus among the students that more video should be used, as it is seen as a valuable and an effective complement to traditional text based material.