Off-Air Video for High School English Classes: Some Considerations.

Students in Taiwan are required to learn English, and schools are placing even more emphasis on listening and speaking skills. At the same time, English-language programming is widely available in Taiwan via cable television. Cable television is a useful instructional tool for teachers of English as a Second Language. This source of authentic English can be brought into the classroom and used as a teaching resource, and students can be taught how to use it effectively for self-study. High school students can be given a transcript of the video and then use the transcript to practice intonation and pronunciation, to study the grammar and vocabulary of commonly spoken English, and to act out selected scenes. Advice is given regarding how to choose an appropriate program, one that is both entertaining and useful for the purpose of language instruction. Possible activities are also suggested, such as asking students to guess who said what; practicing the proper intonation; discerning the emotion of the characters; completing dialogues; answering comprehension questions; and comparing cultures. Video programming provides an excellent tool for moving students from the artificially slow and clear English of teaching materials to the authentic English used by native English speakers. (KFT)