Using Multimedia in the Foreign Language Classroom | Page 43

as the students may lack the language which is appropriate for that purpose. Tomalin
(1990: 12-14) suggests using freeze frame with the following activities:
What did he/ she say?
The video is paused after a phrase and the learners are asked to practise and
repeat the phrase as it is used in the video
Where are they?
The picture is frozen at a point showing a well-known landmark or striking
background. The teacher asks the learners to identify the location. The activity can
elicit a huge relevant vocabulary.
video wall chart
This is a whole class activity. The teacher freezes the frame and asks the
learners to describe in detail what they see in the picture; alternatively, the picture can
be used to introduce new items of vocabulary.
What's next?
This activity is based on prediction. During a conversation the teacher can
freeze the frame after an utterance by one character and before a response by another
character, in order to ask students to predict the reply. Alternatively, if the picture is
paused at a dramatic moment the class can predict what happens next.
3.3 Roleplay
Tomalin (1990: 14) refers to role play and acting out as the two of the most
lively and successful ways of using the new language learnt through a video. Acting is
less demanding, as students reproduce the actual words which the characters utter.
Although such a reproduction sounds behaviouristic, students benefit from the need to
copy not only the linguistic part but also the paralinguistic features which are often
culture specific. As far as role play is concerned, this is more demanding, as students
are required to feel like real characters and to use their own active vocabulary to
express themselves. In this case the activity can require from students to watch a
video scene and then improvise what will happen next. Using the language for real
life purposes, and being able to transfer it to other situations is considered a valuable
tool for the development of fluency and confidence in speaking a foreign language
Filming the scene for students to watch it afterwards is a good follow up activity
which gives students the chance to compare the actual video to their acting and adjust

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