Using DVDs with Primary Learners
Jo Bertrand

Introduction
Authentic cartoons, children’s programmes and films are challenging but extremely rewarding. They provide learners with up-to-date cultural references that they don’t necessarily get from course books. Using authentic materials doesn’t either always imply a higher level of difficulty for your students. You can grade the difficulty of the material by the actual task you ask them to perform.

Reasons for using DVDs

• They provide a change of pace
• They motivate and grab learners’ attention
• They provide them with new, authentic language
• They can provoke language production
• They provide a fun, visual stimulus
• They add an extra dimension to your teaching
• They aid understanding by providing visual clues to the meaning of words

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General tips

• Use short extracts (30 seconds to 2 minutes)
• Use scenes with clear visual action
• Use films which have books too - this gives you more scope for extra activities in class
• Adapt the task type to the level of the learners
• Always give learners something to do before they watch, while they’re watching and after they’ve watched

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What you can do with a DVD

1. Show a short sequence of a scene
   - Pupils have to mime to their partner what they see.
   
   
2. Type up a few sentences
   - They need to listen and order the sentences or listen and recognize the sentences (clap hands when they hear them).
   
   
3. Show a freeze frame
   - Ask what they can see.
   - Ask if the camera was facing the other way what could we see?
   
   
4. Play a 60 second scene with the screen covered up
   - They have to listen and decide how many different voices they can hear.
   - They have to listen for different sound effects such as birds singing, cars, planes, coughing, clapping hands etc. - They can draw or write what they hear in any order. They should then sequence the sounds and listen again.
   
   
5. Show flashcards (these could be your own drawings) taken from the scene
   - They have to sequence them
   
   
6. DVD Kim’s game
   - They have to brainstorm everything they can see in the freeze frame. Then you take a small piece of paper and cover up an object. Learners can come and place the paper themselves.
   
   
7. How does it end?
   - Show them a two minute section of a short film or cartoon and they decide how it ends or what happened at the beginning of the story. You can use this to practise structures such as past simple or future ‘will’.

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Things to look out for

Strong, difficult to understand accents
Even some of the most popular children’s programmes such as Fireman Sam have fairly thick accents which may be difficult to understand. Still use them but make the task achievable.

Inappropriate language

Inaccessible language
Even though authentic is good, if none of the language is age appropriate then even the simplest of tasks won’t be beneficial to the learners.

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Recommended scenes from films

Nanny McFee
The scene in the father’s office when his suitor comes for tea and the children try to sabotage the relationship is great for prepositions of place. The frog is in a cup, the spider is on her head… You can also download the trailer which has lots of potential for your English classroom. http://www.nannymcphee.com/

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The scene towards the beginning of the film with Augustus Gloop and the chocolate river is great for exploiting descriptions and encouraging learners to use their imagination.

The Lion King
The song ‘I just can’t wait to be king’ is a fantastic way to elicit lots of names of animals and to get the children to actually learn and sing the song as well. You can build in actions too. To lead on from this you could personalise the language and they decide on one thing they ‘can’t wait to be or do’ when they’re older.

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Recommended cartoons

• Bob the Builder: Great for practising ‘Can we / can I?’ ‘Yes you can, No you can’t.’
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar: A classic storybook which has a beautiful DVD to go with it.
• Charlie and Lola: Very up-to-date and deals with situations that young learners can absolutely relate to such as, feeling unwell, not wanting to eat their food, having the school photo, going to the library, wobbly teeth... If you go the website you can watch short clips and watch songs about dancing, saxophone playing chickens.

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Recommended on-line videos

Cbeebies Jackanory Junior
If you don’t have access to storybooks such as ‘The Room on the Broom’ and ‘The Gruffalo’ by Julia Donaldson you can see them on line read by different storytellers with animated pictures. Go to the website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/jackanory/stories/video.shtml

Cbeebies boogie dance – Dances from around the world
Each video is only one minute long and they use simple language such as ‘I like dancing’ and ‘I started when I was 6 years old’ etc. There is one ‘did you know’ question to accompany each video extract and extracts include dances from Ireland, Scotland, and the US. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/boogiebeebies/world/

Cbeebies boogie dance
Here you have funky music videos that the children can sing and dance to. There’s a salsa dance about the weather that primary learners will enjoy. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/boogiebeebies

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