AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
When choosing the language and speech material to design
content for online and independent work, we paid attention to
the age and cognitive needs of the student community. Besides,
we tried to choose the material that would meet students’ needs
and would not cause them psychological overload, because the
vast majority of material during the quarantine students were
doing independently. That is why the language material has been
selected on a popular platform YouTube. It is immanent nature
of video content that facilitates immersion in a foreign language
space due to the presence of not only linguistic but also iconic
text, which helps to deepen in the material, interests and
simplifies perception based on both video and background
knowledge.
It is worth noting that students perceive YouTube as a rather
interesting, popular, and easy online platform to learn material
that is better than a classic textbook or manual for learning a
foreign language for professional purposes. Moreover, the
system of pre- and after- watching task helps to master lexical
set phrases in a game form, to promote the development of
receptive skills and to polish professional skills.
Tasks for the development of productive skills were designed in
the form of workouts conducted by students via the Zoom
platform (https://zoom.us/). In addition to the development of
professional speech skills in English, students participated in
workouts with pleasure, because they performed them together,
which was useful to maintain physical shape and psychological
state during the quarantine.
A. Negoescu and S.
Boştină-Bratu argue that “the video can be a
valuable resource within the foreign language class, but only the
teacher can harness this resource to design a highly stimulating
video-based lesson”. (21)
That’s why we have chosen the Lumowell channel
(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8OzKcoZSKGJIFgHJJps
URA), a video course on the YouTube platform with more than
730,000 subscribers that deals with fitness workouts (Fig.1). A
feature of the channel is the use of cartoon images, which help
students to focus on lexical and professional material and not on
the appearance of a real personal trainer. We have also taken into
account the sound quality and timing of videos, thematic range,
as well as the availability and adequacy of recommendations that
one can use during internships in hospitals and rehabilitation
centres.
Figure 1: Screenshot. The Lumowell channel, YouTube
The design of tasks with ICTs was based on the classic
communicative approach for the presentation of the material, as
follows presentation – practice – production (P – P – P).
Presentation. The first stage was designed for independent
introduction to new professional lexical units via video content
from YouTube and a free online educational platform Quizlet
(https://quizlet.com). We will highlight this process on the
example of a video “7 minute workout to lose weight fast, burn
fat and tone your body”, from the Lumowell channel.
Thus, firstly, students got the link for the video
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8cexmYOknI), see Fig. 2,
watched it very carefully for 8 minutes 25 seconds.
Figure 2: Screenshot. A video “7 minute workout to lose weight
fast, burn fat and tone your body”, The Lumowell channel,
YouTube
Secondly, they were completing all the tasks on Quizlet, using
links that were given to them by the teachers. There were two
parts of the tasks. The first one was dedicated to the names of
exercises and their definitions (Fig. 3a and 3b) and the second
one – to the names of exercises and their Ukrainian translations
(Fig. 4a and 4b).
Figure 3a:
Screenshot. Flashcards.
Side 1. An example of a name of an exercise
Figure 3b:
Screenshot. Flashcards.
Side 2. An example of a definition with pictures
Figure 4a:
Screenshot. Flashcards.
Side 1. An example of a name of an exercise
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