Sarah Lynn
In adult education today, we need to teach English and foster transition skills so our students can be successful in their work and post-secondary studies. Our students need to be able communicate on diverse teams, think creatively and flexibly about a variety of situations, and think critically to solve problems in work and academic settings.
How can we teach English and also develop these essential transition skills? A technique I’ve found to be effective is using video vignettes in the classroom. You can exploit a short (1-2 minute) video vignette of a social or workplace encounter for many levels of learning and skill development.
The Key to Using Video Vignettes: Multiple Viewings
Once you have chosen an appropriate video, you can show the video multiple times for different outcomes. Each time, focus on a particular aspect of the video and follow the viewing with classroom activities to develop students’ language and critical thinking skills.
1. Focus on Content 
Develop these skills: comprehending language in context; summarizing; reporting information; and evaluating information.
Classroom activities:
- Answer comprehension questions, wh-questions, and true/false statements based on the video content.
- Listen for details to identify who says what or complete closes.
- Create activities around disappearing dialogs, retelling the information in the conversation, and reenacting or reconstructing the conversation.
2. Focus on Language 
Develop these skills: grammar, vocabulary, intonation, and pronunciation.
Classroom activities:
- Identify the language point (listen for it or highlight it in the video script).
- Practice the language point (with cloze activities; substitution drills; pair read-alouds; dictations; audio-recording of student work).
- Apply the language point to new contexts (practice new conversations using conversation frameworks and using language point in discussions).
3. Focus on Pragmatics 
Develop these skills: making inferences; analyzing language usage; supporting generalizations with evidence; identifying conflict; and solving problems
Classroom activities:
- Listen for or highlight language in the video script.
- Generate and practice alternative language to accomplish same purpose.
- Perform role plays and problem solving scenarios.
4. Focus on Social Communication: 
Develop these skills: recognizing and using body language, register, and conversation cues to effectively communicate
Classroom activities:
- Perform and video-record role-plays.
- Analyze student videos for social communication.
- Write conversation exchanges.
- Apply similar communication styles to other contexts.
5. Focus on Culture: 
Develop these skills: recognizing workplace and social expectations and standards; making evidence-based generalizations using details; identifying cultural values and assumptions; and communicating on diverse teams
Classroom activities:
- Do Quick Writes to uncover cultural assumptions.
- Analyze language in video to support generalizations.
- Write formal paragraphs supporting a claim with evidence.
- Explain values in oral or poster-board presentations.
- Perform role plays and problem solving scenarios.
