5.1.2 Students and lecturers'
perceptions of the use of TV in English teaching and
learning.
Regarding views and attitudes towards the use of TV in English
teaching and learning at the NUR, the findings indicate that the students'
views overlap with the lecturers'. The informants' responses emerged in line
with subsidiary research questions 2, 3 and 4 as stated in Section 1.3.
Firstly, the data indicates that in relation to Question 9 (i.e. Has your
lecturer ever used TV while teaching you?) there are two groups of students:
those who had an opportunity to be exposed to TV in English class (i.e. 8/30)
and those who did not (i.e. 22/30). Secondly, from students' and lecturers'
responses a number of sub-themes emerged. The main ones are: attributes of TV
materials and exploitation of TV materials in English class.
5.1.2.1. Attributes of TV materials
Concerning the attributes of TV materials, both students and
lecturers' views stressed that these materials reflect the following issues:
exposure to authentic language and English culture, exposure to a variety of
accents and different registers, non-verbal communication or paralinguistic
features and models of language structures and English pronunciation.
As far as exploiting the TV materials in English class is
concerned, my informants emphasised the following: selection of adequate
instructional materials and judicious use of TV, developing listening skills
through summarising and setting comprehension questions and developing speaking
skills through language tasks/activities, group discussions, debates and
role-plays.
On the whole, TV materials have the primary quality of
providing authentic English and once students are given chance to watch TV they
can be exposed to the cultural use of the language. Besides, the learners have
opportunity to distinguish between various accents of English. They are also
exposed to a variety of registers and models of presentation typical to
real-life English use. TV materials offer an advantage of associating sounds
and images, gestures, facial expressions (i.e. body language/non-verbal
language) in the process of listening comprehension. Furthermore, English used
on TV can help learners to improve their English structures, expressions,
idioms and their pronunciation as well. The students stated that the TV
materials can also help them to practise certain pronunciation features they
had learnt in class theoretically.
5.1.2.2. Exploitation of TV materials in English class
With regard to how TV materials can be exploited in the
English class for the benefit of second year students, the latter frequently
referred to the kinds of activities they carried out in class which helped them
to improve their listening and speaking skills. These are summarising
newscasts, answers to questions set before watching given TV programmes,
debates, group discussions on topics raised on a TV programme, etc. Though
these activities could be applied to any English class, the students
acknowledged that they were helpful. Lecturers also stressed that these
activities need to be properly planned if they are to enhance the English
proficiency of EFL/ESL students. Such activities as previewing, while viewing
and post viewing activities have also attracted the lecturers' attention as
conducive to the promotion of students' language skills. Lecturers also
support careful lesson planning and selection of appropriate television
materials for English classes. Here, lecturers underlined selecting materials
that suit their level. Another point worth considering is the students' views
on the value they attach to live TV materials, as opposed to off-air materials
like video recordings. In general, the students (20/30, that is 66.6%)
preferred live materials for they believed that they provide up-to-date input,
and are regular to cover a variety of topics.
| 
