Using Videos as a Motivational Factor in Enhancing English as Foreign Language Students’ Communicative Skills

Abstract

The advancement of technology creates a central debate about the strategies and tools that should be used and followed by the EFL teachers in order to motivate and enhance their learners’ communicative skills and whose life style depends greatly on new technologies. Therefore, this research has been carried out to probe the importance of videos as a fashionable tool in motivating learners. Along this study, we have been concerned with the nature and the role of motivation in the learning process. We tried to check the effectiveness of integrating videos as a facilitative and helpful device in enhancing EFL learners’ communicative skills, especially speaking. Then, we have presented and discussed the communicative skills according to the most common teaching methodologies with a priority to Communicative Language Teaching. In an attempt to investigate these facts, a descriptive study has been undertaken. It was based on the analysis of data gathered from questionnaires addressed to second year secondary school students in Othmen Ibn Affan high school and to teachers of English at the same school plus others in El-Makarri high school. The questionnaires explored both teacher’s and students' perception about the usefulness of videos as an effective technique for motivating learners and enhancing their communicative skills. An immediate classroom observation has been used, too, for further data collection. The results revealed the learners’ satisfaction about their experience of learning with videos since they got easily motivated and perceived their communicative skills enhanced. From their part, teachers consolidated their learners’ and agreed on the advantages of teaching with videos. We hope that this research would give an accurate description of the video actual use within Algerian secondary schools and will be helpful for raising teachers' awareness about its importance and efficiency.