CONSTRUCTION OF 56 INSTRUCTIONAL TV PROGRAMMES FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN TURKEY Jack Koumi, Educational Media Production Training, UK Abstract During 30 months in 2010-2013, 56 Instructional TV programmes for an English Language Learning course were scripted in the UK and produced in Turkey. Each TV programme has three drama clips, each one followed by a review of key phrases, then by a section inviting viewers to practice speaking those phrases. The rationale for this structure and for individual techniques within it accords with a comprehensive set of design principles for educational video. These principles are recommended for teaching institutions that produce video for use in their English Language teaching. In addition the principles would serve as useful criteria for teachers of English who choose off the shelf videos to use in their English Language lessons – indeed most of the principles apply to any lesson plan, whether or not it includes the use of video. Keywords: pedagogic design of instructional TV, TV for English language learning, English usage in drama clips, pedagogic design principles for any language lesson plan. Introduction For 30 months, November 2010 to May 2013, several groups of teachers collaborated to construct a series of 56 Instructional TV programmes on English Language for Turkish learners. The series accompanies Levels 1 to 3 of the Touchstone Self-study Edition pack (McCarthy, McCarten and Sandiford, 2011). The materials and the TV series for Levels 1 and 2 are studied over one semester each, 14 TV per semester1. Level 3 is studied at half speed (two weeks per Touchstone Unit) over the third and fourth semesters – TV Series 3 and 4 respectively. The Touchstone Levels cover the levels of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) as follows.  Level 1: CEFR level A1  Level 2: completes CEFR level A1, enters A2  Level 3: completes CEFR level A2 and commences B1 proficiency The first cohort of students completed the final semester in June 2013. At the same time, the second cohort was half-way through the course, having completed Levels 1 and 2. The TV programmes were scripted in the UK and produced in Turkey. Cambridge University Press had delivered the Touchstone self-study materials (Print and online course) to Anadolu University in Turkey (McCarthy et al, 2011). They also provided Anadolu with my services as a Production Consultant for the accompanying TV series. I liaised between Anadolu University (the TV Production Centre and the Languages School) and the UK (the staff in Cambridge and the scriptwriters, Sharp Focus Productions, in Oxford). In the UK we worked on several drafts of the scripts and adapted them for multi-camera studio production in Anadolu University. The Anadolu production team uploaded completed programmes to an Anadolu website, enabling UK personnel to send feedback and to suggest where to make cuts if programmes were over-length. Correspondence with Anadolu staff was occasionally challenging, involving: communication at a distance – using a second language, regarding a distance learning course – for learners of a second language The term Instructional in the paper’s title is used deliberately to distinguish the TV programmes from the general interest videos that are often used by classroom teachers as a resource (e.g. movies or documentary programmes in English). For example the teacher picks a short clip from a movie and then divides the class into pairs, with one group facing the TV and the other with their back to it. Then, after turning off the sound, the teacher begins playing the movie. The person who can see the screen tells the other person, in English, what is There are 12 Units in each Touchstone Level, matched by 12 TV programmes, but to aid study and match Anadolu’s 14week semester, we added an Introductory TV programme at the start of each Series and a Review programme at the end. 1 happening (Pollard and Hess, 1997). There are many other ways for teachers to use general interest video as a teaching/learning aide (Ferlazzo and Hull, 2012). In contrast, the instructional videos described in this paper are self-study teaching/learning videos, in which the presenters operate as teachers of English Language, who recap and explain the English usage in a series of dramas (Figure 1). The videos are part of a self-study teaching/learning package, the Touchstone Course, and the dramas are specially tailored to be source material for the Touchstone curriculum. Figure 1. Presenters sign off after explaining English usage in the drama clips. (Level 1 of the Course.) Specially tailored dramas for English language teaching TV is an established technique. They were employed in the BBC TV course, Follow Me in the late 1970s (BBC World Service, 2013). However, the Touchstone curriculum is up-to-date and comprehensive (McCarthy et al, 2011). The rationale behind the use of broadcast TV The 56 videos are distributed using TV for two main reasons.  Streaming from a website would not be feasible currently. Access to broadband is not high in Turkey, although rapidly improving. Turkey's National Broadband Vision study (2011) found that only 34% of Turkish homes had a broadband connection compared to the EU average of 61% in 2010.  People in Turkey who are not studying the course (not yet anyway) can also see the videos, as well as audiences in neighbouring Turkish speaking countries such as Azerbaijan, Northern Cyprus, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan. The structure of the TV programmes Each TV programme has the same structure, shown in Table 1. The main feature is that there are always three dramas, all subtitled in English. The duration of the dramas totals about 5 minutes on average, and these are repeated in section 14, making 10 minutes. So approximately half of each 20-minute programme is drama, while the other half helps viewers to learn the language in the drama clips, as follows. After each drama, the studio presenters give a Language Review. They speak in English when repeating the key phrases of each drama clip (Figure 2) and they explain the key phrases in Turkish. This is followed by a Language Practice section, inviting the viewers to practice those key phrases (Figure 3). Table 1. Format of each 20-min TV programme Section 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Description Opening Titles Intro, Story so far, Intro Drama #1 Drama #1 Language Review (key phrases) Language Practice Intro Drama #2 Drama #2 Language Review (key phrases) Language Practice Intro Drama #3 Drama #3 Language Review (key phrases) Language Practice Recap Dramas #1+ #2+ #3 Close and Trail Closing Credits Figure 2. Language Review section in Level 3: key phrases in yellow Figure 3. A Practice section in Level 2. Viewers are invited to practice key words and phrases The principles underpinning the design of the TV programmes The design of the programmes accords with the principles in Table 2, which is a précis of the design principles in Koumi (2006). These principles were developed to apply to instructional videos in any subject area, but here they will be discussed exclusively to the subject of learning English as a foreign language. Table 2. Pedagogic design principles for each chapter of the content 1. HOOK (capture attention & sustain interest) a. Shock / surprise / delight b. Fascinate, entertain, create suspense 5. SENSITISE a. Consistent style / format b. Acclimatise against potential distractions c. Music style & occurrence by design 2. SIGNPOST (information about what’s coming) a. Set the scene b. Signpost: what’s coming later c. Chapter Heading: what's next? d. Heads-up: what to listen out for) 6. ELUCIDATE a. Restrain image/audio density & pace b. Enhance legibility/audibility c. Maximise Cognitive Clarity 3. FACILITATE ATTENTIVE VIEWING (stimulate mindful viewing) a. Pose questions b. Encourage prediction 7. REINFORCE a. Repetition (with a different angle) b. Re-exemplify c. Compare / Contrast 4. ENABLE CONSTRUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE a. Do not obscure the Context b. Invent visual metaphors c. Pause for contemplation 8. CONSOLIDATE/ CONCLUDE a. Recapitulate b. Consolidate / Summarise key features c. Chapter Ending Most categories in Table 2 structure the learning experience for the learner. However, category 4 returns control to the learner; so does category 3 to some extent. This feature will be elaborated later. Several of the 23 principles in Table 2 are involved in the main sectional structure of the TV programmes shown in Table 1, while others underpin the individual techniques used within each section. Design principles (Table 2) behind the main sectional structure (Table 1) The fact that every programme has the same structure (Table 1), starting with the same music over the same opening title sequence, follows principle 5a, Consistent style / format. Students feel comfortable with the familiar structure, they recognise the transitions between sections, they feel at home, there are no surprises in the structure – hence they can concentrate on the content: they are sensitised to handle the content. Near the start of Section 2 of each TV programme, the presenters signpost the key language points that will be covered. Figure 4 contains the script from one of the Level 2 programmes. (Blue font is spoken in Turkish and black font in English.) Paul: We’re going to look at questions with ‘whose?’, ‘whose?’, to ask about who things belong to and then using possessive pronouns in the answer. Ally: We’re also going to look at making polite requests Paul: … and how to agree to requests. Figure 4. Script in Section 1 of TV 2.8 – signposting the key language items to be covered Hence, the start of section 2 follows Table 2’s principle 2b,Signpost: what’s coming later. The list of key language items (as in Figure 4) functions as a list of learning objectives. However, we avoided going into too much detail, because viewers cannot remember a list of detailed objectives unless they can go back and hear them again, which is not possible with a TV broadcast (and not easy even if students viewed their own recording of the broadcast). Later in Section 2, some short clips remind students of the story so far. This sets the scene (principle 2a). The end of Section 2 introduces the first drama section with a Chapter heading (principle 2c). For example, in TV 2.8, the presenter says, Now let’s go to Deniz’s apartment and find out what’s happening there. The same principle is carried out in section 6 and 10 to introduce dramas #2 and #3. The main principle for the Language Reviews (sections 4, 8 and 12) is 8b, Consolidate or Summarise key features. Principle 7a, Repetition from a different angle, also takes place in the Review section. Viewers have already read the subtitles in the preceding drama clip, but now they read some of them again, with key phrases highlighted (yellow phrases in Figure 2). The different angle is the highlighting of key phrases. Another repetition occurs in the Practice section when viewers speak the same key phrases, the different angle in this case being speaking, rather than just listening. Design principles for individual techniques in the Language Review sections An important technique in the Review sections involves principle 2d, Heads-up signpost – what to listen out for. As mentioned above, viewers read some of the subtitles again, this time with key phrases highlighted (yellow phrases in Figure 2), so they are primed to listen out for and recognise the key phrases spoken once more by the presenters. On a few occasions a prior verbal heads-up was also supplied, in advance of the review clip. For example, in TV 3.2 the presenter introduces the first review clip with the words: Let’s take another look at how the girls and Brad point out the positive side of different situations using ‘at least’ – ‘at least’. (As noted earlier, blue font is spoken in Turkish and black font in English) Then three clips are shown in succession, each frozen at the end as a subtitle jumps on, e.g. the first clip is: A shot of Kitty, saying, ‘At least it’s nothing really important’ The shot then freezes with text superimposed (with key phrases highlighted in yellow): it’s nothing really important. So before viewers watched Kitty in the clip, the presenter enacted principle 2d – she gave viewers a verbal ‘heads-up’, by speaking the key phrase ‘at least’ in English, which primed viewers to listen out for the phrase. Figure 2 also exemplifies principle 7b, Re-exemplify – the same key phrase in several examples. Design principles behind the individual techniques throughout the programmes Figure 2 illustrates another design principle that figures throughout the TV programmes, 6b, Enhance legibility. During each programme, we switch between shots showing both presenters, e.g. when there is a dialogue between presenters (Figure 3), and shots like Figure 2 of a single presenter. This tighter framing enhances the legibility of the text. It also enhances legibility of the presenter’s lip-movements. This is desirable, it having been shown by many research findings that such visual information enhances speech perception and production, as reported by Erdener N D and Burnham D K (2005). For the same reason, in the drama sections, actors’ faces were shot to be larger and more frontal than is conventional in non-language-instructional drama shoots. Another use of principle 6b, Enhance legibility, occurred for most programmes in Level 3, in which the phrases on screen are invariably longer than in Levels 1 and 2. Hence the size of text is usually smaller in Level 3, as shown in Figure 5. Therefore, for this smaller text to be legible when both presenters are seen having a dialogue, the shot has to be tighter than the wide shot in Figure 3. (Camera operators do not normally like Figure 5’s tighter, MLS shot, cutting presenters’ legs just below the knee.) Figure 5. A Medium Long Shot (MLS) of presenters plus screen. Used when longer phrases, hence smaller font, is on screen. (compare the wider shot in Figure 3) A pervading principle throughout the series is 1b, entertain. The dramas feature three young men and three young women, who live in nearby apartments. The story that develops through the series is intended to entertain. In particular, there are amusing incidents and a love interest. Figure 6 shows the two main characters meeting for the first time – they collide in the hall. At the end of the series, they finally confess their love – thereby illustrating another version of principle 1b, create suspense, with the suspense not relieved until the end of the series. Figure 6. The leading characters, Ceren and Brad, just after they collide (Brad has just arrived from America and is waiting for his cousin Deniz with whom he will be staying) There were several examples of principle 1a in the storyline (shock or surprise or delight), such as the following unexpected incidents.  the collision in Figure 6  Deniz being 10 hours late to meet his cousin Brad when he arrives from America  Ceren falling asleep during a date with Brad. However, for various reasons, we did not adopt another technique that is frequently used in TV drama series to capture attention (principle 1a). This is the ‘teaser’ or ‘cold open’ – jumping directly into a story at the beginning of the show, before the opening title sequence. In our case we could have replaced most of the 15-second opening title sequence with a 10-second preview of the most engaging segment of the subsequent drama scenes. Several Design principles are used in the Language Practice sections There are many examples in English Language that involve principle 7c, Compare/Contrast – where learners need to contrast different phrases, as in Figure 3. Another principle, 3b, Encourage Prediction, applies to all Language Practice sections. Viewers see a prompt phrase (Figure 7), and they’re invited to speak the correct phrase (having been told it is a choice between ‘do you mind’ and ‘would you mind’). Then the correct phrase appears on screen (Figure 8). The viewers are therefore being encouraged to predict the correct answer. Another principle used here is 4a, Do not obscure the Context. This concerns the relationship between the prompt phrase (‘you / help / me wash the dishes?’, Figure 7) and the answer phrase. When a text expression on screen changes, the learners need to compare the new text with the old (the context). So, when the new expression appears (the answer phrase in this case, ‘Would you mind helping me wash the dishes?’, Figure 8) the prompt phrase (the context) should not disappear. Instead it needs to maintain its position, as in Figure 8, so that learners do not need to rely on their visual memory of the prompt phrase. Figure 7. The Prompt Phrase (the Context) Figure 8. The Prompt Phrase does not move when the Answer Phrase appears Of course, the Language Practice sections follow principle 3a, Pose Questions. In general for instructional TV, say one teaching mathematics, the presenter might pose a question and students would be invited to THINK ABOUT the answer, or WRITE IT DOWN if it was in a video that they could pause. But in this case, they are invited to SPEAK the answer. A pause is provided for students to speak the answer. The duration of the pause follows principle 6a, Restrain audio pace, and principle 4c, Pause for contemplation. The rule of thumb used in Anadolu was that the pause should be just long enough for a native English speaker to speak the answer twice. Some language teachers prefer a longer pause, enough to speak the answer three times. However, we felt this might be painfully long for the better students. A solution that would accommodate individual learner differences would be for learners to have a DVD copy of the video and to pause for however long they needed. Backtracking to the beginning of each Language Practice section, the presenter says Şimdi sıra sizde, which means Now it’s your turn, while an animated icon is shown, as in Figure 9. Figure 9. Animated icon, SIRA SİZDE meaning IT’S YOUR TURN, at start of each Practice section This follows principle 2c, Chapter Heading. This is a signpost that tells viewers exactly when the Practice section is about to start. Another principle, 8c, Chapter Ending, is also implied by the words Şimdi sıra sizde, indicating that the Review section (or ‘chapter’) had just finished. Normally, a Chapter Ending and a Chapter Heading are better given given by two separate statements. In this case the statements could have been ‘So that’s the Review section’ (the Chapter Ending, which names the chapter and indicates that it’s finished) followed by ‘Now for the Practice section’ (the Chapter Heading). However, the statement ‘Now it’s your turn’ indicates that the previous ‘chapter’ was somebody else’s turn, namely the drama characters’ and the Presenters’ turns during the Review chapter. Incidentally, inserting a full-screen caption between two different studio shots avoids the possibility of a jump-cut from one studio shot to the next, thereby the director can use any two convenient shots without worrying about such discontinuities. Design principle behind the studio set Another principle, 5a, Consistent Style, is illustrated by the difference in colour between the studio sets in Figures 1, 3 and 5. The TV programmes in the three Figures are in Level 1, 2 and 3 of the Course respectively – and the three colours match the three different sleeves of the printed materials for those three levels (Figure 10). Figure 10. Cover style of printed materials for Levels 1, 2 and 3 The point of this consistency is to make students feel comfortable with the familiar style throughout the semester. Keeping the same style for each semester also acts to acclimatise viewers to the style of the studio set – they get used to the set design so they do not get distracted by it – principle 5b, Acclimatise to potential distractions. The use of music The third principle of category 5, 5c, Timely occurrence of music, was also followed in each programme. Apart from some special exceptions, to be described later, there was no music except over the Opening Titles and the Closing Credits. This is because the words spoken by the actors and the presenters is of prime importance, so should not be diluted with distracting sounds. This is especially important when the topic of the video is language learning, but is generally valid for instructional videos of any topic. Generally, music (of an appropriate style) should only be used to signal that viewers are being left to contemplate the pictures and make their own interpretation, with little or no verbal guidance. This was indeed the rationale for the use of music in a few of the programmes – those in which the characters went on excursions to historical sites, such as Istanbul and Kapadokia (there were 8 such programmes in the series of 56, all of which would have been extremely interesting for viewers and hence contributed entertainment – principle 1b). Figure 11 is a scene from the excursion to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. It is one of several shots of the outside of the Mosque and there was an 18-second piece of music as the characters walked around the outside of the Mosque, before they started talking about it. Later there was a 20-second piece of music as the characters looked around the inside of the Mosque, Figure 12. Figure 11. The Blue Mosque - a scene from the excursion to Istanbul Figure 12. The interior of the Blue Mosque - a scene from the excursion to Istanbul. (The shot started on the ceiling and tilted down gradually, eventually revealing the people) Design principles behind section 14, Drama Recap Returning to Table 1, section 14 of each TV programme is where all three dramas are shown again without gaps. So as with the Revision and Practice sections, the underlying principle is 7a, Repetition from a different angle. The different angle in section 14 is the continuous narrative instead of the drama being split into three with interspersed activities. A second different angle is the intended student activity that is recommended by the presenters - they always introduce section 14 with the advice to look out for the words and phrases we’ve just been practicing. And because of this advice Section 14 also accords with principle 8b, Consolidate. Indeed section 14 accords with yet a third principle, 5c, Acclimatise to potential distractions. This is because students have already seen the whole drama (and parts of it more than once), so they have become acclimatised to the storyline; therefore the storyline is less likely to distract them from the recommended task – to look out for the words and phrases we’ve just been practicing. Conclusion – the utility of this paper for teachers of English as a foreign language Clearly this paper is of most relevance to teaching institutions that produce video for use in their English Language teaching. In addition, it will be a useful guide for individual teachers choosing off the shelf videos to use in their English Language classrooms. However, the eight categories of Table 2 include a narrative teaching structure, shown in Table 3. This is why most of the principles of Table 2 apply to any teacher’s English Language lesson plan, whether or not it includes the use of video. as argued below Table 3. Table 3. The pedagogic narrative structure of the categories of Table 2 Make them want to know 1. HOOK (capture attention and sustain interest) Tell them what you will do 2. SIGNPOST (information about what’s coming) 3. FACILITATE ATTENTIVE VIEWING (stimulate mindful viewing) 4. ENABLE INDIVIDUAL CONSTRUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE Do it: pedagogically 5. SENSITISE 6. ELUCIDATE 7. REINFORCE Tell them what you have done 8. CONSOLIDATE/ CONCLUDE The efficacy of narrative structure in education has been proposed by many writers, such as Gudmundsdottir (1995), Gibson (1996), Laurillard (1998), Laurillard, Stratford, Luckin, Plowman and Taylor (2000). The latter authors put it as follows. Narrative provides a macro-structure, which creates global coherence, contributes to local coherence and aids recall through its network of causal links and signposting. The structure provides a linear dynamic using a variety of structural cues, such as headings, textual signposts, and paragraphing. ... It has both cognitive and affective impact, performing an essential organising function for the learner by shaping the creation of meaning from texts of all kinds. Narrative is fundamentally linked to cognition and so is particularly relevant to the design of multimedia for learning. But a narrative teaching structure is not enough, because it tends to lead learners by the nose. As mentioned earlier, in Table 2 the narrative structure resides in the categories other than 3 and 4, whereas categories 3 and 4 return control to the learner. That is, the Table advocates a balance between  stimulation and enablement of active, mindful, analytic viewing (category 3) and constructive learning (category 4) – both of which cater for individual differences  structured, narrative exposition of knowledge (remaining six categories) This is the balance that is commended by this paper, which can be applied to any English Language lesson plan. References BBC World Service (2013). Teacher Flower. 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