A 21st Century Approach to English Language Teaching through Media Literacy

Abstract

This article presents the thesis that media literacy should be the foundation of all language education in the 21^th century. It discusses why this is the case and defines media literacy with details of simple classroom strategies for how to organize and teach English language lessons.

Media Literacy and English language teaching in Nepal

In the modern world, people are exposed to hundreds –- even thousands –- of images and ideas every day. Media no longer shape our culture… they have become our culture.[1] Modern society today expects people to correctly interpret a wide variety of messages, some of which are conflicting, in order to skillfully and successfully navigate through life’s daily challenges.

Historically, the term media literacy was defined as the critical interpretation and production of media – television, radio, print media of all types, movies, advertisements, blogs, websites, video games, billboards and other signage, announcements, etc.

Many modern educators believe that the pervasive influence of media in modern society demands a more comprehensive approach to media literacy. For these pioneers, media literacy is the foundation of a 21^st century approach to education. In this model, media literacy provides a framework for accessing, analyzing, evaluating, creating and participating with media messages in a variety of forms — from print to video to the Internet. Furthermore, it builds an understanding of the role of media in society and promotes the skills of inquiry and self-expression essential for citizens of modern democracies.[2]

At its core, media literacy teaches people how to think for themselves and to interact responsibly with media. It also empowers them to actively and effectively participate in creating and sustaining their own societies.

English teachers in Nepal sometimes feel that they are at a disadvantage due to a lack of modern English textbooks and digital educational resources. But the reality is that teaching-learning materials do not teach students how to create and understand language. It is what students do with the materials that helps them develop those skills.

This means that any sample of English can be used as a tool to empower students to critically analyze what they hear and read, and to learn how to respond responsibly and coherently to those messages. English teachers don’t need new or special materials to teach media literacy, they can use whatever they have on hand — textbooks, newspapers, videos and print texts from the internet, TV, movies, product labels, advertisements, cartoons, radio broadcasts, social media, etc. Better still, they don’t even have to find these materials themselves. Instead, they can ask their students out to bring in materials that interest them and use those as the basis for teaching media literacy skills.

What English media literacy teachers doneed is a different understanding of what it is they are teaching, and a way to approach their materials that optimize their use as tools for teaching literacy.

Media and Teaching-Learning Methodology

Before discussing media literacy as an approach to English education, it is important to understand what is meant by the word media. The word media in English is used in different ways in different contexts.

First, it is used to refer to the people who produce communications for mass consumption. For example, in the utterance “the media have arrived”, the word “media” refers to journalists and reporters.
Second, it is also used to refer to the communications themselves. For example, “journalists produce media for their readers to interpret.” Here the word “media” refers to the articles and stories that journalists write for people to read (or listen to).
Third, it is used to refer to mass communication outlets. For example, “media are radio, TV, newspapers, and the internet.”
Fourth, it is used to refer to mass communication in general. For example, “media influences the way people look at the world.”

For the purposes of teaching media literacy in English, media refers to any communication product, be it a sentence, a story, a poem, an advertisement, a movie, a paragraph, etc. written to for public consumption. In this context, a journal written for personal use would not be considered media, but a journal written to be published would be. As an English language teacher, you are teaching students how to interpret and create media, i.e., how to interpret and create communication products — language products to share with other people. In the beginning, the audience is small – their peers, their teachers, and perhaps their students. But as they mature, the ability to use English to get your message across to a wider audience, and the ability to interpret messages created by a variety of authors, is what will ensure their success in the 21st century, both personally and professionally.

Organizing educational experiences to promote media literacy is not complicated. All one needs is a sample of language from any source where the teacher can be reasonably certain that the English itself is grammatical and coherent. This then can then be used as a basis for the following types of learning activities.

Teaching-learning activities are based on the assumption that students learn best when they personally engage with what they are learning in various ways. Although they can be done in any order, students develop critical thinking skills more successfully when the four different types of activities are done in the sequence presented here.

Experience Media

These activities allow students to simply experience samples of language — media — by reading, listening and/or witnessing them.

Reflect on Media

These activities ensure that students understand and remember what they have experienced by interacting with it as a cohesive piece of language. This can involve looking up new words, answering comprehension questions, summarizing it in their own words, explaining what different parts of it means to one another, etc.

Analyze Media

These activities involve students in two types of inquiries:

STRUCTURE: The first concerns the language sample itself, how it is written, how it is organized into coherent text, how sentences are formed, how vocabulary is selected, etc. These activities may focus on grammar, and/or discourse structure, and/or vocabulary learning, etc.

CONTENT: The second type of inquiry encourages students to explore the ideas expressed in the sample, how they connect to their lives, what do they think they mean, do they agree and why or why not, what motivates the media producer to say what they said, what are they trying to get someone to understand, what are the implications of the message(s), what are the different possible interpretations, how context influences meaning, etc.

Create Media

These activities invite students to experiment with what they have learned in all the preceding activities by creating a similar type of media based upon their personal interests.

English Media Literacy in Practice

The theory of how and why to do something, although interesting to read, does not always reveal how that thing is actually done in practice. The remainder of this essay illustrates the theoretical points discussed in the preceding sections of this article by discussing how one text, a simple poem, found on the internet, can be used to promote media literacy in primary education.

Yes, you can teach young children to think critically. In fact, if you begin this process when children are young, they will carry these skills with them for their lifetime. This discussion focuses on media literacy in English in primary education and describes how to use the text with both very young learners (ages 5-7 years of age) as well as slightly older ones (8-10 years old).

Please not, however, the activities included in the following tables can be used for all ages of students, including adults, as long as the media used is age-appropriate. For example, what makes the following lesson good for primary education is the topic, quality, and simplicity of the media sample.

The media sample to be used for illustrative purposes in this article is a poem:

A Little Brown Bear

A little brown bear

Went in search for some honey

Isn’t it funny

A bear wanting honey?

He sniffed at the breeze

And he listened for bees.

And, would you believe it,

He even climbed trees!

There is also a YouTube video of people reciting this poem available for viewing, either by a teacher who wants to practice reciting it with gestures or, if internet is available, by the students themselves, either in the classroom or on students’ (or their parents’) cell phones.

VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-bd0GIZR4Y

Experience Media

The goal of this part of the lesson is to allow students to personally experience media in some manner. Multiple presentations accommodate students with different learning styles better than a single presentation.

Table I lists several activities that can be done with each of two age groups of students. Any or all of the activities listed in the table can be part of a single lesson. For younger children for whom much of the vocabulary and grammar may be unfamiliar, then the more activities done, the better.

For either group, instructions can be given in the students’ mother tongue or in English, depending upon the proficiency level of the students. Except when students are involved in the presenting, instructions are very simple: LISTEN and WATCH.

When students are presenting, the presenters are pulled aside to be given instructions on how to present. The students watching the presentation are given the same instructions as for a teacher presentation: LISTEN and WATCH.

Table I Experiential Activities

Ages 5-7	Ages 8-10
Teacher reads the poem aloud	Any of the experiential activities for ages 5-7 can also be used with this age group.
Teacher reads the poem aloud while showing related realia: teddy bear, honey for the students to taste.	For good readers, two or three students can read different lines of the poem to the class.
Teacher reads the poem aloud and acts out different verbs while reading: sniff, listen, climb, acting silly (funny)	Students can read the poem aloud together as a class.
Teacher reads the poem aloud and draws new vocabulary on the board while reading: bear, honey, tree, bee	Students can draw pictures while the teacher or another student reads.
Teacher reads the poem aloud with accompany gestures, see video link above	Students can act out verbs while the teacher or another student reads.
Teacher shows the video to students
Teacher send a slip of paper home with students with the link so the children’s parents can show the video to the child on their cell phones or personal computers.

Reflect on Media

Here is where the teaching of critical thinking begins. The key to teaching critical thinking is inquiry. During reflective phase of a lesson, questions are designed to help students remember the language used in the new media they have just experienced.

Table II lists several activities that can be done with each of two age groups of students. Any or all of the activities listed in the table can be part of a single lesson. For younger children and/or novice English learners, for whom much of the vocabulary and grammar may be new, then the more activities done, the better.

During this phase, consensus and accuracy are important. That is, students need to have a common and correct understanding of the language and content in the media sample.

One of the main differences between the two age groups during both this phase of the lesson and the following analytical phase is that more of the questions will need to be asked in Nepali, or in the students’ mother tongue for younger students.

It is best to mix the mother tongue and English as needed so that children understand what you are saying but also get to hear you speaking in English and become comfortable with it being used. So, for example, you could point to the word “he” and say in English, “what does this mean” and then immediately repeat the question in Nepali and/or the mother tongue. Over time, the ratio of English/mother tongue/Nepali will increase until eventually you will be able to use only English. This will even occur over the course of one lesson.

Table II: Reflective Activities

Ages 5-7	Ages 8-10
Ask vocabulary questions: What’s a bear? A breeze? A tree? A bee? Draw pictures. What is climbing? Searching? Climbing? Act it out for the class.	Ask vocabulary questions: What’s a bear? A breeze? A tree? A bee? Draw pictures. What is climbing? Searching? Climbing? Act it out for the class.
Ask comprehension questions: What was the poem about? Who was it about? What did s/he do? Where did s/he do it? What was s/he searching for? Why was s/he searching? Etc.	Ask comprehension questions: What was the poem about? Who was it about? What did s/he do? Where did s/he do it? What was s/he searching for? Why was s/he searching? Etc.
Draw a picture and discuss: Of a bear, of a bear climbing a tree, of a bear looking for honey, of a bear sniffing the breeze. Share it with the class. Draw a picture with a friend. Share it.	Draw a picture and discuss: Of a bear, of a bear climbing a tree, of a bear looking for honey, of a bear sniffing the breeze. Share it with the class. Draw a picture with a friend. Share it.
Reconstruct the media sample: What were the specific lines of the poem?	Reconstruct the media sample: What were the specific lines of the poem?
Teacher writes the poem on the board.	Any reflective activities for ages 5-7.
Students practice pronouncing lines of the poem.	Students write the poem on the board as they reconstruct it.
Students copy the poem in their notebooks. Teacher corrects them.	Peers correct one another if they make mistakes.
Teacher draws pics to represent each line of the poem and deletes the writing	Students write the poem in their notebooks from memory, then work in pairs to put in any missing information.

Analyze Media

As with reflective activities, inquiry is the primary mode of teaching during the analytical phase of a lesson. However, the type of inquiry shifts from one of helping students to remember and understand the specific media sample itself to considering it in two wider contexts: (1) as a piece of connected linguistic discourse and (2) as an exposé of ideas that relate to their lives.

In many ways, this phase of the lesson is the richest with respect to teaching critical thinking. But it will not work well if students don’t remember the media sample, which is why it is best to do reflective activities before analytical ones.

Table III provides activities for accomplishing the first goal, Table IV suggests activities for achieving the second.

One of the main differences between the two age groups during this phase of the lesson is that more of the questions will need to be asked in Nepali, or the students’ mother tongue, for the 5-7 year olds. As mentioned before, mixing mother tongue and English as needed so that kids understand what you are saying but also get to hear you speaking in English. So, for example, you could point to the word “he” and say in English, “what does this mean” and then immediately repeat the question in Nepali and/or the mother tongue. Over time, the ratio of English/mother tongue/Nepali will increase until eventually you will be able to use only English. This will even occur over the course of one lesson.

Table III Linguistic Analytical Activities

Ages 5-7	Ages 8-10
Pronouns: What does “he” mean? What are some other words like it for other people? She, you, they, I. What if it is not a person? it	Any linguistic activities done with ages 5-7.
Adjectives: What do the words “brown” and “little” do? Describes the bear. What other things do you know that are little? Are you little? Do you have a little brother or sister?	WH Questions and answers: Who wants honey? A bear wants honey? (Get complete sentence answers.) What do you want? Honey? Why? Who/what is funny? The bear is funny. Who is listening? Why is he listening What does he hear? Listen to me now. Teacher hums a tune. What do you hear? Music Where can you hear music? TV, radio.
Colors: What other things do you know that are brown? What other colors do you know? What color is this (point to a color on a child’s clothing?) If the words are new, write them on the board as you go. Ask the kids point to colors on one another and describe them.	Yes-No questions: Do bears like honey? Do you like honey? Can bears climb trees? Can you climb trees? Can you listen to the breeze?
Comparison: Draw two bears on the board, one big, one small. Which bear is little? What is the other one? big Ask the kids to draw a big bee and a little bee, a big tree and a little tree.	Rhyming: What is special about the words honey and funny? They rhyme. What other words rhyme in the poem: Breeze, bees, trees? What other words do you know that rhyme with honey? Bunny, money, sunny, What other words rhyme with trees and bees? Fleas, peas, wheeze, knees. Think of some other pairs of words that rhyme. See what students come up with. What other words rhyme with these? Again, let students come up with more words. Make up several sets of rhyming words. Write them on the board.
Adjectives: What other words do you know for describing things? Write any new words on the board.
Noun Phrases: Point to an object. How would you describe this? A blue pen. A yellow dress. A red shirt A green tree. Big or little? A little blue pen (not a blue little pen). A funny red bear (not a red funny bear).	Poetry What is a poem? Is “A little brown bear” a poem? How do you know? Short sentences, some of them rhyme.
Imperatives: Sniff the breeze (blow air out of your mouth to make a breeze and then sniff out loud and have kids copy you) Listen to the bees (make a buzzing sound and then put your hand to your ear and have students do this) Climb a tree (pretend you are climbing Give the commands and have the students act them out.
Past tense Write up “sneeze” and “sneezed”. Ask: What’s the difference? Activities happened before NOW. Have them make up other verb pairs with and without “ed”

Table IV Conceptual analytical activities

Ages 5-7	Ages 8-10
Who likes bears? Why do you like bears? Who doesn’t like bears? Why not? Where do bears live? Have you ever seen a bear? Where? Would you like to see a real bear? Where could you see one? What is a teddy bear?	Any conceptual activities for ages 5-7.
Do you like to climb trees? Why or why not? Where do you climb them?	Was this a good poem? Why do you think this? How do you know it was a good poem?
Do you like honey? Do you eat honey at home? What do you eat honey with?	Why do you think the author wrote this poem? What did s/he want you to learn from it? Who do you think s/he wrote it for?
Who makes honey? Do you like bees? What happens if you get close? They sting.	Do you know any other poems? Tell them to the class. Have the class practice repeating any other poems that the students already know with the one who knows the poem leading the repetition. You can also use poems in Nepali and/or the student’s mother tongue
Did you like the poem? Why or why not?	What do funny things make you feel and do? Feel happy, laugh Why do you think that the author thought it was funny that a bear wanted honey? Do you think it was funny? What some other things that you think are funny? Have the students generate a list of things that they think are funny, i.e., things that make them smile or laugh

Create Media

If the preceding phases of the lesson have been done well, the creative phase of the lesson is easy for students to successfully accomplish. This is the phase of the lesson where you will be able to see what they learned and what they still need to work on. This is also the phase that prepares students to produce and interpret media. All products produced should be shared with the class.

Table V Creative Activities

Ages 5-7	Ages 8-10
Have kids draw pics of different things and write phrases to describe them. Tell them just to draw pictures of single objects. Examples: A brown bear. The blue shirt. Have them take their pictures home and color them for homework and then bring them back to share in class the next day. Do not worry about which articles they use, just make sure they use either “a” or “the” for each single item. Or, if they know possessive pronouns, they can use those	Any creative activities done with ages 5-7.
Write a list of regular verbs that students already know. Have kids do drawings of people/animals doing different activities and label them for past time. Examples: A bear sneezed. The bear climbed a tree.	Ask the kids to list animals that they know. Write them on the board. Invite them to write 4–6-line poems about the animals. Encourage them to use adjectives when they describe the animals. Do not worry whether their poems rhyme or not.
Have the kids make a list of animals they know. Write these on the board. Then have them draw pictures and write things about them. Do not worry about whether they rhyme or not. Examples: The red cat sniffed the fish. The blue bear sneezed.	Help the kids to write sets of rhyming words on the board. Invite them to write 4–6-line poems using different pairs of rhyming words. Have them read their poems to their classmates. In this case, if they don’t rhyme, see if you can help them find words that do rhyme.
For homework, have the students color their pictures and bring them to class the next day. Then have each student share his or her pictures with the class and say the words that they wrote about them. This is an example of media production appropriate for young children. This will, for example, prepare them to read and understand simple advertisements later.	Collect all the poems, type them up to make a small book of poetry. Write each student’s name under the poem that they wrote. As a class, read their book of poetry together. Ask students to go home and read their poems to their parents. This activity will help students develop an interest in reading and writing poetry to share with other people.

Closing Comment

Teaching English with media literacy helps students learn language both as a tool for self-expression and for communication with others in a wide variety. It gives them a purpose for learning English, whether it is to write a simple class newspaper, or a book of poetry.[3] If children produce picture descriptions, poems, story books, newspapers from a very young age, they will become active consumers and creators of media as adults. Teaching students how to interact with media products in different ways instills a love of language as a tool for self-expression and communication in public. It also cultivates an awareness of the power that language has to influence and connect people to one another.

About the author

Dr. Ani Hawkinson is a retired linguist and foreign language teacher educator. She came to Nepal in 2018 as an English Language Fellow for the U.S. Department of State. While in Nepal, she offered in-person teacher trainings in five different regions for NELTA.

[1] http://www.medialiteracy.com/media-values/media-values-articles-52-63

[2] This is the definition of media literacy most often cited in the US. It is a succinct sentence hammered out by participants at the 1992 Aspen Media Literacy Leadership Institute. Definitions, however, evolve over time. A more robust definition has been developed to situate media literacy in the context of its importance for the education of students in a 21st century media culture. The Center for Media Literacy now recommends use of the expanded definition.

Accessed December 1, 2019. https://www.medialit.org/media-literacy-definition-and-more.

[3] As a personal note, as an American primary school student, I still remember the first book I wrote. It was in the second grade. I was 7 years old. The book was about ants. I wrote a story, with each sentence on the story on a different piece of paper. Then I drew illustrations for all the sentences in the story and colored them. To bind the book, I cut up a box to make a cardboard book cover. I punched holes in the left-hand side of the pages and cardboard and then tied piece of yarn through them to make the book. At 70 years of age, I still remember how proud I was of that book. It is one of my few childhood memories.

In the fifth grade, when I was 10 years old, I was chosen to be the editor of our classroom newspaper. Students in the class wrote different stories, I edited them and put them in columns to produce our class newspaper. It was published by the teacher and circulated to all the students. Media literacy has been a part of my education since childhood. If the logic of the theoretical discussions in the article itself, did not convince you to try this approach to teaching English, perhaps my personal anecdotes will. Good luck! Ani Hawkinson, NELTA trainer 2019-2020.