A Video-Based Multimedia Curricular Design and Implementation for Advanced English Language Learners (ELLs): A Comparison Between ESL and EFL Contexts

Introduction

In recent years, integrating the teaching of languages with the teaching of academic subject matter (or Content and Language Integrated Learning, CLIL) has become a more prevalent approach worldwide. In that approach, language is taught in an isolated manner where the emphasis is on the mastery of linguistic knowledge (grammar, semantics, syntax, pragmatics). Instead, it is regarded as a vehicle for solving communicative situations that emerged in a specific setting, and in this case, the academic or schooling discourse. The focus of CLIL is more like immersing ELLs in both the English language to read and write and the domain-specific language to do and talk about science simultaneously. According to García & Kleifgen (2018), instructional practices for English language and literacy for ESL in the USA shall prioritize using teaching tools in content tasks to contextualize new vocabulary learning. Those English as a Second Language (ESL) programs adopting the CLIL approach has to organize activities so that students are scaffolded to acquire a target knowledge the first time in their non-dominant second language. However, the application of CLIL and the nature of the CLIL program is not the same in other parts of the world. For instance, in the context of Vietnam, where English is considered a foreign language (EFL), the connection between the English language and academic content is inherently different from America's case. EFL students there have already been taught almost the entire curriculum in Vietnamese, the mother tongue. First language literacy helps these students cope with the demands of academic objectives. Thus, while CLIL is an addition to the mainstream education in order to prepare students for future employment and academia where English is used for global communication, English is considered a new code to obtain for decoding the English materials rather than a communicative device for survival and cultural integration into speech communities of English native speakers.

The thing is that the operational goal of a CLIL curriculum is to introduce various forms of pedagogical materials and discourses that present socio-cultural contexts for accelerating meaningful language use and increasing the interaction between the student and the language environment. Hence, no matter what socio-cultural and contextual differences CLIL programs might display, the common assumption is that, in those programs, learners must have rich access to an interactive English speech to obtain its structural information and practice its functions. YouTube, a platform providing a forum to connect, inform, and inspire individuals globally via sharing videos, has been nominated as an optimal way to offer authentic input and increased student-centered learning participation (Brünner, 2013; Snelson, 2016; Willmot et all, 2011, 2012). Launched more than 15 years ago, YouTube hosts videos that are highly suitable for English teachings, such as TeacherTube, TED Talks, TED Edu, Crash course, and other channels designed exclusively for teaching English such as BBC Learning English. Those media channels are accessible resources for educators and language teachers in the era when their students are digitally native, technology-savvy, and video content consumers (Roodt & Peier, 2013; Sherer & Shea, 2011). They stimulate both hemispheres of the brain, triggering areas related to verbal/linguistic, musical, and visual information to exchange information and accelerate memorization. Such stimulation in those areas created ideal learning and memory (Beck, 2009; Logan, 2012).