The Use of TV Programs in EFL Classes

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The Use of TV Programs in EFL Classes

By Malena Brenes

Dough it is true, that nowadays most every student has access to cable TV, therefore to most common or popular TV programs, watching them with no purpose set but that of entertainment is one thing, and using them within the walls of a classroom, with teaching purposes, definitely changes the panorama, and is another thing.

So as John Rucynski Jr. states in his article: “Using The Simpsons in EFL Clases” using this resource may be or may not be an easy task, because as he explains, a non-native speaker is due to feel frustrated when encountering any  episode of the mentioned cartoon or best named animated series, if there is no proper prior activity, previous to watching a certain episode that is thought to fulfill an specific teaching target, but will on the other hand, if there is such prior work, enable the ESL student to feel familiar with vocabulary, idiomatic expressions, history, and cultural aspects, hence frustration will not necessarily be in stake, and the target accomplished.

Additionally to the above mentioned, some other flaws would be that to use TV programs needs a keen preparation from behalf of the teacher, in order to be able to achieve what is set as the main goal, rather than using it just as a resource to fill a 10 minute void in a lesson, because you ran out of activities. So the use of TV programs as a tool to teach does have its pros and its cons, like not allowing students focus on what is needed to be understood, because I somehow believe, that when watching any kind of TV program, and most of all an animated series, there is a certain tendency to watch it just as mere amusement, so it could become in one way or another difficult to make students aware of the target.