Video blogging in teaching English at a non-linguistic university

Abstract

The relevance of the research. Blogs and video blogs have recently gained popularity as integral part of university courses in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL). The reason can be seen in the fact that modern technologies have become inseparable from the daily routine of the younger generation.The target setting. Social networks and video hosting platforms are presumed to be integrated into the educational process. EFL teachers face the need to turn these entertainment means into effective educational tools designed to solve specific learning tasks.The purpose of the research is to consider ways of using video blogs (vlogs) in teaching EFL at a non-linguistic university; to evaluate prons and cons of popular internet sources which make possible uploading students’ projects in the format of video blogs; to describe and present types of video blogging tasks successfully used by teachers of NNSU named after Lobachevsky when working with non-linguistic students, to evaluate the efficiency and practicability of blogging in teaching EFL.The Research methods. The authors resorted to such methods as pedagogical literature review and analysis, observing the practical application of video blogging in teaching EFL in the nonlinguistic university environment, questionnaire, synthesizing the data gained.The Conclusions. Integration of vlogs into the process of teaching EFL at a non-linguistic university has a positive impact on learners’ motivation. Also, it fosters a greater range of opportunities for out-of-class language practice.

Keywords

• efl
• esp
• video blog
• vlog
• videocast
• videoblogging
• social networks
• videohosting