Silent viewing activities 2024

 Silent viewing activities 

Silent viewing means turning off the sound on the TV or monitor and making use of the visuals 

on their own. This is most easily accomplished with the MUTE button on the remote. Silent 

viewing will be a PREDICTION technique when students are viewing for the first time, and a 

REPRODUCTION technique when they have already seen and heard the section being used 

for silent viewing. 

a) Prediction 

Students can talk about EVENTS (What’s happening on the screen?) or DIALOGUE (What are 

they saying?) 

They will be able to predict dialogue, i.e. guess what people are saying, throughout the course. 

b) Reproduction 

Reproduction (or ‘retelling’) can also be divided into REPRODUCTION OF DIALOGUE and 

REPRODUCTION OF EVENTS. Reproduction of dialogue might be most effective where there 

are useful formulas, fixed expressions and points of intonation or pronunciation. Reproduction 

of events tends to focus on narrative tenses, and on sequences. 

c) Random sound down (Cloze listening) 

This may be done at any time, but is particularly suitable when viewing the whole episode 

again. Turn the sound down or mute the sound at random intervals asking students to fill in the 

missing dialogue. 

Sound only activities 

You can play a section of one of the videos with the picture turned off so that they hear the 

dialogue but are unable to see the action. This can be done by using the brightness controls on 

the television, by unplugging the picture connectors (BNC or yellow phono leads, on sets where 

sound and picture have separate leads) or most simply by placing something in front of the 

screen, such as a jacket or a sheet of cardboard. 

Students can be asked either to predict what is happening visually, or to use the dialogue as a 

memory spur to recall what happened visually. 

See ‘Random Sound Down’ above. A parallel activity can also be done by obscuring the picture 

with card at random intervals. 

CELTA: VIDEO 

UP LANGUAGE CONSULTANTS 

Freeze framing (still picture) activities 

Freeze framing means stopping the picture, using the FREEZE FRAME, STILL or PAUSE (II or 

> I <) control. 

FRAME ADVANCE or STILL ADVANCE moves the still picture forward one frame at a time. It 

can be used to explore the nuances of an event or of a facial reaction. 

a) Prediction (What next?) 

Prediction occurs when freeze framing is used during the initial viewing of a section. You can 

freeze frame and ask about either EVENTS (What’s going to happen?) or DIALOGUE (What 

are they saying? / What are they going to say next? ). See Silent Viewing above. 

b) Reproduction 

When students have already seen a section, they will be using memory to reproduce either 

what is being said, or to describe what is happening, or what has just happened. 

c) Using the background 

There is a wealth of detail in the background of the pictures which can be exploited by freeze 

framing. Teachers and students can often find something new even when they have done a 

particular lesson many times. The background also gives access to material about British life 

and culture. 

One of the main differences between videos designed for educational broadcast and videos 

designed for classroom or individual use lies in the presumption of the ability to use freeze 

frame to explore and exploit background detail. The camera does not need to linger on things in 

the background, they can always be singled out later with the freeze frame control. 

d) Thoughts and emotions 

Video gives us an additional dimension of information about characters’ body language, facial 

expressions, gesture, stance, reaction and response. This information can be exploited in the 

classroom. Freeze frame and ask about feelings and emotions. In some activities Students can 

deduce further information about the characters, based on what they have picked up from the 

video, but requiring the use of their imagination. 

Paired Viewing Activities 

Paired activities take more effort in setting up, but the results justify the trouble. 

a) Description 

In this activity one student in each pair turns their back to the screen. The other student faces 

the screen, and the video is played silently. The student who can see the screen describes 

what they can see to their partner.  

Both students will wish to hear the dialogue later. 

CELTA: VIDEO 

UP LANGUAGE CONSULTANTS 

The ‘passive’ student in each pair will be motivated to see what they have missed as well! It is 

worth making sure that the partners swop roles, or that the activity is done twice, with different 

sections so that each partner gets a chance to perform the ‘active’ role. 

b) Narration 

This is more difficult to organise, as it involves sending half the class out of the room while the 

remaining half watch a section of a video. When they return they are told about the video in 

pairs by those who saw it. (See the note above about swopping roles.) In school situations, this 

can be done by team teaching, and working with two parallel classes at the same time. 

c) Split class: Description / Narration 

Half the class is sent out. The remainder watch a section silently. Then the two halves swop 

places. The ones that were outside now listen to the same section with the picture covered 

(see: Sound only, above.) The students are then paired off. One student in each pair has SEEN 

the video, but hasn’t heard the dialogue. The other student has only HEARD the dialogue. They 

work together to piece the story together. 

Role plays 

Students can be asked to role play sequences they have seen in any videos. 

We have found it more interesting to get them to role play things which are NOT seen in the 

video, but which they can guess from having seen the video. 

Source: http://peterviney.wordpress.com/video/teaching-with-video-techniques/ 

CELTA: VIDEO 

UP LANGUAGE CONSULTANTS