EFL teaching with music videos
”Music videos are cultural acts, intertextually located in the viewer’s own experience” (Rybacki & Rybacki)
As an EFL teacher you should always be in search of new and authentic material for you lessons, and on surfing the internet to find an area in contemporary media which especially appeals to teenagers, I came to think of how strong an impact visual art seems to have on pupils’ memory. Last autumn we did a trial exam on South Africa with a Danish 9th grade and I found that the images which had been printed into their minds through the film “Goodbye Bafana” were far stronger than the knowledge they had achieved from reading various textbooks.
Music also has a major influence on all of us (quite a few of us have a song linked to major events in our lives). So a combination of music and visual media seemed to be the ultimate kind of teaching material for youngsters – music videos.
Choosing material
When you look for suitable music videos for your EFL teaching there are a few things to consider. Among them, what to teach and which genre covers the area the best. E.g. if you are to teach masculinity in contemporary culture there are a few choices which seem obvious – 50Cent and Snoop Dog Hip Hop artists). Furthermore you will need to know your students to choose a material that will suit that particular group of students the best. Not all music suits all students.
I came across a Canadian/American teenage music phenomenon called Justin Bieber whose career has exploded within the last two years. From being a 14 year old boy singing to his mother's camera in their living room, to being a mega start with so much hype around him that it makes you dizzy.
I find it interesting to use this phenomenon in my teaching and let the pupils investigate how he uses media (especially the internet and social networks) to promote his music and especially himself.
Also the cultural aspect of the music video industry, e.g. what kind of culture they carry in the videos would be an area to investigate for the pupils.
Moreover I believe it’s necessary to teach the pupils about hidden advertising and gender roles displayed in music videos. As present and future consumers they need to be aware of what they are exposed of and what influence this has on the choices they make.
Young people in the upper secondary classes are very sensitive to influences and I find it advisable to teach them what to be aware of when they unrestrained consume video goodies produced to sell a specific artist or culture/idea.
Introducing the video
In qualified music videos there are a variety of areas which could be covered in your EFL teaching. Gender roles, masculinity, advertising, semiotics and culture could be some of the subjects of interest in the 7th to 9th grade, all elements relevant to cover the cultural aspect in the National Curriculum for 9th graders.
Justin Bieber definitely represents the American culture (the American Dream – hard work pays off) and again with reference to the National Curriculum, I am of the opinion that he would be one to consider.
In this article I have chosen to focus on his music video for the song “Baby”. I will pin point gender roles and representation of culture as the main subjects to work with here.
It's a traditional homodiegetic (1st person is telling/singing the story, Lennart Hoebjerg, 2000) narrative music video. A performance video where the subject (the star) integrates sound and picture. This means that the singer is also the actor, and while singing he tells the story.
In all visual media the viewer will always try to construct some kind of meaning in the narrative told. In this video the spectator will try to predict if the singer wins back the love of his life.
The narrative is constructed in a very easy going fashion, so that the hero (Justin Bieber) does not have too many obstacles in his way. From the start it is obvious in which direction the narrative takes us. E.g. in the beginning there is a giant illuminated figure of King Kong displayed in the background, and to me this signifier signifies a male’s struggle with multiple dangers trying to deserve the affection of a beautiful woman – he is victorious. King Kong? – No, not at the end…but that’s another story.
Working with gender roles
When analyzing the video I find it interesting how gender roles are displayed in a very traditional way. Boy hunting girl – girl playing hard to get (morally she has to even though she would wants otherwise) – boy trying harder (displaying himself as vulnerable) – girl giving in – boy got his way and is now taking care of girl! Very traditional and in some respect rather old fashioned display of gender roles.
On the other hand girls are not only represented as the weaker gender. During the bowling scene Justin Bieber has a strike and then the girl does the same. This attracts the boy and he walks to her.
A situation like this signifies to me that it is okay for the sexes to be equally skilled, and it sends an impression of modernity to the viewer.
But then again – after the “strike episode” we see the male hunting his prey and the girl acting hard to get. This is common scene in visual art. In 1992 Schwichtenberg expressed it like “Action in the story is dominated by males who do things and females who passively react or wait for something to happen”. Traditionally women are the weaker part in a relationship – publicly at least.
It strikes me that gender roles displayed in an old fashioned way attract so many young girls. The women’s movement has for two generations tried to equalize genders in society. Is the next generation attracted to previous time’s gender roles where the male was the provider and protector of the female? If so – what in our society would cause such a change, or lack of same? Haven’t we really come further than our grandmothers?
Or has the many challenges for females today (having a career, being a perfect mother and an adorable wife) become too much? Do we need to let go of some of the responsibility? Do we need to let the man take over? To just follow and let him be the sole provider again?
When I come to think of it – Justin Bieber is very popular in the US, Ireland and Great Britain. In those countries it is still vital for a girl to get married and have a husband to support her. Maybe there’s a connection between his popularity and traditional values in those countries.
This conflict is in my opinion indeed relevant for young people today. It is a difficult situation for girls today. They are in an ambivalent position. At school they are expected to do at least as good as their male peers and in work life they are expected to both have a career job and do well, and to take care of their family and home. Are the girls in their longing to be an object for the male hunt striving to let go of some of the responsibilities in their lives? Are the girls longing to get back to old fashion values and traditions where gender roles were clear and fixed from birth? This is an interesting area to dig into with the upper secondary classes. They are during those years of their lives forming their identities and they need information to continue that process.
Working with representation of culture
By now Justin Bieber’s music video for “Baby” has been viewed more than 524 mill. times on YouTube and we must face that almost all of the viewings probably have been done by teenage girls. No matter for what reason the girls are viewing the video time and time again, there is a narrative of longing for something better in it. A wish for a happy life filled with love for the object of his/her choice.
If we take a closer look at the narrative we may see that the producers display the traditional gender roles and the viewers immediately accept and feel comfortable with the story. What is it in the video narrative that they recognize? Is it the longing to be adored by the handsome boy next door? Is there something in the representation of culture that we recognize?
In class we should take a closer look at The American Dream and the cultural signifiers in the video.
The American Dream tells you that if you work hard and are dedicated enough you will succeed in life. No matter where you come from.
Justin Bieber is the boy next door who is dedicated to music and who is now working terribly hard to succeed in life.
He is a good Christian, brought up by a mother who goes to church regularly and who still takes care of raising her child, even though he is now a celebrity (ref.: “Never say Never” movie picture about Justin Bieber, released in Denmark April 2011).
He shows compassion towards the lesser fortunate – he has established a company which produces and sells nail lacquers for the awareness of charity. On his Twitter account he asks his readers to pray for the victims in the recent Japan earthquake and to donate whatever they can afford to helping the Japanese people. On his Facebook profile he has uploaded a video to support the same charity.
We shouldn’t diminish the effect this kind of twitting and facebooking has on a vast number of people. With his appeals he reaches millions of people, he “provokes” other celebrities to do the same appeals, and he creates an awareness of the disaster with people who might not notice if he hadn’t told them. This I think is very important – the word spreads very fast and help will be provided faster, for the benefit of the victims.
In class it would be interesting to have the students reflect on a situation like this. What impact does it have on the viewers when a famous person uses the social media or music videos to create awareness of disasters and inequalities (e.g. early Bob Dylan or U2 “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”).
Back to Justin Bieber who is the “boy next door”, a good boy, every mother’s dream and the kind of boy the American girls are allowed to go out with. He is innocent and absolutely not dangerous. He keeps to the Western (American/English) standard of rules in young relationships – Look, but don’t touch!
Critics (Bill Lamb, about.com) have also claimed that he is an outstanding musical role model for children. He has also been compared to Michael Jackson in especially his stage performances and his videos (MJ’s “The Way You Make Me Feel”). Billboard reviewed a video, saying, "Those new dance moves he's showing off can only mean one thing: all over the world, tweens' hearts are melting right now."
If you have a closer look at his performance at a recent Music Award show his dance steps are similar to Michael Jackson’s dancing and his clothes make you think of that late musician too.
Interesting for the EFL teaching would be to investigate, if he is publicly compared to “The King of Pop” what culture does he then represent? What impact does it have on the spectator?
I can’t help thinking if the producers want Justin Bieber to take the place of Michael Jackson and make him the icon of admiration for millions and millions of people around the globe. It would come in handy now that the American darling of pop music is well away in whatever heaven he might want to be in.
Alternative to movie pictures
Music videos are indeed authentic teaching materials. I asked my own two teenage children what interested youngsters the most and they unanimously voted for music videos and I seriously had to consider how to implement it in class.
Today quite a few teachers use regular movies or short film in teaching film and media, but I seriously consider using good videos instead. The homodiegetic narrative music videos could very well be used for the same purposes as the sometimes very time consuming movies.
In the Danish National Schools the upper secondary pupils only have three English lessons a week which is frightfully little considering the amount of subjects the teachers need to cover and the global aspect in the National Curriculum. Apart from the pillars of grammar and lexical knowledge in the language, they also need to cover various English speaking cultures and to include the global aspect in their teaching.
As mentioned at the beginning I have the experience that children remember far better when visually exposed to information than if they read various text books, so using visual media in teaching would “ease the pain of being in a hurry” a bit.
But a whole movie, which takes almost two full hours to watch, is very time consuming when you only have 120 hours a year for everything.
A music video takes from 3 to 5 minutes to watch, and it would save the teacher a lot of time – if he/she found a suitable video to work with.
I analyzed the “Baby” video and found that the narrative could be put into the Hollywood Model.
There is an intro, a presentation of the conflict, and one of the characters. There is a point of no return, intensifying of the conflict, climax and fade out – all could be summed up in the model.
Music videos are authentic material for the children to work with. MTV and The Voice (music television channels) are integrated parts of the pupils’ lives and I find it relevant to teach them critical observation when tuning into those channels.
Finally films are a big mouthful to start with for the less experienced pupils. Movies are filled with signifiers and signified and demand a good portion of background knowledge before working qualified with that text.
“Slow learning”, the teachers say – let the pupils work with material they can relate to, it must make life easier for everyone in the classroom.
Links and references:
www.youtube.com
www.sibetrans.com/trans/trans4/rybacki
Gillespie & Toynbee - Analysing Media Text, 2009
25th March 2011 - Things have changed - I'll most probably do an article on the use of music videos in EFL teaching in stead. I think it will be very interesting to investigate and see what the effects are when using such authentic material in teaching. To analyse engagement from the pupils, effects on the pupils' forming of identity and also the effect on L2 learning and communicative skills.
....I'll come back later.
Brainstorm:
Laura Gilliam - Bordwell "Film Art" - Malene from Salaam - Film X - Cinemateket - interdependency - what effect does it have on pupils' identity to attend multi-lingual schools when they don't get to speak their mother tongue - risk taking when learning a language - effect on feelings - teaching films - culture - identity - classroom language - relate to own culture - the methods we experienced at the DFI course - working with film in other ways from different perspectives - how does the student view his/her own identity and the identity of others - Krasken "Affective filter" the reduced personality of the language learner - personalizing language - forming identity through development of "group language/slang" - can language be part of forming identity - Tina Thilo - Peter Engberg - "football" language - posh English - Bordieu "Various capitals" (language kapital) - how does the teachers choise of film affect the development of identity with teenagers - to be continued.....
