Music Videos in the Classroom - Young People Exploring the World

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 1,7, University of Marburg (Anglistik), course: New Media in Foreign Language Teaching, language: English, abstract: 1. Introduction

Music videos are an important part of the lifestyle of many youths, they have been spread

over the whole world by the television channel MTV (Music Television)1 and they have

become an essential aspect of the popular culture. Obviously, the Hessian curriculum has

realized the importance of music videos: The topic "Young People Exploring the World"

("Jugendliche und ihre Welt") for 11th grade includes the sub-topic "Culture and Media"

("Kultur und Medien")2. This sub-topic deals with all sorts of pop culture, (music, videos,

literature, advertisements, fashion, sports, etc.).

Music videos are excellent for matters of foreign language education, they provide

authentic material3, which is a welcome variation for many pupils who are only used to

artificial learning materials, and they are very interesting for pupils because they are part of

their everyday life. Therefore, music videos provide a brilliant opportunity for the pupils to

discuss and analyse. Through thorough analysis of music videos, the pupils will become

aware of how music videos are made and which impact they can have on us, and also

which ethical values they propagate (as well by the lyrics of the specific song as well by

the composition of the video itself) or in which ways they reflect our society.

It is important that the pupils are allowed to choose their own music videos, because then

they will be more motivated as if the videos were selected by the teacher. However, the

teacher should become acquainted with the specific video before it is presented to the

class by the pupil because there are, of course, music videos, which are not suitable (for

example, because the content could be too violent or sexual to be presented in the

classroom or the video could be too long, it should not exceed 5 minutes for obvious

reasons).

For a fruitful analysis and discussion, the pupils need to do a bit of theory, the teacher

should give a brief introduction to the basics of video-making, e.g. camera perspectives,

cutting techniques, etc., so that the students understand that in a music video (just like in a

movie) everything has a purpose and a certain effect on the spectator. Equipped with this

fundamental knowledge, the students are enabled to analyse their specific music video on their own and to present them to the class, and the rest of the class can discuss or add

aspects which the presenter may not have found. In this termpaper, I will present an exemplary teaching unit...