Using YouTube in the Classroom

Abstract

For years, language policies kept changing in Puerto Rico. The impact of these language policies altered
how English and Spanish is used in education (Maldonado, 2016). The constant shift between the two
languages influenced the attitude each generation of students had towards learning the Spanish And English
languages. Additionally, while the language policies kept changing, the learner and how they learn changed
too. As a result, teachers had to adjust their classrooms and make them relevant to the learner while trying to
modify the learner’s attitude towards learning English. Currently, classrooms consist of post-millennial
learners that have grown up using technology. In order to appeal to them, teachers have to apply new
learning strategies and tools in the classroom to make them interested in learning the English language. By
using technology, such as YouTube, which is considered a source of online learning material that can play a
key role in the teaching and learning field (Almurashi, 2016), teachers can appeal to learners with tools that
are familiar to them and modify their attitude towards learning English. This study will research how teachers
can make YouTube relevant to post-millennials when they are learning English. Continually, this paper will also
see how to help students learn English with YouTube. Furthermore, there is research that suggests that
YouTube can be integrated into traditional English courses as a supplementary tool (Almurashi, 2016), so this
paper will discuss ways YouTube can be used in the classroom and how it is relevant to the students. By
researching these aspects, this study will find how to use YouTube effectively in the classroom.

Introduction

Language policies in Puerto Rico have shaped how language is taught in schools since the first policy
was introduced into the curriculum in 1898 (Maldonado, 2016). After language policies were introduced,
different language policies were implemented in the curriculum throughout the years, which led to there
being different ways of teaching every few years and these changes influenced how languages were taught in
schools (Maldonado, 2016). For this reason, there exist a constant back and forth between which languages,
either Spanish or English, should be used in educational contexts. These language policies that were
implemented not only affected schools, but it they also affected how students perceived language learning,
how each generation reacted to learning the English language. Additionally, because of the changes in
language policies, many students developed negative or uninterested attitudes towards learning English and
led to the situation we have presently of students having blasé attitudes towards English language learning.

In order to reach reluctant or uninterested students, such as the one’s discussed previously, teachers
have to look for activities and tools that their students enjoy. For this reason, teachers always look for tools
that can help them teach and that at the same time, are relevant to this generations students, which are the
post-millennial students. Post-millennial students are learners who have grown up with technology and have
been greatly exposed to it (Strauss & Howe, 1991). The post-millennial, which is another term to describe
people who are a part of Generation Z, are used to utilizing the internet. Because of this reason, teachers have
to search for materials and activities that the post-millennial learner is familiar with and that holds an interest
to them.

A tool that teachers can use, that has worked previously when teaching languages, is the video sharing
internet website, YouTube. YouTube is an internet website that was created in 2005 and in this internet
website people can upload videos of different subjects and share it with the public (Brook, 2011). Many
YouTube videos provide varying information to their viewers and many educators and scholars use YouTube
to upload videos related to language learning. Since YouTube contains lessons and information on the English
language, students can use YouTube to watch videos related to English language learning and in this way learn
from the videos. YouTube, which is considered a useful online learning material and that plays a key role in
the learning and teaching field (Almurashi, 2016), could be used by teachers to promote language learning
and facilitate the learning process. YouTube can help by being a tool that students can use both inside and
outside of the classroom and which would implement the use technology in the course. YouTube is also
relevant to students and a helpful tool to use in the classroom because it encourages student interaction and
increases student’s learner autonomy and authenticity. For example, it was reported that apart from
improving student interaction, it also increased the authenticity of tasks and encouraged student-centered
learning ecologies (Brook, 2011). Using YouTube in the classroom would also be helpful to teachers because if
they use it, it will be beneficial to both them and learners since it creates opportunities for students to share
and respond to others content (Duffy, 2008). It also creates a great opportunity for students to learn from
another technological tool.

Background

Learning the English language in Puerto Rico has been a constant struggle in Puerto Rico. The changes
in language policies in Puerto Rico and the repeated back and forth between languages has provoked people
to have antagonistic views towards English language learning. The language battle that has been taking place
in Puerto Rico can be observed throughout Puerto Rican history starting in 1898, when English was used as a
medium of instruction, while Spanish was not used at all. This language policy was first introduced when the
Americans began to settle in Puerto Rico in order to instill the English language into society. The
implementation of this language policy had a negative effect and caused Puerto Rican elitists and politicians
to reject English and as a result, led to the constant back and forth between language policies for the next
decades. After rejecting the first language policy, other language policies followed. In one case, Spanish was
reestablished as the medium of instruction while English was taught as a subject. Afterwards, when the
administration changed, this changed again and English was once again used as a medium of instruction and
Spanish was considered a subject. As had occurred with previous language policies, the policy was replaced
and the first attempt at a bilingual program was introduced, with the use of Spanish as the primary medium of
instruction until fourth grade and then the use of English as the primary mode of instruction from fifth grade
and on. Although, this policy remained for a few years, it changed with the Padin administration, and kept on
changing until 1949, with the Villaronga administration, which established Spanish as the medium of
instruction and while English was taught as a subject. This last policy aimed to preserve the Spanish language
and had a huge effect on how Puerto Ricans think of languages and interact through them. The movement to
preserve the Spanish language also greatly influenced how Puerto Ricans perceive their national identity and
developed their self–patriotism, which rejects the North American sentiment and thus has influenced how
Puerto Ricans English think negatively of English and of English language learning.

The battle to get students to think of English positively has been a difficult task for teachers. English is
seen as the enemy, which aims to replace the Spanish language, thanks to the effort made in the 20 th century
to put English as the medium of instruction and has led to the rejection of bilingual programs in the school
curriculum. Although this sentiment exists, English is still taught in schools and many teachers try to change
the attitude that exists toward English language learning. Even though the attitude towards English remains
mostly the same, the ways we learn English, the resources to learn English, and the learners keep changing as
the decades pass. Previously, there was little access to English, it was barely used by people in Puerto Rico,
there were not many tools to teach it with and learners did not have access to the English language on a
regular basis. This has changed a bit now that technology exists and that the learner has changed. The learner
now is a post-millennial learner and has grown-up surrounded by technology and using it and is more of a
visual learner. As a result, post-millennials have been more exposed to English through technology and the
use of different websites, such as YouTube, through this technology.

Technology and the internet have had a great effect on the world and have influenced many aspects of
people’s lives, including their education. Websites on the internet can also be used by language teachers to
increase the exposure their students have to the English language and the amount of practice they can do
with it. By using different educational websites effectively, teachers can greatly help students and encourage
them to be more active in their language learning. One website that has been proven to work has been
YouTube, a website that has been used by many teachers in the past years. YouTube is a video sharing
website that allows users to see various types of content and to create their own content and post it on the
website. It is a website that has been used by many language educators to post lectures and language learning
videos. YouTube, as described, is an online learning tool that can greatly help teaching and learning and that
may influence students to change their attitudes towards language learning.

Research Question/Problem

Now, we know a bit of why most Puerto Rican students usually have a negative or uninterested view
towards language learning and we also know of a way of using technology that might change their perception
of English language learning. What we don’t know and have to answer is that if we use this technology, which
in this case would be YouTube, how can we make this tool relevant to Puerto Rican post-millennial students
and their learning process? Also, can this change student’s attitudes towards English? In this paper, we will
look at the use of YouTube in the classroom and students attitudes towards learning English. By doing this, we
will see how YouTube is relevant and can help students in their language learning and hopefully influence
students to have a more positive view towards learning the English language.

Literature Review

YouTube, as we read before, is video sharing website where people from all parts of the world can
interact with each other, where you can create your own content as well as enjoy content displayed on the
website. The question is how can we make this versatile website into a learning tool for students, or in other
words, how can we make it relevant to them learning English? We can make it relevant to students because
with YouTube, as many authors agree, students can be encouraged to have peer-to-peer interaction with each
other, they can be exposed to authentic learning material and develop their learner autonomy. Before
explaining why these factors are beneficial for students to have, we have to define the terms and know what
characteristics each one brings with it. Peer-to-peer interaction is an approach to interaction between
participants in a shared activity and it is characterized by a network based organizational structure, a shared
common resource base, and the assumption participants have the potential to make constructive arguments
(Bruns, 2016). It is beneficial for students to have this in the classroom because it improves their social skills
and reinforces the knowledge they have by sharing their ideas with others. Learner Autonomy is student’s
ability to take charge or be responsible of one’s own learning and it is important for students to develop
learner autonomy because they will take more responsibility for their learning, they will develop a willingness
to do independent learning, and they will use the target language to learn. Authentic Learning refers to
educational techniques focused on connecting what students are taught in schools to real world problems and
applications and it is relevant to students because students tend to learn better in authentic environments, it
makes concepts easier to be assimilated and it blends theory with practice.

As we see, these factors help student’s language learning in different ways, but how do these work
with YouTube to help students learn? In reality, YouTube’s role in student’s language learning can happen in
various forms and can affect their learning in distinct ways. YouTube can affect student’s peer-to-peer
interaction because it encourages them to engage in conversations about the topic talked about in the videos
and it increases their communication skills because they interact more with others while discussing the
video’s content inside or outside of the classroom. YouTube can also affect student’s learner autonomy
because it enhances their learner autonomy and encourages them to look for more educational video
content, it can stimulate life long learning habits and it can improve all of the language skills (reading, writing,
speaking, listening) by providing content students can use to practice their language skills. YouTube affects
authenticity because it improves the authenticity of the tasks students are exposed to by providing a platform
where students can interact with other users of YouTube and post responses to videos, which gives them the
opportunity to use the language outside of the classroom environment. Students can also be exposed to
everyday English used by English language speakers (Alwehaibi, 2015), and it makes students learning process
more enjoyable and meaningful (Almurashi, 2016). YouTube can influence students in different ways and by
using YouTube correctly, we can encourage student’s peer-to-peer interaction, authenticity and learner
autonomy.

In today’s classrooms, we are working with post-millennial students. Post-millennial’s or Generation Z

are people who were born after 2002 and are the generation that has grown up with technology. This
generation has different learning characteristics, such as that they are skilled multi-taskers, they have a short
attention spans, diminished verbal skills, and they have a high reliance on technology for access to
information and learning (Bolinger, 2013). Since post-millennals are used to technology, tools such as
YouTube, will be familiar to them, which makes it easier to use in the classroom. YouTube helps and is
relevant to the post-millennial learner because it uses technology and in this way is familiar to them, it has
content that students find entertaining and relatable, it helps students learn and it can deepen real-life
connections as well as bridge generations.

In our classrooms, we are not dealing with post-millennial only, we are dealing with Puerto Rican post-
millennial learners. When creating lesson with YouTube for these learners, we have to think about YouTube’s
impact in Puerto Rico and how we can use it with Puerto Rican students. YouTube in Puerto Rico has been
proven to be rising in popularity, with the rise of over 50% YouTube visualizations in one year alone (Jiménez,
2016). This means that Puerto Rican’s are using YouTube more and seeing all types of content, such as how-to
videos and music videos, which were found to be the type of videos Puerto Rican’s see the most (Jiménez,
2016). As there is a rise in YouTube’s popularity, teachers can use it in the classroom and make it relevant to
students by using video content that they will enjoy and learn from at the same time. By doing different
activities in the classroom with YouTube, such as watching and commenting on videos, discussing the videos
with classmates and creating original YouTube content, Puerto Rican post-millennial students will be learning,
increasing their peer-to-peer interaction, authenticity and learner autonomy and using YouTube in a
educational manner.

Now that we have discussed how YouTube is relevant to students, there still remains the question
whether it can change Puerto Rican post-millennial students indifferent attitudes towards English language
learning. As discussed here, we know that YouTube provides a platform that is familiar to students since it
uses technology and has content that they might find enjoyable and relatable. The fact that YouTube provides
all these things is a good point for teachers to believe that it might help change student’s attitude towards
English because students might be more receptive to the language by using this website. In order to discover
if it can really change students attitudes there would need to be more studies done on the subject. Although
things are still inconclusive in relation to this topic, there is hope to believe that students attitudes can change
because there now exist more ways to learn English and to relate to English and in this way, maybe some day
they will see learning English as something to further their own language abilities, rather than as something
related to politics and power.

While reading articles of how YouTube can help ESL/EFL students learn English, there were many
different ideas of how this tool worked to help ESL/EFL learners speak, read, write and understand the English
Language. Although there were many differing ideas, some ideas that the authors all used was the fact that
using YouTube can encourage peer-to-peer interaction, increase the authenticity of tasks and increase
student’s learner autonomy. This lets us know YouTube is a helpful tool for teachers to use in the classroom
and that it is relevant to students because it helps them develop a variety of skills they can use inside and
outside of the classroom.

Conclusion

In Puerto Rico, learning the English language is something that has been difficult for many to achieve
and for educators to teach because of negative or indifferent attitudes towards learning the language due to a
history of language policies and imposition of the English language in Puerto Rico. By using different
technological tools, such as YouTube, in the classroom there is a chance to change this and use YouTube as a
tool that helps students learn English. As we see in this paper, we have learned that YouTube can help
students improve a variety of skills and that it is a tool that is relevant to learners because it encourages them
to have peer-to-peer interaction, it increases their exposure to authentic tasks and it increases their learner
autonomy. In this paper, we also learn about the type of students that we have in the classroom, which are
Puerto Rican post-millennial students and learn of ways we can use YouTube to teach these types of students
and learn how YouTube is helpful and relatable to them. By using YouTube in the classroom, we might be able
to change student’s attitudes towards English and hopefully foster more positive attitudes towards learning
English. Also, we will be able to get students to develop different skills and we will be using a platform that is
accessible and that uses technology students are familiar with and find enjoyable. I think that using YouTube
in the classroom would be beneficial to teach English because students will be more interested in it and it is
also a great technological tool to use in the classroom.

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