Perspectives: Intensifying Practice and Noticing through Videoing Conversations for Self-Evaluation

This paper describes an innovative configuration of video cameras and VHS
recorders which allows teachers to videotape students' short conversations and
give them their video cassette copies immediately to take home and view. A
preliminary analysis of questionnaire data suggests that students benefit from
the procedure through repeated negotiated practice, multiple opportunities for
"noticing" learnable material (linguistic items, communication strategies, beliefs,
attitudes, etc.) in their own and their classmates' output, and control over the
construction of extended discourse. We suggest that the procedure helps teachers
create an acquisition-rich environment for their students to focus on the forms
they need to improve their fluency and accuracy while enhancing their
metacognitive awareness and autonomy. This procedure also offers a potentially
rich source of data for teachers and researchers wishing to study SLA
synchronically and diachronically.