The Advantages & Disadvantage of Learning English Via Youtube
As one of the most popular websites, YouTube offers amazing and usefulvideos from all over the world. Of course, everyone knows about this website and people use it for entertainment and educational purposes. Due to its popularity,teachers and students have made the best use of it for teaching and learning processes,including English. Although there are other websites, many prefer the YouTubeapplication.The advantages of YouTube are its authenticity and can increase in students'motivation in learning English.
YouTube videos are a combination of visual contextand spoken language and enhance learners' ability to enjoy and understand Englishlessons. Most students in the study agreed that they use YouTube in class to learn newvocabulary. Moreover, these videos provide an attractive and interesting learningenvironment and motivate them to learn faster and better. Among all social media platforms, YouTube ranks first when it comes to content filled with various authenticmaterials. From movie clips, cartoons, podcasts, speeches, stories, tips, health, music, etc.
Another significant benefit of using YouTube is motivation. When a studentlearns English via YouTube, they come in contact with the language of real people.This allows them to learn English like native speakers, which motivates and excitesthem to learn English. Learning English with YouTube is much better than learningwith books. This is because students can hear and see someone explaining or doingsomething. Also, learning pronunciation with YouTube seems to be much better thanlearning with a dictionary. For example, if we want to learn English homonyms, wouldn't it be confusingto just see words and not hear someone pronounce the words correctly?
Or what if you want to learn English in the Philippines and want to learn more about the country? I bet you'd like to see real video footage of the beautiful white beaches and attractive tourist spots, wouldn't you? In this internet-driven world, more and more students are also looking for a new and fun way to learn English. Generally speaking, students of the Internet generation are easily frustrated and bored with the traditional methods of learning English. Therefore, learning English with YouTube videos and teaching English can attract students' attention and interest.YouTube videos are authentic because they show videos created by people from all over the world and serve both teaching and entertainment purposes.These videos can enable learners to "learn to communicate effectively in a foreign language by experiencing the language as it's used by native speakers in real-life communication" (Rogers & Medley, 2010 cited in Lin 2012). In this way, learners can prepare for how they hear and speak English in the real world. With all the authentic materials, learning English with YouTube can motivate people because they find it interesting to understand real things.
Even though video communication offers countless disadvantages, the personal side of the discussion comes up short. For example, students miss clues about others' body language, which can be more revealing than what they are trying to say. For example, it can be more difficult to engage someone via a video screen, which means it can be harder to focus on what is being discussed in the meeting.Instead of being in the atmosphere of the meeting, you are in your atmosphere, which can limit how well you take in and retain the information. The second disadvantage is that youtube is known to be a free website where users have no restrictions on posting videos.
This leads to some videos having both violent and explicit content. Certain videos on YouTube are not suitable for all children, especially teenagers. Even without warnings, this content could be shown to children. However, by setting up a parental block, parents can protect their children from such content. Not every video on YouTube comes from reliable sources. Some videos are uploaded only for business reasons.
Some videos are made to sell products or promote personal goals. It can take some time to distinguish genuine videos from unreliable ones, and that's an investment, not every educator can make. And not all videos that are popular necessarily contain the right information. Therefore, students need to spend some time searching for videos with the right information about the topic.
In summary, YouTube is used to achieve the goal of teaching and learning. Using YouTube in class can change the situation and atmosphere in the class. Students feel more comfortable learning when they watch the video.