Abstract:

Silent films have long been shown during language classes to ease contextual and pragmatic acquisition. Equally empowering, muted videos are commonly used to help students to learn culture-laden and fixed expressions. They report to appreciate and enjoy using visual cues to understand and then appropriately use unfamiliar language ,and especially to cope with novel situations such as job interviews. This study analyses students’ voiceover responses to a series of muted videos shown during their participation in an oral communication skills course intended to develop their sociolinguistic awareness. The researchers wanted to know the extent to which students benefited from the muted video task. A mixed method design was used to identify the most common challenges learners face with when using culture-laden expressions. Both self-developed, online pre and post-test, and focus group interviews were used as data collection tools. The participants, selected according to the convenience sampling method, were students studying at an English-medium state university in Turkey and taking a compulsory oral communications-oriented English course. Afterwards, participants were seen to have developed sensitivity towards using context-bound fixed phrases. The research data was also useful in helping to pinpoint common challenges for learners when using contextually fixed phrases in English.

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