Abstract:

Several years ago in Latvia it became clear that the learning/teaching process had to be radically changed, as the learning outcomes were critically reviewed by the Ministry of Education and Science and the society in general. The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment showed that Latvian students’ knowledge and skills in science, mathematics and reading were quite poor if compared to students’ performance in other developed countries (Kangro et al., 2015). As a result, it was decided to introduce substantial modernization of the school education in Latvia. The basic lines were established in the Regulations of Cabinet of Ministers: “The objective of the implementation of the general secondary education content is a competent pupil who is aware of his or her own personal capacities and interests for the purposeful creation of personal and professional future…” (Cabinet Regulations, 2018). Since the academic year 2020/2021, in accordance with the Cabinet Regulations and the project “School 2030”, a new teaching model based on competencies was introduced in schools of Latvia. Thus, priorities in teaching changed are going to be altered. The new model presupposes that the “embedding” of facts and formulas will be rejected, instead the students’ ability to present their own ideas, to work in teams and to understand what and, ultimately, why they need to study will be developed. In other words, the learning outcomes include knowledge, understanding and skills in learning areas, transversal skills, values and virtues expressed as skills. Accordingly, special attention is paid to the development of language proficiency, as a learner should skillfully use language as a thinking tool for learning (including self-learning) and formulating their attitudes towards it, expressing and defending their viewpoints, and as a tool for intercultural communication.
Taking into account the increasing common use of technologies at school (especially in the context of COVID-19 pandemic), it was decided to conduct an experiment to find out whether the use of authentic videos develops transversal skills in EFL classroom and is an effective method for raising English language proficiency. The pedagogical experiment was conducted among adolescents of secondary school. The lessons contained various tasks based on the content of the authentic videos and aimed at developing transversal skills of the students. During the experiment the students demonstrated their interest to the assignments proposed during the lessons, as well as to their homework and creative tasks, enhancing the development of their creative skills and language proficiency. In addition, a survey to find out the students’ attitude to the use of authentic videos was carried out.
Based on the quantitative measurements of the students’ transversal skills and language proficiency before and after the conducted lessons based on authentic videos, it has been concluded that the use of authentic videos is a productive and effective approach in secondary School EFL classroom.

Keywords:

Authentic Videos, Transversal Skills, secondary School EFL classroom.