Video materials (Video). An increasingly popular mode of language instruction
involves the use of video-taped vignettes of 'real life' interaction. These provide
contextualized input to language forms and functions through the audio-visual channel.
Depending on the design of the video materials -- whether they are devised to be for
English as a foreign language pedagogy, or are 'original' samples of authentic language for
non-pedagogical purposes, the salience of form and function can be thought to differ.
Materials designed to teach forms and functions make these features of language optimally
salient though the scripted interactions of the actors. Authentic materials, which are more
common, make no such direct attempt.