This paper will examine an area of use of film clips and films that frequently receives scholarly attention, and then demonstrate how this area can be connected to YouTube. Shea (1995) describes a debate between ESL /
EFL teachers who favor in-depth examination of film clips and those who maintain that extensive and lengthier exposure to films is more beneficial.
Shea argues for the latter position--students in long engagements with films and movies. With the rise of serialized YouTube stories and other streaming website episodes, or “ webisodes ,” teachers and students who prefer more extensive exposure to films and videos in English can be satisfied with YouTube’s content (Graham, 2005). Similarly, those who favor a more intensive approach can use YouTube to access a tremendous variety of famous scenes in film history. With YouTube, students and teachers could thoroughly examine any of these scenes with a deep focus on speech cadence, tonal shifts, grammatical nuance, conversational
roles, or almost any other topic currently being examined in class.