Even though there are lots of types of videos one can use in class, from film clips to documentaries, from talk show extracts to news bulletins, the book focuses on the benefits of using commercials, TED talks, and video clips for global competence development, as these materials were exploited for the sake of the classroom study. Apart from obvious benefits, such as being authentic and providing students with real-life language (Davis, 1997), TV commercials are short, focused, and thematic in content, which makes them suitable for working with different issues and they easily lend themselves to content-based language teaching (Davis, 1997). Another great benefit is that commercials contain “culturally-loaded slices of modern society” (Davis, 1997, para. 4), offering insight into “values, behaviours and ways of thinking, social problems, stereotypes, and idiosyncrasies” (Davis, 1997, para. 4), all of which can be exploited for students’ global competence development.

TED talks are also seen as valuable resources for the language classroom (Aljoani, 2019; Harb, 2018; Li et al., 2016) and the benefits of using them for language development purposes have been disseminated by National Geographic Learning, whose 21st Century Reading coursebook series uses talks as the “springboard to share ideas” (National Geographic Learning, n.d.) and bases their units on the topic of the talks. As they argue on their website for the coursebook, the main benefit of TED talks is that they use authentic language, which could serve as a model for the students. Moreover, they seem to emphasise educating global citizens, as they claim that TED talks “ignite curiosity and introduce learners to ideas which can change the world” (National Geographic Learning, n.d.). Indeed, TED offers talks from experts and laypeople alike on topics ranging from design to nature, education to sport, and technology to society. These topics, if brought into the classroom, have the potential to spark interesting debates and provoke differences in opinion, which students should learn to handle in the context of GCED. Moreover, TED speakers model how to take a stand for a cause and how to express their opinion on a topic in a convincing manner, which is a skill needed by global citizens. Furthermore, TED offers another great resource for the classroom: TED-ED video animations are short, powerful, and they present ideas about different topics that could spark students’ curiosity. On the TED-ED website, teachers can create interactive lessons for their students, or they can use other educators’ ideas. These videos can also be used in the EFL classroom to the same end as TED talks, they can open discussions, they can serve as the basis of listening comprehension activities and images captured from the videos can be used for different activities requiring students’ creativity.

Another powerful input in the classroom for introducing local, global, and intercultural issues is the music video clip: if we choose the clip carefully, catering to our students’ interests and tastes, “music will not only offer content which is part of […] students’ world and interest but may also prove to be a springboard to address global issues” (Sampedro & Hillyard, 2004, p. 108). Teachers can either exploit their students’ interests or they can choose songs for them, and if they succeed, students might listen to these songs outside class, practising the language and thinking about the topic. According to Sampedro and Hillyard (2004), it is important to consult the students for their tastes and teachers can also use their favourites; however, it seems to be more advisable to choose songs that are closer to the students’ world if one would like to bring the issues closer to them. After selecting the right song and video clip for class, based on Sampedro and Hillyard’s recommendation (2004), one can identify and discuss the issues, work on general comprehension, work with the language, work with emotional responses (to develop students’ empathy), link them to everyday events (e.g., protest songs) and work on the background information. By using songs students would otherwise listen to outside class, teachers can show that not only the songs but also the problems these songs address are part of the students’ world. Recent events, such as the MeToo Movement, Black Lives Matter Movement or the Time’s Up Movement politicised popular artists like Beyonce, Macklemore, Stormzy, Ariana Grande, who chose to address pressing issues (e.g., white privilege, police brutality, gun control, feminism) in their music. By using modern-day protest songs, teachers can more easily tap into sensitive topics, link songs to current events and raise students’ awareness of these issues. Finally, the stars behind these songs can also serve as talking points as many celebrities nowadays tend to openly support important causes. Dealing with the charitable work popular artists whom students might look up to do might inspire youngsters to deal with these issues outside class as well and also to take action (Divéki, 2019).