LIGHTS, CAMERA, GRAMMAR: A CASE STUDY IN STUDENT-CREATED TUTORIAL VIDEOS AS ASSESSMENT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING

Abstract

This case study investigates the impact of a student-generated video task introduced as an innovative assessment strategy in a compulsory first-year English linguistics course within a Foreign Languages and Cultures degree at ESE, IPP, Portugal. These students struggled to engage with traditional approaches to grammar instruction, perceiving it as abstract, overly technical, or irrelevant. To address this issue, a new assessment component was introduced, inviting students to create short (60–90 second) tutorial videos on key course topics, ranging from morpheme vs. word to sentence structure, parts of speech, and grammatical distinctions. Working from a curated list of 44 questions, each student selected a topic, conducted basic academic research, and created a peer-oriented video tutorial using accessible language and illustrative examples. Videos were uploaded to Moodle as a glossary entry and formed part of the continuous assessment scheme, contributing 6% to the final grade. Out of 94 enrolled students, 59 participated in this assessment pathway. Of these, 90% passed the course, compared with only 20% of students who opted for the final written exam. The top-rated videos revealed strong use of grammatical metalanguage, structural clarity, and creative multimodal elements. Findings suggest that low-stakes, student-created digital projects improve autonomy, digital literacy, and motivation, while reducing affective barriers to learning. This case study argues that peer-led, formative assessment tasks can enhance understanding and engagement with complex linguistic content in higher education.