Marcela Cintra –
The eventful story about the cinema and ELT may be looked at from various perspectives and become a romance, a comedy, even a horror film. In this post, the genre chosen is the one people call dramatic comedy – learners can have fun if films are used/ referred to in lessons, and they need to be challenged out of their comfort zones in order to learn and stretch their ideas and language.
Based on true stories and with inspiring cinematography, this post follows teachers’ pursuit for creative activities that foster learning and participation. The plot becomes interactive when the readers contribute with their favourite films to enrich the discussion with their comments. Here are five suggestions you may use to promote conversation in class.
Spoiler alert: there is no use of film clips (at least not the original ones) in the activities suggested.
- Using photographs for description (e.g. teaching elementary or intermediate learners to describe people) or speculation (e.g. teaching learners to guess how the person in the image is feeling; or, if using classics or films that are less popular with your learners – the one below for teenagers –, you may ask them to come up with a story for the image – what is happening, what happened before that image and what will come up later.). In any case, if the images chosen are not the ones learners are used to, they might be used to promote not only discussions, but also teach them critical thinking and cultural awareness (different film contexts, time, moments in history, actors’ stories, trivia).
- Using quotes to allow learners to bring their own thoughts to the lessons and to add an element of culture as well. The choice of quotes will depend on the learners you have – level of familiarity with films, age, and preferences – and on your style as well. You may choose quotes from films and promote a discussion about the context it was said in the story, how to reformulate it in the words and style of another character (e.g. a line in The Avengers – 2012 – rephrased for a Mary Poppins – 1964 – character). Also, the quotes could be about the cinema (e.g. “The cinema is an invention without a future.”, Louis Lumière) and learners could be challenged to guess who said that, why, whether they agree, disagree. The most important thing is to choose what suits your group, plan how to explore it in a variety of ways – socio-cultural perspective, linguistic aspect – and be prepared for learners to take the activity proposed in a different direction if the quote inspires them differently.
Source: https://www.filmsufi.com/2012/11/taxi-driver-martin-scorsese-1976.html
- Using quizzes to raise learners’ awareness of features of the cinema (a soundtrack quiz to show how memorable music is, for instance), to add challenge, critical thinking and fun (finding out the title of the films in English in the quiz in the picture below may be engaging for group work) or to teach them language features from film titles. Some quizzes are available online (e.g. guessing the films from the tracks in https://www.sporcle.com/games/Kasperm/50-great-movie-soundtracks) and could be assigned for group work (to promote discussion on speculation of film names, opinions, negotiation) but you may choose to create quizzes for and with your groups.
Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1341827/Can-spot-50-hidden-movie-titles-blockbuster-quiz.html
- Constrasting remakes and versions of films and book adaptations. Not only does each director bring a different perspective of the story, but also the audience the film is produced for is going to impact the final edition. You may choose a film that your learners enjoy and have watched and bring a former version or one from a different country. Interesting examples are: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) vs Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Pride and Prejudice (2005 – that also contains a different ending for American audiences) vs Bride and Prejudice (2004).
- Using the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) to encourage learners to develop projects. The website includes information about films and series from all over the world with solid professional information and allows users to rate films and share their views as well. That means learners can use it in the classroom to check how the world ranks some of their favourite films (or even the most hated ones) and check which ones are more popular with the lists available. It is a powerful tool for extensive reading programmes and building lexical repertoire. Furthermore, if learners are logged in, they may add their own comments about the films, working collaboratively to produce a piece of writing.
Well, I hope this is just the beginning and the ideas inspire you to bring more and more films to the classroom. Which of these ideas would you like to try? What films would you use for them? Looking forward to reading about your experience. When it comes to teaching, it is “To infinity and beyond.”
