To begin with, it is necessary to clarify something very important: using films for teaching English is not a waste of time! Many teachers are reluctant to use these tools in their classrooms because they think that they waste a lot of time when watching a film. However, we must remind those teachers that they do not have to use an entire film to teach English, they can just use video clips from a film they have chosen and that is perfect both for teachers and for your students, because you use your time wisely and your students do not get bored easily when using short clips.
To follow with, the benefits of using films in the EFL classroom are as valuable as the benefits of using music in this instructional setting. First, students have the opportunity of having contact with English in a "real context". Although stories presented are mainly fictional, English is still used in the same way native speakers use it. Secondly, films can provide teachers with an attractive way of teaching new vocabulary!! If you present your students a video clip with subtitles, you can share new words with them, and work with those words in future activities. Thirdly, films promote students' motivation in the classroom! As teachers, we can do lots of activities based on the films they like, or that they feel identify with, and in that way they will be more willing to participate actively in the class.
Additionally, an extra-remark is needed here: subtitles in English can always be extremely useful to help students understand what the characters are talking about. Students usually have a hard time when trying to understand native speakers of English who speak fast, and usually in films native speakers DO speak very fast! In order to help your students to cope with this situation, add English subtitles to the video clips you will share, and they will not feel so lost.
In order to share a good example of a video clip that gathers all the benefits that have been previously presented, here you have an excerpt from the famous film "Catching Fire", the second film of the novel-based saga "The Hunger Games. If your students are teenagers and love this saga, they will totally enjoy doing an activity based on this video-clip:
Caritooo, I totally agree with you. I think that we as future teachers need to be aware of the things that children and teenagers are interest in . Teenagers usually get bored easily and as you mentioned through films we can catch their attention and teach meaningful and interesting things to them. I really enjoyed reading your post because I think it is very accurate with our future work. :)
ResponderEliminarThe second paragraph reminded me some classes in which we have seen a few minutes of a movie that seems interesting, although we have to work well in class to see this audiovisual material, those little cliffhangers at the end of the scene are a good source of motivation to work in class in order to earn those minutes of the film. I would encourage my students to try this exercise of course with a movie in English, being careful with the accents (which can be a problem for starters), and with subtitles on to help them. I loved this entry from the very beginning to the end and I want to see the hunger games!
ResponderEliminarNice! I totally agree with you. the benefits provided by a tool that allows us experiencing the language in a "real context" can not be compared with a instructional lesson based on grammar. Films have the advantage of teaching the pragmatic aspects of the language through a recreation of a common experience in which the characters use a natural language. Of course, you cannot use an entire film to teach that, but you can choose a specific scene related to the purpose of the lesson.
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