I have been thinking about this a little bit as I have been going through my internship:what is the role that movies should play in a foreign language classroom?
I believe that playing movies is an important, and necessary, part of a foreign language classroom. However, in my personal experience as a student, I remember my teachers playing the movies and then they just had a worksheet at the end of the movie. Is that enough to test the comprehension of the students? We have played a couple of movies so far this year, and for each movie, we have stopped the film at certain parts to ask comprehension questions and explain what is going on, if necessary. I think that a lot of the time (and maybe this is more prevalent in high school than in college), teachers use movies as more of a break than as a helpful teaching tool. I do not think that that is the case all of the time, but I think that that is a factor.
Also, when playing movies, what do you think about the use of subtitles? Thus far, when we have played a movie in class, it has been in French with English subtitles. My concern in that case is that the students are reading the dialogue rather than listening to it. However, if you do not add the subtitles, I fear that they would be lost and they wouldn't understand. Something we haven't yet tried is playing the movie in French with French subtitles, which would be interesting. When you play movies in class, what do you think are the ways you would go about teaching the material during, or after the movie?
I think that movies can be an extremely useful tool to teach culture and language, but sometimes I think that the students do not see watching a French movie as learning. Rather the students see it as a day off from learning.
Very good topic!!! My opinions: Students only read the subtitles and get little to nothing out of the movie. Without subtitles, an entire French movie is too mentally exhausting for students, particularly at the high school level. Short, 10min. or less, videos are ideal. I think foreign language teachers always use full-length films as either a break for the students or a break for themselves. I know that if I ever wasted 100 minutes of class time for a movie it would be for that reason. A little bit of an exception to all of this would be if the film was educational and not just "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" or "Ratatouille" or "Beauty and the Beast."
ReplyDeleteI think that movies have the potential to be very helpful, or wastes of time depending on the use. High level learners will enjoy watching a movie and trying to understand what they are saying. I admit subtitles do just lead to reading without listening, so definitely go for the ones in the target language. Then they can at least match up what they are hearing with the written words. Besides listening skills though, movies can also show the culture of the country. My favorite class in Spain was a movie class because I got to learn so much about Spain's history and culture, along with some Latin American countries. We learned about social issues in all of the movies including immigration, sexuality, and religion. So I would just be careful in how you use movies.
ReplyDeleteAgreed; it all depends on how the movies are used. I personally love when movies are used in classes; I mean, my master's final project will probably be on film, so it's certainly been an effective strategy for my learning. The thing is that in college we no longer watch the movie in class like we used to do in high school, so it doesn't feel like a break. It would be challenging for high schoolers to see a movie outside of class; the high school would have to have some type of Blackboard-like system set up, unless it was on YouTube. I think watching movies outside of class and then discussing comprehension questions and thematic questions in class is a good way to incorporate movies.
ReplyDeleteI do not have a problem including subtitles in English in high school and up through the 600-level class, I'd rather have them follow the movie than struggle with advanced listening comprehension (although some movies are easier to understand than others). I think 700-level and up should have subtitles in the native language; that should be enough for the student to get by, and at that point detailed comprehension is required to do an in-depth scene analysis that is typical at that level. Currently in our grad seminar about film there have been at least 2 instances where my scene analysis changed because there were no subtitles and I misunderstood the dialogue. For the lower-level students who will only be reading the subtitles, use movies to teach culture; maybe you'll even be able to hit on small "c" topics. The higher the level is, the more students will be actually listening to the dialogue in addition to reading the English subtitles (at least to pick up on stuff like what kind of accent the speaker has). When used properly, I think movies can be a really effective teaching tool.
I think this could relate well to the flipped classroom discussion. Movies are great if the time is spent outside of the classroom as extra immersion; watching anything longer than 30 minutes probably is just wasting class time that could be used to produce & practice the language. I am a supporter of no subtitles—sometimes getting the gist all on your own is more beneficial than understanding the movie, but paying little attention to the words/FL.
ReplyDeleteMy high school German teacher used films quite often when I was a junior and a senior. I think it's important to choose films that carry some sort of historic or cultural significance for the C2, especially in the higher levels. We would spend a few class periods discussing the major themes and questions raised by German filmmakers and the historical context in which the films were made. This provides for meaningful discussion, exposure to authentic language, and is a good preparation for the more higher level analysis expected in a college seminar. I am very thankful to have been exposed to film so early in my language learning career and it served as a motivator for me to continue my studies.
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