Cultural and National Cultural and National Aspects of Using Films in Aspects of Using Films in

EFL EnvironmentEFL Environment

Dana KabylbekovaSuleyman Demirel University

Almaty, Kazakhstan

Why to use films?Why to use films? It is fun! Different senses and cognitive channels at

the same time They meet viewers’ affective needs,

encourage empathy. DVDs usually have subtitles in English, which

facilitates understanding and improves reading skills.

Culture and FilmCulture and FilmCulture, according to one definition, is

the values, traditions, customs, art, and institutions shared by a group of people who are unified by nationality, ethnicity, religion, language.

Film is the reflection of a specific type of culture, reflection of reality and modern understanding of traditional values and forming new values

Language Teacher …….Language Teacher …….Kramsch (1995, 90) thinks that in

the future the language teacher will be defined “not only as the impresario of a certain linguistic performance, but as the catalyst for an ever-widening critical cultural competence.”

A picture is better than A picture is better than thousand words …..thousand words …..“Learning about stereotypes,

ethnocentrism, discrimination, and acculturation in the abstract can be flat and uninspiring. But if we experience intercultural contact with our eyes and ears, we begin to understand it”

(Summerfield 1993, 1)

Films about cultural Films about cultural traditions and traditions and intergenerational conflictintergenerational conflict

Films that include Films that include intercultural conflictintercultural conflict

Body Language in cultural Body Language in cultural settings takes place in:settings takes place in:

Films that deal with Films that deal with different patterns of different patterns of behaviuorbehaviuor

The Best Teacher is ….The Best Teacher is …. … the “best” teacher is neither the native nor the non-native speaker, but the person who can help learners see relationships between their own and other cultures, can help them acquire interest in and curiosity about “otherness”, and an awareness of themselves and their own cultures seen from other people’s perspectives”

(Byram, Gribkova, Starkey 2002, 10)