Teaching with film in the L2 Classroom

Teaching with film in the L2 Classroom

Dave MalinowskiLanguage Research & Technology Specialist

Center for Language [email protected]

Why use film for language teaching?


(survey & discussion activity)


• Pervasiveness of video • Authentic material modeling natural

conversation• Spoken language in a visual context• Develop students’ cultural capital• Depiction of cultural artifacts• Depiction of attitudes and values• Develop students’ analytical skills

Textbooks

• Language of urban center and educated upper-middle class

• Language devoid of emotions

• Sanitization of social, economic, and historical issues

Film

• Variety of dialects and sociolects

• Full range of emotions• Replete with social,

economic, historical issues


How to use film for language teaching?Some practical questions for teachers

• Should you always have students watch the entire film? How short of a clip is still useful?

• Should film clips be used (just) to teach vocab? • How many times should students be able to watch

a clip?• Should you show subtitles? In the target language?

English? Both? • Should you provide a transcript? • In light of the last 3 questions…when?

“It depends.”

Four (among many) Competencies to teach toward

1. Linguistic competence2. Communicative competence3. Multimodal competence4. Symbolic competence

Inside Out, 2015Pixar Animation StudiosWalt Disney Pictures

Watch from 0:00 to 0:15: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8FFFbi7RbQ

(file deleted from original presentation to reduce size)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8FFFbi7RbQ

4 (among many) competencies to teach toward

1. Linguistic competenceIdealized understanding of the rules and construction of a given language; the system of linguistic knowledge possessed by native speakers of a language (Chomsky, 1965)

Application: Teaching for linguistic competence with this Inside Out clip

– While watching: Complete your cloze activity– Then, discuss:• What linguistic feature is the cloze activity

pointing you toward? • What other linguistic features might you focus

on in this clip? • What activities or tasks could you design in the

classroom (and as homework) to teach these features based on this clip?


2. Communicative competenceThe knowledge of both rules of grammar and rules of use (Hymes, 1972); according to Canale and Swain (1980):• Grammatical competence (knowledge of the language code);

(see “Linguistic competence”)• Sociolinguistic competence (knowledge of sociocultural

rules of use in context);• Strategic competence (knowledge of how to use

communication strategies in case of breakdowns in communication);• Discourse competence (knowing how to achieve

coherence, cohesion in spoken & written text)

Application: Teaching for communicative competence with this Inside Out clip

– While watching: Consider these questions on your handout, item #2 (back side)• Why does imaginary boyfriend say what he says about

Riley in line 3? What does this expression really mean?• How do Riley’s friends react to what Imaginary

Boyfriend says in line 3? Why? • How could Riley’s friends have responded to Imaginary

Boyfriend if there were a line 7, to show their understanding and respond appropriately?

– Then, discuss and report back

Some Ideas for Clips as Homework - 1

Linguistic & communicative focus• Students answer questions focusing on language use• Students create subtitles, captions• Students describe and/or narrate a scene• Students play-act a scene


3. Multimodal competenceThe ability to understand and work with the multiple forms of representation (modes) in human communication as they complement each other, and as they each exercise specific effects upon overall meaningwriting speech gestureimage videoaudiomusical spatial tactileolfactory etc.(e.g., New London Group, 1996; Kress, 2010)

Application: Teaching for multimodal competence with this Inside Out clip

– While watching: Don’t watch.– Consider and discuss in pairs: • What are the characteristics (descriptive) and

connotations (your associations) of these aspects of the sound in the clip: – The quality (timbre) and tone of voice of each

character– Their rhythm and pace of speech– Their accent(s)– Music and other non-vocal sounds


3. Symbolic competence“Positioning the self both inside and outside the discourse of others”; “the capacity to recognize the historical context of utterances and their intertextualities, to question established categories … and place them in their historical and subjective contexts”; “the ability to resignify [these] and play with the tension between text and context” (Kramsch 2011; see also Modern Language Association 2007; Kramsch 2006, 2009)

More on symbolic competence…

Recognize the many ways that meaning is made– Connotative meaning of words– Phatic and poetic functions– Subject position and reframing– Geographical, political, historical and social

references in speech acts by individuals– Through language we seek to understand the

motivations and agenda of our interlocutors

Application: Teaching for symbolic competence with this Inside Out clip

After watching: Consider one of these questions with your partner: • Did/do you find the clip funny? Why? What makes it funny (or

not)? • What challenges or extra steps can you imagine would be

necessary to teach language and culture from this clip (this movie) in another geographic/political/social classroom context with which you’re familiar?

• How would you feel about asking your students to study language with a ‘children’s movie’?

• How would you feel about watching a ‘children’s movie’ (in English) in a professional workshop for instructors of foreign/second/world languages?

Application: Teaching for symbolic competence with this Inside Out clip

After watching: Consider one of these questions with your partner: • Did/do you find the clip funny? Why? What makes it funny

(or not)? • What challenges or extra steps can you imagine would be

necessary to teach language and culture from this clip (this movie) in another geographic/political/social classroom context with which you’re familiar?

• How would you feel about asking your students to study language with a ‘children’s movie’?

• How would you feel about watching a ‘children’s movie’ (in English) in a professional workshop setting for language instructors, as an illustration of how to teach with film?

Film and Symbolic Competence

• Focus on filmic context: the dialog, the setting, and how the scene was shot

• Focus on the utterances of characters– How do the characters themselves display SC?

• Involves implicit recognition of alternatives and the unspoken, the unacted: imagining scenes and dialogs not in the film, drawing lines between the film’s world and the viewer’s

Some Ideas for Clips as Homework - 2

Multimodal & symbolic competence– Decisions: have students speculate on what happened before

or after a clip– Detective: have students determine place, time, genre, mood,

etc., based on cultural clues within the clip– Determine point of view in a scene; retell the scene from

different points of view– Compare scenes from written texts to screen adaptation;

explore alternate modes of representation (movie posters, etc.)– Compare similar scenes across films and languages (e.g.,

Hollywood remakes)– Students create dialogs and act them out

Resource overview – see handout p. 3-4

Special thanks…

Mark KaiserBerkeley Language Center

Coordinator, LFLFC

Teaching with film in the L2 Classroom

Education

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