Job Discussion Forums

[Craigo]

Half of my students (univ. freshmen) who I polled prefer I show Chinese subtitles, to my surprise.
They say they could better understand the meanings,
but, of course, they'd be not be fully getting the structure, idioms, slang, etc. ....

(BTW, I'm talking about DVDs that have options for languages & subtitles.)

[Mr. Leafy]

I don't know if you can adapt a poll once it's been posted, but you might need a fourth option; Closed captioning. CC and subtitles are different because cc is almost verbatim while some subs make cuts to save space (amount varies). Subs give you the idea but not all the words.
I use all of the above depending on the lesson purpose and audience.

[A593186]

If you are showing movies for "class" then you need to choose properly. You are supposed to TEACH English, not toss in a movie, then sit and sleep. The students are supposed to prepare or have intro information about the movie and listen and read English. Chinese subs only encourage them to read Chinese ONLY. Anyone who thinks they read and listen to the English and use the Chinese in a pinch are fooling themselves into thinking they know how to teach.

Otherwise, tossing in Chinese subs or a combo of them (subtitles), is nothing but a movie for entertainment and has nothing to do with teaching or being a teacher.

[doogsville]

I used to teach a 'video listening and speaking' course, which thankfully I now no longer have. The students asked for subtitles and the school backed them up despite my pointing out that it was a listening class and not a reading class. I only ever used English subs though, on the grounds that they had no need whatsoever to practice their Chinese, but their English needed some work. I know from my own experience of watching Chinese movies and TV shows with English subs that they do absolutely nothing to improve my Chinese. I just read the subtitles and watch the action without listening to the Chinese at all.

Your freshmen can better understand the meanings because they are understanding the Chinese, which is doing nothing to improve their English in my opinion.

[Mr. Leafy]

[davelister]

[kev7161]

[Craigo]

Cannot edit the poll, Mr. Leafy.

I could pause the movie to discuss the English subtitles, let students absorb... but, you now, some would be lose interest and time doesn't allow.

Nobody sleeps in my class, A59. Please. Of course, movies are chosen appropriately, and other tactics I employ keep students paying attention

Thanks all for your input

[rogerwilco]

[johntpartee]

[Non Sequitur]

I don't show movies as part of the class but rather as a reward when a milestone is passed. Mid semester assessment and final semester assessment being the principal occasions.
Many of the western DVDs on sale in China are pirate and the additional tracks like translations are missing. So if you're out buying for class use make sure you get the DVD played and identify that the tracks you want are included.
That said I use only the English dialogue but choose movies where the plot is pretty straight forward and the characters delineated ie romantic hero, current love who is not all that attractive, former love who is dead cute and young protagonist who sorts things out and provides the POV.
The Parent Trap is one I've used and found very popular.
Even my hard core 'too cool for school' boys grin inanely at the romantic bits.
Meanwhile I sit at the back and get on with marking.
Tell me again why I show movies right after assessments?

[SeldomSeen]

Another teacher I knew once said that a student should watch a film five times.

1. With Chinese subtitles to get to know the plot.
2. With English subtitles to read and listen to what is being said.
3. With no subtitles. Obviously there will be some parts they won't understand.
4. With English subtitles again to go over the parts they found difficult last time.
5. No subtitles - see how good you are.

Watching a movie five times might be a bit much but I can see some logic in the methodology.

[Denim-Maniac]

Regardless of the identity of A593186, the sentiment is pretty right.

Watching movies is a pretty poor attempt at teaching English. Its practical use is pretty much zero in my opinion. If it was effective in language learning all our students would already be proficient in English as they often spend their entire weekends watching movies. Its an absolute cop out to suggest watching an entire 90 minute (or even longer) movie is suitable as a class activity. As an interesting aside, when a teacher has attempted it in my place (rarely thankfully), the students immediately complain as they can watch movies in their own time and they pay to learn / study.

Thats not to say video and movie doesnt have a place in real language teaching ... A 3 minute (or less) segment is enough material for 90 minutes of class time if used effectively. A clip with 3 or 4 characters with dialogue can be watched silently and students can predict the content of the conversation, predicting roles of each participant and noting any details they can, especially body language and facial expressions etc.

A gap fill could then be used. Students LISTEN only (turn the screen away from them) and complete the gap fill task. They can then decide who is saying what etc, and match the dialogue to their earlier predictions.

Then they watch again ... with audio and visual to check all their predictions and answers.

Id then isolate a 20 - 30 second clip of the 3 minute segment and use it to analyse real spoken English. Students could mark the dialogue for sentence stress, intrusion or examples of connected speech perhaps.

Then a final task would be to predict the next conversation or further dialogue and turn it into a role play. That would be a fairly decent, strong and useful lesson IMO - But that would take a lot of prep I think. However ... if you want to use video that is one way to use it. I think that is a useful and valid contribution .. anyone can feel free to take it and try it.

Just walking into class and letting them watch a movie is a real dumb activity otherwise .. with very little to ever justify it and trying to do so is just plain wrong to me.

[Mr. Leafy]

[muffintop]

Some really good stuff in this thread.

Perhaps somebody who knows how to turn a 3 minute clip into a 2 hour lesson would be kind enough to start a new thread so this gets the attention it deserves.