Job Discussion Forums

[satchel]

Paul,

Well, I'm sorry you feel like that. I actually take about five pages of the scipts, and watch that much of the movie, then go over it. Since they all know the story in their own language, it works well. Calling me incopetant will only get you a swift kick it the ass my friend, so please watch it.

I am actually shooting a 12 volume ESL lesson right now that will be brought out on DVD this Winter. Get with the times. Criticizing people like that only shows fear and self doubt. Ease up man.

In fact, at a recent convention of ESL publishers, They said they were moving in a more audio visual direction. My students love it, and learn a huge amount of vocabulary.

Anyhow, I am used to people thinking like you.

As for France laughing at the US, weel, they are the ones who lost out on the huge oil contracts when Sadam fell.

[Glenski]

satchel,

Your students may learn a lot of vocabulary, but are they learning anything they can use? That is, grammar? Of course they like watching movies to "learn English". Who wouldn't like a class like that?

I would just caution against too much use of such strategies. I don't use them at all,mostly for lack of time on my part. You wouldn't want your students learning just a lot of slang and vocabulary with no foundation to use it.

[satchel]

Of course not. I teach the Present Progressive with the action shots.

Then, in the dialogue, there are various tenses used. Obviously I teach a Gram. lesson first. They DO enjoy the movie parts to. The whole point is that they think it's fun to learn. As for slang, that is a bonus for them. If I give them those tid bits, they usually have more energy to learn gram.

Otherwise, they just nod their heads and pretend to listen.

With young students, they all grew up with computers in their homes from a very early age, where as we got them after we developed abit more. They need that. Changing with the audience who is receiving your words is important, at least to me. My students speak very well, and are informed with pop culture. They would much rather practice sent. like:

Neo IS RUNNING down the street when he hears a shot.

Rather than:

Bob IS BUYING three apples.

Anyhow, we all have our dif. techniques. When I watch a video, I read a page, and then watch what we read. One page equals one minute. SO we watch a minute of video after they read it. They can piece to it together and then we talk about it.

I think it is a more practical way of teaching, seeing as how there are no books when a real conversation is going down. Getting them to be more natural with English is the key for me.

My question was, inially, to ask if we can put in our own techniques or is there a strict lesson plan. The Matrix thing was just an example. I'm not a video *beep*.

Thank you for all of the comments. I'm glad to see there are so many dedicated people out there.

Peace.

[chinagirl]

Glenski and Paul,

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the use of movies. Have you tried it? In some contexts it can be very effective. Here in the US, I know of several IEP's that have listening modules based around watching films. Movies can be a perfect medium for providing comprehensible input, as long as the teacher is summarizing the action at the student's level. English class can be fun sometimes, ne? This is not to say that Satchel should be ONLY showing movies in class - but I agree with him. I've used movies in the classroom myself, and used in moderation, students do acquire a lot of vocabulary. Lessons and extensions can be planned around various scenes. The students are engaged in the stories, and they are improving their listening comprehension, as well. Don't be so hard on Satchel!

Here are a some programs that use movies as part of their curriculum:

University of Maine's IEP http://www.umaine.edu/iei/Courses&Programs/Main.html

University of Pennsylvania's IEP
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/elp/programs/intensive/courses/intensive_intermediate.php

University of Dallas
http://gsmweb.udallas.edu/iep/curriculum.htmland

Wisconsin-Milwaukee (don't have the website handy)

[Glenski]

[PAULH]

For what its worth

I didnt mean to imply that using movies was a bad idea- i think it depends on HOW it used. i have heard of etachers putting the students in front of a VCR and going out to read the newspaper for the rest of the lesson.

I have used video in my classes (American sitcoms such as I dream of Jeannie,as well as clay animation wallace and Gromit.

As Glenski says a lot depends on the level of your students- if you are teaching ESL students living in the US they are going to have far greater ability in english than a class of college students who have a TOEFL score of 250 and dont speak much English. If you are teaching a class of returnees or bilingual students that's great. I currently teach a class using the Interchange videos with a university class and most can not handle more than 4-5 minutes of 'chunks' of English otherwise they just forget it without reinforcement, with a lot of time spent on vocabulary, grammar drills, building up their background knowledge, explaining vocabulary etc. A lot of stuff that would be taken for granted in the US has to be spelt out in much more detail here. I recently heard of someone who was trying to explain Lord of the Rings to his Japanese girlfriend and found it impossible to explain it in English for her in language she could understand.

[PAULH]

[Glenski]

[PAULH]

[quote="Glenski"]

[Glenski]

Just for what it's worth, I thought I'd mention a part of the SMAPxSMAP TV program that comes on late at night. One of the SMAP singers, Shingo Katori has a competition in which he is pitted against another Japanese person. Katori has charisma, but lacks a lot in English ability (despite the fact that he has recently published a book on English phrases, or some such thing). The other person usually has spent a time overseas, and is therefore theoretically supposed to be better in English.

In the competition, you watch e a film clip (maybe 15 seconds long). It is subtitled in Japanese right up to the last part. Then, the subtitles are gone, and the actor says his/her line. Katori and the other person are supposed to repeat this, either in English (clearly and verbatim) or Japanese. To my knowledge, neither person does very well.

My point? Just that these people have a lot of exposure to English in one way or another, yet they have problems hearing a single line correctly from a film clip.

[chinagirl]

Just wanted to share one way that movies can be used. The IEP's that I mentioned earlier used this technique - I know that they don't explain it on their websites. For IEP's using a certain program (Focal Skills) there is a specific way that movies are used (with beginners). This is just one way to do it, but interesting and worth knowing about. (Heard about this at a TESOL conference)
I am aware that this is for IEP immersion, where students are dedicated 3 hours daily to listening, so obviously this does not apply to your situation, Glenski. Just thought you might find it interesting.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Article from Focal Skills webpage:
Clinging to the face of a cliff, Indiana Jones watches as crocodiles devour his enemies in the river far below. Westley kisses Buttercup after rescuing her from the evil Prince Humperdinck. Kevin whoops in glee as the Wet Bandits are hauled off to jail. And a dozen or so ESL students gasp, sigh, laugh, and acquire English.

Teachers in IEPs using the FOCAL SKILLS approach have developed a specialized movie technique for accelerating the growth of students' listening comprehension. This technique is a major element of FOCAL SKILLS pedagogy and appears to be a key factor in the success of programs using this approach.

FOCAL SKILLS is built around the concept of "functional skill integration," (Hastings 1995), which means simply that students' stronger language skills are used as tools for building their weaker skills. We regard listening comprehension as the most essential tool, since all classroom discussions are in English. For this reason, high-intermediate listening comprehension is a prerequisite for most of our instructional modules. Students whose listening comprehension is below this level are placed in the "Listening Module," which is devoted entirely to improving their listening comprehension.

The Listening Module meets for 3 hours daily, with a fourth hour normally reserved for elective classes. Students remain in Listening until they have satisfied the prerequisite. Listening comprehension is reassessed every few weeks, and students are moved on to other modules (for example, Reading or Writing) as soon as they are ready.

In designing the instruction for the Listening Module, we are faced with several challenges. First, we must focus intensively on listening comprehension, because students are placed in Listening for the sole purpose of bringing this skill up to criterion as rapidly as possible. Second, we must find materials and methods that will be appropriate to the range of abilities (from beginners to intermediates) that may be found in the same classroom. Third, we must somehow keep the students attentive and motivated for 3 hours every day.

Movies help us meet all three of these challenges. We use ordinary feature films--whatever is available and acceptable to teachers and students. We cover the entire movie, relying on the story and characters to maintain our students' interest and enthusiasm. The movie is shown in short segments. Each segment is played, then repeated with frequent pauses (perhaps with the sound turned down). During the repetition, the teacher narrates the action in slow, clear, simple English, often pointing to relevant features on the screen. In this way, the students receive large amounts of comprehensible input (Krashen 1985). Those with low ability can listen for words corresponding to salient elements of the picture; those with somewhat better comprehension skills may be able to understand most of the teacher's narration; and those who are nearly ready to leave the Listening Module can probably understand quite a bit of the sound track.

Frequent oral comprehension checks, in the form of questions requiring very brief answers (e.g., yes or no), accompany the narration. This helps the teacher monitor the students' understanding of the story. If some important plot element has not been grasped, the teacher can then present any necessary explanations or elaborations before continuing. This practice improves the students' chances of understanding subsequent episodes, since the plot provides a cognitive framework for the integration of new information. Comprehension checks also serve to keep the members of the class alert and focused.

Dozens of movies have been used successfully in this way. We have had good experiences with almost every genre: drama, mystery, western, science-fiction, comedy, romance, animated fantasy, and so on. The best choices contain a great deal of visible material to talk about: vivid actions, colorful settings, and striking personalities. On the other hand, long, complicated conversations dealing with remote, off-screen matters are difficult to deal with, because most of the students are unable to understand such dialogue and there is little that the teacher can point to or narrate. One good way to evaluate a movie for possible use is to watch it with the sound off. If you can maintain a fairly constant flow of pertinent commentary, the movie should be suitable.

In order to employ this technique effectively, teachers must possess detailed knowledge of the movies they use. The students' attentiveness and comprehension depend at least in part on the accuracy, appropriateness, clarity, confidence, continuity, and timing of the teacher's narration. The teacher must always know what is taking place, anticipate what is coming next, and understand how it all bears on the story. This requires a thorough grasp of the plot, a clear sense of the dominant themes, and a close familiarity with the characters and their motives. Hours of preview and thought are essential before a teacher is ready to use a movie for the first time.

etc., etc....

Interesting, albeit specific to a US IEP situation. I have used the "narration" technique in classes of a shorter length. I turn the sound down for the first time and narrate in comprehensible Engish. It really works for me.

[Glenski]

Chinagirl,

As I wrote, I do not mean to say that teaching with film is impossible or should be prohibited. I'm just saying it is tough. The fact that it is best used in those intensive situations just reinforces that (assuming students can stay away or focused, as your article clipping states).

[chinagirl]

Glenski,

Thanks for taking the time to write such a nice, thorough reply. As I stated, I knew that this method was not practical for Japanese HS students, however, I was just sharing it because I thought it was an interesting technique the way it was described.

As far as the "beginner versus beginner" issue, I understand exactly what you mean. When I taught at an Ecuadorian language institute, my beginners could usually form paragraphs. What a shock it was when I went to Japan a year later and realized that my high intermediate students matched the "beginners" that I had worked with previously. Now that I am back here in the US, I work with both children and adults in the public school system. Their backgrounds and needs vary tremendously, but I feel that after my experiences in Latin America and Asia that I am able to "place" them more accurately in my mind. I have a much richer understanding of what English education is like in their respective cultures.

[TokyoLiz]

Can we split this thread and talk about the use of video in its own thread?

I've been using video for years in the classroom. I hardly ever use feature movies because there just isn't time. However, I have used whole episodes of X Files, cartoon shorts and taped news broadcasts in my classroom.

At the school I was working at in Canada, we had two morning periods of 80 minutes each. We were under a restriction to show no more than 15 minutes of video at a time, and demonstrate a clear purpose for the lesson.

The activities I used were of my own invention or borrowed from other teachers - describing a scene in the present progressive, cloze exercises with selected scenes, using adjectives and adverbs to describe the action, sentence/plot order paper bits activities, using conditionals to describe the possible endings of a story.

At the moment, I'm teaching junior high school. Like Glenski, I have to think about housekeeping (attendance, etc), setting up the activity, equipment. I've done some songs with my junior high kids, but I can't really justify doing a video lesson. It takes a lot of preparation and eats a lot of class time. I would stay well away from comedies unless the content had a very limited number of idioms, or the focus was on describing the action rather than dialogue.

I'd like to use video in Japanese jhs classrooms, but logistics is what keeps me from doing it. Any suggestions from the braniacs here?