Job Discussion Forums

[Sapa2008UK]

I have seen the use of DVD's recommended a number of times. I was wondering what sort of movies or tv shows you use with your classes and for what age groups or levels.
I can't really think of anything that would be usable for basic level english speakers. Most things are probably too complex.

[Extraordinary Rendition]

I don't have any specific materials to recommend, just a few ideas.

All levels up to upper-intermediate: Best if there are sub-titles or a script matching the spoken words exactly. One of the best ways to teach listening skills (as opposed to simply practicing, or testing through comprehension questions) is to give learners a script to read along as you stop the recording and point out features of spoken English that make the flow of speech difficult to follow (word-final consonants linking to word-initial vowels, weak forms, unexpected stress patterns, etc.), and which probably caused whatever problems they had understanding the text initially.

Beginners/Elementary: Not really suitable, except something that might accompany the comercially-produced course book you're using, and then only as a supplemental model for what you're trying to get them to understand and do.

Low- to mid-intermediate: Play video about which a story can be constructed without the sound. Let learners in pairs/groups construct a story or dialogue based on the video. They can act out their dialogue, tell their story, write a text...etc., etc.

Intermediate and above: Movies with sub-titles, as mentioned above. Obviously, the lower the level, the simpler the story (Clint Eastwood?).

Not easy to find films where the sub-titles match the speech exactly. I've often wondered why publishers don't develop such materials, can't be that much more expensive to add sub-titles that could be turned on and off...

We may be told by the moderators that this thread belongs in the Teachers' Forum...

[Glenski]

For low level learners, show only the most basic of DVD clips. Note the word clip. IMO if you show more than 1-2 minutes, you run a serious risk of overloading the students, even higher level ones.

Show pieces of movies, animation, TV programs, commercials, whatever seems to suit the purpose of the lesson (be it a conversation starter or some other aspect of communication vs. a particular grammar point vs. listening skill building/comprehension).

I agree that you should be looking in the Teachers Forum, too, but thought I'd just add these few words to get you going.

[spiral78]

I use clips of weather reports sometimes with low-level students. CBC (Canadian broadcasting corp.) has on-line archived weather clips, including extreme weather like blizzards and tornados, etc. which are pretty interesting.

I find them useful because new vocab is repeated frequently (so the words they learn in one clip are repeated in all of the thematically related clips - ), the clips are short, and they feature visual backup. So - they're not so difficult for even low-level learners to comprehend fairly readily.

[Insubordination]

Mr Bean

[Serious_Fun]

[Anda]

Um, a hand control for a DVD player has a pause button; in other words you can use a movie / cartoon the same way you use flash cards with beginers. Use Chinese subtitles to maintain your students interest.