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johnslat · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 10:25 pm Post subject: Could you use this?

A possibly interesting resource - not all of you have access to technology in your classrooms, but perhaps some of your students have access to movies outside of class. Enjoy this exhaustive resource put together by an ESL teacher with literally dozens of movies reviewed in detail for vocabulary, idioms, etc.

http://www.eslnotes.com/

Regards,
John

Sashadroogie · Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 7:57 am Post subject:

Dear Johnslat

Thank you for this link. Very thoughtful of you. However, I won't have much use for it, as nearly every film listed is just see-through US propaganda - especially 'Moscow on the Hudson'. Shocking stuff. I mean, just count the number of titles with the words America or American. A good indication of how many scenes there'll be of flag worship too.

It seems films from the rest of the world are of no use to EFL learners whatsoever. Perhaps they are considered too hard? Maybe because higher lexical density?

Right. Time for me to watch the new Stalingrad film to help with my Russian language studies.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTsc7pD-qwA

Best wishes

Sasha

Sashadroogie · Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 9:23 am Post subject:

Apart from its ideological shortcomings, this resource doesn't really measure up methodologically either. For instance, a large part of the vocab notes is quite useless, and it would be amazing if not comical if the learners managed to follow what the writer was trying to convey. What is a Large and ugly animal which looks like a strange elephant? Apparently it is how you explain 'rhinoceros'.

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

I'm sometimes a bit befuddled at lexis deemed interesting/useful/necessary by course designers and etc. Surely it's a fairly small segment of EFL learners who really need to know the English word for a rhino.....

I recall a particularly wince-inducing lesson I once observed in which the instructor applied the tactic of giving a gap-fill without any elicitation of useful language in advance. Once he'd established that the poor students knew none of the needed words, he then proceeded to grandly give them the lexis needed for the task. The final gap was apparently intended to be filled by the strange sentence "The horse is standing on the pavement.' This was in a university academic writing class. First and last lesson from this potential employee. (As an aside, he also managed to make a good student cry.)

mk87 · Joined: 01 Apr 2013 Posts: 61

Sashadroogie · Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 10:04 am Post subject:

I'm also surprised by the writer's claims that even quite advanced learners would need help with examples of obscenities, which seem to feature quite heavily in his notes. Oh well, I suppose I'll just have to accept the eccentricities of this 'cosmopolitan man of intrigue' : )

Sashadroogie · Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 3:26 pm Post subject:

Hmmmm. Not such a great film after all. This gentleman does not think so either:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jLcuoDJ560

Guerciotti · Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2014 3:25 pm Post subject:

Thanks John, I can use some of these.
Cool

Gummy Bear · Joined: 11 Jun 2013 Posts: 36

Thanks John. I think this will come in handy! I appreciate you sharing it with us.