Watching English-language movies?

bradwelljackson · Post by **bradwelljackson** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 7:55 am

Does watching English-language movies help students learn English?

woodcutter · Post by **woodcutter** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 3:39 am

Yes, but not much at low-levels. Watching in class is a big waste of time of course, because it is so easy to do that outside of class. However, lots of students like to waste time, and you might score popularity points.

ouyang · Post by **ouyang** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:08 am

Do a search in the job discussion forum for posts by "In Time" and "China Movie Magic". He's posted quite a lot of information about using movies for teaching English.

woodcutter · Post by **woodcutter** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 5:54 am

You can work around the movie of course, break it up, do activities etc, but the people who really want to watch movies in class may not thank you for that, and a movie is a whole big unwieldy chunk of content that may or may not be of interest to various individual class members, so you may also frustrate certain people. Personally I only show movies on the principle that the teacher who does a little bit of everything here and there stays out of trouble.....

bradwelljackson · Post by **bradwelljackson** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 7:31 am

Thank you for your replies. They are helpful. I should be more specific and explain that I am only talking about my students watching movies outside of class. I haven't even considered showing movies *in* class. For example, if I have a student who wants to know a good way to practice English out of class, and I say "watch some English movies with the subtitles turned on", is that good advice?

JuanTwoThree · Post by **JuanTwoThree** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 10:40 am

English sub-titles, yes. I suppose watching a film in English twice, once with the foreign language sub-titles on and once with them off might work but otherwise I don't think many people listen to a second language which they are still learning while they are busy reading their first.

I've learnt some Spanish by watching films in English with Spanish subtitles and the sound off. It's like a comic.

Macavity · Post by **Macavity** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 10:42 am

"For example, if I have a student who wants to know a good way to practice English out of class, and I say "watch some English movies with the subtitles turned on", is that good advice?"

My feeling is this is OK as long as the subtitles are in English.

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 1:00 pm

Technically, of course, showing a whole film to your class constitutes a public performance and is therefore illegal.

However, the end of year is approaching and I know that once grades have been entered onto the system, the kids will do no more work. So I need some way of keeping the little dears occupied or they'll smash up the place and possibly each other. And while they're watching a DVD I can stand behind them.

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:24 pm

In Greenland and I presume in Denmark, the English textbooks were set up so that each story had a movie version. I don't know if it was deliberate but very helpful for the students who need visual input. We saw the movie with English subtitles in chunks and read the story in between. I would often get the script off the Net and then we could compare the story in the textbook with the script and see how they changed it - usually more dialogue of course.

i sure didn't know it constituted a public performance - something to think about. However, the movies were longer than the English period and so we often didn't see the whole thing.

I often turned off the sound too and had the students read the dialogue. Amazing how a different voice can change a character.

We also saw Greenlandic movies and compared them to American and Japanese and then the students made their own, which was really great for all sorts of skills.

woodcutter · Post by **woodcutter** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:41 pm

Since the OP is asking about outside the classroom, of course that's good advice. Anything you can do that motivates and uses the target language a little bit is good. I don't suppose that Bruce Chatwin and other such famous travel writers did all that much watching movies with subtitles while trying to get an exotic language down in a couple of years before the next epic journey. They probably generally did something more challenging. However, for most of us language learners it's often a choice between a movie or something like that or slacking off, and movies are a good introduction to the culture as well as language practice.

bradwelljackson · Post by **bradwelljackson** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 6:21 am

Yes, I am definitely talking about English subtitles. My parents often ask me how I can get their kids into an English-speaking environment. Here in Tangshan, China, I don't know of any English-speaking environments, so I suggested that they get their kids to watch English movies or English television programs. At least that's some kind of context that will motivate them to want to understand English. They way I understand it, language is not designed for practicing, but to actually communicate something, so we must put our students into an environment where they need to communicate the new language. I tell the parents to then ask their kids to explain to them, in English, what just happened in the movie. What do you all think?

woodcutter · Post by **woodcutter** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 11:37 pm

I think they can learn something by watching the film and not communicating one bit (however the ESL goons will have me in room 101 later and when they are done I will agree with you). However, if they have parents with good English who can quiz them about it, it will be helpful. Seems unlikely in Tangshan.

By the way, how is Tangshan reacting to the great fuss being made about the earthquake? Has anyone noted the vast difference between that and the great cover up that followed their great quake?

bradwelljackson · Post by **bradwelljackson** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 10:49 am

Woodcutter: Well, I certainly see many comparisons of Sichuan to Tangshan on the news, but here, I must say, I don't here my colleagues or students talking about it. My students are mainly kids, it must be said. I've asked people about the Tangshan earthquake in general, and it just seems that not many people remember it or even care to talk about it.
There is one interesting footnote: one of my teenage students, when I quizzed him about going to the park that is dedicated to the victims of the earthquake, was conscientious enough to admonish me for my question of whether or not I could have a picnic in the park. He explained that such a thing would not be respectful to the memory of the victims.