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Post by brickerage on Sept 14, 2006 16:57:25 GMT 7
I feel that if the students are watching a whole film in English (without Chinese subtitles), then they're looking for the cultural experience -- the text, in other words (and maybe some immersion in high-speed accented speech) -- and I assume the students will have next to no background. So I concentrate on "ways in" to the film: the who, what, when, where questions, why do they all wear leather, why is that man covered in blood, where are the police, and so on. For those reasons I like brief presentations from me backgrounding the film according to my interest, frequently interrupted to pose some, hopefully, discussion questions, like the ones from Gonzo's link: # What did you see? # What did you hear? # Where and when is this film set? How do you know? # What do you know about this period? # Who are the main characters? How do you know? # What is this film going to be about ? How do you know? Those questions work okay because the class always starts at the same time but where in the movie the class starts depends on where it has reached in its loop. The backbone of the presentation is a handout we work through -- a language-tailored synopsis, which allows more detailed development of the discussion questions and also can provide a few answers --, and usually the talky part of the lesson lasts 30 minutes if I'm lucky in what the students will come up with in talking to each other. As far as I know that's about all I can do with the set up here. Your comments are welcome. I agree wholeheartedly with this post. As far as making use of movies in classes, thats a tough nut to crack... fo sheezy. Ive been reading some interesting stuff on iteslj.org/ that gets into how to make the most of the language points in each particular scene (forget the whole movie) and transform a lot of viewings into some in-depth writing classes... even going so far as to video tape the students reinacting scenes from the movie as a final activity. Ive used movies in their entirity in the past, with periodic pauses and explanations, but its really hard to say which technique is most beneficial (or more importantly perhaps, interesting) for the students. Something that struck a chord with me was how some of these authors described using scenes that were only a few minutes short, but disecting them into multiple types of classes over the course of a few days... it seems like a bit of hefty prep work, but still something worth considering. Im glad i found this thread, as Im getting progressively stuck trying to find some sure-fire-kick-ass-take-names movie class that could be a weekly installment. Heres a few links that Ive come across, though. Hope these help whoever is interested... iteslj.org/Techniques/Wolf-UsingVideo.htmliteslj.org/Lessons/Tatsuki-Movie/index.htmlallmovie.com/amg/movie _Root.html www.tcjc.cc.tx.us/campus_sc/media/iss/itfsstate.html#offair(dammit, I have more but I cant find em... and got class. Bouncin. Peace out Raouls =D Long time no see!!)
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Post by Lotus Eater on Sept 14, 2006 17:04:12 GMT 7
This semester I am grouping the movies into themes or modules - so the 1st module is "One person can make a difference", the 2nd "Overcoming personal adversity" etc. At the end of each module (3 movies in each) the students have to analyse the differences in the construction of the movies, the way the person did whatever the theme was about, what other elements contributed to/ruined the process.
Should make it a little more interesting for comparisons and analysis.
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Post by Lotus Eater on Sept 21, 2006 21:25:10 GMT 7
Last week I started the 'personal adversity' module with "Warm Springs" FDR's "adjustment' to polio. Tonight I showed the students an Australian one - 'Swimming Upstream" with Geoffrey Rush - that guy is absolutely brilliant as an actor! The students felt Australian movies are nothing like the big Hollywood productions, but again felt it was a movie that gave them plenty to think about and analyse. It also started an interesting discussion on alcoholism.
I don't stop the movies to discuss language - if a word or phrase I think they won't understand (bloody cur) comes up in the movie I quickly explain it and let the movie continue. For me what we are looking for is the idea behind the movie, how it is portrayed, whether it is done well or poorly and why. The discussion and the written analysis give the studetns the English practice. I figure this is pretty much how we learned L1, so is a useful way of learning L2 - context gives meaning.
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Post by Dr. Gonzo on Oct 12, 2006 7:56:24 GMT 7
Again, not my writing, but these things can happen: especially to the newbie. The bit about explaining things to your school "technician" is one to watch for. Better to get one of the more helpful students to interpret for you!
Videos look great in theory. The teacher bungs one on, tells the students to prepare comprehension questions for each other (so he does not have to) and falls asleep in a darkened corner. The students would far rather watch a film than do grammar exercises and readings, so they will be happy.
Life in practice is seldom so simple. The first problem is finding a suitable video. Your school possesses eight, all of which the students have seen several times. If they have not watched them in a lesson, they will have done so at home.
Perhaps you have bought a video for your own amusement and you bring that in. However, you must not forget one of the golden rules of teaching: anything the teacher likes, the students will not (and vice versa). A film released before 1990 might as well have been made during the Punic Wars. Students will stare at you in horror and cry, “I not born then!”
Another problem is language. If the film is subtitled in the local language, the students will derive negligible benefit from watching it. If it is not, they will not understand a thing.
In some countries you have to be very, very careful about the slightest hint of a suspicion of a whisper of an iota of a whit of a smidgen of smut. If you show an ostensibly innocent film like A Fish Called Wanda during Ramadan, do not be surprised if your students storm out en masse.
Let us imagine that, despite these difficulties, you have decided to go through with it. You have your film and you are prepared to ignore any objections from the students. The next problem is the equipment. There are VHS and Beta videocassettes. There are VCDs and various flavours of DVD. The pirated disks that work perfectly well at home fail to do so on the elderly machine at work. And so on. You explain these complications in the local language to the school porters. After a lot of mime and a few false starts (they try to sell you a pornographic video, they remove the tape recorder from your classroom, they think you have given them the school's video player and are overjoyed), they trundle the equipment to the classroom and connect all the cables.
The students arrive. For a moment they are excited, until they see which video you have chosen. Groans. You explain the task. More groans. You switch on the video. Nothing happens. You try other buttons. Nothing. The students watch impassively. This is, after all, more entertaining than the film is likely to be. In the end you give up and fetch the school porter.
You are now in the highly embarrassing position of having to talk to the porter in front of the students. While he is not thrown by your attempts to speak his language, the students find it hilarious. Now they can get revenge for all those lessons on the ing form, sentence stress, phrasal verbs. Every word you utter provokes gales of incredulous laughter and is repeated in a savage parody of your accent. Bright red, you huddle over the machine with your back to them.
Eventually everything works. The film starts. Students immediately make derisive noises about the actors, the sets, the costumes, the film quality, the sound, and so on. They ignore the task and keep up a background commentary in their language.
Films are about the same length as English lessons. This means that, by the time you have got it started, the film will overrun by ten minutes. Students will not stay in an English language classroom 30 seconds more than necessary. You will have to split the film over two lessons (meaning a repeat performance and more groans) or skip the ending.
After a video lesson most teachers clutch the student book to their bosoms like a lost teddy bear and vow never to spurn it again
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Miss Maggles
Barfly
I am good for the Chinese econony!
Posts: 34
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Post by Miss Maggles on Nov 2, 2006 21:43:33 GMT 7
Has anyone seen any good books on teaching movie classes. I have three books which are supposed to come with multi media cds, but have been told by the publisher that the cds only work with win 98 and that the quality is poor and they will not be making any more. The books I have cover culture, cross culture and old versus newer movies. I am royally ticked that I cannot get the cds because they teased out some good dialogue to be discussed and my equipment in the classroom makes it difficult to isolate the passages to show and discuss as well as some roll play dialogue that the students could use for acting out parts. Any help with this would be great, thanks.
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Post by Dajiang on Nov 3, 2006 9:09:27 GMT 7
im gonna bring in a Friends DVD next week for my senior 2's.
first a short introduction of the characters, and i divide the classes in groups (6) each having a particular character to follow. The episodes are short (about 25 minutes) so we got some time after that to talk about what happened in the episode to each character, and if there's time they should also be able to say something about the characteristics of each person.
i think itll work.
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Post by Lotus Eater on Nov 8, 2006 13:48:38 GMT 7
I have just finished the "changing the system" module with my Film Aprrecitaion class. We watched "Freedom Song" - African American civil rights, "Iron Jawed Angels" - giving women the vote in America and last night "North Country' - sexual harassment protection in the Northern Minnesota iron mines. The students felt that these were all very heavy movies, but the discussions were interesting.
For last night the boys felt that the men in the movie were animals, one of the girls cried, and at the end after the girls asked why didn't Josie work in a more female oriented job, and we talked about pay inequality, the right for people to work in jobs that they wanted to etc., they decided that women were strong and could do anything.
Next week I will take it a bit easy on them and look for a theme we can use comedy for.
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Post by Lotus Eater on Nov 28, 2006 22:08:48 GMT 7
I ended up taking it only a little easy on them. Chose the theme of cultural clash. So started out with Wendy Wu - Homecoming Queen (CBA meets Chinese monk in China), then did My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
But tonight I found one that was really really good. "Iron and Silk". It led to fascinating discussions - about party membership from students are are in the party and not happy, discussions about my experiences in China - did this stuff happen to me as well?, discussions about Chinese-western relationships.
It was based on a book by Mark Salzman about his 2 years teaching in Changsha in the early '80s. And some of the stuff is still so true!!
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