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Message board > Showing a Movie as a Lesson?
Showing a Movie as a Lesson?
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roneydirt
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Another thought I didn �t see anyone mention is they get to hear English with other accents. I have found students can understand one style of English speaker but if someone with a different accent speaks they have trouble understanding them. Kind of like the English director at my main school for the first few weeks needed a translator for my Canadian friend and me (American), but she understood the British guy from West Manchester at the neighboring school with no problems.
Now this is what I have done in the past. I have created a variety of questions about different individuals or scenes in the movie. The students find the answers as they watch the movie and we discuss the questions at the end of the class. Do recommend having some open-ended questions mixed with traditional questions for the different level students. If the movie is split into multiple classes we work on predictions as well. Always get some funny answers with that one.
Who are the Characters in the movie? (What is a character?)
What was _____ wearing at the ___(dance, restaraunt...)?
Why did he/she do _______?
Would you do that.....?
What is going to happen next?
Who would you be in the movie and why? |
7 Jun 2009
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mjotab
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I watch TV series with them too: if you show them the first 2 episodes, for example, in English, and they like them, you will get them to watch the rest at home which is a very good practice for them. IT Crowd is perfect, because it is hilarious, the episodes are short, they can watch lots of scenes at home in youtube, and you have British and Irish accent. My students memorized some of the scenes just because the liked them (they are 14)
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7 Jun 2009
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Lana.
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Of course, you can! :)
You can show a movie and get people to listen out very carefully for information, note little details, practise memory skills, listen to natural real life English, enjoy English, laugh at a joke, and then describe characters afterwards or something similar.
I do it regularly, students love it.
It �s a nice break from a typical class, seriously.
But get them to work, you know what I mean.
I have a worksheet on "Jaws" (Steven Spielberg). Check it out.
I have a few more, but I doubt you will get those movies easily, they are the old "Sabrina" and "On Golden Pond".
Good luck! |
7 Jun 2009
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anitarobi
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Using movies to learn English? Yes, by all means, I do it as part of my teaching repertoire, using many of the methods listed above - all the advice given above is great, very usable and takes a lot of time to prepare (as Mena wrote). Though until you �ve tried to prepare it by yourself, it might seem to you just like �oh, good for those teachers - they just put on a movie and relax �, and I do all the heavy work , you �ll see when you �ve tried it - it �s soooooo much work before the actual lesson/s and so much attention while they watch (you are the motivator - you have to get them to see and hear what you want them to, and still leave them time and space to enjoy the story... not to mention the time it takes you to check all the follow up worksheets and essays...
But it �s worth it! When you see them take the bait, when you see their faces all wrapped up in the story that they actually forget what they are actually doing is an English lesson with grammar, vocabulary and reading, and then afterwards, when you see and hear them use the vocabulary (especially idioms) from the movies... (Not to mention when you get kids to actually borrow the book the movie was based on from the library and read it - IN ENGLISH... it �s just a blessing... and the culture they get from it if you direct them properly - I �ve had students going to university to study English and History because of our project with the Mummy, believe it or not! Amazing...) I could never teach with this much pleasure without using stories (and movies) in class.
Then again, if you never try, you �ll never know... |
7 Jun 2009
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verybouncyperson
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Thanks for all the great ideas everyone!
Another possiblity when watching the film over two or three classes is activities about the story so far or what happens next which are great to practise specific grammar structures.
The Story So Far...
Can be used to practise past tenses and reported speech
What Happens Next...
Is great for future tenses (obviously!), particularly when thinking about predictions with will and those based on evidence with going to.
With either of these activities you can also bring in the passive structure.
Good luck!
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7 Jun 2009
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kaz76
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I have a book club that I run once a week and I usually choose one of the Penguin Readers that corresponds to a film. We have covered books like Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill. These are good because there is a lot of British culture in them too and are quite funny and light-hearted.
We study the book for about a term - we do lots of vocabulary, character assessment, comprehension etc. Then for the final lesson we watch the film. The students love it because they can watch a whole film in English and understand exactly what is happening - it is an excellent reward for all the hard work they have done during the term. |
7 Jun 2009
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angelcris
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Hello!
I must say that using movies to teach a foreign language is useful and students love it. But it is not t show the whole movie! Yes, you have to watch the movie in advance and extract the parts that are meaningful to the objective of the class. Then, you should plan how to work with it, and even prepare a handout if necessary.
To extract scenes of the movie and copy them together, I suggest you download two free programs - DVD SHRINK and DVD DECRYPTER.
I hope have helped you!
�ngela Cristina. |
7 Jun 2009
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