Few people would argue that one of the easiest ways to connect students to foreign culture and language without traveling is through the medium of film. Alfia Rakova, who teaches in the Russian Department, and Mayumi Ishida, who teaches Japanese in DAMELL, both have a long history of “Teaching Language through Film” and shared their experiences in a DCAL workshop on April 22.
Russian
Rakova received a grant from The Language Consortium back in 2000 and used the funds to develop teaching materials (readers and exercise books) from the scripts of four films. Film scripts are not regularly published, however, so it meant watching and re-watching the film countless times in order to extract a working script. From there, she could build vocabulary lists, identify parts of the film that serve to demonstrate grammatical points that she wants her students to work with and understand, and highlight language exchanges between characters that serve to model real-world interactions. The films also provide a rich repository for discussing culture, history, and music in the target language. Rakova notes, “This is not a film course; it is a language course,” and the purpose of using the films is to help students build vocabulary and their abilities with the Russian language, as well as to introduce students to aspects of Russian life and culture. In Intermediate Russian courses, students work closely with the texts that Rakova developed. For the advanced classes, though, “The film is the book”!
Watching the films is not merely a passive activity. The tasks in which Rakova involves her students encompass the four skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening. Along with more typical exercises around vocabulary and grammar usage, students may be asked to write, present, or debate in Russian on themes, plot elements, or characters. They may develop their own skits borrowing from language employed in the films, which are then presented to and evaluated by class peers. Going beyond the film, in fact, is what students like most, as Rakova receives positive feedback from students who enjoy discussing the issues, watching films without subtitles, and re-imagining the characters in new scenarios of their own creation.
Japanese
Ishida, too, has been teaching with films for quite a while. She shared many of Rakova’s opinions on the value of film for teaching language and culture, and pointed out additional aspects as well. For example, films excel at presenting clear demonstrations of non-verbal communications, which textbooks may only be able to describe. Unlike video prepared as part of a standard language textbook, films are not created with language students in mind. This can be both a blessing and a curse, however. On the one hand, the language is more natural and it allows instructors a lot of freedom in choosing what to teach, and they are more motivating to students. On the other hand, though, it can be quite time consuming for an instructor to select content and to balance it with other course materials appropriately.
In her time working with films, Ishida has taken at least four different approaches. The first method is similar to what Rakova did with her Consortium grant. Ishida refers to it as the “holistic” approach. In essence, it involves tackling a film as an entire project–deriving the script, creating vocabulary lists, making grammar and culture notes, formulating grammar exercises, homework activities, and quizzes, and selecting which Kanji characters to introduce. The process takes a lot of time and it can be a challenge to find related materials. Even after expending incredible effort on such a task, some films have “expiration dates,” when the appropriateness of using the film is gone due to societal changes.
The second method is “project oriented.” It starts with a theme and then Ishida selects several films based on the theme. At the end of the term, students submit presentations or papers that explore the plots and themes of the films. While this method exposes students to more complex issues, the language learning takes more of a back seat, especially since students watch the films with subtitles for course efficiency. Conversations may still take place in the target language, but the learning is not as deep linguistically.
The third method is to teach with films as an L2 culture course. This is similar to the project model, but the course is taught in the target language exclusively. Worksheets and activities are still prepared to explore vocabulary, grammar, and story elements. And, students still complete a term project. Unfortunately, as an intensive language course, this is appropriate for intermediate and advanced students only, and may be best suited to short-term programs.
The fourth method is a hybrid of elements from all of the above. Ishida selects one film for viewing throughout the course, which is taught in the target language. The early part of the course deals primarily with linguistic aspects of the film, such as grammar and vocabulary. As the course progresses, more of the thematic topics of the film are explored. This approach allows the students to better internalize the language elements as well as the thematic elements over a longer period of time. The biggest challenge, though, is finding films that are suitable. The film not only needs to be appropriate to the teaching goals, but also needs to lend itself well to viewing over many class sessions.
Challenging Work
Too often, when an instructor turns to using films or television shows in their courses, other people outside of the field, may perceive the course as “easy” for students or not involving a lot of effort on the part of the instructor. Both Mayumi Ishida and Alfia Rakova make it very clear, however, that choosing to teach with films may actually be one of the most difficult and time-consuming decisions an instructor can make, and the reward is the greater motivation to learn and involvement with the language that they see in their students.
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