ESL Lesson Plan

Hey Marlen,

This is great stuff (as usual).

Have you seen this link on entire ESL lesson plans structured around using film in the classroom?

There's tons of useable material there like the "adaptation" of books to film, etiquette in the cinema and much more.

Check it on the ESL-Jobs-Forum HERE.

There's also a poll you can take about the frequency of such techniques. I wonder how many people have access to good video equipment in their schools?

Best,

Lee

Hi Marlin,
Ahhh! Films in the classroom...quite an experience for teachers in China who have DVD capability because you can buy feature movies of top quality around the same time they are released in American theaters (for about 75 cents each)! I'll bet I saw Brokeback Mountain and Crash before anyone else here - LOL! Anyway, a discussion of China's copyright piracy is not for this forum. When in Rome...

First, you must NEVER allow the students to watch the movie with their native language subtitles. You are no longer teaching English because the students are no longer listening. They will tell you they are, but they are not. To test this, I once started a movie with Chinese sub-titles and English audio. When they were completely engrossed, I, surreptitiously, with a remote, switched the audio from English to dubbed Korean.Not one student even blinked! They had already mentally tuned out the audio and were busy reading the Chinese. So, English only, and if possible, with English subtitles (usually provided on DVDs).

I have a class of second-year college students who are reading the first Harry Potter book in my class. When I am sure that they understand the story they are reading, I show them the movie up to that point in the book. You would be astonished at how proud they are that they can suddenly understand everything that is going on in the movie. The words are not the same but the context they recognize -- some have said that they feel like native speakers when they watch the movie.

I have had little luck with getting the students to role-play the characters and mimic the speech exactly in a classroom situation because of the peer pressure of sounding too un-Chinese. I did however meet a 15-year old girl who must be Meg Ryan's #1 fan. She watches M.R.'s movies in the privacy of her bedroom and tries to speak the words EXACTLY like Meg Ryan. There is nobody there to laugh at her, she can't lose face, and the result is that her spoken English is almost flawless. When I first met her, I asked if she had lived in America or Canada.In fact, she has never been out of China and her parents speak NO English.

Movies are excellent for improving the students' listening ability. They also can be a more interesting way to highlight the differences in cultures. You must always remember that just because YOU like a movie, that doesn't mean the students will like it. I start with cartoons, move to children's movies like Lion King, Babe (the pig), Home Alone, you get the idea. Be warned that stuff like Casablanca, Gone With The Wind and Titanic may be a bit much (in English) for any but your most advanced students.

there's tons? or there are tons?

tell me more please

"There are tons" in the classroom and "there's tons" in informal speech.

Mike

Hi Lee - thanks for the poll!

What's your response?

Marlen

Mike -

I like the idea of showing students a portion of a film after they've finished reading that poriton of the corresponding book. Thanks for sharing this great idea! Feel free to share others in the upcoming blog entries!

Marlen

Eleison - either are acceptable, one is standard English, the other colloquial English...

e.g. There's a few; There's a bunch...etc...

Marlen

Films and/or videos are flexible instruments for second and/or foreign language learning and instruction. They are effective for language production and practice when structured to meet the lesson objectives (depending on the topic and students' level). In an activity like this, I divide it into two parts: the actual film viewing and the processing of the film (after viewing).In line with this, I usually give the students TASKS before the actual viewing. The same tasks are processed after viewing the film. The tasks given to them could be the lesson objective/s. In the case of Naoko and other students who wanted to say what the actors were saying, one of the lesson objectives would be: to list down (as far as they can catch up) the words, phrases, dialogues, etc. spoken by the actors/actresses.These could be used as a speaking practice during the processing. I focus more on the processing of the film as a spring board for classroom activities primarily for speaking, listening, writing and critical thinking skills development rather than a simple viewing session that terminates at the end of the film or video. Edna

Wow Edna! What great ideas! Makes me wanna get a bunch of students together and show them a movie! Really!

Thanks again for sharing! Are there any specific movies that you think work particularly well in the language classroom?

Marlen

Marlen, Mike and Eleison,

Checkmate! I know when I'm beat!

(Was probably more like ounces anyway)

Like I suggested in my comment to Marlen's entry HERE, I concede defeat.

Liberate language! Viva le tons!

Lee

There are two approaches to film showing: the full showing and the guided(segmented )showing: For full showing movies, I have tried these movies with my ESL/EFL students(low-high level): Madagascar; Home Alone Part; Beauty and the Beast; The Little Mermaid;My Fair Lady and other movies that are light but entertaining.No sub-titles in English. Let's take for example "Home Alone" Part 1:
Instructions: Divide the class into ___ groups depending on class size. Each group must be given a task: Group 1 Vocabulary:list down the familiar/unfamiialr words spoken by the actors/actresses; Group 2: Dialogues: list down the dialogues spoken by the actors/actresses; Group 3: Character description- describe the character that you like/dislike. Why/Why not/ Group 4: Scene Identification- choose the scene/s that you like best/ Why/Why not?. Group ___ and so on. These TASKS should be given to students before the actual viewing of the film.The tasks and/or objectives must be adjusted to students' level. Processing follows after the viewing. The focus: the group's task. Edna

i use dvds so that i can show the movie and subtitles in english at the same time. one exercise we do for fluency is to read the subtitles out loud (each student plays a role) and see if we can keep up with the actors! of course after practicing it is fun to turn off the audio and keep the subtitles there and read along..kind of like karaoke for movies!! diane in sapporo,japan

Edna - thanks so much for sharing this great idea!

Marlen

Hi Diane!

That sounds like fun - thanks so much for sharing!

Showing an entire film in a classroom in one or two sittings is not recommended by video experts in our profession. A better use of film is to show and exploit short clips in various ways. The book on video in language teaching (can't remember exact title) by Barry Tomlinson and Susan Stempelski contains many excellent suggestions.

Thanks for information

Thanks for information