Encourage your students to watch movies in ENglisH

[michelle84]

Hi,
the outcome of my thesis research was that students learn and actually remember new vocabulary in context that is funny or somehow related to them. Encourage your students to watch their favourite movies in English (e.g. tell them to watch 5 minutes, rewind it, watch it again and write down all the words they didn't understand and try to guess their meaning or consult the dictionary). During my college years that was the most interesting way for me to learn. Important is that students will learn spoken language that (let's be honest here) is no that much practised in the English language textbooks. I also launched my own website that involves vocabulary from a favourite TV show. http://englishwithsexandthecity.blogspot.com/

[Peter Easton]

This is very valuable advice Michelle, especially the memorization part. I like to do this along the lines of 'Kim's Game' (Google it).

May I also suggest that getting students to watch the 1970s British comedy 'Fawlty Towers' as it extremely funny yet simple humour (a lot of splastick and double entendres) as well as containing very clear dialogue with RP accents and the added humour of the character Manwell, the Spanish waiter who speaks very little English.

[jasminade]

This is very valuable advice Michelle, especially the memorization part. I like to do this along the lines of 'Kim's Game' (Google it).

May I also suggest that getting students to watch the 1970s British comedy 'Fawlty Towers' as it extremely funny yet simple humour (a lot of splastick and double entendres) as well as containing very clear dialogue with RP accents and the added humour of the character Manwell, the Spanish waiter who speaks very little English.

Peter is right. For a bit of fun, I show an episode called "The Germans" and introduce some context. Below is the document I give out so as the students follow the story (manipulate as you will):

Fawlty Towers – The Germans

1st Part Hospital Ward

Mrs Sybil Fawlty is on a bed waiting for an operation on her “in-growing” toenail. The language to look out for centres around her husband’s ability (or inability) to look after the hotel during the time she is in hospital. She asks him to look in a drawer for a top to wear, and he confuses the colour. What colour of top does she ask for and what colour does she produce?
From here the discussion is about the jobs that Basil has to do while Sybil is in hospital. One job is to mount a moose’s head. Sybil is annoyed of the head lying around and tells Basil that it is growing old - “mange”. She also asks if Basil has taken the mould off the cheddar cheese.
The next job that Basil must fulfil is to perform a fire drill for the hotel. Basil tells Sybil that he can cope and that all will be fine.

2nd Part Hotel Lobby

Basil is in the lobby at the reception and he meets one if his guests, the “major”. The Major is a little senile and it seems that he is always drunk. Because of this he always gets confused with his words and loses the subject. For example, when he talks of cricket: “Hampshire won…” he then talks about women: “I knew a woman once; I took her to India… at the Oval!” Here, he means the Indian cricket team playing England at the Oval playing field.

The next character is the lovely Manuel. He is from Barcelona and is learning English. He works as a waiter in Fawlty Towers. Notice how when Basil asks for a hammer to mount the moose’s head on the wall, Miguel is confused and thinks that Basil wants a “Jamon sandwich” or that Basil is talking about his hamster.

The next scene to look out for is the actual fire drill. Basil sets off the burglar alarm accidentally when he opens the safe and all of the guests assemble to leave the building.

3rd Part Back at the Hospital

Basil is suffering from concussion.

4th Part Basil is back at the Hotel Lobby


Here he meets a couple of Germans at the reception desk and a group as they enter the restaurant. As he does so his language is filled up with an obsession about not mentioning the war. Everything he says is associated with the 2nd World War, and his misconceptions about how the Germans think and act today. For example, Basil confuses the classic warning sign “Trespassers will be prosecuted”, and says, “Trespassers will be tied up in piano wire” After a little joke “the plaice is grilled” he states that the place is grilled, as in, the place, the restaurant, is hot. One guest asks for a veal chop so Basil mocks the Germans by saying that it is delicious, “veally veally delicious”.
He then plays on the theme of Germany and the war and worsens everything when one of the guests asks for prawn cocktail. Here he confuses the prawn cocktail with Eva Braun. He mutters Hitler, Himmler. He then plays on the phrase hors d’oeurves and replaces the sound with “orders, we must obey orders”.

Of course, at least a level of intermediate is required of your Students and be sure to reassure them that the initial stage of the episode contains a lot of dialogue in order to "set up" the story. They should just absorb and look out for language items as they appear.

[jasminade]

While I am here, I also use Super Size Me (Students from most countries are very interested in American culture and the documentary offers lots of discussion and debate). I pass around this document and prepare the students for each section they are about to watch (give them a break at some point and watch the documentary beforehand so as to have an idea of how you are to organise the discussion - oh yes, I normally put on English subtitles):

Super Size Me

Body Check


The Experiment Begins


Toxic Environment
(Epidemic of Obesity – constant access to fast food – dependence on the car)

The Impact
(Obesity left unabated – body image)

1st Weigh In


An Enthusiast


1st Blood Test


Almost Half Way
(What is a calorie? A measure of the energy content of food. One calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of a litre of water by one degree centigrade)

3rd Weigh In


Addiction
(Sugar addiction likened to Heroin addiction)

2nd Blood Test


2:AM In The Morning


Day 22, More Burgers
(Marketing and lobbying)

1st Phone Call


Final Blood Test

Conclusion

I include the two items to give an idea of how I go about putting on a televisual show and how it is useful/fun/interesting for Students.

[jfraser]

Using movies to teach the English language can be useful. However it is important to note that the right kind of movie must be chosen. I have tried running movies in my classrooms that have seemed to go over the heads of many of my students. I think the problem was that I chose something for them to watch that had language that was too difficult to follow. I enjoyed some of the suggestions on which movies seem to work for ESL students, so thanks for that!
Along the same lines, another method that I found to be really positive is using music to teach English with. All of my students enjoyed listening to current songs and often came into class saying some of the lyrics. I began to implement a system of teaching a song a week, where the students were able to dissect a song, learning its meaning and the language making it up. The students really took to this method of teaching! It allowed for a modern English lesson rather than one out of an old text!

[Guillermo]

I have applied a similar idea with my students but in this case I use SITCOMS since these are shorter and easier to follow at lower levels. I had great results with "Friends" in particular because it has many different topics of conversation ans situational vocabulary and it's also very popular among my student. It's also pretty funny...