Date of submission: 9. 5.
2012
ENRICHED FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING
Project
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT TASK for APRIL 2012
Target group: FOREIGN TEACHERS
Gimnazija Jožeta Plečnika Ljubljana
Ignacio Escriche Rubio
School:
Author:
THE USE OF FILMS IN THE FL CLASSROOM
Films can play an important role in the FL classroom. They can be used to cultivate language skills,
develop media literacy and support intercultural learning. Nevertheless, their usage must be carefully
considered from the initial point of the selection of the film through its adaptation for classroom usage to
its eventual implementation. In terms of this project, it is the usability (ie. practicality and efficacy) of
films to assist in the delivery of intercultural education that is of key importance, namely:
 to develop intercultural awareness;
 to develop intercultural sensitivity;
 to develop intercultural communicative competence; and
 to promote empathy, understanding and acceptance of other(nes)s.
INSTRUCTIONS:
This R&D task requires you to read the emailed journal article (Roell, 2010) and use it as an impetus to
start producing an open and flexible catalogue of suitable films for use in the FL classroom.
1. Read the Roell’s (2010) journal article “Intercultural Training through Film”. In particular pay close
attention to the following aspects:
a. The cultural theme categories which Roell has identified.
b. The techniques employed during the pre-, while- and post-viewing phases of the implementation.
c. The questions used to evaluate the intercultural aspects of a film.
2. Reflect on what you read in Roell (2010). Do you think the techniques and activities she identifies are
worthwhile?
3. Conduct an Internet search of different films (in your target language) which could be utilised in the
FL classroom for (inter)cultural learning. Ensure you use the Appendix 1 guiding questions when
conducting your review.
4. Use the enclosed matrix to tabulate your findings from the previous step.
Operacijo delno financira Evropska unija iz Evropskega socialnega sklada ter Ministrstvo za šolstvo in šport. Operacija se izvaja v okviru Operativnega programa razvoja človeških virov v obdobju 2007-2013, razvojne
prioritete: Razvoj človeških virov in vseživljenjsko učenje; prednostne usmeritve: Izboljšanje kakovosti in učinkovitosti sistemov izobraževanja in usposabljanja.
Reflections on Roell (2010)
FIRST PART: REFLECTION ON ROELL´S ARTICLE
In my opinion students like watching films in the foreing language class because they feel they have a
free hour and, in the other hand, some teachers also take the opportunity and get also a free hour by
letting the students alone watching a film. Well, this was my previous feeling about watching films
during the class. The activities about intercultural training introduced by Christine Roell are useful,
combine pleasure and learning, add value to the foreing language class and changed my opinion about
films.
My students usually watch soap operas (telenovelas), which always show a repetitive cliche and do not
reflect the culture, so it is difficult if not impossible to work the interculturality in the Spanish class. That
is why I always suggest my students a list of relevant films to watch at home, not at school (we do not
have much time to lose, of course, this was my previous opinion about watching films).
I like the way Roell is dividing the culture representation in film, although I consider the main divisions
are related with stereotypes, cultural traditions and intercultural conflict. These three main categories are
in my opinion the most relevant, as they involve the rest (racism, empathy with foreigners, nonverbal
communication, individualism or collectivism…). I took this division in consideration to choose the films
for the second part of April´s task.
The article gives many great ideas and guides about using films in the classroom. First, about the previewing activities, I used to teach the vocabulary before watching short parts of movies, but I did not give
the chance to students to speculate or debate about the content of the movie, about their expectatives and
previous ideas, about the dialects or accents they were going to listen… we just work out the vocabulary
and the expressions.
Once I showed a short film to the students without audio and I asked them to watch it and set dialogues,
just the other way around Roell is proposing. The result of the activity was positive, but I think the way
Roell is proposing for while-viewing activities is even better. I like the idea of showing first the movie
without audio and with subtitles, then both turn on and then a last view with just audio. I consider is a
very good way of getting complete understanding of the film, but I guess this must be done with some
short parts as this can be very time consuming way of working.
The third part of Roell´s activities give me the idea of using short parts of a movie to work descriptions of
people and place (using pretérito imperfecto, a past tense in Spanish). I like also the “Relationship
Diagram”, as a first step to, later on, ask the students to choose a character and write a diary from the
character´s point of view. The previous passivity when watching a film in the class turns into great
proactive students watching a film.
I think Christine Roell set a list of good answers for evaluating and analyzing the intercultural aspects of a
film. I would work in small groups during the first step, so, when evaluating the film, and we could create
a general discussion when evaluating the intercultural input (first they could write down some arguments
in small groups and then put them all together).
nclosure 1: REVIEW OF FILMS – TARGET FOREIGN LANGUAGE: ______________________________
Choose and describe 5 - 7 films. Give reasons for your selection of each film.
I have chosen five films that i have already watch and fullfil the requirements set by the Institute. Thus, all the movies are presented in the target foreign language
(wholly, except the last movie, where English is also shortly present) and provide a relevant sample of the target language culture, including both, the Spanish and
the Latin American dialects. All five movies are appropriated for people over 16, so for students in third or fourth year of high school. The level of the movies is
intermediate and we suggest to offer Spanish subtitles to the students while watching the movies.
No
1.
2.
Film Title /Year of
Synopsis of film with setting
(at least 100 words for each film)
Production
EL LABERINTO DEL The story shows the reality of the fascist regime
at its height in 1944 rural Spain. The main
FAUNO – PAN`S
character is Ofelia, a lonely child living with her
LABYRINTH - 2006
mother Carmen and adoptive father. The father
is a military man tasked in a rebel area in North
Spain. In order to escape her real life, Ofelia
creates a world filled with fantastical monsters
and places.
MANOLITO
After having several bad results in the school,
the coming summer will be difficult for
GAFOTAS - 1999
Manolito, the main character of the story. He
will spend the holidays in her flat in
Carabanchel Alto, a proletarian neighborhood in
Madrid, together with her mum, grandfather and
small brother. Manolito got a fail in maths and
her mum is really dissapointed. He waits for her
daddy (truck driver) to come back to Madrid to
go to the seaside for some days.
Genre
Drama
Comedy
Keywords /
Intercultural topics
Historical conflict,
Collectivism, causes of
racism, generational
conflict
Collectivism, sterotypes,
traditions and customs
Length
(mins)
Not rated
Classroom
Suitability Level
Intermediate
Not rated
Intermediate
Rating
3.
DIARIOS DE
MOTOCICLETA –
THE MOTORCYCLE
DIARIES - 2004
4.
VOLVER - 2006
In the middle fifties, two youngsters Ernesto
Biography Generational conflict,
Guevara and Alberto Granado, start a road trip
Drama
stereotypes,
to discover the real Latin America by motorbike.
traditionalism and
Ernesto is a medical student and Alberto is a
individualism,
chemist. The film follows the young men as they
explotation, human
discovery the rich and complex human and
rights
social system of Latin America by meeting
people on the road and having lots of problems.
With a romantic sense of adventure, the two
friends leave their familiar surroundings in
Buenos Aires and, although the bike breaks
down during the course of their eight-month
journey, they understand the importance of Inca
cultue and, later on, both start to question the
values of the economic systems that leave so
many people in a perpetual povertry and
hopeless life. Their experiences will become the
bases of the ethical and political ideas that will
guide their lifes.
The movie shows three generations of real
Drama
Generational conflicts,
women facing problems in their daily life and
stereotypes
the important role that women have in the
Spanish (matriarchal) society. »It is a movie
about the culture of death in my native region,
La Mancha«, Almodovar said. The main
characters are Raimunda, her teenager daghter
and Sole, Raimunda´s sister. Raimunda, married
to an unemployed worker, kills him after she
discovers he is abusing her daughter. Later on
she discovers her mum did the same to her
husband to save Raimunda from her dad´s
abuses. It looks maybe like a hard drama, but it
is exactly the opposite: it is a sad story, full of
optimism, with a happy end. The students can
see a white Spain, spontaneous, fun, fearless,
fair and with solidarity.
126
PG-13
Intermediate
121
PG-13
Intermediate
5.
MARIA LLENA
ERES DE GRACIA –
MARIA FULL OF
GRACE - 2004
Maria lives in a small town in the north of
Bogotá with her mother, her grandmother, her
sister and her sister’s young son. Maria works in
a plantation and the work is exhausting and
strict rules apply; the only positive aspect in
Maria’s life are the parties on the market square
she attends with her boyfriend during the
weekends. One day, after she knows she is
pregnant, Maria meets a guy how offers her the
chance to work as a courier. She agrees and find
herself in a group of drug dealers. In her first
trip to the US, with lots of little packets of
cocaine in her body, her colleague starts having
health problems. After several complications,
her colleague die and she decides to stay in the
US and to build up a life there far away from her
country.
Drama
Inmigrants,
discrimination,
explotation, human
rights, drugs and mafia
101
PG-18
Intermediate
No
1.
Film Title
EL LABERINTO
DEL FAUNO –
PAN`S LABYRINTH
2.
MANOLITO
GAFOTAS - 1999
3.
DIARIOS DE
MOTOCICLETA –
THE MOTORCYCLE
DIARIES - 2004
4.
VOLVER - 2006
5.
MARIA LLENA ERES
DE GRACIA – MARIA
FULL OF GRACE 2004
Argumentation of choice
I have chosen this film because it shows the cruelty of the fascist regime after the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939. Besides
this hard reality, a world of hope, innocense and optimism emerges in a child mind and creates a interesting parallelism
reality/fantasy. We can see the values and the daily life during the postwar times and this could help us to relate the story shown by
the movie to the important historical moment that Civil War suposed to the Spanish culture and later development.
This comedy shows the real daily life in a suburb in Madrid, but could me located in every single Spanish city. A hilarious humour
and sarcasm is present in the film together with a detailed description of every aspect of a tipical Spanish medium-low family. We
can see the routine of Manolito and his friends, the urbanism, the lunch time, the way Spanish people interact.... the real Spanish
culture. There is also a book with the same title, so it would be nice first to read some chapters of the book and then watch the
movie.
The movie shows a different Ernesto Guevara, far from stereotypes and misconceptions, and can help the students to understand the
essence of his revolution. We can see the prior innocent Guevara, how the trip changes his way of thinking and the evolution
ocurred by meeting the reality of Latin American people. The movie is full of culture content and reflects a reality still present
nowadays.
The students can discover a typical Spanish enviroment, with true folks and authentic human relations, relevant hilarous situations
offering genuine emotion and humanity. The movie breaks stereotypes of a dark rural Spain that can be interesting for our students.
The movie shows in a very authentic way the difficult life of a poor girl in a Latin American country and the American dream of
easy money and life they usually have. It also deals about inmigration, the drug dealers and mafia existing in Colombia. I have
chosen this film because it shows the problem in a accurate way, without exageration and drama.