Teaching Films: A Necessity Or ... A Nuisance?

For various reasons many foreign-language teachers are not quite on friendly terms with films. Even the filmstrip and slide that are less difficult to handle in the classroom have met with more acceptance outside language teaching than within it.

Meanwhile film is certainly acknowledged as one of the most ef­fective visual aids that exist. From good films students learn faster and remember a body of subject matter longer than when the same subject matter is presented only verbally; films have been used suc­cessfully to facilitate thinking and problem solving.

Foreign-language films can bring to the students activities that they could not otherwise observe or become involved with. They are indispensable for teaching the "culture element". The tendency of those who view films to identify themselves with the actors and the.situations makes films highly valuable for image forming and lan­guage learning.

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I have used English films with considerable success in quite var­ied situations. In addition to their value for actual language learn­ing, they break the monotony of classroom and laboratory work and provide variety to the curriculum.

Creative teachers use professional feature and science-popular films at the advanced stage of language learning as subject matter for class discussions and debates, for evaluating their artistic value.

Let's be honest: the main stumbling block lies in the lack of pro­fessional competence of the teacher himself. Contrary to the good old blackboard he cannot handle it on his own which creates embar­rassing moments in front of the pupils.

Very often it is the lack of methodological competence. And the HOW is as important as the WHAT! For example, some teachers take feature films and show them to pupils in the hope that exposure would result in learning. More often than not this procedure has the opposite effect, incomprehension leading to discouragement. Or they expect the students to identify themselves with the film actors on second showing without any preparation with taped sound track or the ancillary film-strip.

And finally, the quality of both software and hardware* should be excellent! A bad sound track may lead to incomprehension and fur­ther — to irritation and disillusionment of the students.

b) List the arguments and counter-arguments on using films in foreign-lan­guage teaching.

II. Answer the following questions:

1. Can you name the films that are in common use at our second­ary schools? 2. What do you think of the cartoon loop-films for the junior forms? 3. Did you use any audio-visual aids during your school practice? If so, describe the techniques you used.

III.Tell a visiting school teacher from Great Britain/the United States how teaching films — and audio-visual aids in general — are used in foreign-language teaching in this country.

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