Films: A window towards cultures, methods of teaching and learning through the senses

Part of being student of English as a foreign language (EFL) is to acknowledge the concept of becoming intercultural, but most important, to understand and practice the meaning of culture. For those who teach English, it is of greatest relevance to adapt their teaching program with the globalization movement, this way boundaries would be broken in a positive form.

Although, EFL students need to be open mind around the different experiences that comes with the globalization process, it is not about what a student believes anymore, or the way he has been raised, it is about getting to know multiple perspectives.


The use of art can provide certain kind of encounter between the reader and its spectator, through art the world can share their points of views, life style and history.


Taking this in count, using films to introduce art in the EFL student’s program can play a role to form their intercultural personality. EFL students around world are bombarded by media, American movies, music, and so on. So, these will positive help them to enhance their thinking with the Anglophone societies and it also will create an ideal classroom environment full of diversity and critical reviews.

There are movies which represent Anglophone societies really well, describing situations easily and similar with the reality, humor is also involved, reaching the students faster enhancing the enjoyment of appreciate critically with the art of cinema.

For example, recently the English students from the University of Los Andes watched a film, its name was Borat. This film was treating interesting points about two different societies (Kazakhstan and the United States.) Although it is a movie of comedy, it shows enough points on the racialism and males chauvinism that the protagonist has and the cultural shock that he had to face while he was in the United States (by contradictions that U.S. has between freedom and equal rights.)


The main idea is to achieve that the students can feel that they are living through some kind of experience through the film, because it achieves to get the biggest concentration of the student through the senses, it manages to turn them into the principal witness of any history.


On the other hand, it is not necessary that they feel identified or even hate that they could see. On the contrary, it is to manage to generate some kind of reaction and that could give his point of view since, thanks to this one, it can be facilitated to them to think about something and generate ideas by means of the recent experience through that they have just lived.


That part is really important because it is hard to the student writing a composition without having ideas or at least to shared them previously in order to organize his/her points of views.


Finally, the films are art, because those facilitate understanding and development of any person (especially a student of English as a Second Language.) and give a message. It is true that it is hard to learn a second language as it was learn the first one. Nevertheless, many aspects can be emulated because the senses are used through the film. Also, it teaches cultural differences and proper expressions of the second language that facilitate to the students use them and write them when the teachers ask them.

this is a essay wrote it by Deryú Pérez and Editson Delgado

REFERENCES:

(P1) Adele H. Stern. “Using Films in Teaching English composition” Chairman, English Deparment Montclair High School, Montclair New Jersey

(P2) Margaret Lee Zoreda. (2006) “Intercultural Moments in Teaching English through Film”

(P3) Borat film (2006)

by the way, after watch this video let me know what you think...