Authenticity in the EFL Classroom: the Hollywood … · Authenticity in the EFL Classroom: ... Context and Culture in Language Teaching. ... Omaggio, A. (1993). Teaching Language

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Authenticity in the EFL Classroom: the Hollywood Advantage By Lic. Silvia Laborde • [email protected]

THE DVD ADVANTAGE Movies provide us with language-rich, culture-bound, aesthetically pleasant contexts. But the true secret of authentic language learning lies in teachers’ abilities to create linguistically challenging experiences and to foster enriching interactions. DVD (Digital Video Disc) technology has a variety of features and functions that can do just that:

1. scene selection: numbered scenes can be located easily and played in any order 2. frame by frame play: allows the DVD to be played as a sequence of stills rather than as a motion

picture and also to have a screen “photograph” of any given scene 3. backward play: lets the action develop in reverse order, that is, going from a later moment in the

film to an earlier one. 4. pause: although video technology allowed pausing, the quality of the paused image in DVD is far

superior, allowing the teacher to use the image as a still 5. high quality sound and image definition: allow students to grasp more details (includes MUTE

feature and blacking out the screen) 6. closed caption on/off: gives the teacher great flexibility in designing tasks that may or may not

integrate listening and reading, capitalize on sound/symbol correspondence, etc. 7. variety of spoken language choices: may allow for contrastive analysis 8. zoom: the image can be enlarged or reduced allowing for a partial or a synthetic view of the action 9. behind the scene video clips: offer varied situations, such as when actors get tongue tied, or

confuse lines, which are a rich source of discussion with students 10. repeat play A/B: allows the viewer to choose a moment in the film and mark it as A and another later

moment to mark it as B and the film automatically replays from A to B until the function is canceled.

SAMPLE 1 (Children-Low Intermediate)

Charlotte's Web Frame By Frame Play The frame by frame feature offers us an exciting way of working on grammatical competence.

1. Students write a true/false statement about a scene that is being played frame by frame. (As they work on a statement the film moves forward. By the time they are ready to work on their next statement, the plot has already progressed.)

2. After the students have finished, the statements are collected on the board.

3. Students watch the same segment at normal speed in order to answer true or false.

Variation: 1. Students stand in pairs one facing the screen and the other facing opposite with paper and pencil. The teacher plays a segment frame by frame. The student facing the screen describes what s/he sees as the partner writes it down.

2. When the teacher makes a signal the partners switch places and follow the same mechanism. The switch can take place a couple of times. 3. Then the pairs have to reconstruct the plot either orally or in writing from their notes using functional language provided by the teacher: When the scene begins, after that, then, soon after that, when, while.... 4. Watch the scene to compare notes.

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SAMPLE 2 (Teens-High Beginners) High School Musical

Repeat Play A/B

This feature can be quite useful to help students further their sociolinguistic competence. 1. Students watch a scene at the beginning of the movie with closed captions on in which Sharpay and Troy are having a conversation in front of the drama club bulletin board. The teacher marks the beginning of the conversation as A and the end as B and the conversation repeats a few times. 2. Then in pairs, students re-write the dialog,—as close to the original as possible. 3. Pairs practice their version of the dialog while they watch the scene in mute. 4. Some students will “perform” the voices as the class watches the scene with the sound off.

SAMPLE 3 (Adults-High Beginners) Avatar

Captions ON/OFF + Repeat Play A/B

Close captioning was originally created for the deaf, so it was born as a communication tool. 1. Teacher marks the scene in which Jake is first entering the lab

with the function Repeat A/B (until they see the avatars floating in their tanks.)

2. Students watch the scene several times with captions OFF and write down the lines.

3. Students write down the lines on large pieces of paper or the whiteboard, so these become the “captions.”

4. These “home-made” captions can be used to perform the scene in class and also to compare with the original close captions to analyze language and usage.

REFERENCES Borden, B., Rosenbush, B., Schain, D., Taylor, W. (Producers), & Ortega, K. (Director). (2006). High School Musical [Film]. Walt Disney Pictures. Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Fourth Edition. White Plains, N.Y.: Pearson Education. Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by Principles. Second Edition. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall/Regents. Kerner, J. (Producer), & Winick, G. (Director). (2006). Charlotte’s Web [Film]. Paramount Pictures. Kessler, C. (1997). Authenticity in K-12 Textbooks. (ERIC Document No. 407859) Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press. Laborde, S., (2010), DVD in the EFL Classroom. In M. Dantas-Whitney & S. Rilling (Eds.), Authenticity in the Language Classroom and Beyond: Children and Adolescent Learners. Alexandria, VA: TESOL, Inc. Lee. J. F. & VanPatten, B. (2003). Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen. New York: McGraw-Hill. Nunan, D. (1989) Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Omaggio, A. (1993). Teaching Language in Context. Boston: Heinle and Heinle. Sherman, J. (2003). Using Authentic Video in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wilson, C., Kalogridis, L. H. (Executive Producers), & Cameron, J. (Director). (2009). Avatar [Film]. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.


PRE-WATCHING

WHILE-WATCHING POST-WATCHING

Task grading (in terms of information processing required) LOWER HIGHER

Predicting & activating schema

Identifying key factors

Understanding main

ideas

Understanding details

Identifying lg specifics

Understanding fully

Consolidating info, integr.

skills & assessing

Matching main ideas

Fill the blanks

Inference questions

Introducing new vocab & fc lg: T introduces new vocab & fc lg using wb, cards, etc.

Oredering specific ideas

Summary: oral or written. Sts may have a compulsory amount of words or expressions to include in it.

Broken TV set: Sts watch in mute or with a black screen. Then small groups discuss and decide what the scene is about

Watching backwards: T plays a scene backwards. Pairs have to reconstruct the scene, then watch it to compare versions

What would you do if...? Sts place themselves in similar situations to the ones in the movie. T uses generated lg to introduce context and lg

Dicto-comp: T uses repeat play A/B function to mark a scene. T plays scene a few times. T gives sts the lines for one character. Sts “dicto-comp” the other character.

Voices in off: Sts watch a scene a few times and dicto-comp the dialog. Then T plays muted scene and sts “perform” the dialog as voices in off.

LESS CO

NTR

OLLED Task sequencing MO

RE CO

NTR

OLLED

Half & half: T divides screen in halves with dark paper. Two groups watch different halves in mute. Sts from different halves pair up and recreate the plot using ideas from both sts.

Part of the picture: T shows a scene to four sts in the class. T puts a dark paper on part of the screen and shows the same scene to the class. T makes 4 small groups, each led by one of the “four” above. The group asks him/her yes/no questions to reconstruct the scene.

Meet our character: T gives sts a situation and a character. Sts have to role play how that character would handle it. The whole class shares opinions.

Chart adapted from: Laborde, S., (2010), DVD in the EFL Classroom. In M. Dantas-Whitney & S. Rilling (Eds.), Authenticity in the Language Classroom and Beyond: Children and Adolescent Learners (p. 91). Alexandria, VA: TESOL, Inc. This material is copyrighted by TESOL, Inc., and may not be reproduced. For permission to copy, reproduce, or reprint this material, please contact [email protected]


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Authenticity in the EFL Classroom: the Hollywood … · Authenticity in the EFL Classroom: ... Context and Culture in Language Teaching. ... Omaggio, A. (1993). Teaching Language