Studying 'implicit if-clauses' through Movies

Abstract

This paper has been developed from my previous thesis "Teaching will in if-clauses through movies" in Teaching English through Movies: Number 8, and it deals with studying and teaching 'implicit if-clauses' through movies. In Japan, when teachers teach English sentences including would, but having no conditional clauses, they tend to explain those sentences by positing 'implicit (subjunctive) if-clauses' or 'suppressed (subjunctive) conditions'. However, we find out numerous would-sentences which have no implicit if-clauses by examining movie scripts. These expressions suggest the speaker's 'distancing' from the immediate reality. The clear situations of film sequences provide teachers and students with an alternative better approach to this semantic subject. Therefore we should use movies to understand and teach the above grammatical points.