Using Movies and Questionnaires in Teaching World Englishes: An Example from a Korean Movie Please Teach Me English

Abstract

Although movies have been suggested as a useful resource for teaching World Englishes, there have been no studies exploring the issues arising from using movies for this purpose. One cause of concern in using movies to teach World Englishes is the issue of validity. Since movies are works of fiction with actors performing their roles, the language and issues depicted in the movie may not be realistic portrayals of actual situations. This paper, therefore, attempts to assess the validity by analyzing an example case. Questionnaires were administered to the local viewers about the 2003 Korean movie Please Teach Me English which depicts Korean English. Forty-six Korean university students watched the movie and completed the surveys about English education and sociocultural issues presented in the movie. The results demonstrate how eliciting opinions from a relevant audience can help fill the gap between fiction and reality, offering a more balanced view. Thus, this survey method can serve as one way to reinforce the use of movies. Furthermore, it is hoped that sharing this type of survey results and developing a movie database will contribute to the teaching of World Englishes.