An Effective Teaching Method for Intercultural Understanding Using Films in Accordance with the Course Goals

Abstract

This practical report proposes one effective teaching method with movies to achieve the course goals of intercultural understanding based on the DMIS of Bennett (1986a, 1986b, 1993) and GIDC of Wilkinson (2007). In this study, the movie used was As Good As It Gets (1997), and the precise course goal was to address American social issues. Participants were 103 university students in four classes who watched the movie and wrote a summary while completing three types of worksheets related to the following: 1) racism, 2) the gap between the rich and the poor, or 3) both themes simultaneously. Many students who worked on the third worksheet noticed more than two social problems described in the movie, whereas the others concentrated only on the single point analyzed on their worksheet. The results suggest that educators should not only set a course goal according to where their students measure on the DMIS and GIDC, but should also indicate more than two issues in order to stimulate students’ intellectual curiosity towards different cultures.