Using Movies in the Foreign Language Classroom: A new approach

抄録

Foreign language teachers often want to use movies in the classroom because movies are a rich source of both language and culture and contain themes that can stimulate thought and discussion. However, showing movies to students without doing the time-consuming preparation of tasks for students to do before, during, and after watching the movie can limit the educational benefits. Using a Movie Journal solves this problem, and contains five questions related to Summary, Reaction, Prediction, Culture and Language that students answer after watching a section of the movie in class. Writing in the Movie Journal before discussing the movie leads to more productive discussions as students have a chance to think about what they want to say and how best to express these ideas in the foreign language.