Film English - TeachingEnglish blog of the month

Our colleague Kieran Donaghy, an English teacher at UAB Idiomes Barcelona, has had his blog, Film English, nominated as the British Council's TeachingEnglish featured blog for October. The idea behind the award is to promote blogs that provide teachers with material that is both free and practical and which also stimulates reflection on the practice of teaching.

14/10/2011

Kieran set up Film English in March 2010 and it is a site which encourages the use of film in the language classroom. There are articles, classroom activities, a glossary, links and videos to help both teachers and students.

Kieran believes that the moving image is a shared and vital global language and that the lives of young people are informed by the moving image. From early childhood, we live in a world saturated by audio-visual texts and critical understanding of the moving image is becoming an integral part of literacy. Cineliteracy, the ability to analyse moving image text, may sharpen students' responses to English literature and may help to increase their reading and writing skills in English.

The two main objectives of Kieran's Film English blog are:

- promote the critical and creative use of film in the language classroom
- promote cineliteracy, the ability to read critically and evaluate moving images, in the language classroom.

Film is highly motivating, relates to students' lives, and provides a source of authentic and varied language. Film is excellent at communicating cultural values, attitudes, and behaviour. It is effective at bringing the outside world into the language classroom and providing a stimulating framework for classroom communication and discussion.

Any teacher who has ever watched a film with a class knows that students are comfortable with film and understand its power. They have watched thousands of films, and unconsciously understand the basic tools and conventions of the medium. Students are often very visually literate although this is often not articulated. They are also very cineliterate and they can often be sophisticated interpreters of the interplay of sound and image. They know that the close-up on an actor's face signifies something different emotionally from a long shot of an actor across a distance. They know that certain kinds of music indicate that a dramatic event is about to happen.

Students may know how to interpret film better than they know how to interpret literature. Some teachers feel this is the very reason not to use film in the language classroom, they believe that text should be given prominence over the image and particularly the moving image. However, moving images play a huge role in our understanding of current events as well as in forming our decisions about who we elect as our government leaders. Moving images can educate and inform as well as entertain. In the 21st century, the ability to read critically and evaluate moving images has become an integral part of literacy. Our goal is to encourage English teachers to see film not as a guilty pleasure - not as just the "reward" at the end of reading a book - but as a legitimate means to enhance 21st century literacy.

Kieran will be teaching the English through Cinema course at UAB Idiomes Barcelona from 24th February to 8th June 2012 on Fridays from 16:00 to 18:00.