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THEORY AND PRACTICE FOR ESOL (SKBI6013)

Prof. Dr. HAZITA BT. AZMAN & Dr. NOORIZAH BINTI MOHD
NOOR
'MOVIES AS TEACHING AND LEARNING TOOLS'

BY

Ala' Elddian Abdullah Ahmed Bani Kalef

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OUTLINE
1. ABSTRACT

2. INTODUCTION
 Movies and Learning Styles

3. COMMENTARY
 Literature Review

 Movies as teaching tools

 Movies and Motivation Principles

 Movies and Learning Styles Principles

 Movies and students' Attitudes

 Movies and non-verbal language

 Movies and ambiguity tolerance

 The Environment and Outcomes in Watching movie

 Language Skills and Movies

 Movies and Learning Styles


i. Field independence and field dependence
ii. Visual, auditory, and kinesthetic styles
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 Movies and Learning Strategies
i. Cognitive strategies
ii. Socioaffective strategies

4. Conclusion

5. References

6. Individual parts

i. ALAELDDIN
1. Movies and Culture
2. Movies and communicative competence
3. Movies and Schemata
4. Linguistic Imperialism and Movies

ii. ALI LABABNEH


1. Movies and Motivation
2. Movies and Social Strategy
3. Movies and stereotypes

iii. MOHAMMAD QARQAZ


1. Movies and Intelligence
2. Movies and teacher's Beliefs
3. Movies and, left & right brain characteristics

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ABSTRACT

This article discusses the importance of using films as an effective method that allow
students to immerse themselves in learning foreign language. Movies' principles and
features will be also taken into account. In addition, this paper is tried to explain both the
main language skills that may be developed by watching movies, and the appropriate
strategies that are employed in using movies as an educational material whether inside
or outside classroom. Therefore, some of learning theories will be presented to show the
powerful of using movies in teaching. It is hoped that this paper will be an eye opener to
ESL practitioners. It is important for them to know the significance of applying movies in
teaching language as well as the target culture.

INTRODUCTION
Students learn in various ways—by seeing and hearing; reflecting and acting;
reasoning logically and intuitively. In other words students use different devices in
learning; some of them are visual learners and other are auditory learners or tactile.
Teaching methods, therefore, may diversify. Teachers have to use different teaching
methods in order to teach all students effectively. A variousness of teaching strategies,
knowledge of student levels, and a realization of which strategies are appropriate for
particular students can assist teachers to know which teaching methods will be most
efficacious for their class.

Movies and Learning Styles

In this section, learning styles will be briefly illustrated in relation to the use of movies
in teaching language. Undoubtedly, there are strong ties between using movies and

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learning styles. Some of authors handle learning styles in different perspectives while
sensory learning styles will be especially emphasized.

The different ways of how a learner acquires, retains and retrieves information are
collectively termed as learning styles or learning preferences. According to Claxton and
Ralston learning styles may be defined as people’s ‘consistent ways of responding to
and using stimuli in the context of learning’ (1987: 7). Likewise, for Keefe, learning styles
are the ‘characteristic, cognitive, affective and psychological behaviours that serve as
relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with, and respond to the
learning environment’ (1979: 4). Similarly, for Dunn and Griggs ‘learning style is the
biologically and developmentally imposed set of characteristics that make the same
teaching wonderful for some and terrible for others’ (1988: 3). Furthermore, according to
Wierzbicka ‘human being don’t think about…things in the same way, And language
doesn’t reflect the world directly, it reflects human conceptualisation, human
interpretation of the world’ (1992: 7).

Moreover, some of learning styles are adapted from Reid’s Perceptual Learning
Style Preference Questionnaire (1998). These learning styles are visual, auditory,
kinesthetic, tactile, group and individual. Brown also claims that there are three types of
learning style. Visual learners prefer reading and studding charts or any graphic
information. Auditory learners prefer listening to lectures and audiotapes. Finally,
kinesthetic learners prefer physical activity involving bodily movement (Brown 2005).

As shown above, most of learning styles prone to stimulate senses to create great
effective learning. Similarly, learning theories emphasize the importance role of arousal
sensory receptors to reach the efficient level teaching or learning. For instance, Sensory
stimulation theory (Laird, 1985) that states that when multisenses are stimulated greater
learning takes place. Holistic learning theory (Laird, 1985) that claims that the 'individual
personality consists of many elements… specifically... the intellect, emotions, the
impulse or desire, intuition and imagination that all require activation if learning is to be
more effective. Experiential learning (D.A. Kolb, 1984) that argues that there are four-
stage in learning process: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract
conceptualization, and active experimentation. Briefly , most of learning theories tend to
highlight the value of senses stimulation whether by applying observations or
imaginations as well as experimentations.

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furthermore,( Laird1985) 'quotes research that found that the vast majority of
knowledge held by adults (75%) is learned through seeing. Hearing is the next most
effective (about 13%) and the other senses – touch, smell and taste – account for 12% of
what we know'. He acclaims also that stimulation through the senses is achieved through
a 'greater variety of colours, volume levels, strong statements, facts presented visually,
use of a variety of techniques and media'.
The question that could be raised. Does watching movies stimulate the watcher's senses?
COMMENTARY

Movie is form of entertainment that enacts a story by sound and a sequence of images
giving the illusion of continuous movement; "they went to a movie every Saturday night";
"the film was shot on location (thefreedictionary). Movie is at best defined as the
selection and sequence of messages in an audio-visual context. Movie categories are
generally sorted by these genres: Action, Comedy, Crime, Documentary, Romance,
historical, , Teen, Family, Suspense, fantasy and educational short film movies.

Movie is surly modern-day storytelling instruments. They have the power to reach
massive audiences, which is why they should, and do, matter so much to society.
Whether they are stories of afar or just everyday existence, good movies are a means for
people, particularly adults, to understand and relate to the world in constructive ways.
Researches find that youth spend an average of 6.5 hours each day with media
(Rideout, Roberts & Foehr, 2005). Therefore, it is important for adults to understand how
youth process the messages being conveyed by the media.

Moreover, Research has demonstrated that the media plays an important role in the
socialization of youth. Socialization refers to learning one’s culture and how to live within
it. Social cognitive theory of mass communication addresses concerns about the effects
of increased viewership on human behavior (Bandura, 2002). Media content consumed
by children is likely to shape their perceptions of the real world and the people operating
within it.

Nevertheless, the effects of the media on children can be profound, often


establishing gender and racial stereotypes. For example, some movies that presented
the image of Islam as recourse of terrorism. Some movies also portray women as a
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means of temptation and seduction, may lead youth to believe this is how females are to
be, for example. Both instructors and learners, therefore, must be aware of choosing the
suitable movie for language task.

LITERTURE REVIEW

In order to investigate the importance of movie materials for language teaching and to
study the effectiveness of audiovisual input in language teaching activities, some of the
existing research needs to be reviewed. This review will elucidate the emergence and
history of foreign movies in the SL classroom, as well as the advantages of using videos
and movies (films, segments) as a teaching medium for second languages.

Films in SL classroom started to acquire pedagogic importance in the 1960 when


more researchers came to agree that videotexts could give students the opportunity to
experience contact with contextualized language and the culture of the target country,
thus facilitating language acquisition (Lonergan,1984, cited in Fassbender 2009).

Little research has been done on the using of movies as an educational tools
whether inside or outside classroom. However as early as the late of 1930(quoted in
Fassbender 2009), researchers like Hendrix (1939) and Tatum (1941), noticed the rise of
the moving- picture industry and expected great success from utilizing movies in the
teaching of foreign languages. While Johnson (1956) noted that, the adolescents' rising
interest in and familiarity with movies promised a high acceptance on the students'.

In recent years, some of these studies have begun to be addressed, but in limited
contexts. For example, Balatova (1994) claims 'that unlike a student, who listened in
sound only conditions, the use of video and sound conditions were more consistent in
their perception of the story, in the sense that difficult and easy passages formed a
pattern''. This study remarks that scenes where utterances were supported by an action
and/or body language and that were relatively shorter were considered easier to
understand by students.
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Research by Herron, Hanley and Cole (1995) reports that the visual support in the
form of descriptive pictures significantly improved comprehension scores with language
videos for English speaking students learning French. The results of the study suggests
that extensive listening is facilitated by the richness of the context that visual organizers,
such as educational videos, provide. Heron (1994) finds that advanced organizers based
on videos helped learners improve comprehension and aid in the retention of
information.

Similarly, Canning-Wilson (2000) indicates that the students prefer learning language
through the use of videos. One of the results of her study reveals that learners prefer
action/entertainment films to language films or documentaries in the classroom. She
claims although these films may seem to hold student interest, she believes that it could
be inferred that student comprehension of the video may be due to the visual clues
instead of the auditory components.

Arthur (1999 quoted in LI Ling) claims that:

"Video can give students realistic models to imitate for role-play; can increase
awareness of other cultures by teaching appropriateness and suitability; can
strengthen audio/visual linguistic perceptions simultaneously; can widen the
classroom repertoire and range of activities; can help utilize the latest technology
to facilitate language learning; can teach direct observation of the paralinguistic
features found in association with the target language; can be used to help when
training students in ESP related scenarios and language; can offer a visual
reinforcement of the target language and can lower anxiety when practicing the
skill of listening."

LI Ling (2009) also in his study entitle ''On the use of films in EFL classroom'' notes
that students' motivation can be enhanced through using films, such as familiarizing
learners with target culture, and making classes more interesting. Interactive language
learning using films offers learners interesting comprehensible input and allows them to
get actively involved in lessons at their desired pace. Therefore, it is strongly
recommended that colleges and practitioners encourage the use of instructional video in

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the classroom as it offers an exciting and innovative way for EFL learners to learn
English.

Prof. Dinçay (2004) emphasizes, in his study entitled to ''kill the blackboard?
technology in language teaching and learning'', to the importance of using the new
technology in teaching instead of using blackboard only. Through using films, students
will be entertained in learning the language. The results of his study Videos can be used
as a tool for developing students' listening comprehension and enhancing their
intercultural competence as well as presenting new language material or consolidating
what has already been presented through the activities.

Canning (2001 cited in Dinçay 2004) discusses the practical implications of using
video in the classroom as follows:
''Video provides visual stimuli such as the environment and this can lead to
and generate prediction, speculation and a chance to activate background
schemata when viewing a visual scene re-enacted. It can be argued that
language found in videos could help nonnative speakers understand stress
patterns. Videos allow the learner to see both rhythm and speech rhythm in
second language discourse through the use of authentic language and
speed of speech in various situations. Videos allow contextual clues to be
offered. In addition, video can stimulate and motivate student interest. The
use of visuals overall can help learners to predict information, infer ideas
and analyse the world that is brought into the classroom via the use of
video instruction. In a teaching or testing situation video can help enhance
clarity and give meaning to an auditory text; it can create a solid link
between the materials being learned and the practical application of it in a
testing situation; the video can act as a stimulus or catalyst to help
integrate materials or aspects of the language; videos can help manipulate
language and at the same time be open to a variety of interpretations''.

New internet phenomena like the website "YouTube.com" are now providing
everybody with an inexhaustible wealth of videos. YouTube is a video-sharing website,
created in 2005, were users can upload, view and sharing video clips as well as all types
of long and short movies. According to Social Media Statistics, showed unexpected
findings from July 2008 include:

-75 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
-Americans spent a total of 558 million hours watching online video during the
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month.
-The average online video viewer watched 235 minutes of video.
- 91 million viewers watched 5 billion videos on YouTube.com (54.8 videos per
viewer).
-51.4 million viewers watched 400 million videos on MySpace.com (7.8 videos
per viewer).
- The duration of the average online video was 2.9 minutes.

With these facts in mind, it is hardly surprising that researchers like Peter Duffy in his
study entitled, 'Engaging the YouTube Google-Eyed Generation: Strategies for Using
Web 2.0 in Teaching and Learning', found that Blogs, YouTube and wikis provide a
means to encourage and make visible the social construction of knowledge which such
theory postulates, and it is incumbent on teachers to embrace such tools where their use
is beneficial to learners and teachers alike.

Movies as teaching tools

Movies can be effective tools. A prepared educator can use movies to stimulate
discussion, facilitate learning on particular topics, or reemphasizing material being
presented through textbooks or classroom lectures. Jonson (1956) in his experience in
using movies in the classroom lead to the following results:
1. Increased ability to understand the spoken language
2. Improvement in pronunciation
3. Acquisition of vocabulary
4. Development of ability in self-expresion through talking and writing
5. Unconscious assimilation of grammatical forms and sentence patterns in context.
(p.44 quoted in Fassbender 2009)

Likewise, Procotor (1990) states that movies are a great beneficial tool for
communication interaction for the following reasons :
1. Heighten student interest without sacrificing academic rigor
2. Use available resource that makes students more comfortable.
3. Provide affective and cognitive experiences through vicarious involvement

Learning English by watching movies is similar with learning process, since either
learning process or learning by movies are promoting learners' skills. First learners will
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get many correct English sentences into their head. Then they can imitate them and they
can make their own sentences. Moreover, is not that why learners are learning English
— to be able to make their own sentences? That is why watching movies (just like
reading books) is such a great way to learn English.

Furthermore, watching English movies will give learners more opportunities to speak
English correctly because the following reasons:
o Learners learn what words they use. When speaking, native speakers use words
and phrases that you often won't find in a book.
o Learners learn how English native speakers say these words. Movies let them
improve their pronunciation, not only grammar and vocabulary. If they listen to
Americans or Britons speaking English, you can learn to speak like them.
o Learner will be able to understand spoken language. Movies are made for native
speakers, not for learners of English. So the actors talk fast, just like native
speakers talk in real life.

Movies and Motivation Principles


Raymond Wolkowski (1987) researched motivation in teaching. He stated that
motivation stimulated behavior, gave direction to behavior, allowed the behavior to
continue, and led to the selection of a specific behavior. Woldkowsik believed that
motivation was influenced by attitudes, needs, stimulation, individual feelings,
competence and reinforcement (Davis,1993 quoted Goldenber, 2008).Teachers are
responsible for motivating, whether intrinsic or extrinsic, students using these various
tools. Movies have both audio and visual components that may lead to motivation.
Watching movies is surely stimulating, just as a discussion during the debriefing can be.
Students' individual feelings, which form the classroom environment, will be improved
when they are told they are to watch a movie.

Movies and Learning Styles Principles


There are diversified learning styles such as audio, visual and tactile. Movies have
valuable features that make them easy to reach and access different types of learners.
For example, a visual learner takes in the movie visually, while an auditory learner learns
from listening to the movies. They make understanding the language easier as listening
to authentic language is more difficult than seeing the expressions written, thus

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matching the words with pictures and voice. Jane Shermon says, the eye is more
powerful than the ear”. ( Jane Sherman, 2003) and also the old old proverb that states :
a picture is a worth a thousand words. Therefore, with more stimulation and
understanding of presented materials by different learning styles, boredom is more
difficult to fall into. Input is interesting and obliging to the acquirer, making the acquirer
more thoughtful to the understood input from the movies.

Movies and students' Attitudes


Audiovisual material enriches the students 'schemas and often help them to acquire
values and attitudes that are nay different from their own .Whereas watching movie,
learners are likely to interact with some of the characters depicted, and thus develop an
understanding of and empathy for these actors. Since the people in the film are native
speakers of the language, the students are acquiring beside the language the target
culture, which are shown in the movies. Movies also enable students to look to the
movies from multiple perspectives according student's learning style.

Movies and non-verbal language


Each culture has won non-verbal language such as body movement, facial expression,
eye contact, artifacts, proxemics and so on. Watching movies equip students to be more
awareness of understanding the meaning of these types of non-verbal messages.
Moreover, teachers may ask their students while watching movies with the sound turned
off, to guess what the activity is.

Movies and ambiguity tolerance


Ambiguity tolerance is the ability to be open-minded in accepting ideologies and events
and facts that contradict learners' own views (Brown2005). Ambiguity tolerance is a
significant factor in personality development and education. The process of comparing
and contrasting helps students to think critically about different issues presented to them
in movies. Using films, therefore, in teaching has a value in broadening students' minds
to be more flexible with other contrary opinions, especially when students are asked to
think critically in relationship to the stories they see. Michelle Whipple (1998) indicates
that when we add movies to the curriculum, “we provide expanded and extended
learning experiences and opportunities for making intertextual connections for all of our
students”. When classroom activities explicitly focus on intertextual connections by

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comparing different versions of the same story, students move beyond basic analysis to
the more sophisticated skill of comparing their analysis of two different texts.

THE ENVIRONMENT AND OUTCOMES IN WATCHING MOVIES

Using different kinds of Media in the classroom has always been a challenge, and how to
bring these Media in the classroom is more than a challenge. Teachers and learners
should be able to use in their classrooms different media through different technologies.
Media provide teachers and learners with creative and practical ideas. They enable
teachers to meet several needs and interests of their learners. They also provide
learners with a lot of language practice through activities using different types of media
such as: radio, TV, movies, Internet, etc, and tasks which develop different kinds of
skills.

The presence of movies on course syllabi in different fields is very important to


university students. English educational movie considered one of the visual materials
where it is most effective in use because by seeing the movie learners can understand
and know about the main idea from the movie directly.

According to (NiuQiang), that there are three conditions for successful teaching with
movies; the first condition is typical movies that are educational, informative and
entertaining. The second condition for effective teaching through movies is a functional
workbook to the movies for the students to prepare before watching the movies. The
third condition is various classroom activities to induce/elicit timely and optimal output
from students are the last but most important condition to create an acquisition
environment for communication.

The benefits of studying through educational English movies are particularly


significant in language classes. Learners can gain a lot of new styles and approaches
through movies. They have paid attention while using a film in the classroom to help their
English to the accent, gestures, voice, body language, choosing of the words, training
ear and the eye, lifestyle, plot idea, summary, what’s going on, why and how, and many
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other things depending on the aim they have put to themselves. The general aim has
always been to maximize comprehension and learn more English. Watching English
educational movies is one type of interesting lectures.

By watching movie, we can know and benefit a lot of things about culture, habit or
language in the world. Movie has influence on audiences’ life, because it is universal
form for communication.

Watching English educational movies helps adult learnersto become more aware
and recognize of the different cultures and beliefs. They also become aware to
communicate and interact with other cultures and peoples. Learners are able to
understand the educational material indirectly through the analysis and understanding of
the purpose of the film.

When the learners come from more than one country that play important role
between learners as result, they speak different languages between learners inside
classroom. Some of the learners speak English as a first language; and other learners
speak English as a second language. This differentiate will be made some difficulties
between some learners when they learning English through movies because they don’t
understand the language of the movie easily; however they will see the movie more than
one time to understand and comprehend the movie.

Learners who speak English as a second language did not use to watch English
movies; therefore some learners are difficult to understand it. It is great importance is the
subtitle and dubbing which might be in English. They help a lot the aim of helping
learning English through movies. It would be great to find English movie with English
subtitle. They make understanding the language easier as listening to authentic
language is more difficult than seeing the expressions and vocabularies written, thus
matching the words with voice and pictures. Jane Sherman (2003) states “The eye is
more powerful than the ear.” That mean, learners are offered and focused both reading
and listening. In general, learners usually prefer more reading than listening, with few
exceptions.

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Watching movies can be in more one place whether inside and outside classroom.
Teachers and learners can watch the movie inside the class. Adult learners may watch
the film together as a group (outside of class) that makes a social relation and interaction
between learners. Likewise, if the film is available at a video store, they may watch it at
home. Each student, nevertheless, must watch the required film before the date
designated because watching movie more than one time helps learners to understand
the film’s dialogue.

There are three stages for preparing and teaching a movie course: 1) Pre-watching; at
this stage both teachers and learners should be preparing well. Teachers need to get all
the teaching material such as (the textbook, pictures, or poster etc.) prepared to help
learners get to know anything about the movie. As for learners, they can look for other
related materials to understand the film. 2) While-watching; this stage is during watching
the movie. The movie can be played more than one time to strengthen their impression
of the movie. When the movie watched more than one time, teachers can ask learners to
do the exercise given in advance. Learners are exposed to a variety of activities such as
filling blanks, problem solving, multiple matching, ordering events or comprehension
questions. 3) Post-watching; the last stage is advanced one. Teachers must adopt
different method. They may divide learners into groups to discussion, which is important
in this stage. Another method, they can ask learners to write a short summary or
comments on any issues or character they like in the film. From this stage, teachers can
see where the need to improve.

Language Skills and Movies

Learners can benefit more than one skill through learning language in English
educational movies. One of them, listening is very important part of learning English.
According to Sheath Rixon (1986), “the aim of teaching listening comprehension is to
help learners of English cope with listening in real life”. The use of English educational
movies as media can improve students understanding of English. Listening is one of the
most skills which students can gain it through movies. The objective of teaching listening
is helping the learner to develop their ability to understand a word, sentence correctly.
When learners listened to the English movies that contribute the improvement of learners
listening skill, make English lesson more natural, help the learners feedback has been
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very positive and they are very enjoying the benefit of English movies, so listening skill
practice becomes more effective.

According to Mohammad El Bahri, the role of listening conversation through television,


movie or other tool is very significant for audience’s memory. By listening native speaker,
we used to pronunciation, vocabulary, intonation and also grammatical of sentence.

In addition, vocabularies also are very important in watching movies. English movies
can improve the learners’ domination of English vocabularies, in the movies pictures can
be used to give details the meaning of vocabulary item. Learners collect the vocabularies
and improve it in own their minds to obtain a lot of vocabularies and expressions through
movies. These vocabularies enhance learners to express their opinions in some
situations.

Moreover, speaking as well is very important skill in watching movies as teaching


and learning material. Pronunciation play an important role in movies, through
pronunciation, learners can learn how to pronounce the words correctly, so they can
listen to movies carefully then they try to imitate the pronunciation of the words directly.
So for, they can practice the speaking skill and apply it in their life.

NiuQiang claims that “Movies make the learner's articulatory organs work even
when the learner is merely watching the movies silently. This is proved by their silent
(covert) imitation of the speakers’ pronunciation and utterances without uttering a sound.
This is the most effective way for improving their pronunciation and intonation.”

Another important point to improve speaking skill is a movie discussion. The


discussion between learners will be after watching movie. During the discussion, the
learner will find a lot of ideas and feelings that they got from the movie. The learner can
express their own opinions and try to convince others, they will have absorption of other
people’s viewpoint, which they didn’t realize.Discussion between learners leads to make
a strong social relation between them.

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Therefore, summarizing and commenting is a necessary part of the movie review, and
the learners lack the ability to speak what in their mind even if they know the story, they
simply cannot express when the words are not available in their minds or cannot be
retrieved from their memory. Learners also can learn a lot from summaries. According to
Swain (1985), “The summaries of the movies provide a great source of words which will
enable the students to notice the gap between "what they want to say" and "what they
can say".

MOVIES AND LEARNING STYLES

Using movies, as language learning and teaching material, emphasizes some


language learning strategies and styles.
To start with learning styles, they can be thought of as “cognitive, affective, and
physiological traits that are relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact
with, and respond to the learning environment” (Keef, 1979, p4).
Basically, teaching and learning styles vary across individuals (Brown 2007) according
to their personalities and biological or genetic texture. As research shows, three-fifths of
an individual’s learning style is biological or genetic and the biological component of
individual learning style works for an individual’s whole life-time (Karpova, 1995) and
(Dunn 1998). However, using movies as a language learning material reveals some
learning styles such as:

i.
1- Field independence and field dependence

Field independent style is “your ability to perceive a particular, relevant item or factor
in a “field” of distracting items” (Brown 2007). FI demonstrates the perceptual skill
of a person who can easily recognize the hidden or camouflaged items of a field. A
child who can obviously spot the monkeys within the trees and leaves of an exotic
forest in coloring books tend toward a field independent style. (Brown 2007) and
(Wyss2002).

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On the other hand, field dependence can be thought of as one’s ability to perceive an
overall scrutiny of a field so that concealed subparts of that field are not clearly
perceived. (The researcher view).

However, FI learners who use movies as language learning material will pay most of
their attention to the movies’ particularized events and detailed scenes. They are able to
analyze and observe the deep structure of movies and go beyond mere enjoyment to
perceive foresights and sermons that movies directors employ in their movies.
Furthermore, Good FI learners can link scenes together to see its relationship to the
movie’s theme

Conversely, FD learners are more interested in general ideas presented in movies


and easily perceive the main theme of a movie without much attention to investigate
detailed scenes or particularized events. FD learners are not concerned about actors’
names, scenes sequences, or presented features, whereas FI will pay most of their
attention to these components.

2- Visual, auditory, and kinesthetic styles

Another salient dimension of learning style that can be empathized with movies as
language teaching and learning material is the penchant of learners toward either Visual,
auditory, and/or kinaesthetic (bodily) input.

Although learners may have a particular prominent learning style such as learning
through seeing, hearing, or any other senses, good learners usually adapt themselves to
learn through different senses as the sensory stimulation theory has as its basic premise
that effective learning occurs when the senses are stimulated and if multi-senses are
stimulated, greater learning takes place (Laird 1985).

However, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners can be identified through their
behaviours, the way they speak, or the kind of words they use. A visual learner, for
example, may say “yes I see what you mean”, “I look into that” an auditory learner may
say “yes I hear you”, while a kinesthetic learner might say “I can put my finger on it”.

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• Dr. Brian Walsh, in a video recording. http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=kfvvDkaVv2U

Figure 1: Quoted in Lopez (2007)

Visual learners, usually, prefer reading and studying visible materials such as charts,
drawings, and other graphic information. In our case, visual learners are much more
interested in visual materials presented in movies such as the actors’ motions, pictures,
and writings or translations provided. They can learn what a movie is aimed through the
previous features without much attention to other features that are considered to be
neglected for visual learners.

While the vast majority of knowledge held by adult learners (75%) is learned through
seeing, many adult learners (13%) tend to acquire knowledge by hearing (Laird 1985).

Auditory learners have a tendency toward learning through hearing rather than by
sight. They prefer listening to lectures, audiotapes, or music. (Brown 2007, Lopez 2007,
Riazi 2007).

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Unlike visual learners, auditory learners, who use movies as learning material, tend
to pay most of their attention to the sonic features presented. They are interested in the
actors’ voice, intonation, or shouting and the sound or musical effects. They likely
remember the actors’ names rather than faces, and they learn from what they hear in the
movie more than what they see.

Finally, kinesthetic learners learn best by physical activities and demonstrations (Brown
2007). They prefer moving their bodies and activating their muscles as they learn.
Furthermore, kinesthetic learners do well in chemistry experiments and sporting
activities. They might stand up and walk as they study, use movement for meaning, ask
for extra help on labs, etc. (Wassink 1995)

Based on the characteristics of kinesthetic learners mentioned above, the


researcher feels that kinesthetic learners are not familiar with movies as learning
material because it does not support their interests as tactile learners. Moreover, if a
movie is imposed upon them to learn through, they will not be interested in features that
visual and auditory learners are interested in even though that there are some features
are interrelated between visual and kinesthetic learners such as Using flash cards.

MOVIES AND LEARNING STRATEGIES:

Strategies can be defined as “procedures that facilitate a learning task. Strategies are
most often conscious and goal driven, especially in the beginning stages of tackling an
unfamiliar language task” (Chamot, 2005:112). However, there are tow main types of
strategies in the field of second language acquisition: learning strategies and
communication strategies. (Brown 2007).

There are many Learning strategies that can be emphasized by movies as learning
material. In this study, only tow will be discussed: cognitive strategies which belong to
learning strategy and socioaffective strategies which are communicative strategies.

20
1- Cognitive strategies:

Learners who use cognitive strategies to manipulate movies as learning material are
probably concerned with translation, imagery, and auditory representation.
No matter whether or not it is useful to use the first language as a base for
understanding a movie theme, some people may rely on the translation of the actors’
speech to their first language. Others may understand the learning content presented in
movies through relating that new content or information to visual concepts in memory via
familiar, easily retrievable visualizations.

A learner may use auditory representation in his or her movie-learning by retention


sounds for a word, phrase, or longer language sequence. The learner might improve his
or her pronunciation through paying most attention to the correct pronunciation of words
or phrases especially when the actors are native speakers of the target language.

2- Socioaffective strategies

Learning through movies may emphasize socioaffective strategies as learners watch


movies in groups so that they may cooperate or ask each other for clarification
-especially if there are native speakers of the language that the movie in- whenever they
faced with a difficulty in translation a word or phrase said by the actors, interpretation a
vague scene, or misunderstanding of events sequences.

CONCLUSION

21
REFERENCES
1. Brown, 2007. 'Principles of language learning and teaching'. Pearson
Education,10 Bank Streets, White plains, USA
2. Teresa O'Bannon, Marni Goldenber, (2008). 'Teaching With Movies: Recreation,
Sports, Tourism, and Physical Education'.USA

3. A Partnership of Heartland Truly Moving Pictures and the National Collaboration


for Youth. Teaching with Movies: A Guide for Parents and Educators.
 http://www.trulymovingpictures.org/FILM/Documents/TeachingwithMoviesguide.pd
f
4. Christine Canning-Wilson,2000, 'Practical Aspects of Using Video in the Foreign
Language Classroom'. The Center of Excellence for Research and Training,
Higher Colleges of Technology (Abu Dhabi).

 http://iteslj.org/Articles/Canning-Video.html

5. Carl A. Young, Sheryl Long, Jamie Myers. 2010. 'Editorial: Enhancing English
Language Arts Education With Digital Video'
 http://www.citejournal.org/vol10/iss1/languagearts/article1.cfm

6. Marilyn jody,1999.'Trends& Issues Elementary language Arts'. N ational Council


of Teachers of EnglishUSA
 http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019
b/80/15/e2/4d.pdf

Social Media Statistics


 http://socialmediastatistics.wikidot.com/youtube

7. Peter Duffy,2008. ''Engaging the YouTube Google-Eyed Generation: Strategies


for Using Web 2.0 in Teaching and Learning''. The Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, Hong Kong.

 http://www.ejel.org/Volume-6/v6-i2/Duffy.pdf

22
8. Lauren Bressett, Debbie Cheever, Lisa Townson, Penny Turner ,2001, 'Non-
Verbal Communication New Hampshire’s 4-H Communication Series for
Leaders'.

 http://extension.unh.edu/4h/4HPubs/NVComm.pdf

9. Dinçay KÖKSAL,2004, 'To kill the Blackboard? Technology in Language


Teaching and Learning'. Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University.

 http://www.tojet.net/articles/339.pdf

10. LI Ling,2009. 'On the use of films in EFL classroom'. Foreign Languages College,
Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310018, China.

 http://www.linguist.org.cn/doc/uc200912/uc20091205.pdf

11. Keef, J (1979). Student learning styles: Diagnosing and prescribing programs

12. Karpova, A. Personality and Individual Style. Riga: Zvaigzne ABC, 1995.

13. Dunn, R. ,(1998) Learning Style as a Criterion for Placement in Alternative


Programs, Phi Delta Kaplan

14. Wyss, R. (2002) Field Independent/Dependent Learning Styles and L2 Acquisition


The weekly column Article 102

15. Laird, D. (1985) Approaches to training and development Addison-Wesley,


Reading, Mass.

23
16. Riazi, A. (2007) Language Learning Style Preferences: A Students Case Study of
Shiraz EFL Institutes Shiraz University, Iran

17. Asian EFL Journal, Volume 9, Number 1

18. Lopez,K. (2007) Attorney Communication Style Study. Alexandria, Virginia 22314
- info@animators.com - www.animators.com

19. Chamot, A.(2005) language learning strategy instruction: current issues and
research.

20. Wassink, (2005) Study Tips


 http://www.hope.edu/admin/upbound/PDFs/studytips.pdf

21. Teacher's Guide for Required RCS Films.

 http://www.virginia.edu/french/resource/films/filmteach_guide.htm

22. Teaching Listening Skill Through Watching English Movie.

 http://www.scribd.com/doc/15189914/Skripsi-Teaching-Listening-Skill-Through-Watching-
English-Movie

23. NiuQiang, China EFL: Teaching With Movies.

 http://chinaholisticenglish.org/articles/teaching-with-movies.pdf

24. VilmaTafani (2009), Teaching English through mass media.

 http://adn.teaching.ro/article_2_1_9.pdf

25. Mohammad Agus El Bahri. The Role of Watching English Movie in Learning English

 http://www.scribd.com/doc/9639852/The-Role-of-Watching-English-Movie-in-Learning-English
24
26. Teaching with movies.

 http://wikigogy.org/Teaching_with_movies

27. On the Study of English Listening and Speaking Teaching through Films

 http://www.njdhzx.cn/view.asp?ClassID=3&ID=630

ALA'EDDIN BANIKALEF
(P52425)

25
There is no doubt that movies offer many advantages to the learners since movies
present language in a way that is often more natural than that found in course-books.
The powerful of watching movies promotes different skills especially listening and
speaking. Watching movies also, enhances students' background and improves their
visual and critical awareness.

Actually, watching a film in class is always a pleasurable activity for learners because
it provides students with natural and authentic English, and makes learning around such
material worthy and meaningful. Movies in English as well serve as a provenance of
activities, such as vocabulary-building tasks, classroom discussion, writing and listening
comprehension. Films can be , further, used in classrooms to lower the anxiety and
enhance the motivation of EFL students by providing learners with much valuable
information, for example, getting to know different cultures and learning about different
perceptions toward some phenomena.

In this paper, some of principles of language learning will be illustrated in relation


with using movies in teaching. Some of these principles like culture, Communicative
Competence, schemata and Linguistic Imperialism

.
26
Movies and Culture

Culture in general is a way of life. It is the cotect which way exist, think, feel and
relate to others (Brown. p188). Bates and Plog also (1988) defined cultures as a ''system
of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors and artifacts that members of a society use
to cope with this world and with one another. Culture might also be defined as the ideas,
customs, skills, arts, and tools that characterize a given group of people in a given period
of time.

Many students have not had the opportunity to have a meaningful and extensive direct
meeting with the target culture by travelling to the target country, nor may they ever be
able to experience the culture in that way during the years of their language learning.
Filmic texts can pave a way to the target culture and help teachers to institute controlled
classroom sitting, where students have the possibilities of watching native speakers in
real visual situation.

Accordingly, there has been much discussion in research as to how language


teachers can teach the target culture inside classroom and provide their students with a
worthwhile learning experience. Movie material in particular has been supposed to be
powerful tool, which can open ways of ''depicting the foreign language culture more
effectively than other instructional materials'' (Herron 1995). The main reason for this
belief is that the strong visual tie that movies produce between the target language and
the real natural life of the foreign country. Other researchers agree that movies stimulate
student interest to acquire the target culture, as well as language (e.g., Stempleski,
1992; Tomalin, 1992)

Furthermore, movie material (audiovisual) provides SL learners with great benefit


since they are able to meet the natural daily life, like patterns of dress, food, customs,
religion, rituals, transportation, civilization, thoughts, lifestyles, and beliefs. Briefly,

27
Students can gain many of benefit during observing the realistic scenes of the film such
as different aspect if the target culture as well as the language learning progress itself.

In other words watching movies have a lot of positives values. Firstly, Movies are
inherently interesting, enjoyable and motivating for students. Secondly, Movies supply
dramatic and dynamic real- life situations with natural, in a context. Thirdly, Students
attention is captured by an engaging visual medium, which in turn provides good
listening practice contextualized via movie. Finally, a movie provides a wealth of
paralinguistic features such as facial expression, gestures, and body language. (Schultz
1999). For further reading, some research has been done on teaching culture through
movies like Schultz 1999 who wrote research on ''teaching American cultures through
movies''. He suggests different films for teaching different periods of American culture,
for example:
• The African American .To Kill a Mockingbird
• The Native American. Dance with woves
• American Labor. Gung-ho, Roger and Me
• The Homeless ,Grime, Gun Control. The Fisher King
• The American Coverment .Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

In short, Movies enable students with motivation, pleasure and enthusiasm to learn.
Movies provide powerful visual auditory imagery for the learner. On other hand there is
little active speaking, the students are not efficient of too much discussion, and there is a
lot of students passivity in the viewing of entire feature length film. Clark's solutions are:
to reduce the number of films to be shown, reduce number of issues, focus on multiple
issues with single film, and enhance more active speaking and learning strategies.

Movies and Communicative Competence

The term Communicative competence coined by Dell Hymes (1972) who defined the
CC ''as aspect of our competence that enable us to convey and interpret messages and
to negotiate meaning interpersonally within specific context''. (Brown 2007, p219).
Likewise, Savignon (1983) stated, ''communicative competence is relative, not absolute,
and depends on the cooperation of all the participants involved''.

28
Some researchers also differentiate between linguistic and communicative
competence. LC refers to knowledge about language forms; While CC refers to
knowledge that enables a person to communicate functionally and interactively. Canal
and Swain (Brown 2007, p219) distinguish between four categories of CC as the
following:
1. Grammatical competence: Knowledge of syntax, lexical, semantic, and
phonology.
2. Discourse competence: ability to connect sentences to form meaningful
utterances.
3. Sociolinguistic competence: Knowledge of sociocultural rules of language and
discourse.
4. Strategic competence: The verbal and non-verbal communication strategies.

The fundamental principles (cited in Shim 2001) that have been highlighted in teaching
CLC according to several researchers as the following:
1. Use authentic materials
2. Achieve meaningful communication using the target language.
3. Pay attention to socio-pragmatic functions of the target language
4. Create a secure and non-threatening learner-centered environment.

Anyhow, Balatova (1994, cited in Wood, 1996 quoted in Li Ling, 2009) points out
that visual materials promote language learning process, and students who have access
to audio-visual aids were more successful improving interests and concentration while
listening. The visual aspects of movies may emphasize the comprehension since
watcher can notice the paralinguistic perspective that performed by the actors of the
movie.

Furthermore, Movies help learners to visualize words as well as meanings. Films


provide visual catalyst and this can lead to generate prediction, speculation, and an
opportunity to revive students' schemata through watching visual scene. Movies also
may enhance communicative competence through using discussion inside classroom.
Teacher may raise question about the movie, the teacher can involve students in
discussion in which students need to construct link between the story and themselves, or

29
they may be asked about their opinions in some issues after they watched the movie.
The teacher well as can first engage in a general conversation concerning any of the
themes that the film will be exploring. After that, the teacher moves on to concentrate on
more specific issues concerning the theme of the film, explained by selected key scenes
to provoke stimulating discussion.

Finally, watching movies may enable students to better understand English


intonation, like intonation units, stress, patterns, tones, and pitch range. Therefore,
Movies allow students to see the body rhythm and speech rhythm in second language
through the use of authentic natural language and speed of speech in various situations.
Films present endless opportunities for pedagogically sound activities for developing
fluency. The key to using films effectively mainly lies in the teacher's ability in preparing
students to receive the film's message.

Movies and Schemata

Schema is the technical term used by cognitive scientists to describe how people
process, organize, and store information in their heads (cited in Yanxia shen 2008)
Schemas, or schemata, are seen as cognitive constructs by which we organize
information in our long-term memory (Widdowson, 1983, quoted Al-Issa, 2006). They
“reflect the experiences, conceptual understanding, attitudes, values, skills, and
strategies … [we] bring to a text situation” (Vacca & Vacca, 1999, p. 15). Schemata,
therefore, have been called “the building blocks of cognition” (Rumelhart, 1982) because
they represent elaborate networks of information that people use to make sense of new
stimuli, events, and situations.

According to Brown (2001) the value of schema theory, with regards to reading, is
that a ''text does not by itself carry meaning. The reader brings information, knowledge,
emotion, and culture – that is schemata, to the printed word''. Brown (2001) defines two
types of schema as follows: content schemata includes what we know about people, the
world, culture, and the universe, while formal schemata consists of our knowledge about
discourse structure. Comprehensive process depends on knowledge that relate to facts
that already stored in one's mind. In other words understanding any type of language
skills depends on how much related schema.

30
Content schema also refers to the acquaintance of the subject matter of the text. It
includes a grasping of the topic of the text and the cultural-specific aspects needed to
interpret it. Content schema is part of the individual’s cultural orientation.

One of most important means for building background knowledge is the through
movies. While film watchers imaginatively frame screen space in their mind using the
container schema and limited cues from the film, enable spectators to actually "walk"
through a space (McMahan & Buckland). Watching movies, likewise, enables learners to
bridge the gap between the contextual meaning and mental explanation.

Recent brain research, furthermore, supports the pedagogical approach. For information
to move from short-term memory to long-term storage, the learner must have two
questions answered. ''First, Does this make sense? In other words, can the learner
understand the items based on experience? Does it fit into what the learner knows about
the world (the schemata)? Second, ''Does it have meaning?'' Is this item relevant to the
learner? For what purpose should the learner bother to remember it? (Quoted in Vetrie,
2004). Presenting film around which students have already constructed strong
interrelated structures is much easier than trying to found a new knowledge base or
schemata from scratch.

On other hand, the suitability of content and the comfort level of students as well as
the age of the learners need to be taken into account in the selection process. Films with
explicit sex, gratuitous violence and unreasonable blasphemy should probably be
excluded. However, films with minor scenes of sex, violence and profanity should be
skipped and fast forwarded past whatever may be deemed offensive.

Linguistic Imperialism

Phillipson (2004) defines English linguistic imperialism as ''the dominance asserted


and maintained by the establishment and continuous reconstitution of structural and
cultural inequalities between English and other languages". According to him, “Linguistic
imperialism can occur when English becomes a gatekeeper to education, employment,
business opportunities and popular culture and where indigenous languages are
31
marginalized. Some of researchers also linked linguistic imperialism with other
economically optimistic and sensationalized names as Globalization, McDonaldization,
Englishization, New World Order, and re-colonialization .

In case Englishisation is unavoidably connected to globalisation and


americanisation (which some see as neo-imperialism or hyperimperialism, or merely
empire,( Hardt & Negri 2000 quoted in Qiang & Wolff ).While, 3 McDonaldization,...is the
process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more
and more sectors of American society as well as of the rest of the world. (Ritzer, 1993:12
).

Occasionally, Rauschenberger( 2003) defines the term “cultural commodities” is that


referring to the products of the print and audio-visual industries including movies,
television, publishing, radio, and music. These products are vehicles for the transmission
of values, lifestyles, and ideologies that many see as corrosive to the recipient culture.
(quoted in Rauschenberger 2003)

As a result of linguistic imperialism, the Cultural imperialism also inevitably


occurred. This term relate to countries that imposed their cultural values on other
nations by different means and one of these tools is movie. Movie plays a crucial
role in creating and transmitting the dominant culture to the developing society.

According to Irving Kristol, in "The emerging American Imperialism," proposes that


the American missionaries live in Hollywood, which is different from the Old European
imperialism, which was based on bureaucratic colonial governments and resource
extraction. Similarly, Phil Taylor (2004)
Stated that Hollywood was somehow part of an American governmental strategy to sell
the American way of life to local foreign cultures by displacing local values.

In general, speaking about the term “cultural imperialism” relates to the worldwide
propagation and dominance of American consumer culture and products, which many

32
nations claim is sweeping their local cultural traditions and values and then emerges a
form of global cultural rules.

As English becomes a universal language, it becomes obvious that language and


culture cannot be divorced. According to The AP National Writer journalist Anthony Ted
claims "everyone from the French to the Indonesians worry that where English goes,
America will follow''. Likewise ,Scholars Nye and Owen confessed that it is the aim of the
United States to have English as the global language: "It is in the economic and political
interests of the United States to ensure that, if the world is moving to a common
language, it be English; that if the world is becoming linked by television, radio and
music, the programming be American; and that, if common values are being developed,
they be values with which Americans are comfortable''.

As evidence that the world cannot avoid its thirst for American culture, The 1997 U.S.
blockbuster film Titanic is praised by Chinese President Jiang Zemin in a speech before
China’s National Peoples Congress. Mickey Mouse now welcomes its fans in Europe
and Asia from his Magic Kingdoms in France or Japan. Whether it is beverages,
blockbusters, or a bit of Disney’s delights (cited in Rauschenberger 2003 ).

According to UNESCO that, U.S.A has kept the dominant player in the global
cultural trade, especially in the audiovisual sector. Like fmovies shown worldwide, 85%
are produced in Hollywood. Likewise i Europe, U.S. movies dominate the list of imported
movies, which account for more than 80 percent of films shown in cinemas throughout
the EU.

Furthermore, politicians and instructors should not forget that the variation in
cultures make the world a rich and diverse place. Nevertheless, every individual of any
country should have the right to express his or her own culture and no one have the right
to impose their values on others.

However, the American culture is invading on most cultures in the world, in many
cases menacing their existence. Some movies that change the crucial social aspects in
some countries like, superman, Spider-man, and Batman replace traditional heroes;
Pepsi and Coke replace local traditional fruit drinks; and fast food that substitute the
traditional meals. Therefore, alert about the supremacy of English it conceals

33
consternation concerning the role it plays in minimizing the importance of the nation and
in maximizing the role of globalization.” (Dendrinos 2005)

On other hand, the most dangerous results of both language and cultural
imperialism is that those factors will help to appear resistance movements. (Abadie 2004
cited in Niu Qiang, Ph.D. and Martin Wolff, J.D.) Al Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden slamic
Fundamentalist who was born in Saudi Arabian for rich family. He believes that western
counties constitute threat to his religion, language, culture and family dominance in local
politics. To many, Bin Laden is simply a freedom fighter opposing the colonization of the
Muslim world by the Western. In other words Bin Laden joined in terrorism to protect his
religion, language and culture from westernization movements that driven by USA.
Dendrinos (2005) points out that President George W. Bush’s declared war on terrorism
may be just such an attempt to do away with Islamic resistance to linguistic imperialism.

In short, English is sometimes considered as the aspect of colonization. Although


Shaw (1981) agrees that English has been an effect of British colonism or the sign of the
American cultural imperialism. Watching movies is one of the most effective tools to
export English cultures to other countries, so both teachers and learners have to filtrate
these movies in a way that appropriate their cutlers and traditional values.

34
References
1. Alison McMahan and Warren Buckland, 'Cognitive Schemas and Virtual Reality'.

 http://www.intelligentagent.com/archive/IA5_1avemcmahanbuckland.pdf

2. Yanxia shen,2008, 'An Exploration of Schema Theory in Intensive Reading'.


HeBei University of Science and Technolog.

 http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/elt/article/viewFile/457/470

3. Jane King, 2002, 'Using DVD feature films in the EFL classroom'.

 http://www.eltnewsletter.com/back/February2002/art882002.htm

4. Michael Vetrie,2004 ,'Using Film to Increase Literacy Skills'. 93.3

 http://www.hhsdrama.com/documents/UsingFilmtoTeach.pdf

5. Michael Vetrie, 'How to Organize a Film as Literature Class'

 http://www.englishjournal.colostate.edu/images/filmclass.pdf

35
6. Ahmad Al-Issa, 2006, ''Schema Theory And L2 Reading Comprehension:
Implications For Teaching'', V3.N7. American University of Sharjah, United Arab
Emirates
 http://www.cluteinstitute-onlinejournals.com/PDFs/2006100.pdf

7. Matthew Schultz, 1999. 'Teaching American Culture Through Movies'. 171.87


 http://ci.nii.ac.jp/els/110002965119.pdf?
id=ART0003322865&type=pdf&lang=en&host=cinii&order_no=&ppv_type=0&lang
_sw=&no=1271312639&cp=

8. LI Ling, 2009, 'On the use of films in EFL classroom', 7, No.12. (Foreign
Languages College, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310018, China).
 http://www.linguist.org.cn/doc/uc200912/uc20091205.pdf

9. Rosa Jinyoung,2001, 'Teaching English through Movies :How to Do It the


Communicative Way' 129-154.
 http://myweb.pknu.ac.kr/org/contents/board/download.php?
home_id=jaewondad&board_seq=169&ftype=N

10. Douglas Brown, 2007, Fifth Edition, Principles of language Learning and teaching,

11. Douglas Brown, 2000, Fourth Edition, Principles of language Learning and teaching,
 http://rapidshare.com/files/69274220/Principles_of_Language_Learning_and_Teaching.P
DF

12. Niu Qiang, Ph.D. and Martin Wolff, J.D.'' ENGLISH as a FOREIGN LANGUAGE: The
Modern Day Trojan Horse?''
 http://chinaholisticenglish.org/articles/trojan-horse.pdf

13. Mohammad Aliakbari'' On the limitation of SLA/ SCA parallelism: A case for
cultural recognition vs. cultural production''. Ilam University-Iran
 http://www.paaljapan.org/resources/proceedings/PAAL8/pdf/pdf001.pdf

14. Linguistic imperialism.


 http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Linguistic:imperialism.html

15. Gaëlle Sévenier (2004). '' American Cultural Imperialism: Gift or Threat?''
 http://gsevenier.online.fr/culturalImperialism.html

16. Phil Taylor (2004). ''Cultural imperialism?''


 http://www.britishcouncil.org/history-why-cultural-imperialism.htm

36
17. Emilee Rauschenberge r(2003). ''It is Only a Movie – Right? Deconstructing
Cultural Imperialism, Examining the Mechanisms Behind U.S. Domination of the
Global Cultural Trade''.
 http://politics.as.nyu.edu/docs/IO/4600/rauschenberger_thesis.pdf

18. Peter Ives (2006: 121 – 141)'' Global English’: Linguistic Imperialism or Practical

Lingua Franca?''

 http://www-staff.lboro.ac.uk/~ssjer/slc1/slc1-6_ives.pdf

19. Popular Culture in 20th century ''Introduction: Hollywood and Cultural Imperialism''

 http://madeinatlantis.com/popular_culture/introduction/hollywood.htm

ALI LABABNEH
P53528
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At this paper, I would like to talk about three principles and apply them to movies till give
us an evidence understanding and more comprehension of their effect on movies.The
principles which I have chosen are: Motivation, Stereotype and Social strategy.

 MOTIVATION:

Brown (2007) defined motivation as “the anticipation of reward, whether internally or


externally administered; choices made about goals to pursue and the effort exerted in
their completion

Motivation is the psychological feature that enhances an organism to action toward a


main goal; the reason for the action; that which gives aim and gaudiness to behavior.

Motivation is one of the principles that effect on watching movies. Movie provides
lot information and various ideas, it motivates students to speak and help them integrate
38
more than one skill, through different kinds of activities. It will make the learners laugh,
cry; understand the time because they observe different kinds of events and situation
through watching movie, all the situation enhance and encourage the learners to
understand the ideas easily. According to VilmaTafani (2009)

According to (Paul Kebble), watching movies in the classroom is very significant


for everybody in the class. It is a very good idea, to break the classes routine. It is
something new, so it’s very interesting because, the learners can’t be boring and they
learn a lot of information and styles through the movie.

Learners really enjoy watching movies for a variety of reasons. For one, they get
acknowledgment to natural language in a non-threatening setting, they feel relax without
any afraid because learning through movies is easier than with material book. Secondly,
movies and video give useful common ground to learners of any international
background that motivate learners to be attention through watching movie.

The most attractive reason for using film in classroom is because of the motivation.
Learners with interests and motivation are ready and prepare to learn easily without any
problems. Learners are given chances to enjoy English class with watching movies
inside the classroom; it is much easier for them to learn and for teachers to teach. To
make them enjoy the class and gain a lot of things through movies, the visual material
film, is an excellent teaching resource. Moreover, watching movies help teacher make
teaching and learning visual that easy for visual learners. A picture in the movie tells a
thousand words and it also helps students to improve their thinking.

Teaching English through movies is a new method in teaching. Movies which


make the learner very interested and concentrated. Learning through movies will be the
learner memories all the events and situations, however, the learners can answer the
questions about the film when the teachers ask them. The roles of the teacher motivate
the learners and encourage them.

39
Listening to English language through watching English language films or videos
can lead learners to broaden their perspective on their language acquisition process.
Motivational teaching strategy such as watching English movie can easily increase
language learners’ motivation levels.

 STEREOTYPE:

Broun (2007) defined stereotype is “an overgeneralized, oversimplified view or


caricature of another culture or a person from the culture, as perceived through the lens
of one’s own culture”

According to Claire Kramsch (2009) stereotype is “conventionalized ways of


talking and thinking about other people and cultures.” Cultural stereotypes may be
expressed as personal beliefs about the characteristics of a group or as beliefs about the
predominant cultural view of a group.

Stereotypes are learned attitudes that have important impact on our behaviors. We learn
them from different sources including television, books, music, movies, etc. Stereotypes
are generalization made about a group of people that are usually based on inaccurate or
incomplete information. They can be positive or negative, but both can have negative
effects for the person or people being stereotyped.

Linn and Poussaint (1999) claims that, learners and children learn stereotype and
attitude about race from their parents and various media such as TV and movies that
learners encounter on a regular basis. In addition (Wood) points out that, the media has
become a strong effect of the way people view each other and how we communicate.
Stereotype has become the central point of several television shows and movies.

Stereotypes that usually based on religion, sex and race are usually promoted
and depicted by movies. Some movies, for example, portrayed the black men as
barbarian creatures. Other movies also presented Arabs like uncivilized people.

40
Therefore, teachers should avoid using movies that deepen feeling of racism or movies
that degrades other nations.

Heidi Burqess (2003) claims that, movies play an important role in breaking down
stereotypes. If stereotype characterize particular groups of people in certain ways, the
learners or readers are likely to do the same. So if a movies industry in general
characterizes a group of people negatively, they are likely to be continuing negative
stereotypes and making conflicts worse. If they emphasize the positive expressions of
groups that contradict dominant stereotypes, they can have a significant role in building
mutual understanding.

Movies often rely on stereotype, because they are a quick and simple way to
establish a movie character’s traits. The film industry is sensitive to different kinds of
issues, but many movies still perpetuate common misconception about group of people.
Learners especially children have a limited experience of the world so; they are
particularly vulnerable to being influenced by media stereotype. (According to Media
Awareness Network, 2010)

 SOCIAL STRATEGY:

Brown (2007) defined socioaffective strategies are “strategic option relating to social-
mediating activity and interacting with others.” Oxford (1990) defined a social strategy
that is "facilitate interaction with others, often in a discourse situation”, like asking
questions, cooperating peers and proficient users of the target language, and
empathizing with others.

Social Strategy is achievements and operational level. It is based on having


different opinions regarding a subject through an interactive environment. This strategy
helps in breaking the ice between the teacher and learners, and builds their self-
confidence and personality, and great results will be achieved during the whole process
at the social and educational process.

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Social strategy consider one of the more favored language learning strategies,
wherein learner have the chance to participate in real conversation in a real social set-
up. This strategy will only indirectly help in acquiring, utilizing and retrieving of language.
According to (ArticlesBase.com)

Leaners learn a lot from movies, they watched different educational types of
movies. Each movie has several of ideas, styles, ways and information which make
learners more socially. Learning through movies can enhance the learners to learn how
learners deal with different kinds of people and learn different kinds of culture that lead
the learner to be more socially.

Marrian and Caffarella (1999) claim that, social learning is very important in
watching movies, it combines elements from both behaviorist and cognitive theories and
posits that we learn best by interacting with others social setting.

Social learning and strategy create a personal connection with students. Teacher should
ask questions about the movie after learners watched it. Learners can negotiate and
discuss to answer the questions and understand the main ideas in the film; it makes a
strong social relation among learners and teachers. (Scott D. Johnson and Steven R.
Aragon) state that, “cooperative learning is common techniques for engaging students in
activities that involve considerable amounts of creativity, decision making, and problem
solving.”

Group discussion is very important in watching movies. It plays a main social role
among learners. It encourages learners to interact with other learners and theycan listen
to different opinions. The learners can gain a lot of vocabularies and information in these
discussionsfrom each other.

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REFERNNCES:

1. Paul Kebble. Making movies: an integrated skills task for motivating ESL learners.

 http://www.englishaustralia.com.au/index.cgi?
E=hcatfuncs&PT=sl&X=getdoc&Lev1=pub_EAJ_24-2&Lev2=250509b

2. Teaching with Film and Video.

 http://www.eslpartyland.com/teachers/nov/film.htm

3. Movie Trailer in English classroom for Motivation and Interest.

 http://www.kotesol.org/?q=node/179

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4. Motivating Language Learners to Succeed

 http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/sec_document.asp?CID=1901&DID=11106

5. Stereotypes / Characterization Frames.

 http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/stereotypes/

6. Stereotyping in the Movies.

 http://www.media
awareness.ca/english/parents/movies/concerns/stereotyping_movies.cfm

7. The Effects of Stereotypes on Communication and Interaction between High


School Students.

 http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/80951.html

8. Language Learning Strategies- A Simple Strategy.

 http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/language-learning-
strategies-a-simple-strategy-847668.html

9. Scott D. Johnson, Steven R. Aragon (2003): An Instructional Strategy Framework


for Online Learning Environments.

 http://ldt.stanford.edu/~educ39105/paul/articles_2005/An%20Instructional
%20Strategy%20Framework%20for%20online
%20instruction_Johnson_Aragon.pdf

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10. Libby Brunette, Claudette Mallory & Shannon Wood: Stereotypes & Racism in
Children’s Movies.

 http://www.nhaeyc.org/newsletters/articles/Racism_in_Childrens_Movies.pdf

11. Brown, H (2007). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Fifth edition.

12. Kramsch, C(2009). Language and Culture.

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