Pixar films, popular culture, and language teaching: The potential of animated films for Teaching English as a Foreign Language

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-280
Author(s):  
Judith Hofmann
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Visual Language ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Animated Films ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Culture And Language

This article aims at taking a look at a genre that is popular with both children and adults, yet mostly neglected in curricula: animated films. As a study conducted in a German secondary school demonstrated, the potential of this genre for Teaching English as a Foreign Language lies mostly in its strong visual language as well as its connection to the daily lives of the students. After briefly discussing why animated films by Pixar can be considered as a genre and how this genre (re-)presents popular culture, the theoretical basis for the integration of the films into Teaching English as a Foreign Language will be laid out. The topics addressed by Pixar animated films will then be described. Also, a task typology and some actual tasks that can be used when addressing the topic in the English as a Foreign Language classroom will be introduced. Finally, one task that was actually used during the empirical study, and how the students responded to it, will be brought into focus. The main example will be the film Up (2009) but other films from the Pixar œuvre will occasionally be referenced to illustrate certain points.

scholarly journals Cinema as a didactic tool in the secondary school foreign language classroom: French

2021 ◽  
pp. 129-147
Author(s):  
Imad Boussif ◽  
Estefanía Sánchez Auñón
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Teaching Unit

The seventh art forms an essential part of the students’ daily lives; additionally, it has been asserted that it is a highly advantageous didactic tool for high school foreign language learners. Thus, the purpose of this empirical study is twofold: to explore high school learners’ perception on the didactic exploitation of films in the French classroom, and to determine whether or not the cinema-based approach is as beneficial for high school French students as it seems. Accordingly, a cinema-based teaching unit was put into practice in two high school French classrooms and, afterwards, the thirty-five participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire in order to examine their views on this methodology and analyse its effects on their language learning process. The results obtained have revealed that high school French students have a very positive opinion on the cinema-based approach and that this method is motivating and helps learners to enhance their linguistic and sociocultural competences.

scholarly journals Syllabus Design for Pre-service English Language Teachers in Spain

2018 ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Gloria Luque Agulló
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Educational Programs ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Teaching Program ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Educational Law ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
English Language Teachers

This paper describes the steps involved in designing educational programs for pre-service English language teachers in Secondary education within the Spanish context, following the current educational law (LOMCE).  Considering the century-long search for the best method within TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), and the continuous reforms of educational laws in Spain, pre-service teachers must learn the competences and skills essential for designing of their own teaching program. The series of steps described here will enable teachers to show accountability to educational authorities and increase their self-confidence, subsequently improving their craft in the language classroom.

scholarly journals Emphasizing the use of literature as an effectual technique for teaching Language: A Study

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (37) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhibunnisha Begum
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Literature Teaching ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Basic Language ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Oral Skills

This paper aims at emphasizing the use of literature as an effectual technique for teaching both basic language skills (i.e. reading, writing, listening and speaking) and language areas (i.e. and vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation). Reasons for using literary texts in foreign language that is English and the main criteria for selecting apposite literary texts in foreign language classes are hassled as the only language in which all subjects travel is English. Moreover the teaching of language skill’s benefits is obtained through altered genres of literature (i.e. poetry, short fiction, drama and novel). Literature in a language classroom provides adequate space for the learners to observe, validate and mirror themselves. The purpose of using literature in a language classroom is to formulate the class interactive and it can be assured that an interactive class can apparently develop communicative competence of the learners and remain an enduring impact on their mind. Such a class can develop the decisive thinking abilities of the learners and at the same time preserve a learner centre environment. The use of literature is to focus on the positive contributions of a literary text as it exposes the learner to different registers, types of language use. Literature plays an important role in the English programs of many non-English speaking countries. However, there are some problems encountered by language teachers within the area of teaching English through literature. First, there are very few pedagogically-designed suitable materials that can be used by language teachers in a language classroom. Second, there is a lack of groundwork in the area of literature teaching in TESL / TEFL programs. Third, there is the nonexistence of clear-cut objectives defining the role of literature in ESL /EFL. The teacher has a significant role in teaching English through literature. Literature is not only a device for developing the written and oral skills of the students in the intention language but also is a window opening into the culture of the target language, building up a cultural proficiency in students.

La imagen metalingüística de ser y

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 234-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Romo Simón
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Visual Language ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Foreign Language Classroom

This paper analyzes the properties of the image as a tool for the description of grammar phenomena and peeks into its pedagogical potential through an application to the controverted dichotomy between ser and estar in Spanish. The use of visual language as a device for the analysis and presentation of grammar has been one of the Cognitive Linguistics’ most characteristic traits. Nevertheless, the application of this powerful tool in the Spanish Language classroom is still scant, despite the description potential that the experts grant to it. This paper shows an analysis of some approaches to ser and estar through Cognitive Grammar and the metalinguistic image, and proposes another possible interpretation based in those principles and aiming to be exportable to the Spanish as a Foreign Language classroom.

“Explication de Texte” Revisited in an ESP Context

2002 ◽  
Vol 137-138 ◽  
pp. 233-251
Author(s):  
Nebila Dhieb-Henia
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Reading Instruction ◽  
Reading Strategies ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Reading Aloud ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Point Scale ◽  
Text Length

Abstract This study investigates current reading instruction in ESP. Specifically, it studies what has changed and what has not in a context where explication de texte used to be a major asset in teaching English as a foreign language. Four-point scale questionnaires were gathered from 13 secondary school inspectors, 65 ESP teachers and 94 students. They were asked about using texts to (a) teach grammar and vocabulary, and (b) practice reading strategies (careful reading, skimming, reading from beginning to end and reading only beginnings and ends). To shed additional light on these areas, we asked them three further questions on (c) reading aloud, (d) text length, and (e) time given to read a one-page text. Results showed that although, on some items, some movement away from the traditional approach has been recorded, the majority of reading instruction is still under the spell of explication de texte. This paper suggests that EFL science students need more in terms of reading strategies, if we want to make of them operational readers of literature in their field of study.

scholarly journals Interventions in the Egyptian Internship Program for Teachers of English as a Foreign Language

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (7) ◽  
pp. 81-99
Author(s):  
Mona Ahmed Eid
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Teaching Skills ◽  
Academic Education ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Evaluation Procedures ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Faculty Of Education

This research paper diagnostically measures the teaching proficiency level of ten interns, teaching English as a foreign language in Zahran Secondary School, Alexandria, Egypt, to specify their proficient competencies as well as their weaknesses. It also develops a 6 sessions workshop to upgrade the teaching skills of the ten interns focusing primarily on their six most challenging teaching skills. The 6 sessions workshop, concurrently, compensates for the most recent and upgraded pedagogical and methodological trends, that are not considered in their courses at the faculty of education. The results of the evaluation procedures and the 6 sessions workshop indicate that their overall teaching proficiency augmented with a rate of 19.22 after the execution of the workshop. Consequently, it is highly recommended that their academic education at the faculty of education should be supplemented with workshops in their internship program to set resolutions for the teaching hindrances that they encounter. Additionally, the Egyptian internship program, in other governorates in Egypt, should be modified to include similar workshop sessions enhancing the teaching skills of the interns and providing resolutions for their teaching impediments.

scholarly journals Teaching English as Foreign Language by Using Different Types of Texts: the Goals

JET ADI BUANA ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (01) ◽  
pp. 89-99
Author(s):  
Zamira Abdujabbarova
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
English As Foreign Language ◽  
Basic Language ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Listening And Speaking

Text plays an important role in teaching four basic language skills like reading, writing, listening and speaking. However, when using texts in the language classroom, skills should never be taught in isolation but in an integrated way. Teachers should try to teach basic language skills as an integral part of oral and written language use, as part of the means for creating both referential and interactional meaning, not merely as an aspect of the oral and written production of words, phrases and sentences.

scholarly journals “ISOBEL RAINEY. EFL IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL SECTOR: GRASSROOTS TEACHERS’ REALITIES AND PRACTICES”: REVIEW OF THE BOOK

2019 ◽  
pp. 62-69
Author(s):  
Victoria Drobotun ◽  
Tamara Kavytska
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Secondary School Teachers ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Positive Aspect ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Classroom Activities ◽  
The World ◽  
School Sector ◽  
Excellent Resource

The article is a review of the book “Isobel Rainey. EFL in the Secondary School Sector: Grassroots Teachers’ Realities and Practices”. An excellent resource for teachers, students and EFL enthusiasts, this book is an interesting research in the field of teaching English as a foreign language in a secondary education setting. The author discusses typical challenges faced by most secondary school teachers of English all over the world by inviting readers to an engaging professional dialogue on the issue that has not received much attention in literature. In her book, Isobel Rainey combines a broad theoretical analysis of the secondary school EFL research with observations of classroom activities, which breathes life into the author’s narrative. The description of teachers’ classroom experiences is the most valuable asset of the book, as it gives teachers practical tips on how to respond to certain challenges in the classroom. Another positive aspect of the book is that with the terminology explained, the writing is clear and understandable; it allows readers to easily follow the author’s narration, which makes the book attractive for language educators whose English is a second or foreign language.

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