Experiencing Intercultural Learning with Films by Lic. Sandra Mongomery for the Master’s Program in TEFL, ULATINA 2011

In the article Intercultural Training with Films by Christine Roell from the English Teaching Forum site, the author emphasizes the importance of using films to facilitate students’ understanding of cultural topics.

Roell’s gives some reasons for using films and watching movies in the classroom; for example, the fact that these two resources catch the students’ attention easily by combining entertainment and learning in an interesting way. She also cites that:

“Learning about stereotypes, ethnocentrism, discrimination, and acculturation in the abstract can be flat and uninspiring. But if we experience intercultural contact with our eyes and ears, we begin to understand it” (Summerfield 1993, 1).

I do consider this citation to be very relevant because as English instructors we might devote a lot of time explaining orally about intercultural communication; nevertheless, students learn more when they actually see and hear what we are trying to teach them. In other words, when they watch a film or movie, they experience through their senses the different situations portrayed, and this enables their comprehension.

Another important aspect that Roell points out is the different activities that can be done when using films in the classroom. This refers to pre-viewing, while-viewing, and post-viewing activities which are fundamental in order to achieve the objectives that we, teachers, have established. Because there must be an educational purpose when giving students a film or movie, and our challenge is to use it in an effective way so intercultural understanding can really take place.