Advantages and Challenges of Teaching Film in the EFL Classroom. Teaching English with Films

Essay from the year 2020 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 12, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, course: Teaching English with Films, language: English, abstract: In the following essay, the didactic usefulness of film in the classroom will be discussed theoretically, and the practical implementation and the challenges associated with it will be demonstrated using appropriate examples. The focus is on the treatment of films as they are shown in evening programs and cinemas. The trend observed in recent years of integrating films more and more frequently into English lessons as aesthetic works of art in their own right, and referring primarily to the way the medium is made, means that films are unable to develop much of their potential. When using films today, the students are primarily required to deal with the different mechanisms of representation, such as camera perspective, editing, and montage. The language-promoting properties of films are often neglected. Furthermore, too much focus on the processes leads to a suppression of the film content, so that a multitude of cultural aspects are neglected. Furthermore, the active involvement of the audience in the reception process is insufficiently considered. The potential of film used in English classes, which primarily pursues the "promotion of intercultural communicative competencies", will therefore be clarified in the following.