Sourcing the right materials or resources for students can seem like a constant challenge for many language teachers. Sometimes there is lack of consistency, the resource may be outdated, or it simply does not relate to the students' needs.

A group of Chinese language teachers delved into the discussion of the traditional textbook approach vs. integrating a movie into their language course at this year’s NZALT Conference in Dunedin. The discussion did not aim to determine which is a better approach for language learning and teaching. However, it was an opportunity for teachers to reflect on their current practices and challenge their assumptions on traditional and modern methods of language learning.

The group of teachers was invited to share their experiences, viewpoints and ideas of how they might integrate a movie into their language course.  The feedback was varied; interesting and thought provoking. “It’s hard to find the right movie to fit the topics.” “Some movies are in English so it’s irrelevant to learning Chinese.” “The vocabularies from movies don’t match with senior assessments.”

But, is this true? The question was raised to challenge this group of Chinese teachers’ mindsets on how to approach this subject. Teachers were shown a series of lessons that integrated a movie and TV series into everyday lessons.  Outcomes were that students became more motivated and engaged as storylines progressed, they became personally invested in lessons.  

There are endless possibilities when using movies and television series to teach as long as we approach it from a different perspective.

Therefore, a question to takeaway, what opportunities are there, if any, for using movies as a resource in your language course?

Article by Chi-Tzu Anny Ma, Facilitator,  Tui Tuia | Learning Circle

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