English as a second language: overview and applications

¶ … English Language Listening Skills through Feature Films

Fall Semester 2011: 4.0 Credit Hours / 13 weeks

Course Schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:00 to 5:00 PM

Class Size: limited to 40 students

To help students develop real-world ESL listening skills, while practicing vocabulary, intonation, and communication skills. Additionally, to provide students with a sensitive induction into the cultural implications of language and the contextual impact that cuture has on language decisions. Also to add a more complete understanding of informal, practical and colloquial language use to already existing knowledge in formal language usage.

Course Description

The course will center on a combination of film-viewing and in-class discussion with a simultaneous emphasis on the instruction of technical language skills and the improved appreciation for the cultural implications of language usage.

Commercially available feature films will be used to improve English language listening skills in context-dependent situations; to demonstrate the experiences of ESL individuals within English-speaking cultures; to provide a basis for exploration and elaboration on informal and socioculturally driven uses of the language. The use of films will provide examples of American language and culture in well-scripted scenes by professional actors who are fluent but non-native speakers of English. Students will be required to maintain dialog journals, answer content-specific questions, mimic actor performance from scenes in the movie, and actively participate in class discussions regarding vocabulary, context-dependent expressions, non-verbal expressions, American stereotypes, emotional reactions to the films, and contrast their culture to the American culture.

The primary focus of the course as a whole will be the use of these linguistic and cultural artifacts as a way of entering into a more nuanced discussion relating to the challenges of simultaneously learning a new language, finding comfort in a new culture and protecting one's own cultural identity. The use of films and cinema-driven discussion offers a decidedly humanist framework to a learning process that often centers only on the technical challenges of adaptation. Therefore, the course will only rely on test-based grading only to the extent that this supports the function of keeping students engaged with course content. More significantly, the artistic and creative variations of the course's 'primary text' (in the form of selected films) will open the door for a more personal level of discursive engagement that may even bring passionate disposition to the way that students use their evolving language skills.

Therefore, the final grade will primarily depend on how engaged a student is in class activities, and secondarily on quiz scores and the completion of three survey questionnaires.

Textbook: none required, although ESL vocabulary and grammar reference texts will come in handy

Materials Students Must Provide: journal/notebook that must be turned in to the professor at the end of the semester; students should possess or have access to personal media players such as home theatres, DVD players or personal computers/laptops. Accounts with Netflix or access to streaming web content are also recommended to enable personal or home viewing of assigned films.

Syllabus

Week 1: The first week of class is spent providing materials to students in preparation for the first film presentation, including film background information, character and vocabulary lists, and content questions. Students will also go through a process of nominating and voting on which award-winning (Academy, Sundance, Cannes only) films to be viewed during weeks 3 through 12.

Weeks 2-12: Each class will begin by presenting selected scenes without sound and then analyzing them as a class. The scenes will be viewed again with the soundtrack and altered perceptions examined in class. A 45 minute segment of the film containing these scenes will then be viewed without interruption, during which students will be expected to write down the dialog and make notes concerning any questions they may have. This presentation will be followed by a review and discussion of vocabulary, difficult phrases and intonation, and context-dependent expressions. Students will be expected to try and mimic actor dialog and intonation. One film will be presented in this manner each week.

Week 7: As the midway point of the semester, this course session will be dedicated to open discussion on the cultural experiences unique to students in the classroom relating to the integration of the English language, American culture and preexisting cultural identities. The session will facilitate a discussion in which students describe the manner in which watching the film's used in the course have enhanced their abilities to adapt to American culture or whether they have confounded them. This will be an opportunity for students and instructor to openly discuss expectations, experiences and feelings pertaining to the process of cultural and linguistic integration.