Film suggestions needed
Posted: November 29, 2008 Filed under: ESOL teaching 5 Comments »I’ve got to find a film to watch with my students at the end of their course in a few weeks’ time. My class consists of: three Somali women, one Somali man, two Bangladeshi men, five Bangladeshi women, one Afghani woman and one Turkish woman. Their English is not brilliant, so the less dialogue the better.
They are all in their twenties and early thirties (with the exception of one of the men and three of the women, who are all in their forties). No nudity and minimal swearing is essential, as a few of the students are quite religious, and I don’t want to offend (or have to explain the meaning of rude words!). I’ve been racking my brain but can’t think of anything suitable.
Was wondering if anyone has any ideas?
No nudity or swearing? That narrows the field a little… and takes away the opportunity for you to get paid for watching the latest Bond film!
I can only suggest you try one of the classics, such as Casablanca, It’s A Wonderful Life or Some Like it Hot.
English (albeit the American variety) was probably better spoken back in those early films.
Less dialogue. Hmmm… That would rule out quite a lot. So at the risk of appearing even more dim than usual, what is the purpose of the screening if it isn’t exposure to dialogue? Is it cultural or is there another reason?
Would any animated film be suitable? I’m thinking Toy Story, Chicken Run. Zero swearing! Probably a your audience will miss out on the jokes though…
Ummmmm
Star Wars??
I’m no help at all!! Good luck.
Masher/ Lis: thanks for the suggestions – good ideas.
Bren: ha ha! I probably didn’t express myself very well… It’s not that I don’t want ANY dialogue, just don’t want a film which is too dialogue-heavy/ or one where understanding of everything that is said is key to enjoying the film. They’ll get bored if that is the case.
My reasons for showing a film are:
1) to give the students an end of term treat
2) to encourage them to watch films in English in the future (which will, in the long-term, help improve their English)
The ‘cultural aspect’ is not so key as they all live in the UK so already have some idea of British culture, I think (what is ‘British culture’, anyway?! ha ha )
We will surely talk about the film afterwards and I’ll maybe get them to write about it, so it will also help their langauge skills in the short-term, too.
ps No idea why the font of the last post changed to Arial (?). I can’t seem to change it back to the font used in previous posts either … strange!