4.1 Introduction
4.2 Guidelines literature
4.3 Tasks for literature
4.4 Three poems
4.5 The Little Prince
4.6 Malamud's Black
4.7 Guidelines for films
4.8 Tasks for films
4.9 Guidelines songs
4.10 Stranger than you
4.11 Bibliography

4.7 Guidelines for using films to develop intercultural competence

Christiane Peck

In the present section you will find general ideas or guidelines to help you explore and exploit films to develop intercultural competence. The chapter is divided into three sections, starting with previewing activities, including four association games, then ideas for while-viewing activities from jigsaw viewing to script writing and acting out, and finally, a section on post-viewing tasks to help students process the experience gained from the film and from the discussion activities themselves.

I.  Previewing activities

Objectives: 
To increase the students' motivation
To raise interest for the film by informing students about the background of the film
To find out what students already know about the topic/film or what they think they know
To include a personal approach
To start discussing and challenging stereotypes

I.1 Associations with the title

Tell the class the title of the film. Ask them to write down on paper strips in big letters a sentence including the title. One after the other, students come to the front of the class, and read their sentences. Then they put them up on the board or pin board. Afterwards the statements can be clustered according to similarity of content. (After having seen the whole film students will compare their initial personal associations with the title and the actual content of the film.)

I.2 Associations with the advertising poster

Show the students the advertising poster.
a) The students describe the advertising poster in small groups and discuss what the topic of the film could be.
b) Everyone or students in pairs write an imaginary plot for the film.

I.3 Associations with the plot

Give the class some but not too many ideas about the film (time, place, main characters. ). You can for example read out part of the summary of the film from the official website or a passage from a review. Students are asked to continue a probable version of the plot of the film. Then they compare their versions in small groups.

I.4 Associations with the main characters

Show the class photos of the main characters or short sequences that introduce the protagonists without telling their names. Ask the students to give them names, characterize them (in pairs or in small groups) and write a brief summary of a possible plot of the film.

II. While-viewing tasks (Analysis and
     Transfer)

Objectives:

To hear, to see, to experience other cultures in an authentic way
To develop listening comprehension,
To make students imagination work,
To develop students' observation and interpretation skills,
To make students think critically and adopt multiple perspectives.

Preparations: Choose some sequences that deal with intercultural differences in one or several of the following areas:

- Body-language, gestures
- Cultural identity
- Culture in the street
- Code-switching
- Celebrations, customs
- Family life
- Gender issues
- Generation gap
- Stereotypes, nationalism, racism

Depending on the content of the sequence choose one of the following techniques:

II.1 Viewing and hearing

Set previewing questions, then play the scene. Discuss the answers to the questions in the class or in groups. If necessary play the scene again.
Further intercultural tasks for the students:

-   Try to find reasons why the characters act the way they 
     do.
-   Transfer the information of the scene to your own  
     cultural context and imagine what this scene would be
     like in your country.
-   Write a short script and act the scene out in front of 
     the class.

If the scene deals with gender issues make the students change the perspective:

-   Imagine how a girl or boy, woman or man would have
    acted in the same scene in your culture. Role-play the 
    scene.

If the topic of the scene will return in other sequences of
   the film tell the class to

-   Imagine how the story will go on.
-   Give the characters of the film some practical advice to  
    act successfully.

Then play the next scene/s. The students will compare their ideas with the reality presented in the film and discuss the possible aims of the director.

II.2 Silent viewing

This technique can be used especially when focusing on body-language and gestures that are typical for a certain socio cultural context.
Before the students are shown a sequence without sound they are asked to pay attention to the situation of the scene keeping the following questions in mind:

Where are the characters?
Why are they there?
What are they doing?
After having shared their ideas in small groups, the sequence will be played again. The viewing task this time is to concentrate on the character's facial expression, body-language and gestures. The students discuss in small groups what these non-verbal forms of expression might mean in this concrete context.

Further acting tasks for the groups:

-   Freeze some of the character's movements and imagine
    an internal monologue for each state. One student takes
    the position of the character and another says what the
    character is thinking..
-   Role-play the scene improvising a dialogue.

When the characters proceed to code-switching it can be interesting to show the class the sequence without sound. The first previewing task is to describe the situation. After the second show students are asked to predict when the individual characters switch to another language according to the situation or the body-language. In groups the class could invent dialogues in two different languages in a role-play . Finally, the sequence will be played with sound. Students check their predictions.

The students whose parents are immigrants afterwards might tell the others if and when they tend to switch into their mother tongue.

Questions that may help to start the conversation:

-   Can you write in your mother tongue or have you 
    mastered only the spoken form?
-   In which language do you count?
-   In which language do you dream?

II.3 Jigsaw Viewing

Divide the class into two groups A and B. Group A will go to another room to listen only to the soundtrack of the scene. Group B will view the scene without sound. The sequence may be played two times. Both groups are asked to think about the following questions:

Who are the people?
Where are the people?
Why are they there?
What are they doing?
How do they feel?

Before the two groups come together they discuss their answers to the questions in their own groups. Then pairs of As and Bs will compare their impressions. If necessary students may discuss their interpretations in the class before they see and hear the scene.

II.4 Viewing, describing, listening

This technique is especially useful for scenes that deal with the culture in the street.
If the sound doesn't carry any important information you can turn it off. The students pair off. Student A is sitting with his/her back to the TV screen. Student B can see the film.
B describes to A what he/she sees focusing especially on the culture in the street.
Afterwards, both A and B view the scene once again, paying attention to as many details as possible. After that, the class tries to find differences between the culture presented in the film and the conditions in their own country in pairs or as a whole class discussion. Finally, students could give reasons why they would prefer to live in one or the other culture.

III. Post viewing activities

It is of great importance to follow-up a viewing activity with one or two tasks that help students discuss and evaluate the experience. Here are some ideas to help this process:

III.1 Personal opinion about the film

"Four-corners-discussion":  The four corners of the classroom are marked with papers with the following symbols
  
 + +     stands for I really liked the film a lot
 +        I liked the film
 -         I didn't like the film
 - -       I didn't like the film at all
  
Tasks:  

a) Go to the corner of the room that represents your opinion about the film.
b) Discuss in your group what you liked and disliked.
c) One representative of the group reports your statements to the class in the final discussion.

III.2 Summary of the film

a) Depending on their level of proficiency the students write a summary of the film individually, in pairs or as a whole class activity on the board with the teacher's help.
b) They compare it to their summary of the previewing activity (I.3) and discuss in small groups what the differences are and why.
c) Then they are given the summary of the film from the official homepage of the film and summaries in other languages they speak. They are asked to read and compare what different aspects of the film are stressed in which language.

III.3 Topics of the film

Tasks:

a) Make a list with the central topics of the film.
b) Find a provocative or stereotypical statement about each of the topics and write it on a sheet of paper.

These are some examples of a provocative statement taken from the film Real women have curves:

-   When you come to a country as an immigrant, you have 
     no
     right to protest against the social conditions there.
-    Immigrants should use their mother tongue as little as
     possible in order to facilitate their integration into the
     culture of their new homeland.
-    Assuming the American way of life is a big chance for 
     immigrant children.
-    .....

These statements will be used for the final discussion mentioned under III.4.

III.4 Final discussion about the main topics of the film

Room arrangement: Chairs arranged in two concentric circles

Activity: Discuss in pairs the provocative statements mentioned under III.3.
(If the students didn't do the task above, the teacher should give them various pre-formulated statements.)

Tasks:

a) Position the chairs in the classroom into two circles, so that the chairs of the inner circle are
facing the chairs of the outer circle.
b) Each pair will get a provocative statement about the content of the film: Discuss the statement with your partner.
c) Every 2 minutes, there will be a signal. All the students move to the seat on their right leaving the paper strip with the statement on the chair. The newly formed pairs discuss the next statement.

III.5 Creative writing and group activities

Here are some suggestions for creative writing and group activities.

Ask your students to write
-   a diary entry of the main character
-   a letter of a main character to another one
-   a newspaper article about an incident that happened in 
    the film
-   a film review
-   a short story based on the film
-   the screen-play for another scene to be acted out
-   part two of the film or just a summary of what could
    happen after the last scene of the film they just viewed
-   the script for and act out an interview with the actors or
    actresses.

Ask your students to imagine the story had taken place in their own country and they should
-   write an imaginary plot for an adapted version film
    appropriate for their own culture
-   rewrite concrete scenes taken from the film adapting
    them to the students' own cultural context'.

Play a hot seat activity:

The students sit in a semi-circle. One person is sitting in front of the group. She or he has slipped into the role of a main character of the film. The others ask her or him questions. The questions as well as the answers to possible questions can be prepared beforehand in two groups.

IV. Bibliography

Allan, Margaret: Teaching English with Video. Longman Handbooks for Language Teachers. Bath 1985.

Geddes, Marion; Sturtridge, Gill (ed.): Practical Language Teaching no. 7. Video in the Language Classroom. Heinemann Educational Books. London 1982.

Liebelt, Wolf: Anregungen für den Umgang mit Video im Fremdsprachenunterricht.
In: Praxis des neusprachlichen Unterricht 1989 (36), 250 / 261.

Schallhorn, Karola (ed.): The new Summit. Texts and Methods. Schöningh Verlag. Paderborn 2002.

next chapter: 4.8 Tasks for films