4.Motion pictures in English teacher education in India

‘We who are involved in the conduct of a teacher education program… have the responsibility to utilize all the resources at our disposal to the end that the perspective experience of our students will be as meaningful and worthwhile as possible.’ (Williams 1953:205)

It is needless to say that these remarks of Raymond William stand valid in the era of globalization in more than one ways. The key phrase here is to utilize and the resources at hand. Due to the advent of science and technology, newer forms of communication such as electronic media have become not only household commodities but potential resources of acquiring knowledge. Especially, in the acquisition of a new or second language, which is the concern of the present article, media can certainly play a vital role as it provides learners with the rich source of language use in meaningful context.

Motivation research in educational psychology and in the second language has come to show that learners with sufficient motivation can achieve a working knowledge or other cognitive characteristics. Some see motivation as the most complex and challenging issue facing teachers today. It ultimately is the teacher’s responsibility to create a pleasant and supportive atmosphere in the classroom, generating the learners’ language related values and attitude, increasing their expectancy of success and goal-orientedness, making learning stimulating and enjoyable, presenting a task in a motivating way and self motivating learner strategies (Dornyei, 2001:72).

Media in general and motion pictures in particular, can be considered tools which can be explored as motivating factors in our classrooms. Media are an integral part of the environment in which today’s students learn to read, write, listen, speak and make meaning of their lives. Media inform, entertain, amaze, anger, thrill but hardly ever leave anyone unaffected. Besides, technology has become an integral part of our educational systems around the world. A properly designed course of instruction can use media to channel a student’s enthusiasm and route it to an academically useful goal. It requires a new type of language teacher, as using various kinds of media in the classroom is a challenge and how to bring these media in the classroom is even more challenging.

The question is if every ESL/EFL teacher is equipped with the ability and orientation in exploring the potential of using these resources pragmatically. It is a general knowledge that until recently, the English teacher education programmes in India and probably in many other South Asian countries prepared prospective teachers and in-service teachers in dealing with language courses by using conventional means and methods. However, with technology entering our lives and classrooms, a need is felt to create preparedness among this fraternity of ours. Hence, it is necessary that an intervention programme in orientating and training teachers in using media be introduced.

Motion pictures are one of the pervasive and persuasive mass media that needs to be explored in teaching ESL. The present article, though very elementary in its nature, attempts to discuss the significance of motion pictures in ESL classroom and hence in English language teacher education programme. The article is concerned mainly with introducing motion pictures as an audio-visual technique to be developed in English language teacher education programme; however, it is necessary to first discuss the notion and need of motion pictures in ESL classroom.

Evolution of Audio-visual media in teaching:

It was the audio visual method which paved way for media in the education system in the western part of the world. It was introduced as SGAV (Methode Structuro-Globale Audio-Visuelle) method in 60s. The proponents of this method believed that the linguistic units should be presented to learner only in a situational or textual context. It became popular in 70s. However, it could not sustain its position in the school curriculum as a strong method. In the 21^st century it exists only in a weakened form in textbooks and courses in which picture sequences and listening dialogues have a minimized role. Though the semanticising function of the visual has deceased, the intercultural-situational and motivational function of the audio-visual has gained relevance. Video films compete with static picture sequences. It is at this point it is apt to introduce the notion of motion pictures. (Reinfried, 2000:60-64)

Motion pictures:

Generally, motion picture is a film that is made for cinema. In its technical sense it is a series of images on a strip of film. If we go by this notion, a movie film, videotape, video disc fall under the broad notion of motion pictures. It is this broad notion I use in the present article.

A many fold justification can be offered as to why motion pictures be included in education in general and ESL teaching in particular. Some are as follows:

· Link interdisciplinary perspective

· Serve very specific courses and units

· Provide the learners with exposures to the real language uttered in authentic settings and the culture in which the target language is spoken

· Assist the learners’ comprehension by enabling the learners to listen to exchanges and see such visuals supports as facial expression and gestures simultaneously

· Enable teachers to meet various needs and interests of their students

· Also provide students with a lot of language practice through activities and tasks to develop language skills

· Increase the learners’ critical awareness

· Teach direct observation of the paralinguistic features found in association with the target language

· Lower anxiety when practicing language skills; and

· Easily available, enjoyable and controllables.

A Glance at practices in the use of motion pictures in ESL/EFL classroom:

Even before the advent of VCR, the introduction to film course had become a staple in most American universities. Nelson Brooks in his talk at Teachers’ College in Columbia University in 1966 suggested the use of sound motion pictures in the foreign language courses as well as in teacher training program for their cultural authenticity and psychological aptness in the learning of meaning. (1971:50). Qiang, (2007) discusses the use of partial movie scripts and partial movie sound tracks in Chinese EFL classroom to teach comprehensive reading and listening respectively. Captioned movies are used to increase reading speed by learning the skill of scanning in an effective and entertaining way. They also shorten the gap between students’ reading ability and listening ability. Kusumarasdyati (2004) shows how motion pictures were used for developing listening as well as stimulating learners’ imagination in Indonesian EFL classroom. According to the author, appropriate, creative exploitation of movie videos can reveal their potentials in fostering the acquisition of listening skills. A similar project was conducted in Australia with mixed ability ESL classes.

Incorporating motion pictures in English teacher education in India:

In India, teacher education programmes in general prepare would-be/in-service teachers to qualify as teacher at the pre-primary, primary, secondary and the higher secondary level education. Except for the courses offered by the EFL University, Hyderabad, the Open Universities and a few other regional institutions, there are no exclusive English teacher education programmes. In B. Ed (Bachelor of Education) programme English is selected as one of the methods by the students. For the college level teachers there is no mandatory training programme except the in-service refresher and orientation programmes. Moreover, these educational programmes, beside other factors, often fail to encourage teachers to use audio-visual techniques beyond pictures, maps and objects and audio-cassettes. Inculcating motion pictures as a technique in such educational programmes, therefore, should be considered in up-skilling the teachers. Some researchers have made suggestions as to how movies can be used in ESL classrooms in India. (Moghaddas and Zakariazadeh, 2011, Vishwanathan, 2014, Khan, 2015) However, these scholars engage mainly in discussing how motion pictures are effective in learning English as second language. However, insightful, the scholars do not address the ‘how’ part of using motion pictures in the classroom. This article therefore addresses the ‘how to do’ aspect.

Techniques and skills for the optimal use of motion pictures in ESL/EFL classroom:

There are certain techniques and skills that the language teachers need for the optimal use of motion pictures in ESL/EFL classroom. In English teacher education programme, the training may be given in developing these skills. The following are the suggested skills in using motion pictures as a teaching tool

1. Identify a variety of films that are educational, informative and entertaining:

In order to ensure a dynamic and meaningful application of the skills, the students need to be given exposure to various types of motion picture. The following is only a suggestive range; however the teachers and teacher trainers are free to explore more options.

1. Identify a scene/shot or series from film and edit

The teachers need to be able to use only that part of film/s which is most relevant to the target learners and learning situations. For this purpose, the teacher should be able to separate a particular scene or a series of clips from a film. This involves the technique of editing. However, editing is not a mere ‘cut and paste’ act. Given the academic and pragmatic confines, it is necessary that a teacher is able to develop the skill of editing based on the availability of time, relevance and appropriacy (for instance, age, culture, religion, gender). On the technical front, specific computer based skills such as using Windows Movie Maker and VCD Cutter need to be developed. There are very simple ‘how to use’ guidelines available on official websites of these software (www.microsoft.com and www.vcd-cutter.com).

2. Develop internet browsing skills:

Teachers with internet browsing skills will have an easy access to the resources, ready to use activities, worksheets, movie clips, video clips from the websites such as www.teachwithmovies.org, www.youtube.com, www.script-o-rama.com. These computer-related skills will surely enhance the ability of the trainees in exploring more dimensions of using motion pictures in the classroom. Hence, the incorporation of the internet browsing skills in teacher education is necessary.

3. Turn the sound down and watch

In order to develop creative thinking and speculation skills among language learners ‘turn down the sound and watch’ technique is very effective. This will increase the cognitive involvement of the learners and will shift focus from conscious language learning to ‘problem solving’ activity.

4. Turn the vision off and focus on the sound

This is a reverse technique. By use of this technique learners can be made to imagine the situation on the basis of what they listen to. It helps develop their listening skills as well as speculation ability.

5. Segment film viewing activity

In case of a film of longer duration, it can be segmented with the insertion of text slides (discussion questions, comments or facts). Here the PowerPoint presentation would be a useful tool.

6. Prepare a functional workbook

In a ‘film dominant’ language course it is a good idea that teacher prepares a functional workbook. In case of learners who have access to watching films at home, functional workbooks may prove useful learning material. Teachers may consider a. preparing a summary of a film (in case it’s a feature length film), b. selecting a few stills and designing language activities and instructions around these stills.

7. Develop various classroom activities

The teachers need to develop classroom activities such as describing, narrating, anticipating, listening, fact finding, role-playing, dialogue writing, explaining, suggesting, questioning, speaking, expressing ideas and emotions, reproduction, translation, adaptation, group discussion, interview, comparisons, grammar exercise, pair work, presentation, project work etc. to induce/elicit timely and optimal output. This becomes easier once the teachers develop a sense of relating the content of selected motion pictures to the other course material and objectives.

We all will agree that motion pictures have a far more enriching impact on the learners and hence we need to develop adaptability among us as teachers and teacher trainers to explore this opportunity for the better learning of our students. At the same time, we need to use motion pictures with a lot of care, understanding and precaution as even one mistake can have an equally long and devastating effect. Hence the teachers should follow the golden rule of thumb ‘know the film in detail before they decide to use it in teaching’.