Implementing Lessons Based on Movie Reviews

Masaaki, Oki

Article

Journal of English Teaching through Movies and Media 2011;12(2):263-290.
Published online December 30, 2011.

Implementing Lessons Based on Movie Reviews

Abstract

There have been numerous recent developments in methods of teaching how to write in English by using movies. However, there are not many papers that deal with showing teachers the actual process of how to get students to write a movie report, and then gauge its effect through feedback from the students. A number of journals have published papers which rank movies based on their degree of English difficulty. However, most of those papers focus on the methodology of how to use a movie, how to get an effective result in the limited time, or how to develop and plan a lesson. The purpose of this paper, rather, is to show teachers how to instruct students to create movie review assignments, not only for those who are good at English, but also for the relatively less motivated students who do not yet have the habit of studying English. This paper will also introduce a method which is fully manageable for both teachers and students by showing first, how to make a report; second, how to evaluate it; and finally, the effectiveness of this method. Furthermore, this paper explains one practical technique in detail, which teachers using movies and multimedia can utilize to develop much more satisfactory lessons that include a questionnaire and cover a variety of graphic content.

Key Words: movie;report;review;assignment;evaluation