TASK A1 - Please note that the footnotes are for the examiners only
Word count: 6,203 all inclusiveWords don’t come easy…[1]
Welcome to Bjørn’s International School’s lexical section for future pupils and their parents.
Being new to a country, a culture, and especially a language is a difficult situation for a child to cope with. Creating new relationships, learning new ways of doing things, and most important leaning an entirely new language to be able to communicate[2] and understand your peers and teachers demand quite a lot of your child.
When learning a new language you are vulnerable for a while. You make mistakes and will have to try over and over again to get the grip of the words and the language. In order to dare do this your child needs to feel confident that it is alright to fail, as long as you are willing to try again.
At Bjørn’s International School we regard it of utmost importance that the child is welcomed in a warm and inviting atmosphere to make sure that learning can take place. It is the teacher’s and the headmaster’s responsibility to see to it that an including classroom management[3] procedure is implemented.
We have an English speaking staff and as in all International Schools worldwide we use English as classroom language[4] from kindergarten classes to the upper secondary classes and transition year.
This insures that the pupils are familiar with the language and may use it as a lingua franca[5] when training their intercultural competences[6] both at school and in a society anywhere in this global world.
In connection with this I must stress that we teach the children Standard English as it is spoken by “The Queen of England”[7]. Whatever pidgin or globish[8] they want to learn, it will not be a part of the semantic web[9] that we teach in our classes. This phrase (semantic web) being the words and their partners - so to speak.
When attending Bjørn’s International School we want you as a parent to be confident that your child will be prepared for the cultural meeting[10] in the globalized world they are let into after leaving school.
In the following I will explain how we secure that the necessary learning takes place from arriving at our school to leaving, whenever your family might be travelling to another country, another culture and yet again another language.
Learning words and language in pre-school and primary school
At Bjørn’s International School we take a learning-centered perspective[11] when teaching language to your child.Children at this age are highly motivated for learning. They are eager to gain new knowledge and they attend any new task with a maximum of motivation. But they lose interest more quickly than older pupils, so as teachers we need to scaffold[12] their learning process so that their intake[13] will be as high as possible. We work within the child’s ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development)[14] being the area within the child’s abilities where s/he is challenged but still able to learn, building on pre-knowledge to create associations.
During classes we use English as classroom language and we are attentive that newcomers follow the best they can. We use pictures and items from everyday life to make the teaching and teaching material as authentic as possible. Using authentic teaching materials enables the children to relate the new word they accommodate[15] to their daily life at home with your family.
We sing songs, do chants, and minor role plays which the children enjoy very much.With the older children we do various writing tasks, word puzzles, writing letters and crosswords. These children also make their own picture dictionary[16] to make sure that we nurture the visual learners as well.
All in all we do a lot of skills training. Reading, writing, and listening skills training are equally important to strengthening your linguistic competences[17], which is your ability to communicate orally. Communicative competences founded in the early years at school will be the basis of further education.
Secondary, upper secondary and transition year
Learning never stops. When entering secondary classes the pupils can be challenged even further.We still work with language acquisition and expanding of the pupils’ webs of association[18], but now we can take learning even further. Skills training have been firmly incorporated. Reading books, newspaper, and other literature will be the basis of writing and speaking activities. The pupils write reviews to train their lexis, and orally present the written documents to the rest of the class in order to practice pronunciation and vocabulary.
As regards to the listening skills training we often listen to the BBC News Broadcast online. This not only gives the pupils the opportunity to hear the spoken language in real life, but it also strengthens the pupils’ attention and supports their own interlanguage[19] learning. The listening part of their receptive skills[20] is trained.
Incorporation of ICT (Information and Communication Technology), when teaching the upper secondary classes, is highly estimated in the Danish Primary and Secondary Schools. Bjørn’s International School also regards it very important to incorporate media in teaching semantics. We cooperate with international schools abroad and through the Unesco School Partnership we have partner schools and classes all over the world. We have cultural meetings both through Skype and when travelling to visit our partner school. This cooperation strengthen the pupils’ intercultural competences but certainly also their communicative competences[21] (lexis, pronunciation, and expanding their vocabulary web).
“Quantity, Quality, Control” as Birgit Henriksen, the Danish Ph. D. in Foreign Language Pedagogy, says[22], must be the aim for our teaching. Creating an atmosphere where learning can take place, must be the aim for Bjørn’s International School.
We welcome you from all over this intercultural and globalized world.
Sincerely yours
Benita SchmidtHeadmaster of Bjørn’s International School in Copenhagen
TASK B2 - Please note that the footnotes are for the examiner only
Word count: 2,668“The ice is melting at the poles”
….at the poles! Which poles if I may ask? Wish I had never said it…..but once again I face the fact that words are serious business. Word, like guns, can be loaded[23] – and this time I happened to point the gun at myself….foolish!
May I present myself. My name is Villy Søvndal and I am a leftwing politician in the state of Denmark. I’m chairman of the Socialist Folks Party which has fairly many active members, and I expect to be in the next coalition government after the upcoming election – due to be called very soon…we expect.
If it goes down my alley, I’ll be the next Danish Foreign Minister. Even the tabloid press has mentioned that in their coloumns.
But my communicative competences[24] in English are more like globish[25] than an actual language. I lack words, I fail in pronunciation and my strategic competences[26], in respect to finding my way around an issue, are rather poor.
In December 2009 I made the opening speech at the KlimaForum Conference at DGI Byen (a sports area in the City Center) in Copenhagen in connection with the COP15 meeting on the global climate changes.
All 3rd world countries had been invited to the KlimaForum and hundreds had turned up. This conference was a parallel conference as the 3rd world had not been invited for the large COP15 meeting, even though they are equally important in this matter.
Well I entered the stage and saw all those eyes staring directly at me. Everyone was prepared to listen and even though I had been practicing my speech for weeks, maybe even months, the words came stumbling out of my mouth. Words falling on top of each other, falling in the wrong places, and indeed inviting words totally out of context and semantic field[27] into my speech. “Welcome……..The ice is melting at the poles!” - My word web was severely disturbed.
I happened to utter this at the KlimaForum Conference and I have been made the laughingstock ever since.
In the Danish National Broadcast Radio they play this particular sequence time and time again to the amusement of the listeners. Somebody might even be laughing up their sleeves – what do I know?
But I’m not a man who is easily beaten. I have the ability of being able to laugh at my own doings, and thought that I might as well do it in connection with this incident.
Therefore I planned to use the above poor sentence and the exact same words, I had used at the climate conference, at my party’s annual meeting last week.
I entered the platform and began….”The ice is melting at the poles” and everyone started laughing their heads off, very loud and being clearly amused by my approach to the lack of lexical competences I revealed.
I’m a good and fair politician, and after this opening line the participants in the conference could focus on my abilities as a leftwing politician and not my lack of words in global respect.
Yours,
Villy Søvndal
Word count: 2,892
TASK A1
This text is a sales text on the internet. It is meant for the future pupils and parents at Bjørn’s International School so it needs to be neat and sober in order to attract new “customers” to the school.
When the family is coming to Denmark they need to find a school for their child and at first they will not be coming to have a face to face conversation with you. You need to state all the necessary facts in the school’s homepage.
It’s important that the text explains what the school’s basic principles for teaching words and language are.
Furthermore, in Denmark we have a fairly relaxed relationship with the headmaster at our child’s school, but they do definitely not share the same attitude in other countries. The headmaster, and also the teachers, are treated with absolute respect.
This fact demands the text in Task A1 to be somewhat factual, but only to a certain extent where the readers, not skilled in educational terms, may follow. E.g. . “We work within the child’s ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development)[28] being the area within the child’s abilities where s/he is challenged but still able to learn and building on pre-knowledge to create associations.” I have used professional terms, but I have explained in everyday language as well.
I have used some idioms but only to the extent where my text is still factual to the intended reader.
My use of footnotes is definitely on purpose. In the text for the school’s homepage I could not use all the professional terms I would have used for an article on words and language acquisition for an international language magazine. I had to find my way around that fact and I chose to use footnotes to either describe or give reference to professional terms.
TASK B2
This was (also) fun. I chose to take on another person’s identity for a while. E.g. “May I present myself. My name is Villy Søvndal and ……”.I have been following the development of Villy Søvndal’s communicative competences in the media and thought that his flaw at the KlimaForum would make an excellent contribution to a collection of lexical experiences.
I have chosen a somewhat more informal language with more idioms included. E.g.”Somebody might even be laughing up their sleeves – what do I know?” or “If it goes down my alley, I’ll be the…..”
Knowing Villy Søvndal and his relaxed way of dealing with the press I chose to use a kind of everyday language to adapt to his tone of voice. E.g. “….at the poles! Which poles if I may ask? Wish I had never said it…..but once again I face the fact that words are serious business. Word, like guns, can be loaded[29] – and this time I happened to point the gun at myself….foolish!”
Yet again I found myself wanting to refer to the literature on professional teaching I have read over the years and made a few footnotes where I found it relevant. E.g. “But my communicative competences[30] in English are more like globish[31] than an actual language. I lack words, I fail in pronunciation and my strategic competences[32], in respect to finding my way around an issue, are rather poor.”
All in all a fun assignment to write – hope you enjoyed it too.
All the best
Benita Schmidt[1] Quote from pop artist F.R.David’s 1984 song Words
[2] Through linguistic, pragmatic and strategic competences (Færch, 1984, p.168)
[3] Hadfield & Hadfield, Introduction to teaching English, Oxford, 2008, p.146
[4] Cameron, Teaching Languages to Young Learners, 2009, p.10 & 112
[5] Ref. to text 5, Kan De også tale globish, by Regner Hansen, uge 34/2010
[6] PP by Lilian Rohde, at Blaagaard-KDAS, April 2010
[7] Ref. to text 3, The Other Hand, by Chris Cleave, Sceptre, 2008 (excerpts)
[8] Ref. to text 5, Kan De også tale globish, by Regner Hansen, uge 34/2010
[9] Ref. to Birgit Henriksen, A word’s a word, Sprogforum No. 3/1995, pp. 45-55
[10] PP by Lilian Rohde, at Blaagaard-KDAS, April 2010
[11] Ref. to Cameron, Teaching Languaes to Young Learners, Cambridge, 2009, p. 1
[12] Ref. to Bruner, in Cameron, (ibid., p. 8)
[13] Ref. to Claus Færch, Learner Language and ….., Gyldendal, 1984, p. 186
[14] Vygotsky in Cameron, ibid., p. 5
[15] Piaget in Cameron, ibid., p. 2
[16] Ref. to text 4.2 in handout.
[17] Ref. to Claus Færch, ibid. p. 168
[18] Ref. to Birgit Henriksen, A word’s a word, Sprogforum No. 3/1995, pp. 45-55
[19] Ref. to Claus Færch, Learner Language and…., Gyldendal, 1984, p. 171
[20] Ref. to Birgit Henriksen, A word’s a word, Sprogforum, No.3/1995, p. 12-18
[21]Ref. to Færch, ibid. P. 168, Linguistic, Pragmatic, Strategic competences & fluency
[22] Ref. to Birgit Henriksen, What does knowing a word mean, Sprogforum
no. 3/1995, pp. 12-18
[23] Ref. to text 11, David Crystal, Words, Words, Words, Oxford, 2007 (excerpts)
[24] Ref. to Claus Færch, Learner Language and…., Gyldendal, 1984, p. 167
[25] Ref. to text 6 in handout
[26] Ref. to Claus Færch, Learner Language and…., Gyldendal, 1984, p. 168
[27] Ref. to text 2 in the handout
[28] Vygotsky in Cameron, ibid., p. 5
[29] Ref. to text 11, David Crystal, Words, Words, Words, Oxford, 2007 (excerpts)
[30] Ref. to Claus Færch, Learner Language and…., Gyldendal, 1984, p. 167
[31] Ref. to text 6 in handout
[32] Ref. to Claus Færch, Learner Language and…., Gyldendal, 1984, p. 168
As an EFL teacher you should always be in search of new and authentic material for you lessons, and on surfing the internet to find an area in contemporary media which especially appeals to teenagers, I came to think of how strong an impact visual art seems to have on pupils’ memory. Last autumn we did a trial exam on South Africa with a Danish 9th grade and I found that the images which had been printed into their minds through the film “Goodbye Bafana” were far stronger than the knowledge they had achieved from reading various textbooks.
The Danish National Curriculum has requirements on communicative competences, language and language acquisition, and on culture and intercultural competences.
All teaching should be based on theory, which is very true; but I will start by having a look at what the National Curriculum requires of the pupils when leaving the 9th grade in the Danish upper secondary school.
Only having three English lessons a week in the 7th grade does definitely not leave much room for experimenting with the children’s language acquisition. When planning your lessons you need to be aware of the limited time you have (a maximum of 120 lessons a year) to meet the requirement in the National Curriculum on both communicative and intercultural competences, and on language skills. Each lesson needs to have a clear focus.
When you look for suitable music videos for your EFL teaching there are a few things to consider. Among them, what to teach and which genre would cover the area the best. E.g. if you are to teach masculinity in contemporary culture there are a few choices which seem obvious – 50Cent and Snoop Dog (Hip Hop artists). Furthermore you will need to know your pupils to choose a material that will suit that particular group of children the best. Not all music suits all pupils and in order to keep them focused on the aim for the lesson(s) the teacher needs to be well prepared.
This list also counts for the teaching materials to be presented on 28th June:
Lynne Cameron, Teaching Languages to Young Learners, Cambridge, (2009)
Henrik Poulsen, Levende billeder I Undervisningen, KvaN 86/2000, pp. 55-65
Læring med levende billeder, Samfundslitteratur, (2010) ISBN 978-87-593-1505-7
David Gauntlett, Media, Gender and Identity, (2009) ISBN 0 415 39661 1
Brian Longhurst, Introducing Cultural Studies,(2008) ISBN 978 1 4058 5843 4
Gillespie & Toynbee, Analysing Media Text, (2009) ISBN 0 335 21886
Rybacki and Rybacki, Transcultural Music Review, (1999) ISSN:1697-0101
John Fiske, Madonna article 1 & 2, course material from Malmö Högskola, Language, Culture & Identity II
The National Curriculum for English (2009)
www.youtube.com
Various notes and hand-outs from the English lessons at Blaagaard-KDAS
My own article on EFL teaching with music videos and my Narrative analysis of Justin Bieber from Malmö.
As an EFL teacher you should always be in search of new and authentic material for you lessons, and on surfing the internet to find an area in contemporary media which especially appeals to teenagers, I came to think of how strong an impact visual art seems to have on pupils’ memory. Last autumn we did a trial exam on South Africa with a Danish 9th grade and I found that the images which had been printed into their minds through the film “Goodbye Bafana” were far stronger than the knowledge they had achieved from reading various textbooks.
This lead me to the conclusion that film and visual media would be the ultimate authentic material to work with in my EFL lessons with the upper secondary pupils.
Film and visual media are part of the pupils’ everyday life and at the same time, for me as an EFL teacher, a very accessible way of getting their attention. According to Henrik Poulsen (Kvan/86, 2010, p.55) film does not only appeal to the intellect, but also to your senses. The visual media engages the spectator in an ongoing cognitive process of making sense. The pupils are kept busy and focused.
Furthermore I find it possible to cover quite a few of the areas required in the National Curriculum when using visual media to teach EFL. In particular intercultural competences would benefit from the use of film.
The Danish National Curriculum has requirements on communicative competences, language and language acquisition, and on culture and intercultural competences.
How will it be possible for me to cover all these areas, when we only have 3 lessons a week (in the 7th grade), and when using visual media as film and music videos in my EFL teaching?
All teaching should be based on theory, which is very true; but I will start by having a look at what the National Curriculum requires of the pupils when leaving the 9th grade in the Danish upper secondary school.
All four communicative competences (Færch, 1984, p.168) should be covered.
· Linguistic competence – the pupils should be able to produce and use words in an accurate way when writing and speaking and with a grammatical correctness so that their communication succeeds.
· Pragmatic competence – they must be able to use appropriate language according to the receiver, the situation, and the genre. Their skills should be developed to such an extent that they can use English as a lingua franca when communicating with native and non native speakers worldwide.
· Strategic competence – “when words are not enough” you need to develop strategic competences to get around the situation with other word than the ones you don’t yet know. When you explain yourself in another way you will very often be granted with a new word to your vocabulary from the one you are speaking to.
· Fluency – comes with practicing your linguistic competences. A good help for the pupil will be to use English as the classroom language.
Furthermore receptive and productive skills should be developed and practiced (Hadfield & Hadfield, 2008, & Hedge, 2000, pp. 185-333). When teaching EFL through visual media it will in fact be possible to cover all skills training.
· Listening skills – will of course be covered when viewing the film or watching the music video.
· Speaking skills – when working with the text in the language classroom afterwards you will of course be using your productive language skills. Visual input always leaves you with an urge to talk.
· Writing skills – you may work with visual media in a variety of ways. One could be writing an analysis of the text or to produce a film review. This will make the children practice their productive writing skills.
· Reading skills – film manuscripts can be hard to get hold of, but many films are based on books (Precious, 2009, based on “Push” by Sapphire) which can be used as basic/printed material when working with the movie. As for music videos the texts can easily be found on the internet. Reading and writing analysis of the text will strengthen both the pupils’ receptive (reading) and productive (writing) skills.
In the National Curriculum pupils are also required to develop intercultural competences. In a dynamic concept these competences are the ability to understand, read, and react accordingly when communicating with others (my translation of Farr, Rohde og Smidt, “Klædt på til Verden”, 2009, p.13). You can only develop this ability to communicate if you are exposed to other cultures and ways of doing things. Furthermore you need to work with that knowledge to really understand. “Intercultural competence is an active and productive ability, because when we use it, we create culture, also in the classroom” (my translation of Karen Risager, Sprogforum no. 18/2000, p. 15).
In this respect films are especially good. When you watch film you work with most of your senses and as mentioned in the beginning the viewer is constantly trying to figure out how to make sense of what is going on at the screen (Henrik Poulsen, Kvan no.86/2010, p.55).
Visual media is a bombardment of your senses. You receive the text and the message in more than one way. Claus Færch is working with input and intake when learning and we should aim at making the intake equivalent to the input or at least as high as possible. The use of methodology in this respect will have to be adapted to the text and the pupils.
Dependent on what your aim for the teaching is (e.g. culture, semiotics, language, or film theory) you may choose from either:
· Bruner’s scaffolding – helping the children build their own learning by keeping them on track and interested, demonstrate, and controlling their frustration.
· Vygotsky’s ZPD – Zone of Proximal Development – working within the child’s zone where intake is still possible and a little feasible frustration helps the process – all guided by the adult/teacher. There is a fine line which should not be crossed. If so, internalisation might not happen. Internalisation being the process from thinking aloud to thinking inside your head (Cameron, 2001, p. 7)
· Piaget’s “Chest of drawers” – when building discourse competences you may either assimilate the new knowledge or accommodate it. When assimilating information you cope with a new situation by using your previously gained knowledge. By accommodating new knowledge you restructure your “old” knowledge and create a whole new understanding. You may say that you create a new drawer to your chest of drawers.
Let’s now look at the pros and cons when applying theory to the use of film and music videos in EFL teaching.
Only having three English lessons a week in the 7th grade does definitely not leave much room for experimenting with the children’s language acquisition. When planning your lessons you need to be aware of the limited time you have (a maximum of 120 lessons a year) to meet the requirement in the National Curriculum on both communicative and intercultural competences, and on language skills. Each lesson needs to have a clear focus.
The “Engelsk i Grundskolen” report from 2003 (my translation ”English in the Primary and Secondary School”) states that pupils in 9th grade have an alarmingly low score in language (51% correct answers), in language acquisition (46% correct), and in listening (55% correct answers). As an EFL teacher to be this gives me very good reasons to reconsider my role in the classroom, and my methods when teaching.
The Danish elementary school system has build on the same principles for decades (some say since The Reformation). Methods have changed over the years, but the basic structure of the lessons is the same as when I attended elementary school some four decades ago. We still use books, pens and paper when teaching and learning.
We’re in the 21st century and society has changed drastically over the past centuries. Today visual media has a much firmer grip of the pupils than just ten years ago. No youngster leaves home without having at least his/her cell phone in the pocket and maybe even their lap-top in the bag. Modern devices to communicate with peers and friends throughout the whole day, throughout the globalised society we are in the midst of. A handheld means to stay online with the world - day and night.
On their computer, Android, or iPhone they don’t only communicate, they watch the latest film clips and music videos on YouTube, Twitter, FB and other social media – and this is where I got the idea of inviting reality into the classroom.
I find it extremely import to make my EFL teaching as authentic and identical to reality as possible, for the children to be able to relate to my teaching. ”Music videos are cultural acts, intertextually located in the viewer’s own experience” (Rybacki & Rybacki) and using music videos would bring reality to life in my classroom.
There are various kinds of music videos in cyber space, but the most suitable for teaching would be a traditional homodiegetic (first person is telling/singing the story, Lennart Hoebjerg, 2000) narrative music video. A performance video where the subject (the star) integrates sound and picture. This means that the singer is also the actor, and while singing he tells the story. In order to have something to work with, a narrative has to be told, there has to be some kind of message, whether hidden or obvious, in the music video.
I don’t really find many disadvantages in using music videos in my teaching. As a responsible, flexible, and interested teacher you will of course pick and choose the relevant material, and whether it is a book, a film, or a music video shouldn’t matter. Music videos being a new area to explore will demand quite a lot of the teacher, e.g. a thorough analysis of the videos and development of new teaching materials.
One disadvantage though is that you need to change music videos rather often to keep up with what the youngsters want to hear and are interested in, and with what is relevant both for your teaching and in socie*ty as a whole. There are of course some old music videos like early Bob Dylan and U2 productions which even today could be relevant for teaching political history and awareness.
Some people might argue that music videos are not serious enough! I totally disagree on this. Music videos are very serious business, and if we disregard this fact, music videos can become dangerous. That particular visual media is filled with product placement and hidden messages from famous people who have a tremendous impact on our pupils. I’ll come back to that in my presentation on 28th June 2011.
Not serious enough? Well then you might choose a film for your teaching instead.
For many years teacher have worked with film in their teaching. They have done film analysis and reviews with their pupils. They have talked about various subjects and covered a lot of the areas stated in the National Curriculum both as regards to English and to other classes. They have worked with short film and full length film, with documentary film and fiction.I can see a clear advantage in using the film media when you work with a specific area, e.g. culture in English speaking countries, dialects and sociolects, and with living conditions in this global world. A whole movie can cover a wide range of the above subjects, but a full length movie is very time consuming. One thing is that you need two whole lessons just to watch the movie (that is 1.6% of you annual scheduled maximum of lessons!), but you also need to make sure that the children understand the discourse (pre-teach language and discourse) and have understood everything after your screening. Time consuming indeed, but also very rewarding if you e.g. work with intercultural competences and awareness of the differences in social behavior, living conditions, semiotics, or English as a mother tongue or a second language (the communicative competences).
If you are not prepared as a teacher to use that much time on a film you may choose a short film instead, and on the internet there are many possible links to quality film. The Danish Film Institute has loads of film on their web-sight. They have good background and teaching materials to most of their films, especially if your lessons are focused on teaching the film genre.
If you need film and material for your EFL teaching (especially on intercultural competences) I would recommend having a look at Salaam Film & Dialogue. They have a variety of new film and up to date teaching materials to go with them. EMU and Filmstriben also have an extensive collection of films to deal with any subject you might want to teach – which takes me to dealing with film and music videos in class.
When you look for suitable music videos for your EFL teaching there are a few things to consider. Among them, what to teach and which genre would cover the area the best. E.g. if you are to teach masculinity in contemporary culture there are a few choices which seem obvious – 50Cent and Snoop Dog (Hip Hop artists). Furthermore you will need to know your pupils to choose a material that will suit that particular group of children the best. Not all music suits all pupils and in order to keep them focused on the aim for the lesson(s) the teacher needs to be well prepared.
I came across a Canadian/American teenage music phenomenon called Justin Bieber whose career has exploded within the last two years. From being a 14 year old boy singing to his mother's camera in their living room, to being a mega start with so much hype around him that it makes you dizzy.
I find it interesting to use this phenomenon in my teaching and let the pupils investigate how he uses media (especially the internet and social networks) to promote his music and especially himself.
Also the cultural aspect of the music video industry, e.g. what kind of culture they carry in the videos would be an area to investigate for the pupils.
Moreover I believe it’s necessary to teach the pupils about product placement and gender roles displayed in music videos. As present and future consumers they need to be aware of what they are exposed of and what influence this has on the choices they make.
Young people in the upper secondary classes are very sensitive to influences and I find it advisable to teach them what to be aware of when they unrestrained consume video goodies produced to sell a specific artist or culture/idea.
At my presentation I will bring a lesson plan covering the obvious areas to work with in Justin Bieber’s music video “Baby”. The areas covered are film analysis using the Hollywood Model, product placement, and finally gender roles displayed in the video. I will explain and argue for the choices I have made.
Gender roles are definitely also to be observed in movie pictures alongside numerous other relevant subjects to deal with in you lessons. At my presentation I will bring teaching material I have produced to a very relevant movie called “Four Lions”. The film is about four young Muslim men and a somewhat older English convert who try to establish a jihad group to blow up “something”. What to blow up is never really agreed on, but they all end up losing their lives in various more or less odd situations. A very interesting film which covers areas like religious habits/rules/laws, belonging to a minority group, being situated between two cultures, who are the terrorists we are so afraid of, etc. To give you an idea of the paradoxes in the film I will mention one scene where the remains of the group are heading for the London Marathon to blow themselves up in the midst of the crowd. They are driving in a car and the convert Barry is angry because he wanted to blow something else up, but the other three men are singing at the top of their voices along to the old song “Dancing in the Moonlight”. Paradox – heading for the final jihad action and singing a popular Western pop song.
This film gives you a lot to work with and covers some very relevant areas considering that we live in an era where many people are afraid of terror and terrorists. When planning your lessons you could consider using the narrative and cultural competences of the ethnic pupils in your classroom.
Further to planning your lessons you need to consider which learning styles to cover (visual, auditive, or kinesthetic), which and how many skills you may work with, and which competences would benefit from a particular method of teaching (e.g. group or pair work). Additional material, books, classroom lay out, use of ICT, and the use of cameras/cell phones would have to be considered before starting the journey. How to assess your pupils on their learning should also be planned in advance (e.g. test, portfolio, wiki, blog writing, or presentation).
No need to say this – but you would most certainly also use English as the classroom language. Otherwise it wouldn’t be an English lesson would it?
This list also counts for the teaching materials to be presented on 28th June:
Hadfield & Hadfield, Introduction to teaching English, Oxford,(2008)
Cora Lindsay with Paul Knight, Learning and Teaching English, Oxford, (2006) Lynne Cameron, Teaching Languages to Young Learners, Cambridge, (2009)
Henrik Poulsen, Levende billeder I Undervisningen, KvaN 86/2000, pp. 55-65
Læring med levende billeder, Samfundslitteratur, (2010) ISBN 978-87-593-1505-7
David Gauntlett, Media, Gender and Identity, (2009) ISBN 0 415 39661 1
Brian Longhurst, Introducing Cultural Studies,(2008) ISBN 978 1 4058 5843 4
Gillespie & Toynbee, Analysing Media Text, (2009) ISBN 0 335 21886
Rybacki and Rybacki, Transcultural Music Review, (1999) ISSN:1697-0101
John Fiske, Madonna article 1 & 2, course material from Malmö Högskola, Language, Culture & Identity II
The National Curriculum for English (2009)
www.youtube.com
Various notes and hand-outs from the English lessons at Blaagaard-KDAS
My own article on EFL teaching with music videos and my Narrative analysis of Justin Bieber from Malmö.
