Using Movie Trailers in an ESL CALL Class (TESL/TEFL) (2024)

This article provides an example ofusing movie previews or trailers based on a CALL class. It demonstrateshow a lesson can be doneusing movie trailers, the advantages of this kind of language study,and offers expansion possibilities.

Introduction

It is always a challenge to provide current, meaningful, and relevantcontent for students of English as a Second Language or ForeignLanguage; an excellent source of material is the Internet, specificallymovie preview or trailer clips. (Both the words 'previews' and'trailers' are found on the Internet, though the term 'trailer' will beused in this article because, based on Internet searches, it seems tobe more current.) Movie trailers are short segments (usually two tothreeminutes) of key scenes that provide interesting linguistic input andaction accompanying the language; they offer us an innovative way toteach English. They can be viewed by students on an individual basis ina computer lab CALL classroom, using an Internet browser and videoviewer such as QuickTime or Windows Media Players, for example. Thelanguage in the clips can be used in 'cloze' exercises and the scenesfor generating discussion and answering questions.

Background

The class I taught was made up of first year university students. Thisspecific class was held in a computer lab, though the activity couldjust as well be done with videotape or DVDs, so is applicable to awider range of teachers. The students taking the CALL class wereexperienced in listening to other Internet-based ESL/EFL material suchas at Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab (www.esl-lab.com). However, I feltfor a number of reasons(listed below) it would be valuable to incorporate movie trailers intothe syllabus. There are several sites on the Internet that have movietrailers, but a site I found satisfactory, in terms of selection andspeed, was Apple's QuickTime Movie Trailers page(www.apple.com/trailers).

Advantages of Movie Trailers

The concepts of linguistic input and using authentic materials withregard to second language acquisition have been with us for many years.Two web sites where these are discussed are Stephen Krashen's web site(www.sdkrashen.com/main.php3)and one written by Kelly, et al.(iteslj.org/Techniques/Kelly-Authentic.html).Furthermore, videoand audiotape materials have been used extensively to teach ESL/EFLclasses. What is relatively new is the emergence of digital media(audio and visual) that is widely available and easily accessed fromthe Internet.

Though, indeed, teachers have started using digital music and auralmaterials, I believe video content from movies offers significantadvantages. These are as follows:

• movies are popular and have universal appeal acrosscultures,providing current language usage,
• they present visual context in which the dialogue takesplace,action accompanying speech, and
• they show gestures, facial expression, and other bodylanguageappropriate to the dialogue.

Furthermore, the advantages of specifically using digital movietrailers are that they are

• of high quality, the best that professional studios canafford,
• short with very concise, catchy dialogue, havinghighlights of the entire movie, and
• free, readily available from the Internet.

There are several websites that teachers can direct their students to, for viewing movietrailers so that schools will not have to worry about problems ofcopyrighted material.

Methodology

The procedure was to direct the students to Apple's QuickTime movietrailers web site address, let the students, on their own, watch andlisten to the trailer, do a 'cloze' exercise of the dialogue (this wasdone on a hand-out), show the answers and have students self-checktheir listening and enter their scores on their weekly score sheets.Then they would work in groups and answer questions related to themovie scenes appearing in the trailer. These questions are answered ina collaborative way with groups trying to agree on answers to suchquestions as, "Why does so-and-so say "....... " to ..... ?" and "Whatwould YOU say in that same situation?" or "What do you think theoutcome will be in the movie?" Multiple answers wereacceptable, however. Students would write their answers on the handoutsand these would be graded according to the appropriateness of theanswers.

Possible Expansion of Activities

The activities allow for expansion on the theme of the particular moviefrom which the trailer was taken. There is a vast amount of informationon the Internet about movies, including movie plots, characters,reviews, written dialogue (sometimes before the movie is actuallyreleased), and pictures that could be incorporated into a report, forexample. Student projects could have them actually seeing the movieoutside of class and writing their own reviews and character sketches,and based on the movie, teachers might prepare True/False questionlists, discussion topics, answering fact and opinion questions, and soforth, depending upon the level of the students' English. Thepossibilities are endless.

Conclusion

Movie trailers offer an exciting and innovative way to study English asa Second or Foreign Language. The movement toward digitalized video andtheir increasing availability makes them ideally suited for a CALLclass with Internet access, though the methodology would work withvideotape or DVD material, as well. This activity provides the studentswith current, meaningful and relevant content, and the combination ofboth an autonomous learning environment and collaborative,communicative, task-based interaction.

Web Links Mentioned in the Article

• Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab (www.esl-lab.com)
• Apple - Movie Trailers(www.apple.com/trailers)
• Books and Articles by Stephen Krashen(www.sdkrashen.com/main.php3)
• Effective Ways to Use Authentic Materials with ESL/EFL Students, By Charles Kelly, Lawrence Kelly, Mark Offner and Bruce Vorland (iteslj.org/Techniques/Kelly-Authentic.html).