3 Tips to Teach Languages with Movies without the Stress
Want to use the magic of cinema to fire up your students’ imagination and spark magic in your lessons? Of course you do!
But you’re probably overthinking it like crazy and creating unnecessary stress. Here’s some do’s and don’ts for teaching with movies.
Tip 1: Watch Netflix Without Planning Lessons In Your Head
One time a teacher asked me if she should chop up bits of a series downloaded from Netflix to send to her students. For both copyright reasons and your own sanity, I don’t recommend this.
Here’s what to do instead: use licensed clips available on various YouTube channels.
For English, you could use channels like these ones:
Movie Clips and Trailers
Official YouTube Channels of TV Networks/Streaming Services
Official YouTube Channels of TV Shows
If you want to find your favourite TV show’s official channel, just put it into the search bar on YouTube. You can also add the word “official” in the search so you have more chance of ending up in the right place.
When you’re searching YouTube, I recommend using the filter function to search videos by criteria like length or closed captions.
You may not get the exact bit of the movie you want, but at least the next time you watch a TV series, you can switch off your teacher brain and just enjoy it.
Tip 2: You’re Not A Cinema
So I know that when we were kids, our teachers would bring in a VHS in at the end of term to show us a movie.
But, in the age of streaming, it’s not your role to broadcast movies for your students, even if Zoom has awesome video sharing options.
I tell students before they enrol in “Movie Club” that they are responsible for finding the movies we decide to watch. And they’re cool with that.
Nowadays, plenty of people have accounts with streaming services like Amazon Prime where you can pretty much find any movie. You or your students can even use your free month of Prime to stream some films.
Need Netflix? You and your students can also find someone with account and get added as a user. My brother added me and now I can log into his UK Netflix account with my own profile.
If paying for movies is a big deal, why not stream one for free on Open Culture where you’ll find over 1000 available.
That said, feel free to organise watch parties with your students where you each watch the movie on your OWN device and then text each other about it live. You just need to set up a group in WhatsApp or Telegram, pick a time where you all press play and you’re good to go.
Tip 3: Spark Interesting Discussions About Movies
Your students are smart people and you’ll be amazed at what they notice when they watch movies.
All you need to do is to create the conditions for this noticing to happen.
So, instead of asking the same boring comprehension questions, go for thought-provoking and discussion-provoking ones instead.
- You can find study guides with questions for famous movies on sites like Shmoop.
- Teach with Movies also has a rather exhaustive list of discussion questions.
- If you’re willing to invest a bit of money, you can also use the viewing guides at Film English.
- You can also check out the FAQs section on IMDb for ideas. A quick tour of this type of site before picking your movie will help you choose one with good discussion potential.
Obviously, you can ask some comprehension questions and they do have their place. I even use them myself sometimes.
Speaking of which, if you want an insider’s look at how I teach with movies, join the “Movie Club” waiting list.
Got questions after reading these tips? Let me know in the comments.
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