| Background Movies are very creative and imaginative resources that help students think critically and promote character development if effectively used (Rafferty, 1999).Movies can be an adjunct to the formal English curriculum (Lovell, 1987).Students’ motivation is enhanced since they can easily relate their personal experiences to the movies (N.K.Aiex, 1999).Teacher can also make use of the movies produced by students as learning and teaching resources in class.
English teachers of this school have observed that many students including very weak students show a keen interest in watching movies. In recent years, English teachers have tried to integrate language arts into the formal and informal curricula. As there was not enough attention given to developing students’ creativity and critical thinking skills in the past, English teachers think that movies, as useful language arts resources, can be a very good entry point for helping students nurture those generic skills and motivating them to learn English.
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Objectives
- To develop and motivate students of different language abilities and learning styles to enjoy learning English and improve speaking skills through the use of movies
- To develop students’ positive values, creativity and critical thinking skills by actively involving them in producing their own movies
- To help teachers explore learner-centred strategies for infusing language arts into the English curriculum
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Implementation
How to implement?
- Based on the yearly school themes “A Touching Moment” and “Showing Love and Care for People”, students from each class had to produce a movie for the Mini-Oscar Competition and all levels were involved.Two Mini-Oscar Competitions were held each year for both senior and junior forms.
- To prepare students for the Mini-Oscar Competition, English teachers included movies in the task-based modules for doing brainstorming activities before asking them to produce their own movies.English teachers encouraged students to discuss dilemmas and social issues portrayed in the movies.After watching the movies, students had to express feelings, thoughts and even moral judgement.
- A movie committee was formed in each class for doing co-ordination work.Students made different contributions to the production of the movies, for examples, writing scripts, providing technical support, preparing props and being actors / actresses, etc..Each class had to produce one movie and students were given much autonomy in the planning and production of the movies.
- Students were encouraged to contribute creative ideas to the production of the movies and discuss how to depict different characters, write the scripts and produce the movies.They could express personal experiences, dilemmas, social / current issues in the movies and had to make them in line with the yearly school theme.In the whole process, they were free to make decisions about the types of movies to be produced.English teachers played the role of facilitators supporting students’ learning.
- All classes took part in the Mini-Oscar Competitions.Different prizes were awarded to students such as the best actor, the best actress, the best movie, the best production, etc. in recognition of their achievements.
- Movies produced by students were also used as learning and teaching resources in the classroom for students’ group discussions.Teachers also used them for brainstorming activities in class.
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Facilitating factors
- Much student autonomy given
In producing the movies, students could freely express their original ideas in the movie scripts and use different camera angles to show their thoughts and feelings about different issues and people.They also made different decisions, solved problems and offered support to peers when necessary.Such autonomy given to students enabled them to have many opportunities to collaborate with each other and learn from their peers.
- Ample opportunities for convergent and divergent thinking
Students had many opportunities to brainstorm ideas and possibilities when discussing the theme of the movie, the type of movie to be produced, issues / characters to be portrayed in it.They suggested different ideas in the production of their movies, thus using much divergent thinking for developing creativity.In the process, they also had to make decisions and show ethical judgement when showing social issues or themes in the movies, which would involve convergent thinking.Given a lot of opportunities for convergent and divergent thinking, they were able to nurture creativity and critical thinking skills.
- Technical support
I.T. co-ordinators were appointed in each class to solve technical problems encountered during the shooting of the movies.As teachers have a lot of time and manpower constraints, such technical support is very crucial for the successful running of the Mini-Oscar Competitions.
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Impact
Impact on learning and teaching
Students were able to produce different types of movies portraying a great variety of issues and themes.Some movies produced show social issues explored by students such as racial discrimination, violence and bullying at school, poverty and SARS. Other movies produced show students’ efforts in exploring different themes such as friendship, love, growing up and honesty.Many of the ideas included were interesting, very original and creative.
In many of the movies, students made use of personal dilemmas and explored choices in life.They expressed personal views on social or current issues.Students have displayed raised awareness of social issues and ability to view issues from different perspectives, which is an important critical thinking skill to be developed among students.Some movies had open endings, leaving much room for the audience to think.Through this learning experience, students have whole-person and values development. Weaker students also felt a great sense of achievement and ownership since they can contribute to the production of the movies in different ways.
English teachers involved in planning the Mini-Oscar Competitions have successfully nurtured a very good collaborative culture.They are able to make use of the movies produced by students for classroom activities such as class discussion, pre-writing activities and doing film reviews.They have realised that students can learn more when teachers work as facilitators and students have to do more thinking and doing.
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