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UNIVERSIDAD DE ZARAGOZA FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓN 2013 – 2014 Trabajo Fin de Máster Máster en Profesorado de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria, Bachillerato, Formación Profesional, Enseñanzas de Idiomas, Artísticas y Deportivas Lenguas Extranjeras para E.S.O., Bachillerato y Enseñanzas de Idiomas: Inglés Film as a Teaching Resource in the EFL Classroom Autor: Alfredo Serrano Moreno Tutor: Juan Antonio Tarancón de Francisco TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction……………………………………………………………..……………. 1 1.1 Justification……………………………………………………...……………. 1 1.2 Objectives………………………………………………………….………….. 2 1.3 Methodology…………………………………………………….……………. 4 2 Contextualization………………………………………...…………………………… 5 2.1 Film and teaching: Current status…………………….………………..…….. 6 2.2 Literature review……………………………...…………….………………... 7 2.3 The Aragonese Curriculum and the Common European Framework of Reference.......................................................................................................... 7 3 Methodology……………………………………………………………..…………… 9 3.1 The Communicative Approach……………………………..…………..……. 9 3.1.1 Communicative Language Learning………………………………...….. 9 3.1.2 Interaction…………………………………………………………….... 11 3.1.3 Communicative classroom………………………………………….…. 11 3.1.3.1 Groupings……………………………………………………… 12 3.1.3.2 Classroom management……………………………………….. 13 3.2 Task-Based Language Learning……………………………..…………….... 14 3.3 Skills………………………………………………………………………… 15 3.4 CLIL……………………………………………………...…………...…….. 16 4 Audiovisual texts as a teaching resource……………………………………………. 17 4.1 Audiovisual texts and students’ motivation…………………………..…….. 18 4.2 Audiovisual texts, culture and diversity……………………………...……... 19 4.3 Audiovisual texts and moral values……………………………………..….. 20 5 Activities…………………………………………………………………………….. 21 5.1 Objectives………………………………………………………...…………. 22 5.2 Contents……………………………………………………………...……… 23 5.3 Contribution to the key competences………………………………...……... 24 5.4 Bend it like Beckham………………………………………………………... 26 5.5 Billy Elliot…………………………………………………………..………. 30 6 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………... 35 7 Works cited…………………………………………………………………………. 36 1 1 Introduction The topic of my dissertation is cinema or, to be more precise, cinema as a teaching resource in the L2 classroom. The main reasons why I have chosen this topic is because I love cinema which has become my favourite hobby with the passing of time and I am aware of how useful audiovisual texts can be in order to learn foreign languages when used in accordance with the principles that determine language acquisition. Audiovisual texts in general and films in particular have been a staple of language teaching since the introduction of video players in the eighties. Yet, I do not think they have been used in ways that are consistent with the dominant theories of language learning. Therefore, the main purpose of my dissertation is both to stand up for the use of audio visual texts in the classroom and to give some examples of how they could be used. 1.1 Justification The traditional way of teaching in which the teacher focused on reading the units of the course books and asked students to do the tasks and activities is completely outdated. Since the advent of communicative approaches to language teaching, the classroom has become more and more interactive in an attempt to reproduce the conditions of language use found in real life. Likewise, language teaching has always tried to incorporate those technological innovations that could improve second language acquisition and, in the case of audiovisual texts, they can be said to be in tune with the so-called information society in which children have been raised. Therefore, audiovisual resources not only can be used in the classroom to set up meaningful communicative situations in which to develop all the different skills and competences of language, but also reflect the ways in which children gain awareness of the social world. Now teachers have at their complete disposal a great deal of resources that can help them make lessons more dynamic, more attractive to the students and catch their attention. Unlike other, more traditional resources that students may find boring and 2 unrelated to their everyday experiences, new technologies will easily get the attention and contribute to the development of positive attitudes towards the language and the classroom. Cinema is, first and foremost, a way of spending our spare time. However, audiovisual texts send messages that influence and condition audience’s opinion. This is a fact that has always appealed to me and I will delve into along my dissertation. Regarding the teaching of foreign languages, teachers should use audiovisual media in a way that helps learners develop the different skills of a language. Without a doubt, when a video is played in the classroom, listening skills may be enhanced (provided activities are carefully designed for that purpose). However, videos can be also a tool to develop other skills. We can concentrate on different elements such as particular images or events and, for example, make learners describe what they are watching and, by doing so, the development of the speaking skills can be fostered too. Needless to say, the audiovisual texts offer us a wide range of possible activities to be carried out in class and train the five different skills. The main purpose of my dissertation is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the use of audiovisual texts as a resource in an English classroom for secondary education. Students really enjoy watching audiovisual texts and learn from them because it is something that they are used to do in their free time. If we as teachers use films in the classroom, we will not only catch their attention, but may exploit the characteristics that they have instinctively developed to learn languages since early childhood. Then we can say that the lesson has been worth it. 1.2 Objectives The most important goal that I have set myself is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the use of audiovisual texts as a teaching resource in an English classroom. Although we all seem to agree that cinema has an important role to play can play in the L2 classroom, films are not used in the classroom. This happens for a number of reasons. Sometimes 3 high schools do not have the necessary facilities to carry out these sorts of activities; it might as well be that the teacher does not share this positive view as regards; yet, the most likely reason for the disregard of this kind of resource is that it, contrary to what someone might think, involves a lot of work if we want make the most out of it. I am aware that the cinema is considered a hobby by the majority of the people, that is, a way of entertainment or a merely playful pastime that is at odds with the effort that learning a language takes. Nevertheless, I believe in the potential of audiovisual texts in terms of language acquisition and, what is more, it is an art – not unlike Picasso’s paintings or Verdi’s operas – that, as we shall see in my dissertation, has educational value from a number of perspectives. I have based my dissertation and, in particular, my activities on a series of approaches to language teaching, which testifies to the usefulness of cinema as a language teaching resource. Likewise, I have followed, first of all, the Common European Framework of Reference, which establishes the five skills which must be developed to be capable of communicating. The importance of communication is the backbone of the CEFR, which states that teachers must not focus on grammar only. We as teachers must foster those skills which make students capable of communicating with the rest of Europeans citizens. Using the language outside the classroom is an issue which many linguists such as Tricia Hedge, have dealt with (2001:71): Communicative language teaching sets out to involve learners in purposeful tasks which are embedded in meaningful contexts and which reflect and rehearse language as it is used authentically in the world outside the classroom. Taking these ideas about language teaching and learning as the foundations of my dissertation, the objectives that follow are:  To improve listening skills by playing different videos.  To improve the five skills promoted by the Common European Framework of Reference by means of activities which follow the communicative approach and task based model. 4  To acquire new vocabulary, new expressions and new grammatical structures with the support of audiovisual media.  To promote interest in the English language since it is believed that in an immediate future half of the world population will be able to speak English.  To develop a critical and reflective attitude.  To develop creativity and imagination.  To promote tolerance, solidarity and awareness of other cultures through different sources.  To promote their passion for art and cinema as a source of knowledge and wisdom. 1.3 Methodology Regarding the theoretical framework, I have taken into consideration all the literature read and all the contents studied during the course. It should be emphasized that the actual legislation that binds the teaching of foreign languages – the Common European Framework of Reference, the Education Act of 2006 and the Aragonese Curriculum – provides us with the legal framework upon which to build our teaching practice. To be more precise, for the writing of my dissertation, I have taken into account authors such as Finney, Skehan or Kumaravadivelu among others. Besides, I want to point out that I have also used my own personal experience both as a learner and as a teacher. We live in an increasingly globalized world, which has increased the need to speak another language apart from our mother tongue. This is the main reason why so much research has been carried during the last decades about the acquisition of a foreign language and why English, in particular, has taken such as prominent place in the Spanish curriculum. Lightbown and Spada (2006:1), for example, note that all children from all over the world learn to speak in the same way (emphasis in the original): One remarkable thing about the FIRST LANGUAGE acquisition is the high degree of similarity in the early language of children all over the world. Researchers have described DEVELOPMENTAL SEQUENCES for many aspects of first language acquisition. The earliest vocalizations are simply the involuntary crying that babies do when they hungry or uncomfortable. 5 If we are to believe Lightbown and Spada, it is obvious that there are a lot of similarities in the way children learn a language no matter which country they are from. Therefore, this leads us to think that a foreign language can be taught in the cradle which will be helpful for the following generations being English language the link to keep in touch with the rest of the world. We know that learning a foreign language consists in learning another culture too so it is quite important to teach the linguistic features of the English language as well as the cultural factors that have shaped the language Therefore, I have chosen Billy Elliot (2000) and Bend it like Beckham (2002) because I had the chance to analyze them during a degree course last year. To carry out this research I have used several sources. For the theoretical part, I have used the materials provided by my tutor and those available in the library of the University of Zaragoza concerning the use of audiovisual texts in a classroom. In addition, I have used some websites available on Internet. 2 Contextualization The information society in which Western countries are immersed nowadays is highly influenced by technology and the media such as TV series and programs, advertising, cinema or networks such as Facebook or Twitter among others. The younger generations have become the flagship of these new developments and, therefore, teaching institutions should pay attention to the learners’ interests and hobbies, which are determined by the social context in which they have grown up and are living right now. To put it another way, teachers must adapt to the social context and adapt their materials and teaching methods as a way to motivate students, involve them in the lesson, and facilitate the acquisition of new contents. Educational structures are clung to 6 the past and one of teachers’ priorities must be to remodel the educational world to put an end to academic failure. 2.1 Film and teaching: Current status Literature on film and teaching is scant. Two books helped me start working on my dissertation: Film, by Susan Stempleski and Barry Tomalin, and Reading in the dark, by John Golden. Both make reference to the impact and importance of audiovisual texts nowadays because, as Stempleski and Tomalin note (2001: ix), “We live in a culture dominated by the visual image, and in particular, the moving image. The written word has, to a large extent, ceded its pre-eminence to visual representations of the world which in turn has created the need for us to make sense of this visual rhetoric.” Besides, as I noted above, using movies can catch students’ attention, which not only facilitates foreign language teaching but also develops positive attitudes to the target language and culture. As Stempleski and Tomalin observe in the foreword to Film (2001: ix), “Film attracts students through the power it has to tell a story. It contextualises language through the flow of images, making it more accessible.” The truth is that students cannot recognize the key elements in a written text as easily as they do in an audiovisual one. For John Golden, for example (2001: xiii), “the skills they use to decode the visual image are the same skills they use for a written text, and our goal, therefore, is to use that immediate interest in and uncanny ability with film and to make it work for us.” All things considered, the cinema may be a powerful teaching resource when used in a way that is consistent with the developments in other teachingand learningrelated fields. Film not only provides a tool to catch attention, it can be used to develop, language skills and improve students’ knowledge about the target language and culture. 13 Jeremy Harmer (2006:114), for instance, mentions the following: whole-class teaching, students on their own, pairwork or groupwork as the most appropriate ways to group students in activities. Although they have both advantages and disadvantages, it will be teacher’s responsibility to implement the most appropriate for the success of the activity. Nevertheless, teachers must bear in mind that organizing pairwork and groupwork is not easy because students are not used to work in groups and when we create pairs and groups we must think of their relationship. In this respect, Harmer (2006: 120) mentions different alternatives too: we should make sure that we put friends with friends in order to have productive groups, otherwise, students would not feel comfortable and the group activity would not be worth. Besides, we can also change the groups during the activities. Streaming emphasizes that grouping both strong students and weak students since the weakest ones will be able to learn from the others who have a major level. Another possible way is to group our students by chance which is really easy to carry out in the classroom. 3.1.3.2 Classroom management Teachers must take into account other factors to implement their lessons and classroom management is one of them. Teachers must pay attention to sight, sound and comfort and make sure that their learners can hear and see everything and do not get lost during the lesson. Moreover, students need to feel comfortable to concentrate on the lesson. The seating arrangements is an important element since the cooperative work implies that learners have to work in groups so, as was noted above, it is not a good idea that learners are always seated individually. A teacher must know how to use the facilities available in the classroom (digital board, personal computer, etc.). Besides, teachers must pay attention to the voice and body language since the main purpose is that all students can hear the teacher but also that they can exploit all the resources that they have developed while learning their miter tongue and that may help them understand and learn the foreign language. 14 Likewise, teachers must feel relaxed and be authoritative at the same time and must know how to act in the face of unpredicted and adverse circumstances. 3.2 Task-Based Language Learning Task-based language learning (TBLL) is considered a branch of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) that I have mentioned above. According to David Nunan, for example, task-based language teaching is marked by the following principles (2004: 1):  A needs-based approach to content selection.  An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language.  The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation.  The Provision of opportunities for learners to focus not only on language but also on the learning process itself.  An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to the classroom learning.  The linking of classroom language learning with language use outside the classroom. Therefore, in the activities that follow, I take into account all these points regarding TBLL. Apart from these principles, my dissertation attempts to follow the more general principle of TBLL as described by Nunan (2004: 7): These days it is generally accepted that language is more than a set of grammatical rules, with attendant sets of vocabulary, to be memorized. It is a dynamic resource for creating meaning. Learning is no longer seen simply as a process of habit formation. Learners and the cognitive processes they engage in as they learn are seen as fundamentally important to the learning process. According to Nunan, the form or structure of language is not the priority of TBLL. Teachers’ obligations also include the organization of tasks, for which a model based on pre-task, task and post-task has been proposed. Prabhu was one of the developers of TBLL and defined the most important types of task, which have been pointed out by Nunan (2004:57):  Information-gap activity, which involves a transfer of given information from one person to another – or from one form to another, or from one place to 15 another – generally calling for the decoding or encoding of information from or into language.  Reasoning gap Reasoning-gap activity, which involves deriving some new information from given information through processes of inference, deduction, practical reasoning, or a perception of relationships or patterns.  Opinion gap Opinion-gap activity, which involves identifying and articulating a personal preference, feeling, or attitude in response to a given situation. The reason why I have given all this information along this point is because the explanation of TBLL is crucial due to the fact that I will design activities for two movies according to this approach. 3.3 Skills According to the CEFR, there are five different skills (listening, reading, writing, speaking production and speaking interaction) to put into practice and develop through activities in an English classroom. The main purpose of a teacher of English language is to carry out a wide range of tasks and activities to make students capable of facing a communicative situation. Therefore, the activities included in my dissertation attempt to cater for all the five skills and to include them in the interaction and the communicative situations set up by means of films. In the case of listening skills, we must take into account two perspectives; listening as comprehension, which consists of “is based on the assumption that the main function of listening in second language learning is to facilitate understanding of spoken discourse,” and listening acquisition, which refers to: “how listening can provide input that triggers the further development of second-language proficiency” (Richards 2006:3). Speaking, needless to say, is a key skill if students are to engage in and cope with an authentic communicative situation, and this skill is used to evaluate students success in the learning of the language and to check the usefulness of the language course Besides, the CEFR divides the speaking skill into two new skills, speaking production and speaking interaction confirms the importance of interaction with other people and the ability to communicate. 16 Speaking and listening skills affect communication to a greater extent than reading and writing skills but it does not mean that the latter lack importance. Besides, reading and writing skills are key elements to improve listening and oral skills. Therefore the objective is to promote writing and reading skills too. In short, all students need to enhance the five skills in the same way if they are to be fluent in the language so the activities develop and train the five different skills equally. 3.4 CLIL The studies related to the teaching and learning of foreign languages have increased in the last years. There may be many reasons why the topic at hand has gained some much relevance lately and globalization is surely one of them. While the different communities, countries and/or empires were relatively isolated in the past, in the last decades societies have grown more and more interconnected. As a result of this, the world is currently facing new challenges related to the increasingly transnational nature of citizens and capital. Human beings need to be in touch with other societies and cultures due to the fact that new technologies have made easier the interconnection of people from all over the world. This is the main reason why a great deal of people study a foreign language and different approaches have been developed to meet the needs of globalized societies. CLIL is a teaching methodology that concentrates not only on the acquisition of the language, but also on the acquisition of other contents. It may not have emerged as a consequence of globalization, but it can certainly be adapted to the new needs people have due to the interconnectedness of different cultures. David Marsh et al., responsible for much of the writing on CLIL, define it as (2012: ii): Contents and language Integarted Learning (CLIL) is a dual-focused educational approach in which an additional language is used for the learning and teaching of content and language with the objective of promoting both content and language mastery to pre-defined levels. 17 CLIL attempts to cater for bilingual education and language immersion in which the teaching of culture is a key factor to understand better the language. As Marsh, for example, observes (2012: 392), the teaching of culture has acquired added importance in the L2 classroom, and, accordingly, I will deal with this in the following section: Acquiring knowledge and understanding of the target language Knowledge and understanding of an MFL begin with pupils exploring their immediate physical environment through the senses. They may become aware of, and understand, the differences between such an environment and a more distant locality. Pupils gain knowledge and understanding of differences in language and culture through materials, artefacts and meeting people from places, which are socially and culturally different from their home environment. 4 Audiovisual texts as a teaching resource In this section, I will explain the importance and usefulness of audiovisual texts from different points of view. In the first place, I will focus on videos as a teaching resource, which it is what I have being defending from the beginning of my dissertation. Moreover, to support the use of audiovisual texts in the classroom I will delve into issues such as motivation, cultural differences, and the teaching moral values. To begin with, the way in which our grandparents or parents used to study at schools in the last century has remained unchanged to the present day; however, society is completely different due to technological innovations, new kinds of family patterns or changing values. We must stop using course books in the classroom as the only kind of material. As a conclusion, it is time to change the way of teaching the different subjects because the use of ICT’s and audiovisual texts can take over that archaic educational system and create an innovative teaching approach in tune with the 21st century. 18 4.1 Audiovisual texts and students’ motivation The current Education Act makes reference to the importance of motivation: La incorporación generalizada al sistema educativo de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC), […]. Los alumnos y alumnas con motivación podrán así acceder, de acuerdo con su capacidad, a los recursos educativos que ofrecen ya muchas instituciones en los planos nacional e internacional. Las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación serán una pieza fundamental para producir el cambio metodológico que lleve a conseguir el objetivo de mejora de la calidad educativa. (LOMCE 8/2013) The legislation emphasizes on the use of ICTs in the classrooms as a key element both to ensure success during the learning period and to equip students to compete globally. Without a doubt, the Government wants to promote the use of ICTs because they are a source of motivation for students, therefore, the use of audiovisual texts in the classroom is not only viable and desirable, but it is enshrined in the current legislation. All in all, the Education Act has realized that we are immersed in the so-called information society. The new technologies, such as Internet, Wi-Fi, tablets or smartphones, have radically changed our way of receiving information, learning and communicating. The current legislation promotes the use of ICTs in the classrooms and audiovisual texts are a good example of them. Kumaravadivelu (2012:3) criticizes teachers’ training related to change the way of teaching languages. It is suggested that teachers’ training must be oriented to a cyclical pattern, integrated, interactive, multidirectional and multidimensional: Knowing, Analyzing, Recognizing, Doing, and Seeing (KARDS). […] teachers have to (a) develop their professional, procedural and personal knowledge base, (b) analyze learner needs, motivation, and autonomy,(c) recognize their own identities, beliefs and values, (d) do teaching, theorizing and dialogizing, and (e) monitor their own teaching acts. I believe that only such an integrated, holistic teacher education has the potential to help teachers fully understand what happens in their classroom, and eventually enable them to produce their own contextsensitive pedagogic knowledge. 19 In short, the motivation is one of the elements that Kumaravadivelu demands that teachers have to concentrate on together with other elements in order to stimulate a new way of teaching foreign languages. 4.2 Audiovisual texts, culture and diversity As a consequence of globalization, students come from a variety of countries and cultures. In the classroom, we often find students from countries such as Romania, Morocco, or China, as well as from many Latin American countries. All these students may have lived in Spain, and they may be already integrated into Spanish society and culture. This diversity can be highly positive if the teacher knows how to manage this situation. Otherwise, some problems can arise such as prejudices, racism, lack of communication, etc.; which hinder the normal functioning of the class. In addition to this, those students who are not of Spanish origin can have their own learning problems. For instance, some of them may not speak Spanish fluently, their families may not cooperate in the teaching process, academic failure, the socioeconomic status of the family, etc. The possible solutions to these problems are the responsibility of the teachers, who will have to find ways to integrate foreign students into the normal, communicative functioning of the class. On the other hand, when this is successfully achieved, students may become more tolerant and respectful with each other. As a result, learners will have a very open mind and realize that there are many cultures from which they can learn and that the local culture does not have to be considered better than others. Intercultural Multiculturalism is a reality in Spain which can become a benefit for the classroom, and its values must be taught by the teacher in order to ensure that lessons will be properly implemented and that everything works in complete normalcy. Apart from that, multiculturalism also helps promote an inclusive education where 20 attention is paid. In a recent article published in El Mundo, Cristina Morales observes that (2012: np): La diversidad cultural no es un hecho exclusivamente moderno, ni únicamente propio de nuestras sociedades. […], es un hecho históricamente recurrente; algo, por tanto, característico de todas las sociedades humanas. Las culturas no son cerradas y homogéneas, sino que se configuran en contacto permanente con otras culturas. […] Nuestra asignatura pendiente es entender que la diversidad cultural no representa un obstáculo sino una riqueza. […] La sensibilización intercultural es por tanto, un proceso de transformación social. Y necesitamos planes de trabajo que promuevan el encuentro. El papel que toma el arte como herramienta de cambio social viene al intervenir en la construcción de la identidad y como los sistemas de representación hegemónicos son claves a la hora de construir la imagen de los otros. Cinema is one of the fine arts and this quotation reinforces my point of view regarding the necessity to make our students aware of the challenges posed by multiculturalism in our society. Therefore, taking into consideration all the aspects mentioned above, the L2 classroom may be the perfect environment to foster understanding of and respect for other cultures, because, in order to give advantage to the intercultural due to the fact that learning a foreign language involves the learning of another culture. It is well-known that apart from the grammar, vocabulary and phonetics, the learning of a foreign language implies the learning of its culture, customs and traditions as well. 4.3 Audiovisual texts and moral values As I have mentioned above, the use of audiovisual texts is more than simply spending our spare time watching movies. They are really helpful to teach other contents to our students. The cinema is a powerful tool which allows us to teach values and to increase students’ awareness of the issue that we want to delve into. As Ambròs and Breu note (2007: 26), Es bien conocido por todo el mundo que, desde hace tiempo, la escuela, la familia y las instituciones religiosas han dejado de ser los primeros agentes educadores de nuestros niños, niñas y adolescentes. El momento actual en que 21 vivimos está sustituyendo y transformando los valores tradicionales […] los medios de comunicación de masas y en la publicidad, medios que han asumido el papel de educadores las veinticuatro horas del día y durante todos los días del año. According to this quotation, watching a film can become hurtful for the adolescents because cinema and media in general have an enormous influence over the youth. For instance, anorexia and bulimia are two illnesses very common in people from 12 to 25 years of age and the main reason is that the media sets the standard of beauty, which, too often, does not conform to reality. To solve this problem, we as teachers must develop students’ critical thinking and encourage them to pay attention to other factors because students must not believe all they hear. There are a great deal of films in which values such as friendship, family, justice, peace, tolerance, etc. are portrayed under a positive light. Nevertheless, each teacher should select the kind of films according to the subject they teach. We as teachers of English can used any audiovisual text provided they are in English; moreover, the selection of films will have to do with the values that we want to teach to our students. All in all, we must take into account what we want our students to learn from audiovisual texts. English language? Moral values? Both? After having made the decision, we will have at our disposal an enormous amount of audiovisual texts. For instance, on one hand, we can play an episode of the TV series The Big Bang Theory or Modern Family to practice English skills. On the other hand, we can play a film like Australia in which students will learn about other English-speaking country and how Australians had to cope with WWII and the discrimination of Australians natives by white European people. 5 Activities The activities included in this section have been designed following the theoretical criteria explained above. The work carried out during this year, as well as the theoretical 22 framework described here, has convinced me of the cogency of the use of audiovisual texts as a teaching resource. In my dissertation, I have focused on two British films: Bend it like Beckham and Billy Elliot. The choice of these two films is not gratuitous. I wanted to use British films because British pronunciation is taken as a reference in Spain. In addition, these two films deal with social and cultural issues that will allow me to teach moral values and culture of an Anglophone country. It should be noted that some of the activities included in this dissertation have been adapted from the activities found in Susan Stempleski and Barry Tomalin’s book Film (2001). What follows is a detailed explanation of the objectives, the contents and how the films and the activities contribute to the development of the English learning. 5.1 Objectives The main objective is that students consolidate their productive skills, that they are able to interact with others and that they are understood in a number of situations: to give personal explanations, to ask, to express an idea, to use understandable language, and to understand the main ideas from texts in Standard English. In general terms, the main objective is that learners develop their overall communicative competence, which will be achieved by promoting the acquisition of the following objectives: 1. To be able to understand general and specific information from a film. 2. To be able to express orally oneself and interact in common situations of communication in an understandable way when activities require to speak in pairs or groups. 3. To be able to read and understand different texts from TV series and films according to their level of English. 4. To be able to write simple cohesive and coherent pieces of writing by using the grammar and vocabulary. 5. To be able to use correctly the basic lexical, structural and functional components of the English language in real communication contexts. 29 Shopping, racism, hobbies, love, tourism, homosexuality, academic failure or stereotypes. 2 Which two cultures are compared in the film? 3 Think of another big community as for example Ecuadorians in Spain. In groups of four, try to design a remake of the film by completing the following worksheet. Keep in mind the film that we have just watched and pay attention to those differences among Spanish and Ecuadorians people. DESIGN THE REMAKE 1 Original title What’s the original title of the film? 2 Title of the remake What title will you give the remake? 3 Genre What genre will it be? Musical? Romantic comedy? Western? Detective? Horror film? Terrorist thriller? Some other genre? 4 Setting Where and when will the story take place? 5 Cast What actors would you cast in the main roles? Main roles: Actors who would play them: a) 30 b) c) d) e) 6 Theme music What would you use for the theme music? 4 A member of each group has to talk to the rest of the class the new remake of Bend it like Beckham. 5.5 Billy Elliot  Introduction This activity is meant to be implemented in the course of one week in the second grade of ESO. I have chosen this film because it deals with the topics of homosexuality, stereotypes or cultural and historical events such as the miners’ strike in the eighties, which can help learners to reflect on cultural and moral issues as they pertain to Britain and other contemporary western societies. Needless to say, I strongly believe that I will be capable of catching their attention and increasing their awareness of diversity and sentimental relationships The main character is Billy, who wants to be a ballet dancer. However, this is not easy for Billy. He will have to cope with the opposition of his family and of society because ballet has never been considered appropriate for a boy. Therefore, students will 31 learn from Billy’s fight against stereotypes and his determination to chase his dream and be what he wants to be. On the other hand, students will learn about recent British history because the background of the film is a miners’ strike and the way Margaret Thatcher, who was Prime Minister at the time, dealt with it.  Methodology I have closely followed the third point of my dissertation in which I have explained in detail everything related to the methodology. Besides, the principles behind Task-Based Language Learning and the communicative approach have been carefully observed. Nevertheless, I will briefly explain the way each activity is to be carried out. Before playing the film, the teacher must explain the plot to place students in a context. The two first activities in the pre-watching activities will be done by both teacher and students as an example of teacher-student interaction. Activity three is to be done individually, and the last activity will be carried out in pairs to promote interaction. Besides, the teacher will help students in case they do not know how to express their thoughts. In the while-watching activities, students will have to work individually to understand the film and take some notes which will be necessary to carry out other activities. In this section, there is a reading activity in which students will be asked to read a short dialogue and answer some questions and give their personal views about stereotypes. Students will be able to use a dictionary to complete this activity. The purpose is to enhance their reading comprehension. The main objective of the after-watching activities is that students express what they have learned from the film about stereotypes. Therefore, writing skills will be developed through an activity in which they have to write about ballet dancers. In the other two activities, which are to be implemented in a more communicative way, students will work in groups to engage in speaking interaction. They will have to work 32 with their favourite scenes so the notes that take will be necessary to carry out this activity.  Activities PRE-WATCHING ACTIVITIES 1 What do you understand by Prime Minister? Give an example in Spanish. 2 Do you know Margaret Thatcher? Who was she? Why is she so relevant? 3 Which of the following pictures do you identify with? Choose three. 4 Why have you chosen these three pictures? Do you think that another boy/girl would choose the same pictures? Discuss with your partner. WHILE-WATCHING ACTIVITIES 1 Pay attention to the film and take notes in order not to forget the plot. 33 2 Read carefully the following dialogue between Billy’s father (Jackie) and the teacher (Mrs. Wilkinson). Billy: Dad! Jackie: Go home, son. (Is this a friend of yours, then.) Jackie: How much is it gonna cost? Mrs. Wilkinson: And a happy Christmas to you, too. Not as much as you might think. Maybe two grand. There's a good chance the Council's... Jackie: Two grand? Mrs. Wilkinson: I was talking about the auditions. It's just a matter of the trip to London. I'll give you the money for the fare. Jackie: I didn't come here to be patronized. Mrs. Wilkinson: No one's trying to patronize you.You're being ridiculous. Jackie: Am I? Mrs. Wilkinson: Yes. Jackie: Thanks for everything you've done for Billy.But he is my son, isn't he? I'll handle this myself. a) What has Jackie understood ? b) What is he going to do regarding his son? c) If you were Jackie, how do you think you would have reacted to your son’s hobby? AFTER-WATCHING ACTIVITES 1 What do you think about ballet dancers? Do you know any? Is it easy to be a ballet dancer? Write a short composition of 50 words explaining your views. 2 In groups of four, think about your favourite scene and complete the worksheet below. FAVOURITE SCENES Scene 1 Scene 2 Scene 3 Setting (where the scene takes place) Characters (names of the most 34 important characters in the scene) Action (the main things that happen in the scene) 3 After having completed your scene, the whole group has to move around the class in order to complete Scene 2 and Scene 3 from the scenes chosen by others using English language only. 35 6 Conclusion As I reach the end of my dissertation, I believe that I have achieved the objectives that I set for myself at the beginning as a consequence of the knowledge acquired during the classes of the Máster Universitario en Profesorado de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria, the training undergone in the schools and the work carried out with my supervisor. To put it another way, I have tried to stick to the theoretical issues dealt with during this year and link them to the possibilities audiovisual resources open for the acquisition of a foreign language. To be honest, I have acquired a lot of knowledge from this Trabajo Fin de Máster about the theoretical issues that inform language teaching and learning, about the dynamics of a cooperative classroom and, in particular, about the possibilities cinema offers and the best ways to use films. That is, throughout my dissertation I have had the opportunity of reflecting on the teaching-learning process , which have given me new perspectives about how an English lesson should be implemented nowadays from an informed learning-centred standpoint. In short, my conclusion is that audiovisual texts have not been used properly in the classroom so far. However, it is a powerful tool which covers a wide range of activities to develop the five different skills. Apart from that, audiovisual texts can teach more than language itself if we know how to use them in accordance with the research about L2 teaching and learning carried out in other fields like applied linguistics or psychology. Taking everything into account, I admit to being satisfied with the result. Besides, in my view, I have explained both films from the theoretical point of view which I have studied during the course. In addition to this, I had to do my own research about the teaching of culture and moral values through cinema which helped me to improve my knowledge about the issue at hand. 36 7 Works cited  AMBRÒS, Alba and Ramón BREU. 2007. Cine y educación: el cine en el aula de primaria y secundaria. Barcelona: Grao.  ARAGÓN. Currículo Aragonés. Orden de 9 de mayo de 2007.  BROWN, Douglas. 2000. Teaching by Principles. An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. Harlow: Longman.  ESPAÑA. LOMCE. Ley Orgánica 8/2013, de 9 de diciembre para la mejora de la calidad educativa.  GOLDEN, John. 2001. Reading in the Dark. Using Film as a Tool in the English Classroom. Portland: National Council of Teachers of English.  HARMER, Jeremy. 2006. The Practice of English Language Teaching. 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Kumaravadivelu”. 2012. MARCOELE. Revista de Didáctica Español como Lengua Extranjera. 37 <http://marcoele.com/descargas/14/kumaravadivelu-interview.pdf >. Accessed June 9, 2014.