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SIGDAY
Special Interest Group
images are important as they are memorable
and motivating. When students know that they
can watch a movie in class, the reading task
involved does not seem such an uphill task.
Steve also showed us many interesting activities
that we can use with film clips.
We watched a clip from Cry Freedom. We discussed
feelings, impressions and questions.
It was great as all the attending participants
communicated spontaneously and we found
ourselves in a very relaxed atmosphere.
‘Vision on, sound off’ was an especially interesting
guessing game. Actually, it was rather a
brainstorming exercise with much laughter as
we tried to reconstruct the dialogue! It amazed
me how much one can take from a movie,
for example, grammar, reading, writing and
discussing.
The second clip was a highly-charged
emotional scene from The Elephant Man. We
brainstormed a) visual images b) reactions
c) sounds d) feelings and realised how much
language had been generated - as well as
having a lot of fun.
The conclusion of this workshop revealed how
easily one participates in reading questions
and writing by watching. This is a great way of
encouraging students to develop their reading
and writing skills and can be used at all levels.
Steve Pawlett definitely delivered what he
had promised. Thanks, Steve, for all the great
ideas we took with us and to OUP for sponsoring
this workshop, which was attended by
15 participants.
Colleen Hasler
Multimedia SIG
C6
Looking at the future with film
Graham Workman
For those of us who are always looking for
new ways to put across our ‘future’ lessons,
this workshop presented by Graham
Workman was just what the doctor ordered.
By using futuristic films as a tool for awareness
raising we, and hopefully our students,
were propelled into the future down three
exciting and thought-provoking avenues. The
first film was about the environment and the
effects of global warming. Using The Day
After Tomorrow directed by Roland Emmerich
26 ETAS Journal 24/3 Summer 2007
(2004), we saw how strange weather patterns
could cause devastation on well-loved cities
such as New York and Los Angeles. This film
dramatically illustrates the effects of global
warming, and its special effects will make your
students sit up in their seats and want to talk
more about it.
The second film Gattica, directed by Andrew
Nicole (1997), gave us a scary look at the
future with regard to genetic engineering.
Your students will love this film for its horrific
virtual reality and it should provoke lively
classroom discussions and a strong platform
for the language requirements for advanced
speaking tests.
The next film Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), a
science-fiction movie from director Steven
Spielberg (2001), illustrates another popular
futuristic topic – robots. Can robots love? Can
a robot be created to love? In the movie a
robot manufacturer, Roboter, attempts to do
just this and creates David, a robot boy who
is adopted by a family whose own son lies in
a coma. David eventually longs to become
‘real’ so that he can experience the love of his
human mother. A provocative, thoughtprovoking
as well as disturbing topic which will
promote great classroom discussions for your
advanced students.
Graham’s language focus was not only ‘the
future’ but rather a collection of well-designed
speaking (predicting and reviewing), lexis
(great collocations) and exam practice speaking
tasks. As usual, his handouts were first
class and suitable for immediate classroom
use at B2-C2 levels.
If anyone would like more information about
using these films in class, e-mail Graham at
grahamworkman@aol.com. Thanks, Graham.
Denise Mattsson
Multimedia SIG Coordinator Report
Another successful SIG Day has come and
gone. This one was especially important for
me as it was in my own region and of course
we wanted it to be as successful as all of the
other ones. I think we can in all modesty say
that we achieved our goal thanks to Vanessa
and her team’s organisational skill and hard
work – so thank you, Vanessa.
As Coordinator for the Multimedia SIG it was
a pleasure to be able to offer such a variety of
workshops again. As technology is taking an
ever-big place in our classrooms and our
students - especially those of us who work
with adolescents - are more computer than
coursebook oriented, it was exciting to be
able to have an insight into what podcasting
actually is and how to integrate it into our
teaching.
I still haven’t worked out all of the ins and outs
of this tool, but at least I have learned that is
has nothing to do with an iPod! Thanks for
making that point clear, Tom!
For those of us who either already know about
podcasting or are too much in awe of this new
dimension in the classroom to try it out, there
was the chance to see how Readers, when
used in connection with films, can turn even
the younger generation into avid readers.
Steve’s activities were motivating, combined
various skills, and gave the participants ideas
for activities for their own favourite book and
film.
Thank you, Steve, for sharing your know-how
and humour with us.
Those of us teaching examination classes are
under terrible time pressure to get through the
book, yet at the same time we would like to
make the lessons as interesting as possible.
Graham once again demonstrated that this
is possible if we can just find the right film,
combine it with challenging activities and voilà
- the routine lesson about genetic engineering
becomes livelier and students are actually
using more sophisticated vocabulary to get
their meaning across. As always Graham’s
enthusiasm and knowledge of films, combined
with his excellent handouts, made his
workshop well worth attending. Also thanks to
you, Graham.
I’m sure that many of us know that lovely
song sung by Sarah Brightman ‘Time to Say
Goodbye’. That song has been going around
in my head for a few months now and I have
finally decided to heed its words. After many