Pixel International Conferences

The teaching of French as a foreign language (FFL) is frequently unsuccessful at Compulsory Secondary Education, mainly, because students have a rather demotivating attitude, and also, because instructors use outdated teaching strategies (Abenoja & De Coursey, 2019; Jovanović, 2017; Stern & Weinrib, 1977). Consequently, FFL teachers should take action and try to create a more stimulating learning environment, which is possible by exploiting innovative didactic tools which connect the teaching-learning process with the students’ experience. It has been shown that cinema is a highly helpful tool in this respect since, as most learners watch films frequently, they are interested in this material (Appetito, 2019; Kanellopoulou, 2019; Rousse, 2006). In view of this, the present study is aimed at exploring students’ perception on the use of films in the high school French classroom and at checking whether or not cinema has as many advantages as it has been asserted by experts in the field. To this end, a film-based teaching unit was implemented in a high school French classroom, and the 35 participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire before and after the intervention. The data gathered reveal that FFL learners have a very positive attitude towards this method and that cinema stimulates them to learn French while helping them to develop their linguistic and intercultural competences.

References

[1] Abenoja, Z., & DeCoursey, M. (2019). Using drama activities to teach beginner’s French to Chinese students at a tertiary institution in Hong Kong: an exploratory case study. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 9(4), 711-736. https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2019.9.4.7.

[2] Appetito, P. (2019). Le cinema comme média culturel et éducatif dans l’enseignement-apprentissage des langues étrangères. Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai-Philologia, 3, 239-251.

[3] Jovanović, I. (2017). Profession of a teacher of French as a foreign language in Montenegro: attitude to education and difficulties of the profession. Porta Linguarum: Revista Internacional de Didáctica de las Lenguas Extranjeras, 28, 111-125.

[4] Kanellopoulou, C., Kermanidis, K., & Giannakoulopoulos, A. (2019). The dual-coding and multi- media learning theories: film subtitles as a vocabulary teaching tool. Education Sciences, 9(3), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci9030210.
  
[5] Rousse, M. (2006). La France a travers les films: compte-rendu d’une experience pedagogique. The Journal of Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies, 10, 371-382.

[6] Stern, H., & Weinrib, A. (1977). Foreign languages for younger children: trends and assessment.  Language Teaching, 10(1), 5-25. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444800003232.