Fall 2012 BLC Fellows’ Instructional Development Research Projects
Using Film to Teach Cultural Analysis Skills in L2: A Pragmatic Guide
Juan Caballero, GSR, Comparative Literature
This presentation describes a semester-length sequence of lessons structured around closely-watched film clips for fourth-semester Spanish. Based on the implementation of these lessons this semester, and of an analogous application in Italian 4, straightforward guidelines will be presented for the design of sequences of lessons that guide students from a passive to a critical and analytic relation to film. These guidelines address issues both at the level of sequence design (spread of formal skills taught, integration into pre-existing curriculum, coverage of film genres and countries of origin) and at the level of individual lessons (choice of films and clips, classroom approaches, and student learning outcomes). Accompanying the presentation will be a more detailed set of written guidelines, made available to instructors at U.C. Berkeley and affiliated schools through the BLC’s LFLFC website.
Download Caballero presentation as PDF
Download Caballero handout as PDF
Language through Culture: Developing an Integrative Curriculum for First-year Czech
Ellen Langer, Lecturer, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Languages such as Czech, with complex grammatical marking and a vocabulary very different from English, are challenging to teach at the elementary level. My project starts from the premise that using a broad range of authentic cultural material, including excerpts from articles, ads, menus, film clips, and songs, as the basis for grammatical exposition, drills, and classroom discussion improves both student learning and morale. My BLC project was to create a chapter of an online Czech textbook integrating a variety of such materials with teaching basic language skills. In this talk, I illustrate methods and formats I have developed and discuss source materials that can be readily updated to reflect cultural and social changes.
Learning Italian Through Television Advertising
Marco Purpura, GSR, Department of Italian Studies
Television advertising provides versatile authentic materials for learning Italian language and culture, as it constitutes a privileged point of entrance for analyses of Italian society through its rich network of cultural references – feature films, TV shows, songs, newspapers, magazines, as well as other advertisements. Further, the cross-cultural dimension of TV advertising prompts critical examination of the global circulation of national identities – for example, the role of American culture in Italian media and, vice versa, the role of Italian culture in American media. This presentation will provide examples of didactic units expressly designed to explore the pedagogical potential of television advertising.
Download Purpura presentation as PDF
Friday, November 30, 2012
3:00 – 5:00 pm
B-4 Dwinelle Hall