Abstract
The seventh art forms an essential part of the students’ daily lives; additionally, it has been asserted that it is a highly advantageous didactic tool for high school foreign language learners. Thus, the purpose of this empirical study is twofold: to explore high school learners’ perception on the didactic exploitation of films in the French classroom, and to determine whether or not the cinema-based approach is as beneficial for high school French students as it seems. Accordingly, a cinema-based teaching unit was put into practice in two high school French classrooms and, afterwards, the thirty-five participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire in order to examine their views on this methodology and analyse its effects on their language learning process. The results obtained have revealed that high school French students have a very positive opinion on the cinema-based approach and that this method is motivating and helps learners to enhance their linguistic and sociocultural competences.
Highlights
There is a global dissatisfaction with foreign language teaching at Compulsory Secondary Education (CSE) as it is rather ineffective
A cinema-based teaching unit was put into practice in two high school French classrooms and, afterwards, the thirty-five participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire in order to examine their views on this methodology and analyse its effects on their language learning process
The study has been conducted in a high school, examining, the unresearched Compulsory Secondary Education context; in place of teachers’ perceptions, French learners’ views on the didactic use of films have been explored; and all the benefits the cinema-based approach has for these students have been analysed at the same time
Summary
There is a global dissatisfaction with foreign language teaching at Compulsory Secondary Education (CSE) as it is rather ineffective. The scarce research on the use of cinema in the French classroom is inconclusive for several reasons To begin with, it is mainly of a theoretical (Appetito, 2019; Giunta, 1989; Markey, 1976; Neto & Sousa, 2019; Scanlan, 1988) and didactic nature (Mencová, 2016; Michalczyk, 1976; Rousse, 2006), neither of which provides any empirical data. The key core hypotheses that guide this study are: a) high school French learners have a positive view on the didactic use of cinema, and b) the cinema-based approach provides secondary school French students with multiple linguistic and pedagogical advantages. The study has been conducted in a high school, examining, the unresearched Compulsory Secondary Education context; in place of teachers’ perceptions, French learners’ views on the didactic use of films have been explored; and all the benefits the cinema-based approach has for these students have been analysed at the same time
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