How Personal Heirloom Stories Can Spark Emotion and Motivation by Using Short Films in the EFL1 Classroom

Abstract

Using film in class has been a long-standing practice with our non-specialist students in a French engineering school, in multiple formats for multiple purposes. Heirlooms, the Australian series of very short animated films, offers teachers an alternative way of having students work with and reflect upon multi-culturalism abroad, and eventually within their own scope.This paper discusses the potential and limitations of using such short animated films recounting personal heirlooms for teaching purposes in a foreign language learning classroom. The Heirlooms films were used as models on which students could base their own personal stories, which were recorded and uploaded onto a YouTube account. Although the number of students participating was low (15 out of 40), the submitted videos do suggest that such a personalised and do-able task can yield a relatively rich and varied end product which can also improve group cohesion and lead to greater levels of exchange.