Brief Encounter with Phonetica
Two Extremes in Film-Based Learning
The basic tenet for this presentation comes from the course in Phonetics which I taught for nearly 10 years at Mikolaj Kopernik University (Torun, Poland), and Kazimierz Wielki University (Bydgoszcz, Poland).
During that time, I was developing various applications of modern technologies, which from today's perspective will already seem ancient: cassette players and recorders, original Google fora and sites, shared documents, early versions of Moodle, etc.
At Kazimierz Wielki University, we also decided to add interactive activities, games, and gamification to our courses, and hence two new variants of my course in Phonetics evolved:
- Phonetica - a story-based course in Phonetics
various British and American songs as core video material
Students sail aboard the ship Phonetica, from the USA to the UK, as secret spies. The trip is long and perilous, and in the meantime it give the sailors (students) time to master various aspects of British (and American) prounciation. Why? Well, they are spies and they need to be able to blend in... - Brief Encounters, Secrets, and Lies - a theme-based course in Phonetics
passages from various British and American films as core video material
Students are treated as aspiring film critics who mainly focus on actors' pronunciation, diction, intonation, melody, etc. On weekly basis they watch, comment, immitate, and propose further screenings.
Phonetica was a fully gamified course with a story, tasks, badges, team-work, etc. However, that is a different story, as in this presentation I am focusing of different applications of video materials as core elements of (language) courses.
The course in Phonetics which I taught was actually a 2-year long course, graded separately every term. It was also part of a larger module called Praktyczna Nauka Jezyka Angielskiego [PNJA] (Practical Knowledge of the English Language), which consisted of reading, writing, speaking, and phonetics courses. At the end of each academic year those courses had a exams that partially overlapped/ In order to be promoted to the next academic year, students had to pass all four components of PNJA.
In order to accommodate a large amount of material that had to be taught and practiced, all phonetics-related items were divided into sections taught over the course of 4 terms. Some of them were repeated at growing levels of difficulty. For example, first students learnt British/American pronunciation of consonats before they were taught consonant clusters. Or they were taught rhyhtm and intonation before they were taught more advanced patterns in intonation related to emphatic expressions or connected speech.
In Phonetica, each item was presented not only by course material -- resources in Phonetics and Phonology -- but by songs. Every single item was always related to particular songs which were discussed, practiced, and transcribed by/with students.
Below is a selected list of a few songs used during the course:
The following slides, examples, and short exercises should present the advantages of using songs (film-based learning) as the core material in teaching English, not only Phonetics.
During the original TELF Kuwait presentation, I refrained from playing the song by the Streets due to cultural reasons and taboo topics. Those differences between countries, nations, and cultures need to be considered before playing any video to your students. What is perfectly normal or at least tolerated in one country can be inappropriate or even illegal in another country. Always consider you audience and lesson goals.
My courses in Phonetics were delivered in Poland, to adult Polish students at English Department. Each course, despite its obvious direct goals had additional indirect goals, e.g., teaching students about real life and every-day culture in the UK and the USA. Those discussions and (dis)agreements with Anglo-Saxon culture were part of all courses. As such, any controvertial material was allowed in the classroom as long as it aligned with short-term and long-term learning goals.
Together with other songs and materials, Fit But You Know It was used to present the dominance of rhythm in English language -- something that is far less important in Slavic languages and poses difficulties to Slavic learners.
