Movies and language learning: What skills do they conquer?

Abstract

The use of movies in English teaching and learning is believed to have a positive effect on language learning outcomes. This research was carried out to discover where movies can contribute to skills and aspects of language, whether in speaking, listening, reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar, or cultural aspects. This study is significant because this study tries to find out the teachers’ perception about the movie-using in ELT classroom and which skill it is prone to, so that English teachers see the chance to maximize its pedagogical use in ELT process. The qualitative research method used in this study focused on 10 English teachers from a heterogeneous background — primary, secondary, and senior high-school teachers — to answer 12 questions in a questionnaire set in accordance with the research topic. The use of creative interviews was also employed during the data collection phase. The results showed that most of the subjects agreed that movies played the most important role in the cultural aspect; and suggested that movies could contribute considerable advantages to listening skills. While the least convincing aspect was that, neither the reading skill nor grammar was linked to movie-watching technique. And this only encompassed one of the teachers agreeing with this statement.