Exploration Of Course Design For English Movie Teaching

Authentic language environment is always of great value for English learners who seldom have the opportunity to live in the English speaking countries. Movies are usually not only able to help create such an authentic environment, but also of great help for English teachers to design, develop, and conduct English activities. Movies provide certain authentic language environment in non-native speaker areas. The author explores some issues concerning course design for teaching English with movies.In China, although movie teaching has been conducted, in most cases, movies are applied to assist other types of English courses such as listening, speaking, reading literature, or course of movie appreciation. Movies have not been developed into an independent course in the universities of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In this thesis,the author attempts to offer some guidelines for designing an English course with movies which are suitable for students in Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology. Three aspects required in designing this course will be discussed. They are movie selections, the design of activities and test modes.This thesis reviews the history of movie teaching abroad and at home and especially introduces the present situation of movie teaching in Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology. The author analyzes the feasibility of designing such a course in terms of the important role movies can play in English teaching and the current bases of Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology. Theories such as comprehensible input, comprehensible output, affective filter theory, cognitive theory, and constructivist learning theory are applied to offer theoretical support for major issues in designing such a course. Based on these theories, the author probes into movie selection in terms of the students and movies, and discusses the design of activities from the point of view of the activities before, in and after class. Besides, the author discusses two modes of test and put forth five kinds of tests which can be used in designing such a course, namely, listening test, watching and testing, writing test, presentation, and quiz or examination. Finally the author analyzes the disadvantages of conducting this course, gives a conclusion and puts forward some suggestions for those teachers who are interested in designing an English course with moves.