Film English is the brainchild of teacher, trainer and author Kieran Donaghy (view Kieran’s LinkedIn profile).
The site promotes the innovative and creative use of film in language learning. All of the lesson plans revolve around the use of video and film to teach English. The site promotes cineliteracy, the ability to analyse moving images, and considers cineliteracy as a 21st century skill which our students need to learn. In addition, the lessons promote critical thinking in the language classroom, and encourage learners to reflect on values while learning a language.
Film English has become a very popular resource bank and is visited by over 50,000 teachers every month. It has received critical acclaim winning various awards, including winner of Best Individual Blog and Runner-up in The Best Use of Video in the 2011 Edublog Awards; the 2011 TEFL.net Site of the Year; and British Council Teaching English Featured Blog of the Month. It has also been shortlisted in this year’s ELTons awards in the Innovation in Teacher Resources.
Dear Kieran,
How are you?
I’m writing to you for some advice. I regularly read your website and I’m always inspired by your lessons.
This year I’ve returned to Edinburgh to endure an MSc in TESOL. It has been a very intense year of studying and I’m about to embark on the dissertation which requires a research element. I’m really interested in exploring the potential for video in the esl classroom as a motivational tool or how it can be used to foster critical literacy skills. Due to restricted time to carry the research out I will attempt to find out how ESL teachers use videos in the classroom.
I was wandering if you have any ideas on references or similar studies which you could recommend.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time.
Kind regards
Andy
http://eslimaginarium.wordpress.com/
tweet: @mrcabezamagica
p.s. Just to let you know I have also forwarded this message to Jamie Keddie as your both interested in this particular field. I would be grateful if could you forward this to anyone else you know who could help. Thanks
Hi Andy,
Good to hear from you, I’m very well, thanks. I’ll send you information on different studies and acrticles in the use of film, and the approach I take. I’ve got a presentation at IATEFL next week, and I’m a bit tied up at the moment, but I can give you a detailed response after Easter if that’s OK.
Good luck with the dissertation.
All the best,
Kieran
Hi Kieran,
Thank you very much for your kind and considerate response. I would be delighted if you could give me more detailed information. I’m still unsure whether I should pursue the topic and also concerned about how I will obtain data. I think that your advice would help considerably towards a clearer decision.
Best of luck at IATEFL. I really wanted to go but I have some assignments to complete so it’s not possible. I aim to watch it online and looking forward to watching your presentation.
Thanks again,
Andy
Dear Kieran
First of all… What an amazing website! These lessons must be a real gift from heaven for teachers. I’m a student from Belgium who studies Art and Cultural Mediation. Our aim is to build a bridge between art and culture on one hand, and the (socially disadvantaged) audience on the other hand. Right now I’m writing my thesis about how film at school can promote language skills. So this website is really helpful. But as I road Andy’s message, I was wondering if you could give me some tips too concerning literature, studies, researches etc about the relation between film and language.
A big thank you in advance
and warm regards!
Inde
Dear Inde,
Thanks a lot for taking the time to comment and for your kind words about the site. Send me a message through the Contact page and I’ll get back to you about your project.
All the best,
Kieran
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Greeting Kieran,
I tend to judge movies by a “could I have done that?” approach and the ones that I love the most are films that:
i) i would never have been able to conceive and don’t understand how the writer could have conceptualized the script, let alone form it into reality by sheer force of will…think Charlie Kaufman’s Adaptation.
and ii) movies that I could have come up with and made myself if I managed to forced the limits of my own creativity, productivity and focus.
Sir Ken Robinson may be the Charlie Kaufman of the educational world…this website of yours would be me at my absolute best.
good job
you have a fan.
Bob Wallace
English/Media at upper secondary school in Sweden
Hi Kieran,
I am Sam from Vietnam. This is the first time I visit your website, and I totally feel interested in your lessons. How creative and dedicated you are to design such great and useful lessons!
I just wonder if you have films for beginning and pre-intermediate levels?
I would like to borrow your films to develop my students’ language skills but their levels are commonly under intermediate.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Sam
Hi Sam,
Thanks a lot for getting in touch and for your kind comments. All of the lessons have a summary at the start where you can find the level, there are some lessons which are aimed at lower levels. You can also find films by level in Categories in the side bar,
All the best,
Kieran
Brilliant site. Absolutely brilliant. Really, really good idea for a website. It’s great to see lesson plans that aren’t just dry exercises or grammar-based and can really get through to students of all ages.
Thanks a lot for your kind comments, Steve, much appreciated. Cheers, Kieran
I love your site! It’s been really useful for me. I think your choice of short films and follow-up activities is great! Creative and challenging for the students! Thanks for sharing with many teachers like me!
Thanks for your kind comments, Cindy. It’s great to know that you enjoy the site. All the best, Kieran
Hi Kieran,
Fortunately for me I stumbled across your website last week and please let me say what a pleasure it is to find such a well-organised, user-friendly, un-cluttered, interesting treasure-trove of well-thought out materials and original ideas for the classroom….
I can’t wait to try something out with my students!
I have just one query; is it possible to search for lessons via topic? I was looking for something on body language yesterday and I was just wondering if there was an easier way of conducting a search than trawling through all of the categories. This would also apply to a search for a particular language point.
Thanks very much in advance!
Liz
Hi Kieran,
Just a few words to congratulate you on this site! I’ve used your lesson plan on KINDNESS yesterday and it was a very emotional moment with my students. Really, really good. Thanks for sharing your creativity and enrichen our lessons. (I just wonder how you have the time?! I teach 22h to 270 stds and I find no time left…)
Keep up your good work!
Cristina
Hi Cristina,
Thanks a lot for your kind comments, I really appreciate them. I’m really happy that you and your students enjoyed the lesson so much. It’s difficult finding the time as I also have lots of classes and loads of students, but it’s a labour of love.
All the best,
Kieran
Great site. Great ideas. So kind of you to share… Have just found myself in Collège after 15 years in Lycée and International schools. Kids these days really can not concentrate for long so I often use film clips to keep the lesson interesting. I have just finished a sequence on Bullying – would have liked to have found this site before!
Thank-you!
Mary-Anne
Hi Mary-Anne,
It’s a pleasure. Thanks a lot for your kind words about the lesson and the site; I’m very happy you find the lessons so useful.
All the best,
Kieran
This is a fantastic idea for teaching English but unfortunately your videos are unaccessible from China. If you could post them on youku.com or another video hosting website, I would be so grateful!
Hi Natasha,
thanks a lot for your kind words about the site. Unfortunately I can’t upload the videos as the copyright belongfs to their makers, I can only embed them from the sites the makers have uploaded them to.
All the best,
Kieran
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