[Daniela Soru]

1) Part one:

1. Do you think the governments of Canada, Australia and Singapore were right to add the fifth skill of viewing to their English language curricula? Why or why not?

I think they were right, because in a world that is changing so fast, school is quite similar to the seventies, when you think of space, curricula, etc. (I refer to the specific Italian context). In the 21st century we experience the world and acquire new information, knowledge, data, etc. not only through reading an article, listening to the radio, or watching TV. So in order to be a “fully-developed” citizen of the digital age, you need to be able to interpret millions of messages that are being conveyed through videos and images.
ICONS are everywhere: I see every day that I (37 years old) cannot always understand “memes” or photos posted by teenagers on the socials, for example, as much as my mother (63 years old), cannot laugh at the same “memes” as I do. It’s like I cannot “read” nor “understand” those “texts”, so my mother and me are “illiterate” on those specific cases. As much as my students are “illiterate” in front of some specific texts that are familiar to me. This proves that viewing is one more skill to be acquired to be fully literate in this age, and to live critically in today’s and tomorrow’s world.

2. Do you agree that that traditional four skills are not sufficient to describe the type of communication taking place nowadays? Why or why not?

I think I’ve already answered to this in the previous answer (!), so I’ll add that today’s life is strongly based on advertising, profit and non-profit campaigns, social networks based on video sharing or picture sharing (it’s not by chance that teenagers say to me that Facebook (still based on text/verbal communication) is for the elderly, while Instagram and Tik Tok are for the younger). We can no longer distinguish our real life from the virtual life, sometimes. But, apart from this, I think we cannot consider ourselves fully intelligent of this world (that is we cannot fully understand what we are told to do, what we are expected to do, both in a fair or unfair way; who has power and who hasn’t, for instance) if we can’t de-code today’s communication, which is absolutely iconic, dependent on images and videos, gifs, stickers (whatsapp) etc.

3. What do you think of the videos which show the viewing frameworks in action in the classroom?

I appreciate those little samples of how to operate according to this new methodology, which I think can bring a revolution in the way I teach English. I imagine it like teaching English without making students notice it’s a language lesson: this will make it a more natural process, a little bit more similar to acquiring L1. What strikes me more is that I see a lot of speaking carried out by students, and little speaking by the teacher, which is just what we should aim at!

4. Which framework do you like the most? What do you like about it?

I think they’re all worth experimenting. If I must choose, I may say that the VTS is quite attractive for me, because I think it adapts to elementary and higher levels of L2, and also it would be a good way to start the “revolution”: the questions are simple and any student can answer them; questions stimulate their critical skills, and also their scientific thinking, as far as they must motivate their opinions based on elements they can see.
The next one I want to try with my classes is the 3Cs and 3Ss framework: what I like about it is that as teachers we can choose some of the questions, adapting the framework to the class, to the movie, to the learning objectives we have set.

2) Part two.

Video ‘A Visual Manifesto for Language Teaching’:

1. How does this video relate to the fifth skill of viewing?
It shows through images, sound, video as a whole, why we should care about teaching and acquiring the 5th skill. I think it is a meta-text.

2. What do you think the film’s message is?

The film message could be probably condense in the slogan “Why viewing matters”. It wants to tell the audience “don’t be a passive spectator, don’t be bombarded by the millions of images”: stop – think – act.

3. Do you agree with its message? Why or why not?
I totally agree, and I find the message in the video is going to fill a space that is being left empty in today’s teaching.

[Daniela Soru]

I think film and video should be used in language education because it has been proved (by research and experience) that students learn better and probably even faster if all their senses are involved. Films and video are also a valid simulation of real-life situations, so I think they reproduce in the class an authentic experience with L2. In a student-oriented perspective, motivation, authenticity and visuality are for me the most important reasons why we should use film and video in the language class.

As regards the activity sheets, I liked:

1. “film characters” activity sheet: it is quite simple and adaptable to the lower and the higher levels; I think it would work well to start the discussion, in pairs or in small groups, and then to share and compare opinions about students’ preference.

2. “character appearance” activity sheet: it seems particularly suitable as a “while-watching” activity, guiding the students, making sense of what they’re watching and also helping them keep focussed all the time, which is impossible if they’re not given anything to do.

4. “film predictions” activity sheet: it seems very useful to break the movie into smaller chunks. You can pause the movie and give the students this worksheet, which I find useful to practice or revise grammar (present perfect, present simple or continuous, and future forms for predictions/intentions) and to analyse or summarize what they’ve seen up to that moment.

6. “Film trailer” activity sheet: very useful also for my classes who study film making, as this activity could be used to focus on how a good film trailer is made, for example.

[Daniela Soru]

Hello everyone,
I am sorry to write so late in the week. But I still want to write a few lines, as I’ve read your introductions and I’d like to say something about myself.

I live in Sardinia, an island in the Mediterranean Sea, that belongs to Italy. I’ve lived here all my life, except for one year which I spent in Dublin, Ireland, as an Erasmus student during university.

I started working as a teacher in public school in 2014, and I got a permanent post in 2019. Now I teach English in a technical school of “graphic design and communication”, my students range from 14 to 18 years old, sometimes even more.

I’ve decided to take this course because I’d like my teaching to be more involving, engaging for my students, I think that motivation would mean improvement in their level of English, which is usually quite low. I’m not satisfied with the traditional methods implying he exclusive use of textbooks.
Moreover, as my students also learn how to create and edit films, advertising, social campaigns etc. It is very important for me to be able to create more links between the study of English and their future carreers as movie makers, or advertisers etc.

I’d also like to stimulate communication with the students about important topics, social issues, everyday problems, as I believe that school should try to make a difference in young people’s lives.

Thank you and my other colleagues for the opportunity to share our experiences, I’ve got a lot to learn from you all.

See you soon,
Daniela.

[Author]

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