Crissa Stephens, with Rocio Ascencio, Ana Luisa Burgos, Tatiana Diaz, Jimena Montenegro, and Christian Valenzuela U n i t e d S t a t e S a n d C h i l e Film Circles: Scaffolding Speaking for EFL Students Pre-service teachers around the teachers pinpointed speaking skills as world face a unique challenge: an area of communication that they bridging the gap between tra- wanted to improve for their students. ditional teaching focused on grammar In the course of the action research translation and receptive skills, and project, the pre-service teachers applied communicative teaching aimed at well- what they had learned in their degree rounded communication skills. Many program about successful communica- new EFL teachers learned English tive activities. As they researched inter- in a traditional context that empha- active speaking activities that would sized memorization and grammar, but work in the context of the public after four years of studying pedagogy, school system, they discovered a lesson they have become very knowledgeable plan that could be adapted to create a collaborative and highly communica- about current communicative teach- tive project that was ideal for their ing methods. As they enter the profes- students. In this article the pre-service sion, they wonder how to shape the teachers (1)  describe their rationale future of English teaching so that their for a Film Circle project adapted from students are supported and motivated Fink’s (2011) Literature Circle lesson by meaningful and relevant activities. plan, (2) provide information about the In order to address this issue, five development and administration of the final-year teaching students at the project, (3)  evaluate its effectiveness, Universidad de Magallanes in Punta and (4) offer suggestions for reproduc- Arenas, Chile—co-authors of this ing the project in other classrooms. article—undertook an action research project to implement a communica- The search for a communicative tive activity for students. They target- classroom activity ed students at basic proficiency levels As pre-service teachers, we find and carried out their research in their ourselves in front of large multi- individual teaching practice contexts. level classes asking how to motivate During the project, these pre-service students and to increase their level 14 2012 Number 2 | E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m of English. The traditional methods in use starters. Without this scaffolding, the project do not always provide enough opportuni- would not have been possible. For example, ties for students to speak in English, even before the film students learn relevant vocabu- though the students have studied it since they lary and discuss a preview of what they were children. While most are interested in are going to see. While watching the film, speaking, they feel uncomfortable doing so students practice basic listening and reading because they have not been given sufficient skills. After viewing the film, group members opportunities to practice. They remain at a engage in cooperative learning as they share basic level, learning the same receptive skills with each other the information related to year after year. In addition, many of the tasks their role assignments; this exchange ensures commonly presented in EFL classrooms fail that each student contributes to the discussion to develop students’ critical thinking, and a and has a chance to practice speaking. lack of comprehensible input has caused them When designing the Film Circle, we took to feel inhibited because they have not mas- into account student motivation, the educa- tered the vocabulary to use in a conversation tional advantages of films for spoken English, (Echevarria, Voght, and Short 2008). These and our available resources. A major benefit obstacles make it difficult to develop activities of this project is that students enjoy mov- that allow our students to expand their use ies and are naturally motivated by the idea of spoken English. To answer these concerns, of watching one in class. Well-chosen films we decided to search for a project that would offer plenty of opportunities for students improve our students’ confidence and partici- to use English to explore enticing content pation in class. and themes. By using films effectively with Our search led us to an online Literature educational objectives in mind, teachers can Circle lesson plan (Fink 2011), a group prevent the exercise from becoming enter- project that provides students with the essen- tainment with no learning experience taking tial scaffolding support and language input place (Scacco 2007). needed to discuss a book with their peers. Importantly, exploring the content of a We changed this project into a Film Circle in film also activates critical thinking. We want- order to respond to our students’ daily reality ed to address this issue because, based on our and interests; they love films, so using a movie observations, one reason students do not speak instead of a book as the basis of the project actively in class is that they are often asked to was a key adaptation. Our idea was that with memorize and repeat information in English good input in English and increased motiva- instead of expressing their own thoughts. One tion about the project, students would be of the ways teachers can encourage students more likely to become more actively engaged to think critically is by creating questions that in learning (Echevarria, Vogt, and Short 2008; are worthy of being answered and that have Walter 2004). the ability to lead to discussions so students can use their persuasive skills to solve prob- What is a Film Circle activity? lems based on their beliefs (Snyder and Snyder A Film Circle is a structured group proj- 2008). Therefore, when we designed the Film ect where five students are assigned different Circle, we included serious questions for the roles to perform according to their abilities discussion component that would make stu- and interests. Each student in the group has dents think. to analyze a film from a different perspec- During our student-teaching experience, tive and present conclusions. Every role is large class sizes and limited resources were designed around specific activities that are challenges that we were able to address through completed before, while, and after watching the collaborative group work aspect of the Film a film. The process is scaffolded—at every Circle. In a large class, it is hard for the teacher stage the activities include contextual sup- to attend to every student’s needs. Group work port to build on background knowledge and is a good way to deal with this problem because make understanding easier, including the use it offers students more opportunities to speak of worksheets with graphic organizers, visual (Brown 2001). Moreover, the natural collab- representations, word banks, and sentence orative learning that occurs in group work is an E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m | Number 2 2012 15 opportunity to effectively deal with individual film had to be reasonably understandable for differences in the classroom (Shank and Ter- the students of various levels of English, so we rill 1995). In addition, students with different picked a familiar topic that they had already levels of English in a multilevel classroom can seen in their textbooks. In the end we chose benefit by working with their classmates. For the movie Goal! The Dream Begins (Cannon example, lower-level students can learn from 2006). This is the story of a Mexican boy who more advanced students, and those who are lives illegally in the United States. His dream at a higher level can reinforce their knowledge is to be a professional football (soccer) player, by helping their peers (Brown 2001). In this but he suffers from asthma. He is given the way, lower-level students are not left behind, chance to play for Newcastle United, where, and everyone gets to practice communicating after facing many challenges, he succeeds. in English. This film worked perfectly for our students because the majority of them are football fans, Using a Film Circle to supplement the and the message of perseverance is inspiring textbook for young people. In our institutional context, books and This Film Circle activity can be adapted other materials are not readily available to to various classroom needs. We used our supplement a traditional textbook. This was personal computers and a projector to view another compelling reason to use the Film the film in school, as our school does not Circle as a supplemental activity, because have a DVD player. If students have access to films can be found that relate to practically computers or a TV elsewhere, they can watch any topic in a textbook. For example, we the film in a library or at home as another were required to teach the skills, vocabulary, option. The amount of class time required and grammar presented in the textbook unit can be adjusted by assigning the film as on sports. Therefore, we made sure to align homework outside of class or by using a TV the Film Circle activities with our school’s program instead of a film. In the Chilean assessment about sports so that our students context, films in English are readily avail- could meet the textbook-related learning able for rent or purchase, but online films goals. Because the students became so drawn or resources such as short clips on YouTube in by the supplementary activities of the can also be used. Information about the Film Circle, we found that a significant legal downloading or purchasing of films, resource in the classroom was the students music, and TV shows can be found at www. themselves. utexas.edu/its/secure/articles/music-sources. The Film Circle could be adapted for use php. The following website also contains as part of the curriculum at any level, and if information about downloading films, as it cannot be aligned with the school’s learning well as helpful instructional resources for goals, we recommend using it between assess- teaching a Film Circle activity: www.read ments when there is less immediate pressure writethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson- to focus on the textbook content. If the class plans/literature-circle-roles-reframed-877. structure does not allow time for an activity html#resources. like this, it may be used as an enjoyable after- class activity, and students may participate Assigning five student roles for a Film voluntarily. Circle The different roles played by the students Selecting and showing the film are a major component of the Film Circle: Selecting the right film is crucial because the Designer, the Soundtrack Analyzer, the it has a profound effect on student par- Vocabulary Enricher, the Questioner, and the ticipation. Therefore, we took several points Checker. These roles compel students to pay into consideration. The film needed to be attention before, while, and after viewing the appealing to our students and related to their film. Our students were not used to speaking background knowledge so they could under- English, so it was important to include scaf- stand it more easily (Walter 2004; Echevarria, folding techniques in each part of the task Voght, and Short 2008). The language of the (Peregoy and Boyle 2005). Student contribu- 16 2012 Number 2 | E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m tions are important to achieve a complete example, if the concept on the handout is discussion of the film during group work, football, the student might write the words and the following five roles successfully get player, sports agent, and football. The Eng- everyone involved. lish subtitle function helps the Vocabulary Enricher to both listen and see new words, 1. The Designer which helps the student complete the work- The student with the Designer role sum- sheet. The new vocabulary is shared with the marizes the entire film through graphic rep- group members, who benefit from learning resentation of the main scenes. This role uses new vocabulary in context. visual intelligence, sequential thinking, and oral summarizing skills. The task is to create 4. The Questioner pictures that illustrate a timeline of the plot Another role from Fink (2011) is the and contain corresponding sentences about Discussion Director, which we call the Ques- what was happening at each point in the tioner, a role that directs the student to create film. The Designer is given a worksheet with questions for members of the group. The a timeline and blank boxes for the pictures Questioner asks questions to get information that have labels such as “Santiago tries out and promote group discussion about the film. for Newcastle United.” A word bank is also As an adaptation for lower-level students, we included for language support, with con- gave the Questioner a graphic organizer show- necting words like next, then, and after this. ing different parts of the film and a list of top- We created this role for our Film Circle to ics to help form questions, as well as a guide give students who learn visually a chance to to create basic questions and start a conversa- work with pictures and to reinforce the other tion, such as the sentence starters “I think students’ understanding of the plot during the ________” and “It seemed that ________.” discussion. 5. The Checker 2. The Soundtrack Analyzer As the name indicates, the Checker evalu- In the role of the Soundtrack Analyzer, ates the contributions of each group member. the student uses a worksheet to take notes We found this role to be very important in about the bands, songs, and styles of music our context since students need structure and from the film to promote group discussion. accountability in order to work in groups Apart from that, the Soundtrack Analyzer without direct teacher supervision. On a relates the style of music to specific scenes worksheet, the Checker completes specific in the film. Thus, this role matches the emo- information about how the group worked tions shown in scenes from the film with and notes the strengths and weaknesses of music played at those specific moments and each member’s participation in the group shares that information with the group. The discussion. The Checker uses a worksheet to worksheet used by the Soundtrack Ana- check the accuracy of other group members’ lyzer includes a graphic organizer containing observations, including a graphic organizer certain scenes juxtaposed against a word and sentence starters related to the film’s bank describing emotions and musical styles, main ideas. The Checker is responsible for along with sentence starters about music to participating in group discussions to get suf- help him or her take notes. ficient speaking practice, and he or she also has to use notes and the worksheet to give 3. The Vocabulary Enricher oral feedback to group members. This role The Vocabulary Enricher role is taken promotes peer checking and autonomous from Fink’s (2011) lesson plan, and the task learning. is to classify key words from the film and share them with members of the group. As an Three steps in a Film Circle activity adaptation for lower-level students, we used Because our class periods are relatively long a handout with circles representing various at an hour and a half each, we had enough themes from the film, and the student had time to teach the students about their roles, to discover words related to each theme. For view the film, and complete the group dis- E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m | Number 2 2012 17 cussion in three class periods. This was an Although we did not expect our students to adaption to fit our needs, as Fink’s (2011) understand every word of the film, we did Literature Circle presents a detailed plan expect them to understand the plot, the major including worksheets and instructions for ten scenes, the order of events, the characters, and 50-minute lessons to start and then recom- the emotions associated with each event. This mends using individual 50-minute sessions expectation was communicated explicitly so afterwards. While a Film Circle may require that students did not waste valuable class several lessons at the beginning to help stu- time trying to understand every detail. This dents understand their roles, the number of approach resulted in added practice in the lessons needed is reduced significantly when important skills of reading and listening for the teacher uses it again because students main ideas. already know their roles. As a supplemental activity, a Film Circle can be repeated several Post-viewing activity times per term using new films with students In the third and last class the students taking on a different role each time. Follow- worked in their groups, taking turns to ing are brief descriptions of the pre-viewing, present the information they gathered and viewing, and post-viewing stages of the Film participate in a discussion of the film they Circle project. had seen. The discussion was very basic, often with students asking and answering Pre-viewing activity simple questions or reading their observa- As a preparation activity, we studied the tions out loud. As our students progress, we textbook vocabulary and activities related hope to make the activity appropriate for a to sports; this preparation helped the stu- more advanced level by taking out some of dents understand the film better when they the supports and encouraging students to watched it. Students were also pre-taught use more creativity in their roles to express vocabulary from the film through pictures ideas and opinions, and to enrich the overall and examples, and they were told that discussion. specific words would be useful during the project. A cloze activity was useful to pre- Results of the Film Circle project teach the vocabulary: students were given To determine the effectiveness of the Film a script of the movie trailer where several Circle for addressing our classroom needs and deleted words were replaced by blank lines. promoting oral interaction in English, we As they watched the trailer, the students evaluated qualitative data from the students’ had to read and listen in order to fill in the completed worksheets, the teacher observa- missing words. This listening activity helps tions, and the students’ reflections on the prepare them to understand the film when activity. they watch it and gives them written support for some of the concepts they will encounter Data from student worksheets in the film. Since the students are at a low An analysis of the worksheets indicated level of proficiency, this extra support is nec- that students who did not normally par- essary to make the language they will hear ticipate spent more time than usual on task. comprehensible. Students began to take responsibility for their own learning by trying to fill in the handouts Viewing activity as accurately as possible, and students who In the second class, the students watch the normally had a very low level of participation film with English subtitles, which were used in class were motivated to complete them. to support students’ listening with a written Students became more independent learners representation of the words. While watching, through this activity because the structured each student fulfills his or her assigned role role assignments made it unnecessary for the and pays attention to the language and the teacher to monitor them at every step in order concepts of the film. Students will be watch- to get them to complete their work. Increased ing and listening for different information independent learning is very important in our that will be shared later during group work. teaching context, as students are accustomed 18 2012 Number 2 | E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m to being dependent on the teacher and will of structure. We saw that it was beneficial to often elect not to do an activity if they do not incorporate learning objectives into a project enjoy it. dealing with an interesting and authentic art form, which was an excellent means to create Data from teacher observations comprehensible input and communicative Another important source of data was the activities tailored to our students’ level of teacher observations of the students’ develop- English. The Film Circle project allowed them ment during the three classes. At the begin- to think critically, express their ideas, and ning, students had a lot of questions about become more autonomous learners. their tasks, but as time passed, carrying out their roles became more automatic. It was Conclusion observed that even when the process was The Film Circle project was a success for quite slow, all students spoke in English. Also, both the teachers who designed it and the students showed a high level of investment in high school students who used English to the project and often asked for feedback about meaningfully communicate for the first time. how well they were completing their roles. The students saw that they could express their Students also commented that they enjoyed ideas in English and were able to connect the project. Through our observations we with a truly motivating classroom activity noticed that students put forth a great deal of that allowed them to reach a new level of effort to perform their roles and express their English communication. In turn, the pre- ideas, even at a basic level. service teachers all commented that the proj- ect increased their confidence in their abilities Data from student reflections to design meaningful activities that success- Information was also collected by survey- fully engage students to speak in the class- ing students about whether they liked the room. The teachers learned that when they Film Circle and whether they thought that set attainable communicative goals for their it helped them communicate in English. The students and design motivating interactional following student reflections show some posi- activities with adequate support, students can tive aspects of the project: rise to their high expectations and improve • They enjoyed the fact that they did their English. both individual and group work. • They appreciated that it was a dynam- References ic project with more than one thing to Brown, H. D. 2001. Teaching by principles: An do and that each person had a unique interactive approach to language pedagogy. 2nd role. ed. White Plains, NY: Longman. • They reported that it helped them not Cannon, D. 2006. Goal! The Dream Begins. DVD. only to learn new words but also to use Directed by Danny Cannon. Burbank, CA: them correctly within a context. Touchstone Pictures. Echevarria, J., M. Voght, and D. J. Short. 2008. Summary of findings Making content comprehensible for English learn- Because our students had never done a ers: The SIOP model. 3rd ed. Boston: Allyn and communicative, collaborative project like the Bacon. Film Circle, the start was slow. We had to Fink, L. S. 2011. Literature circles: Getting started. repeat instructions and be persistent as the ReadWriteThink. IRA/NCTE. www.readwrite students learned to work in groups and begin think.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/ speaking for the first time. Despite this, the literature-circles-getting-started-19.html Film Circle fulfilled its purpose by motivating Peregoy, S. F., and O. F. Boyle. 2005. Reading, writ- the students to interact in a meaningful way ing and learning in ESL: A resource book for K–12 in English. teachers. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Many of our concerns and challenges were Scacco, J. 2007. Beyond film: Exploring the content addressed. The project was suitable for large of movies. English Teaching Forum 45 (1): 10–15. classes due to the scaffolding support, the Shank, C. C., and L. R. Terrill. 1995. Teaching collaborative component, and the high level multilevel adult ESL classes. Washington, DC: E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m | Number 2 2012 19 Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education. Eric Digest ED 383242. www.eric. ed.gov/PDFS/ED383242.pdf Snyder, L. G., and M. J. Snyder. 2008. Teaching critical thinking and problem solving skills. Delta Pi Epsilon Journal 50 (2): 90–99. Walter, T. 2004. Teaching English language learners. White Plains, NY: Longman. Crissa stephens is a former English Language Fellow in Punta Arenas, Chile. She now teaches ESL at the University of Iowa and continues to pursue professional  interests of contexts of language development and critical questions in teacher training. At the time of writing, roCio asCenCio, Christian Valenzuela, tatiana Diaz, Jimena montenegro, and ana luisa Burgos were in their final year of the English Teaching Program at the Universidad de Magallanes in Punta Arenas, Chile. Now they are teaching English in public and private schools around the country. 20 2012 Number 2 | E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m