A multimodal approach to teaching business English through films. A case study


Abstract


Audiovisual products, due to their intrinsic multisemiotic nature, in which each mode contributes to meaning making, have widely proven to be ideal material both for research purposes and for teaching. This is especially the case of films, which, despite their fictional character, have often been used in the context of language learning. As the concept of multiliteracies has become pivotal in language teaching, the use of films reflects a multimodal approach that can help students learn to exploit modes beyond verbal language (e.g., visual, gestural, spatial) to both understand and produce texts in the target language more effectively. This becomes particularly important in situated communicative contexts where domain-specific discursive, pragmatic and cultural features can create significant obstacles for language learners. The present paper focuses on a particular type of specialised discourse, i.e. business discourse, and intends to explore the ways in which films can be utilized as resource material in the English for Business and Economics class at the university. Some clips from a film representing this domain and with relevant communication exchanges that portray different business contexts and genres will be analysed both on the verbal and non-verbal level through a multimodal annotation software. This allows for the integration of verbal and non-verbal cues (e.g., gaze direction, hand/arm gestures, etc.) to show how a multimodal approach can actually help students to interpret a message, especially in ESP contexts.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i22390359v29p511

Keywords: film; multimodality; ESP; business English; language teaching

References


Baños J.E. and Bosch F. 2015, Using Feature Films as a Teaching Tool in Medical Schools, in “Educación Médica” 16 [4], pp. 205-242.

Bateman J.A. and Schmidt K.H. 2012, Multimodal Film Analysis: How Films Mean, Routledge, London.

Briam C. 2010, Outsourced: Using a comedy film to teach intercultural communication, in “Business and Professional Communication Quarterly” 73 [4], pp. 383-398.

Bonsignori V. 2013, English Tags: A Close-up on Film Language, Dubbing and Conversation, Cambridge Scholars, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Bonsignori V. 2016, Analysing Political Discourse in Film Language: A Multimodal Approach, in Bonsignori V. and Crawford Camiciottoli B. (eds.), Multimodality across Communicative Settings, Discourse Domains and Genres, Cambridge Scholars, Newcastle upon Tyne, pp. 189-211.

Bonsignori V. 2018, Using Films and TV Series for ESP Teaching: A Multimodal Perspective, in Crawford Camiciottoli B. and Campoy Cubillo M.C. (eds.) Multimodal Perspectives on English Language Teaching in Higher Education, Special Issue of “System”, 7 (2018), pp. 58-69.

Bruti S. 2015, Teaching Learners How to Use Pragmatic Routines through Audiovisual Material, in Crawford Camiciottoli B. and Fortanet-Gómez I. (eds.), Multimodal Analysis in Academic Settings. From Research to Teaching, Routledge, London, pp. 213-236.

Champoux J.E. 1999, Film as a Teaching Resource, in “Journal of Management Inquiry” 8 [2], pp. 206-217.

Donnelly D. 2014, Using Feature Films in Teaching Historical Understanding: Research and Practice, in “Agora” 49 [1], pp. 4-12.

Forchini P. 2012, Movie Language Revisited. Evidence from Multidimensional Analysis and Corpora, Peter Lang, Bern.

Gregory M. and Carroll S. 1978, Language and Situation: Language Varieties and Their Social Contexts, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.

Jewitt C. (ed.) 2014, The Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Analysis, Routledge, London.

Kaiser M. 2011, New Approaches to Exploiting Film in the Foreign Language Classroom, in “L2 Journal” 3 [2], pp. 232-249. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/6568p4f4 (22.10.2018).

Kaiser M. and Shibahara C. 2014, Film as a source material in advanced foreign language classes, in “L2 Journal” 6 [1], pp. 1-13. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3qv811wv (22.10.2018).

Kalantzsis M. and Cope B. 2013, Multiliteracies in Education, in Chapelle C.A. (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 3963-3969.

Kendon A. 2004, Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Kress G. and van Leeuwen T. 1996, Reading Images. The Grammar of Visual Design, Routledge, London/New York.

Kozloff S. 2000, Overhearing Film Dialogue, University of California Press, Berkeley.

Lemke J.L. 1998, Multiplying Meaning: Visual and Verbal Semiotics in Scientific Text, in Martin J.R. and Veel R. (eds.), Reading Science: Critical and Functional Perspectives on Discourses of Science, Routledge, London, pp. 87-113.

Moskovich Y. and Shaf S. 2012, Using Films as a Tool for Active Learning in Teaching Sociology, in “The Journal of Effective Teaching” 12 [1], pp. 53-63.

Norris S. 2004, Analyzing Multimodal Interaction: A Methodological Framework, Routledge, London.

O’Boyle E. and Sandonà L. 2014, Teaching Business Ethics Through Popular Feature Films: An Experiential Approach, in “Journal of Business Ethics” 121 [3], pp. 329-340.

O’Halloran K.L. (ed.) 2004, Multimodal Discourse Analysis: Systemic Functional Perspectives, Continuum, London.

O’Halloran K.L., Tan S. and Smith B.A. 2016, Multimodal Approaches to English for Academic Purposes, in Hyland K. and Shaw P. (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of English for Academic Purposes, Routledge, London, pp. 256-269.

Pandey S. 2012, Using Popular Movies in Teaching Cross‐cultural Management, in “European Journal of Training and Development” 36 [2/3], pp. 329-350.

Querol-Julián M. 2011, Evaluation in Discussion Sessions of Conference Paper Presentation: A Multimodal Approach, LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, Saarbrücken.

Scollon R. and Levine P. (eds.) 2004, Multimodal Discourse Analysis as the Confluence of Discourse and Technology, Georgetown University Press, Washington, DC.

Sherman J. 2003, Using Authentic Video in the Language Classroom, CUP, Cambridge.

Timmis I. 2005, Towards a Framework for Teaching Spoken Grammar, in “ELT Journal” 59 [2], pp. 117-125.

Weinberg A., Fukawa-Connelly T. and Wiesner E. 2013, Instructor Gestures in Proof-based Mathematics Lectures, in Martinez M. and Castro Superfine A. (eds.), Proceedings of the 35th Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, p. 1119.

Wildfeuer J. 2013, Film Discourse Interpretation: Towards a New Paradigm for Multimodal Film Analysis, Routledge, London.

Wittenburg P., Brugman H., Russel A., Klassmann A. and Sloetjes H. 2006, ELAN: A professional framework for multimodality research, in proceedings of LREC 2006, Fifth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation. http://www.lrec-conf.org/proceedings/lrec2006/pdf/153_pdf (22.10.2018).


Full Text: pdf

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.