Abstract:

It is common knowledge that the enhancement of foreign language teaching through the use of audio-visual aids influences learner achievement and attitudes positively. The use of full-length feature films, which are now cheap and accessible with the rapid development of information and communication technologies, is gradually becoming more widespread due to its varied benefits like the indication of the meaning through actions, the inclusion of colloquial language, opportunities for rich input and output, and the support for cultural learning. Although the previous studies on the use of films in the teaching of Turkish as a foreign language provided guiding and encouraging recommendations, their instructional activities resembled in terms of linguistic-thematic focus and variety, did not follow a specific procedure, and were mainly borrowed from English resources. Unlike the available samples, in the present study, an educational, full-length feature film of the modern Turkish cinema (Veda) was chosen, while eight different activities were adapted with the purposes of ensuring active learner participation and developing the four major skills of language in an integrated way, and presented with their alternatives. In this way, a film-based lesson, with three phases of “before viewing”, “during viewing”, and “after viewing”, was designed. In order to teach Turkish within the constraints of the foreign language class – without visiting Turkey – and in a similar way to the natural way of doing this, a rich repertoire of film-based activities should be developed and organised in the form of multi-level worksheets for an active film session. As a result, it was demonstrated how films, once regarded merely as a medium of entertainment, can be transformed into an instructional device for increasing learners’ language awareness and improving their communication skills, and how they can be exploited in the same way as reading texts, if films are treated as texts in multimedia.

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