Teaching culture(s) via movie scenes – selected activities for German movies

Mag. Kerstin IstvanitsDepartment of Germanic Languages and

LiteraturesUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

(UIUC)

FLTA conference 2010

Agenda

The challenge of teaching culture Audio-visual material as a key to

culture Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives

of Others) activity! Benefits of using movie scenes

The challenge of teaching culture What is culture?

Students‘ personal definitions of cultureculture

Audio-visual material (AV) ~ key to culture AV material:

authentic productions authentic language + culture

Classification of AV material Movies, video-clips,

movie scenes…

Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) Set in 1984 in East

Germany ‚DDR‘ (GDR) ‚Stasi‘

Step1: movie night Step2: work with

movie scenes in class

Das Leben der Anderen - activity Aim: to raise the

students‘ awareness of the senses

Movie scene: Die Sonate vom guten Menschen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhTQn2dbMaY

1. Bitte fertige Notizen und/oder Zeichnungen zu folgenden Fragen an! (Please take notes and / or draw some pictures in order to answer the following questions!) Sehen (Watching) Fühlen (Feeling) - Wen siehst du? (Whom do you see?)

- Wo ist (sind) die Person(en)? (Who is/are this/these person/s?) - Wie sehen die unterschiedlichen Schauplätze aus? (How do the different locations look like?) - Welche Gegenstände (=Objekte) siehst du? (Which objects do you see?) - Was machen die Personen? (What are the people doing?) - Wie sind die Kameraeinstellungen? - …

- Welche Gefühle empfindest du bei dieser Szene? (What emotions are evoked in you when watching this scene?) - Welche Person findest du sympathisch? Warum? (Which characters do you find likeable and why?) - Welche Person findest du unsympathisch? Warum? (Which characters do you find unpleasant and why?)

- Welche Gegenstände sind deiner Meinung nach wichtig in dieser Szene? (Which objects are – according to your opinion – important in this scene?) - Welchen Effekt haben die Kameraeinstellungen? (What are the effects caused by …?) - …

2. Bitte fertige Notizen und/oder Zeichnungen zu folgenden Fragen an! (Please take notes and / or draw some pictures in order to answer the following questions!) Hören (Listening) Fühlen (Feeling) - Was hörst du? (What do you hear?) - Welche Geräusche hörst du? (What kind of noises do you hear?)

- Welche Stimmen hörst du? (Männer-, Frauen-, Kinderstimmen?) (What kind of voices do you hear? (male, female, children’s voices?) - Erkennst du die Stimmen? Wer spricht? (Do you recognize any of the voices? Who is talking?) - Welche Musik hörst du? (What kind of music do you hear?)

- Wie klingt die Musik? (How does the music sound like?) - …

- Welche Gefühle empfindest du bei dieser Szene? (What emotions are evoked in you when listening to this scene?) - Welche Stimme findest du sympathisch? Warum? (Which voices do you find nice and why?) - Welche Stimme findest du unsympathisch? Warum? (Which voices do you find unpleasant and why?) - Gefällt dir die Musik? Warum (nicht)? (Do you like the music? Why (not)?)

- Welchen Effekt hat deiner Meinung nach die Musik? (What do you think are the effects of the music?)

- …

Benefits of using movie scenes Short, but a rich resource (content, language) Authentic Easily accessible Entertaining Stimulate foreign language learning Give insight into culture(s) Better cross-cultural understanding

Additional Literature: Chavez, Monica (2005). Variation in the Beliefs

of College Students of German about the Teaching of Culture. Die Unterrichtspraxis, 38 (1), 31-43.

Mittler, Alexandra (2010). Good Bye Lenin, Hello Movie Industry! Eine Unterrichtseinheit zur DDR. Die Unterrichtspraxis, 43(1), 41-48.

Sathe, Nikhil (2005). "Der Deutschlehrer des Grauens!" Using Film Titles to Practice the Genitive Case. Die Unterrichtspraxis, 38(2), 198-199.