Meet The Speakers: Ruzbeh Babaee

15/02/2018 - 22:15

Room 318
11:45-12:25
40-minute talk

Using Film to Teach Language and Raise Cultural Awareness

Ruzbeh Babaee

By giving reference to some short films, this talk attempts to show the significance of using films in language courses for developing the level of literacy and increasing the level of cultural awareness among the learners.

Ruzbeh Babaee’s Bio

Postdoc Fellow
University of LPorto
Belgium

Ruzbeh Babaee is a postdoctoral fellow of English literature at the University of Porto in Portugal. He has also been an English instructor in countries such as Belgium, Malaysia and Iran since 2005.

Why have you chosen this topic for your presentation?

I believe that a language classroom can be a good place to raise the students' cultural and social awareness. Thus, English teachers should take advantage of this opportunity and teach language along with such norms.

What do you want participants to take away from your presentation?

Increasing the cultural and social awareness of the students as they are learning a language.

Summary of presentation

Twenty-first century literacy finds its roots in the idea that students and young people not only should be technically literate but also should be culturally educated. Today, foreign language learners are becoming heterogeneous in regards to their proficiency level as well as their cultural competence. Therefore, this should be considered by language instructors. One way of bringing literacy and cultural practices into the classroom is the use of film in foreign language teaching. This presentation aims to show how films can be used in four different areas of language teaching: oral communication, writing, reading and cultural aspects. This talk discusses the ways in which film can be used as a pedagogic means for teaching a language as well as increasing cultural awareness, based on the ground that, since watching film is already a common literacy practice for many learners, its use can facilitate teaching and learning inside the language classroom. By giving reference to some short films, the talk attempts to show the significance of using films in language courses for developing the level of literacy and increasing the level of cultural awareness among the learners.