ABSTRACT

The value and effectiveness of incorporating film in foreign-language education have been widely recognized by researchers and educators today. Although film is seen to be particularly useful for exposing students to authentic linguistic input and fostering students’ cultural awareness and communicative competence, when it comes to practical application, instructors are often confronted with numerous difficulties and challenges. This chapter aims to address the difficulties and challenges and explore the ways in which film can be integrated into the Chinese language teaching curriculum in the college classroom. Starting with an overview of the literature on the use of film in foreign-language education, the chapter first explores the rationale for integrating film into Chinese language classes and then discusses the general strategies instructors can employ when using film in three different stages of classroom teaching—pre-screening, screening, and post-screening. While the general strategies are suitable for all levels of Chinese language classes, the section on classroom implementation and assessment seeks to discuss various pedagogical aspects of using film based on different levels of language proficiency, including, for example, film selection, course material preparation, class activity design and implementation, and methods for assessing student learning outcomes. A comparative approach that brings different films on similar topics together for discussion is also proposed. Such an approach can help promote students’ intercultural competence by asking them to examine how the same historical events or cultural phenomena can be represented differently from different perspectives and understand how cinematic representations are often shaped by the particular social-political context of their production. The last part of the chapter explores some possible future directions for using film in Chinese language teaching.