If you learned a secondary language after childhood, you may remember learning new words every day… at first. But, if, like many of my advanced students, you’ve reached a certain level of competence and you use your secondary language for a specific purpose, your vocabulary acquisition has probably slowed down considerably. My graduate students certainly seem to agree that this is the case. They find that the great majority of the time they use common everyday vocabulary or vocabulary they know from their fields of study.
When I work with these advanced students, I try to bring back a little of the fun and stimulation of learning new words by building short writing exercises around very short films.
The assignment generally requires them to practice a particular academic genre, such as summary, analysis, evaluation, or argument while focusing on some question, such as “What is the director’s message in the film?”
Three factors help to stimulate acquisition of new vocabulary and these factors could be built into any assignment for students at any level.
First, the films are short, entertaining, and interesting, and generally have no or little dialog in English.
Many quality shorts can be found online, on youtube, or through searches for the National Film Board of Canada, for instance.
Second, I give them all the information needed to reference the film so they don’t need to look it up online to do so.
So, for instance, for the wonderful short film, “Schwarzfahrer,” I provide all the necessary info:
Title: Schwarzfahrer
Literal Translation of Title: “Black Rider”
Non-literal Translation of Title: “Fare Dodger”
Director: Pepe Danquart
Date: 1993
Place: Germany
Language: German
Award: 1994 Academy Award Best Short Subject
Length: 12 minutes
Youtube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFQXcv1k9OM
Literal Translation of Title: “Black Rider”
Non-literal Translation of Title: “Fare Dodger”
Director: Pepe Danquart
Date: 1993
Place: Germany
Language: German
Award: 1994 Academy Award Best Short Subject
Length: 12 minutes
Youtube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFQXcv1k9OM
Third, I make sure they feel comfortable knowing that the exercise is not concerned with a specific answer to the question.
When students know that we are merely practicing the format and their ability to express themselves clearly in English and they can safely take this opportunity to learn and use some new words, they can begin to play with the language again, something all learners can enjoy at any level.
