Each year as the end of the Autumn and Summer Terms approach, we are reminded to keep the pupils working until the last day of term and are "discouraged" from showing "recreational" DVDs. We in the MFL Department, however have a cunning ruse, showing films in the target language (not necessarily originally in that language) with subtitles to aid listening skills and pronunciation, thus making them "educational".
My friend and colleague, Pauline, discovered "Les Choristes" a few years ago and it never fails to captivate the imagination of even the most unenthusiastic French-learner.
For anyone who doesn't know the story, it's the tale of Clément Mathieu, a failed musician who goes to work at a school for naughty boys. It follows his time there as he he discovers that, through music he can reach the boys and begins to turn them around.
Although rather tame in comparison to the high drama of many Hollywood films it still manages to "pull in the audiences" every time. This term I even had my boisterous Yr9s request "Les Choristes" over "A Night at the Museum" how amazing is that? And one of the boys even admitting to the film being "mint" plus others saying how they cry at the end when Pépinot leaves with Mathieu. I don't know what it is about the film that captivates them too much, maybe it the fact they're gaining tips on how to be naughty, maybe it's the rude words that seem so much ruder than normal because they're written down in the subtitles rather then just heard as they normally are. However, I like to pretend that it's actually hearing the French spoken properly and that it is in some small way helping them on their journeys to become better language learners. (The music's pretty fab too)
Here's a flavour of the film I found on YouTube..
My friend and colleague, Pauline, discovered "Les Choristes" a few years ago and it never fails to captivate the imagination of even the most unenthusiastic French-learner.
For anyone who doesn't know the story, it's the tale of Clément Mathieu, a failed musician who goes to work at a school for naughty boys. It follows his time there as he he discovers that, through music he can reach the boys and begins to turn them around.
Although rather tame in comparison to the high drama of many Hollywood films it still manages to "pull in the audiences" every time. This term I even had my boisterous Yr9s request "Les Choristes" over "A Night at the Museum" how amazing is that? And one of the boys even admitting to the film being "mint" plus others saying how they cry at the end when Pépinot leaves with Mathieu. I don't know what it is about the film that captivates them too much, maybe it the fact they're gaining tips on how to be naughty, maybe it's the rude words that seem so much ruder than normal because they're written down in the subtitles rather then just heard as they normally are. However, I like to pretend that it's actually hearing the French spoken properly and that it is in some small way helping them on their journeys to become better language learners. (The music's pretty fab too)
Here's a flavour of the film I found on YouTube..
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