Contemporary cinema in language learning: from linguistic input to intercultural insight

Foreign-language cinema has generally been relegated to a minor role in language education. This paper reports on and analyses the results of a survey of attitudes towards foreign film among UK university students of French, German and Spanish. The findings reveal students' limited exposure to and relative lack of familiarity with non-anglophone cinema; yet this is coupled with considerable enthusiasm for the greater integration of film into language courses. A theoretical examination of the appropriateness of film in supporting the linguistic, cultural and intercultural aims of language teaching, drawing on recent pedagogical trends, leads to the conclusion that film may be useful in supporting all three aims but especially the last, which would, however, seem to be the most neglected in language courses and, perhaps as a consequence, the least understood by students. Practical strategies are proposed for utilising film effectively, balancing its linguistic benefits with its cultural and more particularly intercultural potential.