学习英语经常被学生视为艰苦的过程。教师也为能找到轻松愉快的教学方法而费尽脑汁。最近，在印度英语老师为改变教学方法苦恼的同时，新加坡教师则成功地使用电影进行趣味教学。For students in Singapore, movies are not just something for fun. They also help them speak and write better in English, according to a recent report in the Strait Times.Since March, Blangah Rise Primary in Singapore has tried to make language teaching fun by using movies. As part of their English language lessons, pupils watch short excerpts of a film. Teachers use the subtitles function on the DVD players to turn the text on and off to help them practise articulating better, listening and improving their writing skills.The school has found that children are more eager to learn and better able to answer questions on what they have seen and heard because they pay greater attention to the movie than the usual paper-based comprehension sheets.Teachers said they have seen vast progress in participation and understanding in classes. Before the DVD programme was introduced, almost every child would leave one to two questions in their comprehension exercises blank. Now, they not only attempt all questions but provide lengthy answers too.In contrast, "Indians are yet to realise the need to make English teaching fun," says Professor David Crystal recently. He is one of Britain's and world's foremost experts on language, and currently working in India. "The structured ways of teaching have ensured that English learning has remained at best an unexciting experience for most Indians," he says.Crystal also suggests language play is another way in which English teaching and learning can be made an enjoyable as well as a rewarding experience. Crossword puzzles, scrabble, punning-English language presents a bewildering variety of wordplay.In Britain and the US, the need to make English learning interesting has led to an entire industry that produces books, games and various other learning aids."Everyone plays with the language. I don't know of a single person who does not," says Crystal. To have fun from language has always been a part of everyday conversation and should naturally be a part of language learning and teaching, according to him.

Learning from the screen This is how Blangah Rise Primary in Singapore uses movies in class effectively. Listening Teachers show a 15-minute movie clip with the subtitles turned off but the audio left on, then ask questions based on the conversations. They make inferences from what they hear and see, which helps them with their vocabulary. Pupils are tested on how well they have understood what they read by turning the sound off but leaving the text on. Speaking The school uses three methods to help pupils sharpen their oral skills. In the first, a movie clip is stopped at a scene, and pupils are asked to describe the scene. The second requires students to watch a short video clip. Pupils are then required to narrate what they have seen. In the third method, teachers also turn off the sound and ask pupils to read out the subtitles. By mimicking the actors, the children learn to express themselves better when reading something out. Writing Very often, DVDS come with the subtitles include phrases describing sounds that are occuring, like "water trickling". Through these descriptions, coupled with the actual sounds from the movie, youngsters are exposed to phrases to help them describe situations in their compositions. And teachers also ask students to write a possible ending to the clip.