Movies, the lens of society: movie forums as a way to promote visual literacy

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to conduct a qualitative-descriptive and interpretative investigation of visual literacy using as a resource a drama movie and movie forums. According to my experience, movies can be considered an outstanding way to help students raise visual abilities. I have come to this conclusion considering my own experience as a movie buff and as a teacher who considers developing visual literacy a way to contribute to have a society with more liberated minds, as Amado (2002) stated, ?providing the class with many different topics to talk about and leading to the development of communicative skills in an EFL context?. (p.35) One of the aspects that called my attention is that the school foreign language area was interested in developing new strategies to provide students with the opportunities to become more fluent and competent in the foreign language in order to get better results in the ICFES exam. In the year in which the study took place there was a reading plan, taking one hour a week to start the preparation for exams such as KET and PET. That was a real advance in the program since teachers had not previously been allowed to do something different from what was stated in the school program. Teachers were really concerned about developing the four students language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) but they had never taken into account the fifth important one: the critical skill, that Halvorsen (2005) defined as the ability to think critically about an issue and to consider that issue from various Movie Forums as a way to promote Visual Literacy perspectives, to look at and challenge any possible assumptions that may underlie the issue and to explore its possible alternatives.