The Film "East is East" in the EFL Classroom. A Lesson Plan for Senior Classes (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, grade: 1,7, Ruhr-University of Bochum (Philologie), course: Teaching Songs and Films, language: English, abstract: Modern foreign language education aims at developing an intercultural ability to act because our world today is more international than ever before. As defined at the beginning of this paper, ICC mainly consists of three features: the ability to communicate successfully with people from different cultures, to be able to shift perspectives and to be capable of behaving appropriately in intercultural situations. So ICC functions as connector between people from different cultures because it enables and improves intercultural communication, understanding, tolerance and open-mindedness.

In this paper, I have concluded that the film East is East is suitable for teaching ICC because the pupils get an insight into two cultures which both differ from their own cultural background. The film gives the opportunity to compare those cultures and thereby change their own perspective and attitude towards other, foreign cultures. In general, films can be used for teaching ICC without hesitation if they have a suitable content because they foster emotional reactions, personal statements and the need for discussion. Although I have argued in this paper that films do never represent reality, they can be described as an embodiment of culture which function as orientation system for intercultural learning.

In this paper I presented how a possible teaching unit on the topic Multicultural Britain could look like and outlined a possible lesson plan with regard to the film East is East. Teach-ing the topic Multicultural Britain gives the opportunity to show pupils how intercultural con-flicts may be solved and how different cultures can deal with each other respectfully. The outlined lesson plan underlined that the film East is East is suitable for teaching ICC because the pupils have the chance to learn more about other cultures and are able to identify with characters from foreign countries. The methods used during the lesson and the representation of other cultures in the movie encourage the pupils’ empathy, tolerance and respect and prob-ably even capture their attention and curiosity for different cultures and languages.