Open AccessDeveloping Critical Consciousness Through Film
Author(s) -
Justin Charlebois
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
tesl canada journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1925-8917
pISSN - 0826-435X
DOI - 10.18806/tesl.v26i1.133
Subject(s) - consciousness , consciousness raising , critical consciousness , pedagogy , field (mathematics) , psychology , focus (optics) , critical thinking , language education , mathematics education , sociology , linguistics , philosophy , physics , mathematics , neuroscience , pure mathematics , optics
Recent instructional trends in the field of TESOL emphasize teaching language through course content. The dual focus of content-based English instruction (CBI) provides a way for language teachers to engage learners with challenging material while increasing their linguistic proficiency. This article describes a unit in a CBI course at a Japanese university that was designed to promote the development of critical consciousness (Freire, 2005) through the analysis of a film. Students identified race- and gender-related issues, engaged in discussions about these issues, and finally wrote a critical response paper to the film.