Languages on screen

Languages on Screen is a major partnership project between Learning and Teaching Scotland and Creative Scotland.

Using short films as a focus for study helps place language within its culture and gives young people insights into the lives and lifestyles of people in other countries. They also help children gain a deeper understanding of their first language and a greater appreciation of the richness and interconnected nature of languages.

Mission

For most young people, learning a foreign language (especially one’s first) presents a daunting challenge. It is one thing to learn the vocabulary and the grammar, but quite another to become familiar with the culture, the mood of the language, and to gain the confidence and self-belief to use the language oneself.
The great advantage of any Moving Image text is that it provides an engaging context for exploring common usage as well as the meaning of creative texts. Original and thought-provoking short films also provide a springboard to reflect, explain thinking and to spark creativity.
The analysis of these original Moving Image texts in a Modern Language setting will also help to engage young people in classroom activity on a deeper and more compelling narrative level, developing their communication and collaboration skills and thereby supporting the ambitions of the Curriculum for Excellence.

Moving Image Education - MIE

In this section you will find key information about decoding the language of film and revealing how it engages and moves us:

• Benefits of Moving Image Education
• The Compelling Logic of Screen Narratives
• Fictional and Factual Texts
• Punctuation and Grammar of Moving Image texts
• Placement of the camera
• Choice of Lens and Focussing
• Camera Movements and what they do
• Shots with Special Narrative Meaning
• Edits and transitions (punctuating the film)
• Sound and Music
• Rough Analogy between Written Punctuation and the Continuity System

In the world of MIE and filmmaking young people are not judged by their ability to write perfectly, but are motivated by their ability to communicate clearly through words, images, sound and music. An important distinction!
Teachers who have used MIE techniques in the classroom find a marked increase in the engagement of young people and the desire to work together on involved creative projects.