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Cultura THE ENGLISH CORNER DIEGE ZARAGOZA 79 LIGHT! CAMERAS! ... ACTION! (part 2) As it was briefly explained in our last edition of Tierra magazine, today we are going to see a practical example of how we can use war films as a means to deal with SLP2 and SLP3 skills. To start with, let’s have a browse to the requirements the STANAG 6001 demands from a student that is going to take his/her Functional level (SLP2) or Professional level (SLP3) test. SLP TASKS Watching war films is a good and enjoyable option in foreign language learning. It is not necessary to understand the whole film or excerpt, that’s why it is better to see the original version with or without subtitles. The characters’ voices and intonation are fundamental tools in their performances and you can enjoy their acting much more. Bearing this in mind, we can choose a war film widely known by people in the military, for example Paths of Glory, which was shot in 1957 by Stanley Kubrick and starred by Kirk Douglas (other films such as Band of Brothers -TV series-, Black Hawk Down, We Were Soldiers, etc could also be good options). Once the film has been watched in whole —or just some preselected excerpts— we can start analysing it, moving from basic descriptive issues to more abstract concepts. That is to say, we will move from functional to professional SLP tasks. Some of the questions that could be asked regarding Paths of Glory are the following ones: LEVEL 2 QUESTIONS: • Describe the landscape, the setting, and the characters (description) • Choose two characters and compare them (compare and contrast) • Compare the trenches and the chateau (compare and contrast) • What is this film about? (state facts, present tense) • What happened in World War I? (state facts, past tense) • Compare World War I and modern warfare (compare and contrast)


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