Learning Portuguese through the Art of Film

Abstract

Although the elements of film narrative (e.g., sound, color, lighting, camera angles, mise-en-scène) can create meaning and provoke responses from the viewer, in Portuguese as a foreign language classes such cinematographic aspects of films are rarely emphasized. The use of films as works of art, however, can be a powerful tool to engage students in a dialogical construction of knowledge. The goal of this article is to investigate the power of films as works of art studied from a more dialogical perspective in Portuguese as a foreign language classes. In this article, I discuss the main cinematographic features, their implications for film narrative, and give suggestions on how to conduct a Portuguese as a foreign language class from a more ecological perspective of learning through the use of films as an art form. Data collected from the students’ learning Portuguese that shows the positive impact of this type of approach to teaching is also presented.