Preservice Teachers' Perceptions of Film in English Language Arts Instruction

Abstract

While film has long been included in English language arts instruction, it has typically been relegated to the position of supplementary resource and considered a nontraditional text. The interest in expanding English language arts instruction to address twenty-first century literacies demands difficult choices about what textual forms to include and necessitates a reassessment of film’s importance. Preservice teachers offer an interesting perspective on this question because they are at an important juncture in their experience with the English language arts. They are completing years of study in which they have been the recipients of English language arts instruction. Now students of a teacher preparation program, they receive direct instruction from faculty who are closely attuned to the theoretical movements within the discipline. Simultaneously, they are engaging in fieldwork that allows them to observe K-12 teachers’ instructional practices. As they form their own philosophies of English language arts instruction, they must reconcile these multiple perspectives into a personal understanding that will shape the ways in which they teach – in effect, their refined understandings represent the future of English language arts instruction. This qualitative study utilized a multiple case study approach to explore preservice teachers’ perceptions of film in English language arts instruction. The participants in this study were five preservice teachers who were enrolled in an adolescent literature course in a large public university. Data included interviews, participant observations, and student documents. Findings suggested preservice teachers believed film could be used as a complement to print texts in English language arts instruction. They saw film as useful for creating interest in print texts, for comparing and contrasting with print texts, and for assisting struggling readers. While they expanded their concept of text to include film as a nonprint form of text, they regarded print texts as authoritative to nonprint texts. Findings also indicated that preservice teachers closely associated digital video with the use of film in English language arts instruction and were eager to use digital video for composing student-created texts. These results suggested that teacher education programs can influence preservice teachers’ perceptions of film by providing meaningful experiences that integrate film.