Running an English Language Film Club

by Frank McGirr

Film is one of the greatest resources available to language learners as it offers a rich, sensory portal into the language and culture of other people through images and sound. Watching movies allows learners to see, hear, and experience language in context. This allows us to observe real life from a distance, absorb a wealth of everyday phrases and vocabulary, and demands little in return except for following the unfolding adventure. The magical quality of film – with its continuous stream of visuals, sound, and language – stimulates our senses and provides a totally immersive experience that remains unmatched by any other medium.

So how can this rich, emotional resource be integrated into the language classroom? This article shares my experience of setting up an English Language Film Club – what worked, what didn’t, and how I eventually arrived at a method that makes feature-length films accessible to language learners.

The English Language Film Club

I started teaching EFL at an adult education institute in Germany in 2008. Initially, I followed the typical textbook approach. However, after teaching for a while, I was struck by something: English has been a compulsory subject in Germany since the 1960s, and most students receive more than ten years of lessons. So why were these adults back in class if they already knew the language?

Nearly all my students understood the rules of English, but when it came to speaking, many were completely stuck. That’s when I realised I needed to shift my focus. Instead of continuing with the traditional textbook approach, I began to run conversation courses — because this was clearly what students wanted. But many teachers and schools offer such courses – I wanted to do something novel and eye-catching. That soon led me to the idea of a film club.

For the first couple of years, I followed the kind of structure that’s often recommended in specialist books and online: one week we’d discuss a film, and the following week we’d watch it. This sort of pre-teaching is useful for building context – but it doesn’t solve a core problem of watching movies: comprehension. Watching a feature-length film in English (or any language) is incredibly difficult for most B1 students. The dialogue is fast-paced, full of slang and idioms, and is hard to process in real time. Pre-teaching offers some support, but it doesn’t fully prepare students for real film dialogue.

To help with this, I realised I needed to provide students with the actual dialogue and vocabulary in advance in the form of film guides.

Putting the Film into Film Club

One thing I have learnt is this: the most rewarding parts of having a film club will only appear when students also know something about the art of the cinema. While I didn’t want the film club to turn into a film appreciation course, introducing some key ideas about filmmaking greatly enriches the experience. Now, the first session is always dedicated to one aspect – cinematography, editing, scriptwriting, soundtrack – to give students a deeper understanding of what they’re about to watch.

This allows me to include classics from the 1940s onwards that would otherwise seem too remote. Students become more confident discussing not just the story or language, but also how the film was made.

Take the film First Cow (2019). It opens in the present day – how do we know? A huge cargo barge is moving slowly along a river in Oregon. The film then jumps back to the 1820s – again, how do we know? The clues are visual: the clothes, the boots, and the scarcity of food. Getting students to notice these details enhances their appreciation of film – and gives them more meaningful things to talk about than simply whether they liked the film or not.

Director Kelly Reichardt also hints at meaning through language. When King Lu says, “We have to take what we can when the taking is good,” the verb ‘take’ here means to seize an opportunity. This use of ‘take’ might be difficult to grasp through textbooks alone, but film makes it both visible and audible. I feel it’s best to introduce such uncommon uses of words like ‘take’ in the guides the students work through in their homework so that their understanding is reinforced by the experience of watching the film.

The Choice of Film

Any English-language film with English subtitles can, in theory, be used to support language learning. But not all films are suitable, especially when starting a new course.

Just as you wouldn’t launch a book club by handing out Finnegan’s Wake, it’s probably best not to begin a film club with a black-and-white classic from the 1940s. Without context or preparation, students generally find them visually slow, stylistically dated, or simply hard to relate to. Today’s learners are used to a visual language shaped by colour, super fast editing, digital sound design, and contemporary references.

Copyright

In 2019, the European Union passed the Directive (EU) 2019/790 on Copyright and Related Rights in the Digital Single Market, aimed at improving access to copyrighted materials for education and research. Under this directive, EU member states are required to allow the use of protected works – such as film excerpts – for teaching purposes, without needing prior authorisation, provided the use is non-commercial and properly credited.

But implementation varies. In Germany, you can use up to 15% of a film for educational purposes. In an English version of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 (as amended in 2019) the document states that films can be shown in schools for “instructional purposes without being considered a public performance, thus avoiding copyright infringement.” So while showing short clips in class is permitted without a licence in many EU countries, screening an entire film often falls outside these exceptions – depending on the EU country.

To avoid any ambiguity, I’ve obtained an umbrella licence from the Motion Picture Licensing Company (MPLC), which represents most major Hollywood studios. (Filmbank Media is another similar organisation.) MPLC licences are available in most European countries, as well as North and South America and parts of the Asia-Pacific region.

The Power of Subtitles

Feature-length films are a huge challenge for language learners. The dialogue is often fast-paced and densely packed, making it difficult for learners to keep up and to process the information. Furthermore, movies often contain complex language, including slang, idioms, and culturally specific references, which can be especially taxing for learners at lower proficiency levels. Subtitles help bridge this gap, providing a visual representation of spoken language that supports comprehension and vocabulary acquisition.

Extensive research – including a 2015 review by Morton Ann Gernsbacher – shows that captioning improves learners’ attention, memory, and understanding. Similarly, Robert Vanderplank’s work highlights the benefits of subtitles in connecting spoken and written forms.

More recently, Karolina Baranowska studied subtitles’ effect on cognitive load and vocabulary. Like most research over the past three decades, her study focused on subtitles used in real time, as learners watched a video clip for the first time. Despite the difficulty of processing new language at speed, intralingual subtitles (in the target language) were shown to reduce mental effort, improve comprehension, and support vocabulary retention.

But real-time processing over 90–120 minutes is really challenging. That’s why my approach goes further: students get the dialogue in advance – six days before the screening. This early access to the film’s language makes a significant difference.

The film guide includes:

• A full transcript of selected dialogue (closely matching the on-screen subtitles)
• 2–3 pages of vocabulary (26–39 words) and 2–3 pages of idioms/phrasal verb exercises (26–39 phrases)
• Background information about the film and links to any interviews with movie directors and stars (where available)

Engagement with language:

• At home, students read the dialogue and complete specific vocabulary exercises. (They can also look up any other words they don’t understand that appear in the dialogue.)
• On screening day, they check their answers in pairs—speaking English and reinforcing what they’ve studied.
• During the film, they see, hear and read the subtitles—already familiar from their preparation.
• They experience the language in full context: spoken, written, visual, narrative, and emotional.
• After the film, students discuss in pairs for 20–30 minutes, starting with a light quiz, then switching partners for deeper conversation.

This multi-step approach builds confidence, boosts comprehension, and helps students stay engaged with authentic, fast-paced dialogue. It also offers meaningful speaking practice before and after the film.

Closing Credits

Movies are a rich, dynamic resource for language learning but are difficult to process in real time without help. However, both research and practice point in the same direction: with the right support – like film guides – students can reap the full benefits of this immersive, multi-sensory experience.

References and Further Reading

Baranowska, K. (2020), Learning most with least effort: subtitles and cognitive load, ELT Journal 74/2. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/eltj/article/74/2/105/5781829
Burger, G. (2022), Fremdsprache und Spielfilm: A Bibliography of Research on Film in Language Learning. Available at: https://fremdsprache-und-spielfilm.de/
Burger, G. (2016), Filme und Sprachen lernen: Integration von Filmen in den Fremdsprachenunterricht. Available at: https://fremdsprache-und-spielfilm.de/Filme9.htm
Gernsbacher, M. A. (2015), The Effects of Captioning on Comprehension, Attention, and Memory. Psychological Science, 26(3). Available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5214590/
McGirr, F. (2025), Film Guide: A Quiet Passion. Available at: https://vhsteacher.com/filmguide-a-quiet-passion/
Parisi, L. and Andon, N. (2016), The Use of Film-Based Material for an Adult English Language Course in Brazil. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301923419_The_use_of_filmbased_material_for_an_adult_English_language_course_in_Brazil
Van Derplank, R. (2016), Captioned Media in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching: Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing as Tools for Language Learning. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Available at: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/978-1-137-50045-8

Author Biography