Elizabeth: The Golden Age: a useful tool in the classrooms

Cinema is an industry that has been growing through the years and this is because most of the people think that movies are a good way of entertaining and learning as well. Through this essay I want to express how useful can be a movie to teach English and develop critical thinking in a dynamic and innovative way. However, I am not going to refer to the movies in general, I just want to focus on the film Elizabeth: the golden age directed by Shekhar Kapur.

This film can be very useful for and English teacher to teach this language. What this movie represents is the courage and the conviction of a queen that can be represented in other people as well, for example the president of our country Michelle Bachelet. So what students can do it is to find examples in our society that are similar to queen Elizabeth and they can explain why, making an analysis of the similarities between the important people in the past, in this case a queen and the important people nowadays, for example a politician or a famous singer.

Students can also reflect on what problems there were in those times and the problems we have to face nowadays. This reflection will help them to see if in the past people had similar problems and to see the way they solved them or if students find that the problems were different they can analyze why those problems are not present today in our society. In conclusion, through this film students can apply critical thinking and reflect a lot about the facts shown in the movie that can easily compared with our times.

I think that this film is not only useful to develop critical thinking but also to teach students some grammar structures. One structure that can be taught through this film is the future “will” because in the movie I could find a lot of scenes that can help students to predict about the future, for example when the guy is trying to shoot Elizabeth. If the teacher freezes this scene students can predict what will happen using the structure will + verb, for example they can say I think the queen will die or I think the man will not shoot.

This movie can be very practical to speak about hypothetical situations as well, using the structure if + would have. For example, students can imagine they are the queen and using this structure they can say what they would have done if they were Queen Elizabeth. They can forms sentences such as if I were the queen I would have sent Catholics to prison or if I were Walter Raleigh I would stayed in England forever, among others.

Vocabulary is something an English teacher has to teach and without a doubt this film is a fun and dynamic way to do it. In this movie there are lots of expressions and collocations that can help students to enlarge their vocabulary, for example in the film Dr. Dee says: “and some will spread their wings like eagles”. In this phrase students can learn that in English people say spread wings instead of extend or stretch, so if they want to say “abrir las alas” they have to use the word spread. Another expression taken from the movie is: “The more gold I took from him the safer you will be”, this structure is very common in English and we, learners of this language, have some problems with it because we tend to translate it into Spanish and it does not make sense if we do this, that is why teachers can show the scene in which Walter Raleigh says this phrase and students can figure out what it means and what it is the equivalent meaning in Spanish without translating literally, so they will learn it in an better way.

As far as I am concerned the film Elizabeth: The Golden Age is a very useful tool to teach English including not only grammar and vocabulary but also critical thinking. Most of the times professors teach grammar and vocabulary in a boring way that it is not motivating for students, so they do not learn it. However, through this film students will feel motivated and also it will easier for them to learn structures of grammar and a lot of vocabulary as well. On the other hand, critical thinking is something that teachers should apply in their classrooms and a good way to do it is through this film that will give students the opportunity to reflect on the past and the similarities with the present. Also students can analyze the movie giving their opinions about it, developing critical thinking.

Modern Times

Industrialization had a huge influence on people’s life and that influence is still present in our times. One of the influences of this period is the introduction of the technology with smart machines that involved a high rate of unemployment. This fact is represented in the movie with the father of the girl that lost his job and also with the protests on the street.

Industrialization brought a new way of working that it is known as mass production and this type of production was characterized because of there were less expenses and much profits. With this new way of production the small producers were hardly affected because their products were more expensive that the ones made in mass production.

Mass production is represented in the movie when Chaplin was working in a factory and with him there were other men working all together in a conveyor belt and each one had a specific task, so the product was not made by one person, was made by all the workers because each of them contribute to make the product.

Good Queen Bess

Elizabeth’s reign is considered for the English people in the top rank of English monarchs because she contributed in many aspects to the English society. One of the contributions of Elizabeth’s reign was the bloom of the literature through the works of a famous writer and my favorite one, William Shakespeare. Also England started expanding its influences in the world thanks to Walter Raleigh and Francis Drake, who was Elizabeth’s advisor.

Also the religion was a controversial issue during Elizabeth’s reign because as she did not want to get married with a man; she just wanted to get married with her people of England, Catholicism was not her favorite religion, so that is way it seems to me that she shared more ideals with protestants than catholic people.

This problem with the religion is one of the reasons there was a dispute between England and Spain, because this last country was a very catholic one and it did not accepted England to reject this religion. Another reason was the English piracy that affected Spain and the explorations in the new world that irritated Philip II, who decided to start the war.

As Elizabeth and her people won the war, years of piece and expansion arrived, that is why she is fondly remembered by the English people.

The diversity of UK

As far as I am concerned the formation of the United Kingdom was very interesting because it was inhabited with lot of immigrants. The combination between the natives and immigrants made the lands of the United Kingdom richer in terms of agriculture and handicraft as well, because each group of immigrants brought not only their hopes and thoughts, but also their knowledge and abilities to work and survive.

The diversity whereupon the United Kingdom was formed is fantastic because in this land there were already a diverse group of natives and with the arrival of the immigrants the land became even more varied.

Critical Thinking

through this course we have seen many topics and what I liked the most was critical thinking.

As far as I am concerned we should be critical people in order to improve education. as future teachers we have to reflect and not to think that everything it is true. I believe that through this course we have learnt that definitions are not always complete and that they do not give us the whole meaning of a concept, so we should analize them and see if we agree with them or not.

Critil thinking in education is crucial because the only way to improve is through analisis and reflection. I think that we just can see what is wrong insofar we reflect. Also when students are getting bad grades, teachers do not accept their responsibility and they say that is the students' fault, so if they were critical, they could analize the situation and find a good answer to the problem in order to solve it.

I believe that teacher ought to be critical and I think that in this course we are starting in this eternal road of reflection.

Expectations

I think during this course I would like to learn more about the history and culture of English speaking countries because to be a good teachers of English I should also know something about the culture of the main countries where English is the official language.

I would like to know more about the culture of English speaking countries because we can compare the differences and similarities with Chile and to understand why the people who speak English think in the way they do.

Also I would like to reflect in this course because thanks to reflection we open our mind and we can learn much more. I expect to increase my general knowledge to be a worldly person. And finally, I expect to have pleasant classes with a good atmosphere.