using films to teach lg acquisition courses

[Carolyn Chaney]

Dear Isabelle and Info-childes:

A p.s. to my last message...I have had some good results with the film THE
PINKS AND THE BLUES, an oldie about gender socialization.  After students
watch it they are SURE that it is totally outdated and that parents would
never treat boys and girls so differently.  Then I send them out to
observe family language interaction in their local park and write a
comparison between language predicted by the film and language observed.
Students are amazed to see that gendered language input to children has
not changed much since this oldie was made.

Carolyn Chaney