Language-related popular films?

[Kathryn Remlinger]

Another Star Trek episode, The Voyage Home (I think that's the title), is about other animal communication (whales) and cultural competence (the crew comes to Earth and must negotiate various cultural meanings.) The movie Nell raises language acquisition and language/brain issues.

Kate

Kathryn Remlinger, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English: Linguistics
Grand Valley State University
Allendale, Michigan
tel: 616-331-3122
fax: 616-331-3430
>>> "Kerim Friedman" <oxusnet at gmail.com> 08/15/06 2:19 AM >>>
Teaching in Taiwan, I find my students do not have the English ability
necessary to follow films like "American Tongues" and "Cross Talk" -
but many Hollywood films, and some documentaries from the Discovery
Channel and National Geographic, etc. are available here with Chinese
subtitles at the night market. Which brings me to my question: Can
anyone think of popular films (contemporary or classics, US or
foreign) with language related themes that might be suitable for
teaching? I've thought of a few, but I'm not too happy with the list
so far:

Windtalkers (2002)
Pygmalion (1938)
The Unconquered (1954)
Enfant sauvage, L' (1970) (many more such films about feral children
are listed at http://www.feralchildren.com )
Children of a Lesser God (1986)
Ishi: The Last Yahi (1992)
Lost in Translation (2003)
The Conversation (1974)

I almost added Blazing Saddles for the Yiddish-speaking Indian chief,
but then thought better of it...

Obviously some of these films are better than others (as far as
teaching is concerned) - but I just wanted to put something out to jog
people's minds. Send your suggestions to me at this address (off
list): oxusnet [at] gmail [dot] com.

I'm traveling for a while, but I'll edit together all the suggestions
and mail it back to the list  (and on the web) when I get back.  When
you send your suggestions please state how I should list your name and
affiliation if I post this list publicly on the web.

Thanks!

Kerim

-- 
____________________________________
P. Kerim Friedman
Department of Indigenous Cultures
College of Indigenous Studies
National DongHwa University, TAIWAN
http://kerim.oxus.net/
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