From Cultural Observation to Critical Reflection: Designing Reflective Tasks for English Film-Based Intercultural Learning in Higher Education

Abstract

English-language films are often selected for the intercultural course in higher education to present cultural practices, identity negotiation and social problems. However, the traditional way is often only to identify and compare cultural differences, treat films as open-book records of culture, and thus reinforce fixed national categories. By means of combining intercultural education, critical thinking and the theory of film representation, this conceptual paper puts forward five levels of interpretive position: observation, contextualisation, perspective-taking, representation critique and self-reflective repositioning. In fact, the above components are a series of tasks and not a hierarchical list; these can help students learn how to think about who “others” are in movies and how to evaluate these representations from various perspectives, such as their own life experiences and culture. The proposed framework aims to transform films from sources of cultural information into sites for critical thinking and intercultural reflection.