I sit on the fence when it comes to DVDs in the classroom, mostly because too many teachers pop one in for 30 minutes, 60 minutes, even 90 minutes, then call that teaching. Small segments in the classroom are great, as are DVDs as home study aids. TV programs end up as more effective tools than movies in the EFL classroom because, with commercial breaks in mind, a scene can play out in a very manageable 5-10 minutes.
That said, although 5-10 minutes works well, you can have an effective 30 minutes, too. It all depends on the activities you build into the lesson. A warm-up discussion, set of questions, or an exercise in speculation, even for intermediate levels, works well to get students thinking about the program. Comprehension questions are important, too. And as with traditional listening exercises, you can build bottom-up or top-down exercises.
Some other ideas include:
1) Cover all, half, or certain quarters of the TV screen, so all the action isn't visible. Students watch, listen, and guess on the missing context and action.
2) Turn the sound off. Pair up students, and have one sitting with his/her back to the screen. Play 30 second segments, with one student describing the action.
3) Speculate on the next scene (or program's conclusion) in pairs/groups. Summarization of what was just watched also works well.
4) Speed reading with subtitles in L2, which they must then use to answer questions, summarize, etc. The sound would be turned off the first time, then turned on to confirm answers.
5) Any cultural questions, questions about nuance or slang, etc.
Chris Cotter
www.headsupenglish.com