Raising Students’ Gender Awareness through
the Use of Films in Speaking Class
Fitria Akhmerti Primasita
By considering the fact that the efforts to socialize the commitment to support the elimination of all kinds of discriminations against women in Indonesia have been partially done only by certain groups of people, among them are (women) social activists and academicians, we may come to an agreement that every concerned individual needs to assist the socialization by introducing gender issues to the public. It is hoped that by making the issues a public discourse, we can raise people’s gender awareness, which is an essential element of such commitment.
As university teachers, in the effort to assist the socialization and to encourage our students to critically think of various social issues in their surrounding, we can start introducing gender issues to them, and thus raising their gender awareness, as early as the third semester. Having left behind the euphoria of being accepted as a university student and passed the early phase of adjustment to the academic atmosphere of the university, it is assumed that third semester students have started to become adjusted to the university’s academic atmosphere and mature enough to be encouraged to discuss social issues.
If we intend to include gender issues in our teaching materials for the third (and fourth) semester students, we can start with one of the skill development subjects, that is Oral Proficiency subject. The syllabus of Oral Proficiency in the third and fourth semesters generally contains materials about how to give opinion or have a discussion. It may also contain materials about how to have a debate. Before the students are exposed to having a discussion or a debate, we can first ask them to watch films that thematically present gender problems. Considering that the students might not be familiar with such “serious” problems, we may then use animated or cartoon films. By using animated or cartoon films, which has its own entertaining, amusing, and amazing aspects, students will have some fun before discussing or debating on ‘heavy’ materials like gender problems.
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Primasita, F. A. (2003,
October). Raising students’ gender awareness through the
use of films in speaking class. Paper presented at the 51st
TEFLIN International Conference,
Website: www.geocities.com/eltindonesia
Email: eltindonesia@yahoo.com