[quote=“bob”]I agree with what you are saying[/quote]Do you? Why?
[quote=“bob”]I think the thing that at least a few people are missing with regard to this discussion is the simple fact that for a lot of English students here the most interesting… source of English in their lives is DVD.[/quote]Yet,[quote=“bob”]To be honest it frequently appears that they don’t actually want to learn the language.[/quote]Are the DVDs interesting enough?
[quote=“bob”]…there is an extrordinary reluctance here to accept the value of simply listening to a lot of English only some of which you understand.[/quote]Have to say I share that reluctance! More exposure does not equate to more learning. I have no doubt that you have met people who have learned a lot from watching movies (although I suspect that that many of them had a reasonable level of English comprehension BEFORE they made serious progress with this method). I have met such people as well.
What is important is finding the most efficient way for the majority of students to learn. You said you’re teaching adult beginners, but you also say that;[quote=“bob”]…I understand that this is certainly no easy thing that I am asking of them and that it is not really suitable to low level students (such as myself ).[/quote]
You have seen the problems that are caused by an overwhelming amount of new vocabulary. I agree that selective listening skills need to be developed and that this is new and difficult for many learners. But we have to do what we can to make the task manageable for them, and I feel that the best way to do this at least at beginner and pre-intermediate levels is to find material of an appropriate level.
Surely there are English-learning DVDs which are not deadly dull?
Also, I think you mentioned before that you take short excerpts from films and get students to learn them and act them out. That sounds good, again providing that the material is at least partly comprehensible beforehand.
[quote=“bob”]It is the ones who never quite “get it” that drive me a bit batty. Perhaps I just need to accept that this learning style isn’t for everyone and leave it at that.[/quote]Reckon so. However efficient and effective the system may be, it won’t be any good unless students connect with it in some way. There may well be cultural mental blocks against particular ways of learning. And, just as there are a few people who have a natural gift for language learning, there are a few who find it unusually difficult.
Something I find to be food for thought is the research that found that the most important factor in language-learning success is not instrumental motivation (the desire to learn for specific purposes such as to function well in another country) but integrative motivation, the feeling that one has something in common with a group of native speakers of the target language; a feeling of belonging. Of course both types of motivation are important but integrative motivation is the more so. (If you need the reference I’ll dig it out.)