Movie Talk for Spanish Class

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Movie Talk or Clip Chat is one of my all time favorite strategies for delivering comprehensible input to students. In this post I thought it would be helpful to create a round up of resources to support you getting started with Movie Talk for Spanish Class: what is it, how to do it, how to create your own, and resources you can use right away!

Watch the Video

What is Movie Talk?

Movie Talk is a language learning technique developed by Dr. Ashley Hastings. In the most basic sense, you play a short, muted video clip while you describe it in comprehensible language for your students.

I prefer to use this strategy with a little more preparation than the “purest” sense of the activity. Instead of playing, pausing, and narrating, I prefer to take screenshots ahead of time and discuss them with students.

How do you Movie Talk in Spanish class?

Now that you know what a Movie Talk is, you might be wondering how you actually do one. When I was first getting started I found this demo video from Martina Bex at the Comprehensible Classroom extremely helpful. Check it out:

Along with the video demo linked above, I really liked this post from Allison Wienhold at Mis Clases Locas. She talks about how to prepare your students for Movie Talk. I thought this was important because if students are used to watching a video, they’re going to get quite confused (even frustrated) when you pause it every few seconds!

The main takeaway I have for you is that Movie Talk is like circling with a story – only the story has a lot of visuals to support you! Check out my post here on How to Circle.

Elevate Listening and Speaking with Movie Talk for Spanish Class

One of the reasons I love using Movie Talk for Spanish class is because it naturally boosts student confidence in both listening and speaking. You can build so many different conversations from just a few minutes of video. Whether you go the screenshot route or pause live during playback, the visuals give your students something to latch onto, and that keeps them focused.

A fun twist? After you’ve walked through the video with them once or twice, have them retell the story in pairs. Give them a few guiding questions or even a quick set of screenshots to sequence. You’ll be surprised how much language they can produce when they feel supported by context. That’s the magic of Movie Talk for Spanish class, it feels more like storytelling than language practice.

How do you create a Movie Talk for Spanish class?

Creating a Movie Talk is actually really simple! First of all, if you do the activity as it was originally designed, there’s no prep besides choosing the movie or short clip.

If you prefer to do this activity with a little more preparation, there’s just a few short steps – any of which you can skip or tweak, as you prefer. Check it out:

Choose your short video
Watch it again, picking out main plot points and summarizing in the target language
Screenshot images from the video to go with the plot points you have chosen
Add vocabulary and language scaffolding
Create any pre or post activities you’d like
Embed the video to watch at the end of the talk

If you’re more of a visual learner, you may like this short video walking you through the process:

Create Extension Activities Your Students Will Actually Enjoy

The learning does not have to stop after you finish the video. Use your Movie Talk for Spanish class as a jumping-off point for creative and meaningful follow-up work. Let students write an alternate ending to the story, design a character profile, or even create their own comic version of the plot.

For novice learners, you can offer sentence starters or word banks to help them get going. For more advanced classes, encourage open-ended responses or small group script writing. You could even turn it into a speaking activity by letting groups act out their version. The flexibility here is what makes Movie Talk such a favorite. It adapts to your goals, your theme, and your students.

Have a favorite clip your students always love? Add it to your regular rotation. With a little prep, Movie Talk becomes one of those teaching tools you keep coming back to. Every time, it hits just right.

Resources for Movie Talk for Spanish Class

When you’re looking for a Movie Talk, the first place you should check out is this MovieTalk Database. This spreadsheet includes the link, possible language structures/vocab chunks, link to plans if they exist, original language, and other notes from teachers.

Visit the Movie Talk Database

I also have several blog posts where I’ve shared round ups of themed videos to help you as you plan your units. Here are those: