Movie Talk for Spanish Class

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.

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:

1. Choose your short video
2. Watch it again, picking out main plot points and summarizing in the target language
3. Screenshot images from the video to go with the plot points you have chosen
4. Add vocabulary and language scaffolding
5. Create any pre or post activities you’d like
6. 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:

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.

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:

• Halloween Themed Shorts for Movie Talks
• School Themed Shorts for Movie Talks
• Valentine’s Day Themed Shorts for Movie Talks
• 7 School Themed Shorts for Movie Talks
• 6 Movie Talks for Daily Routine Unit in World Language Class

Along with the round ups above, I have found and/or created several movie talk resources that are just ready for you to use! Check them out here:

• Christmas – Apple’s Frankie – SEÑORA JOTA JOTA
• The Gift by Manor: Christmas Clip Chat – SEÑORA JOTA JOTA
• Weather Movie Talk
• Thanksgiving Movie Talk
• Valentine’s Day Movie Talk

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