Enhancing critical cultural awareness in foreign language learning contexts through the critical use of student-made documentary films : insights obtained from a multimodal case study

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to answer one research question: How are the cultural representations of Germany presented to adolescents learning German as a foreign language (GFL) in Malta similar and/ or different from the cultural representations of Germany that adolescents living in Germany include in self-produced autobiographical documentary films? The student self-made documentary films were initially analyzed through Multimodal Discourse analysis (Kress, 2011; Cremona, 2017). The outcomes of this were later compared to the results collected from GFL classrooms in Malta. Results indicate that when compared together, the two sets of representations manifest a sense of lack of critical cultural awareness within the Maltese GFL learning context. As the main conclusion of the chapter, based on the insights obtained from the content of the student self-made films, the chapter suggests a three-step chronological model through which gradually critical cultural awareness can be enhanced and facilitated within the GFL learning context in Malta and elsewhere.