The Internet TESL Journal
Finding Information on the International
Movie Database Website
Shiao-Chuan Kung
sckung [at] mail.wtuc.edu.tw
Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages (Taiwan, Republic of China)
Introduction
The Web's multimedia capabilities and interactive functions have made it
an attractive medium for ESL students. Documents on the Web cover a huge
range of topics, are mostly written in English and are constantly increasing
in number. The Web is thus a rich database of authentic material. The International
Movie Database is an example of a source of authentic material that would
appeal to most teenage and adult students of ESL. It contains biographies
of stars, plots of movies, famous quotations, cast information, records
of awards received by films, and commentaries by viewers. This lesson requires
that students practice on-line navigation and research skills and carefully
decode information found at the site in order to complete the assignment.
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Level: high-intermediate
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Time: 1 hour
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Materials: computers with a web browser and Internet access. Depending
on the number of computers available and the size of the class, students
can work individually or in teams of two or three.
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Procedure:
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Introduce the activity by asking the students to name two movies that they
have heard about or been to.
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Ask the students to think about sources where they could find information
about the movie "Saving Private Ryan" and the actor Tom Hanks.
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Have the students launch their web browsers and point to the web site http://www.imdb.com.
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Explain the different search methods (by titles, people, characters, quotes,
bios, plots) that this site allows.
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Demonstrate how to find a summary of the plot of "Saving Private Ryan"
and biographical data about Tom Hanks.
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Give the following assignment.
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Circulate around the classroom addressing technical difficulties or answering
questions.
Finding Information on the International
Movie Database Website
Fill in the blanks with information found at http:// www.imdb.com.
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In the movie "You've Got Mail," the female lead character is played by
________________ and the main male character by ________________.
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The movie "Braveheart" tells the story of a ________________ (nationality)
hero named ________________. One of the taglines of this movie is "Every
man ________________, not every man really ________________."
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"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is the English title for a film directed
by ________________. It is an action adventure movie about two warriors
going after a stolen ________________. It was filmed in ________________
province, China.
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The character of Hamlet in the 1996 version of the film was played by the
British actor ________________. However, the 1921 version of the movie
was played by the ________________ (nationality) actress Asta Nielsen.
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In the movie "Mission Impossible II," mission commander Swanbeck says to
the main character "Mr. ________________, this isn't mission difficult,
it's mission impossible. ÎDifficult' should be ___________________________________."
The agent's mission in this movie is to recover and destroy a genetically
engineered disease called ________________.
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Much to many people's surprise, Gwyneth Paltrow is not English. She was
actually born in ________________. She received an Oscar Award in 1998
for her work in the film ________________.
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The Italian film known as "Life is Beautiful" in English tells the story
of a carefree and humorous Jewish ________________ (occupation) who marries
a lovely schoolteacher called ________________. When the Nazis take over
Italy, he tries vigorously to protect his son from the horrors around him
by telling the child that the Holocaust is a game where the winner will
win a ________________.
Answers
1. Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks
2. Scottish, William Wallace, dies, lives
3. Ang Lee, sword, Anhui
4. Kenneth Branagh, Danish
5. Hunt, a walk in the park for you, chimera
6. Los Angeles, "Shakespeare in Love"
7. book keeper, Dora, tank
Follow-up
The lesson can be followed up by asking the students to write a paragraph
similar to the items in the assignment. The paragraph should contain blanks
that can be filled in with information found at the site. Have the students
submit their writing together with the correct answers.
The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VII, No. 8, August 2001
http://iteslj.org/
http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Kung-MovieDatabase.html