Working drama through screenplays in ESP for music higher education

Abstract

Whiplash is a 2014 American drama movie written and directed by Damien Chazelle. It describes the relationship between an ambitious jazz drumming student and an abusive professor and conductor at the imaginary Shaffer Conservatory in New York City. Departing from the development of a series of tasks around the film in the English classroom at the conservatories of Alicante and València, the project described in this article exploits audiovisual materials to teach English for Specific Purposes to music students. It is the mission of teachers to foster student’s meaningful understanding, and give them the necessary comprehension instruments to prompt the desire to keep exploring the works on their own and, thus, promote their interaction with the fiction piece, as well as the dialogue between students and the texts. It is from that perspective that we have put into practice the use of the screenplay along with the film so that students achieve a taste for playful and independent learning through music related materials. The experience has also served as a first contact with critical literacy in the classroom. To conclude, the actions undertaken have been successful in the achievement of the set objectives, as the results of the questionnaires among students show.