International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1932)

-782 page 31 1) the construction and working of this apparatus, adding, as a result of his experiments on three deaf mute children, the following observations : " One of the children was immediately able to read the photographed phrase . . . the value of the experiment cannot be denied because the student had no previous knowledge whatever of the sentence. The movements of the mouth occurred in perfect synchronization with the movement of the handle which worked the disc bearing the images. When I slackened the movement, the child also slowed up the rhythm of his reading. When I stopped the mechanism, the child also stopped ". The talking photographs of Demeny are a long way from the talking film, but, all the same, the suggestive method appears in them. This process, although very imperfect, excites the desire to imitate which is so important in the study of languages, whether we refer to our mother tongue or to foreign languages. In 1922, A. Sluys published a small volume entitled " La Cinematographic scolaire et post-scolaire ", wherein the pedagogic method of M. Collette director of the Etienne Marcel School of Paris was dealt with. M. Collette used to show short films to his pupils and afterwards insist on them recounting what they had seen. He attributed a special importance in this exercise to the exactitude and precision of the language employed in making the descriptions. The exhibition of these films could be repeated as often as was necessary. It was the teacher s task to point out to the pupils the precise terms and the best words to use in describing the film action, eliminating vague or unsuitable expressions which as often as not are due to imperfect observation. Collette carried out an excellent pedagogic work with this method, which is well worth while being mentioned again, because it contains in it the idea of teaching the mother tongue by means of the film. Sluys is of opinion that the film can be utilized to a great extent in teaching foreign languages, and sets forth in this connection the following statement, qualifying it, however with a perhaps : " One might perhaps also work with talking films which would one allow one to repeat the lesson as often as necessary. Here is the principle of a method which could very well be experimented. " Sluys' idea was a good one, but the point of continual repetitions of the film seems a doubtful advantage. The sound and talking film enjoys considerable use in the scientific field today. The Phonetic Institute of the University of Paris possesses a certain number of talking films. The sound film has also developed the teaching of music in many parts of the world, but all this development has always been restricted to a limited circle of listeners. In Europe, as far as I know, the talking film has not yet been utilized on any considerable scale as a means of teaching and education. It may well be that this depends not only on the high cost of this new system but also on the sense of boredom and tiredness which is given by the expression " instructional film ". The educational film is, in fact, generally considered monotonous and of little effect. Consequently, the recreational film will always maintain its superiority from the point of view of attractiveness, which is all right if an artistic character can be assured it. It is, however, certain that the educational film would have a larger number of supporters if, as Sluys points out, it were not always made with a rigid sense of economy. It is clear that the public accustomed to find in recreational films the most ingenious devices and the prodigality of a superb mise-en-scene