Not only are clusters of movies, films, videos and documentary clips stimulating, interesting and enjoyable for your English as a foreign language learners, but the broad selection of available genres and types offers a substantial range of English language teaching and learning didactic aids. We previously identified a film cluster as simply a group or series of related movies, clips or videos. First though let's get a brief over view of the genres in which most films are classified.

Popular Film Genres

Let's look at a few of the more commonly available film genres, what they are and exactly how we might use them in our English as a foreign language classroom settings.

The more widely known movie and film types include:

• Horror or Terror – Designed to evoke strong negative emotions like fear, horror, revulsion or suspense and apprehension examples of this genre include the likes of current or recent films such as “Nightmare on Elm Street”, “Saw”, “Halloween” and “Scream”. The mass of “monster” films are also included in this genre in many cases, although some like “Alien” and its sequels are actually more thrillers (or sci-fi) than horror.

• Romance – This genre frequently features a “Romeo and Juliet” type of story where boy meets, pursues then gets (or sometimes doesn't get” the girl. Current and recent examples would be films like “Titanic”, “Pretty Woman”, “An Officer and a Gentleman”

• Drama – Always a popular genre worldwide, it features a strong story with lots of unpredictable ups and downs with a surprise ending in many cases. Think of films such as: “Man on Fire”, “Code Name: Swordfish”

• Action / Adventure – Yet another nearly insatiable genre worldwide is this exciting type of story. Set in well-know places (world cities like London, Paris, New York, the Amazon or Antarctica) with the story jumping from one scene to another in rapid-fire succession, you can never know what to expect next as the story unfolds, keeping us glued to our seats in anticipation of one special effect after another. Surely you know these examples and many others of your favorites: “Jurassic Park”, “Die Hard”, the James Bond, “Superman”, “Batman”, and “Spiderman” series of films.

• Westerns – Usually set in Mexico, the American West or on occasion, the Pampas of Argentina, this evergreen genre goes in and out of popularity in many countries, but is a perennial favorite in the USA. This genre of cowboys and Indians includes many films starring John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, the stone-faced Lee Van Cleef and the late Charles Bronson among others.

These genres in which most film clusters are classified, feature a character or story series like the Star Wars saga, the Matrix sequels, the Indiana Jones series of adventures, James Bond, Harry Potter, the Die Hard series of films, King Kong remakes, Tarzan, Batman, Spiderman and numerous others also have sequels, trilogies or multiple parts. For the improvement of multiple English language skills and competencies such as listening comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, in-context use of idioms and expressions or applied use of connected speech elements in English language learners, such film and video clusters or related series can be invaluable.