Rethinking Explicitness and Implicitness in Film-Based Language Teaching

This study investigates the efficacy of shifting the conceptual framework of explicitness and implicitness in language learning from an instructor-centered to a learner-centered approach. Unlike traditional explicitness, which prioritizes linguistic forms, learner-centered explicitness focuses primarily on meaning-driven comprehension. The research utilized the film Materialists (Song, 2025) as the primary text, involving five non-English-major seniors with lower-intermediate proficiency. Over an eight-week period, students received explicit, meaning-oriented instruction centered on narrative language. Three subsequent tests were administered: two 20-item assessments focused on meaning, and a third 20-item assessment on meaning-form mapping based on input salience. The results demonstrated high efficacy with scores of 100% in the first test and 97% in the second, confirming that the subjects achieved near-perfect comprehension of the film’s narrative. The third test yielded an 84% success rate, indicating that explicit meaning-centered instruction effectively enhanced linguistic input salience, allowing learners to access linguistic forms through comprehension. These findings suggest that instructors should transition into supportive roles, relinquishing significant instructional authority to the learners. Since language users should ultimately determine their learning path, this study calls for a radical re-evaluation of pedagogical roles to prioritize learner agencies over traditional teacher-led methodologies. The findings support sustainable autonomy in lifelong language education.