Assessment of Suitability of Hausa Films Subtitled in English for Use in ESL Classroom

Abstract

The use of technology in classes across the world tackles some of the difficulties facing instructors and the students of English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL).Nowadays many countries are using subtitles to teach languages which is considered as extension of using technology in teaching English. Subtitle is a rendering of a dialogue into a written text, which is usually used in order to teach or to communicate with people who speak a different language from the film dialogue. Therefore, the main and initial aim of this paper is to see the possibility of using Hausa film to teach English to pupils in the primary school. Three Hausa films were selected as a sample. These films are Kwamandan mata (The leader of the women), Mansoor (The name of a male person) and Al’ummarmu (Our people). Two researchers watched the films two times to be familiar with the content and select target words and sentences. After the second watch. The researchers concluded that the selected films could not be used in the classroom, because of the number of errors found in them. These errors are not limited to but include the incorrect use of tenses, concord violation, improper use of prepositions and using unnecessary words as well as the omission of necessary items. Other part of the findings revealed that punctuation marks are not properly utilised. Thus, the study recommends that subtitles in the classroom, must be a good