Movies and movies give more than just entertainment. Watching movies in foreign languages is a fun and motivating way to improve your language skills. While enjoying a movie, you can immerse yourself in authentic and varied language, visual context, and new expressions that you might not find in a textbook. Below are some ways that watching English movies can help you learn English and guide you on how to make the most of this technique.
How watching movies helps improve your English skills
1. Listening skills
Watching movies is a great way to improve your listening skills. You’ll hear English used naturally, English informally, rubbish words and phrases you don’t often find in books or dictionaries.
2. Speaking skills
Repeating what you hear on the screen can go a long way in improving your speaking skills, from your fluency, word linking, pronunciation to correct intonation.
3. Vocabulary and grammar
You will have the opportunity to learn many words, phrases and grammar and how they are used in real life.
Watching movies and movies obviously helps to improve your English. However, while some can use this technique effectively, many people find it difficult. For example, there are no subtitles; they have to keep pausing and playing to understand; find it difficult to take notes while enjoying the movie; they are not sure they will be able to remember these words afterwards.
So how can learning English through movies be fun and effective?
1. Enjoy them
You don’t need to understand everything. If you try too hard, it will be a frustrating experience to study the language. Instead, try to pick up on words and grammar points you already know and those you’re unfamiliar with. You can pause and play when you find something interesting or want to check something out. It is easier and saves time if you have both English subtitles in your native language. Since not all movies have them, you can check the transcripts of the movies.
2. Look again, listen and follow
Rewatch your favorite movies and replay your favorite scenes. The more you rewatch, the more you can focus on the speech because you already know what’s going on in each scene. Instead of concentrating on what is happening, you can pay more attention to what you hear. If you don’t have time to watch the movie again, listen to the audio of the movie. You can rip audio from movies, save them as Mp3 files, and play them while doing other things. Also, imitate the way the actors say the lines by repeating them. You can look at the transcripts while you do it.
3. Use movies to reinforce what you have learned from the textbook lessons.
You can remember many new words and grammar by watching movies. Just compile transcripts of your favorite movies into a single document. For new words and grammar that you find in the lessons of your ELICOS courses, you can find them in the script, then check when and how they are used in different scenes of the movie. To better remember the words and grammar, you can watch and listen to the audio again, color the script lines of the scenes that have the words you are studying, and repeat them. Repeat and act out the scenes until you can recite and understand them without looking at the transcript and your notes.
In one word
Learning English through movies is a fun and effective strategy to improve your language skills. Don’t stress too much! Just enjoy watching movies, rewatch, listen and mimic your favorite movies and scenes. Subtitles and transcripts are also very helpful. By doing so, you might be surprised at how your language improves as time goes on!