Learning English, or any other language, is not an easy task, you need a lot of dedication, time and effort; It is important in the process of this learning to incorporate didactic material which will help you understand it better and become more familiar with it. A good alternative is watching movies. Today we bring you how to learn English with movies.
It is important to clarify that this method is for people who already have some knowledge of the English language; it is rather an alternative that will help reinforce what you have learned in the classroom or in the online courses that you have taken, or are taking. With the movies you will be able to strengthen your ear more, increase vocabulary and learn everyday and street expressions that you don’t commonly see in a classroom.
As an interesting fact, we tell you that in those countries where it is customary to see movies subtitled instead of dubbed, people have a better knowledge of English.
What do you need
- TV
- DVD or Blue Ray player, either to be connected to your TV or built into your computer.
- English DVD movies of your choice
- Notebook
- Pen – pencil
- Internet connection if you are going to use virtual dictionaries
- English Dictionary.
Instructions
- Choosing the movie: you must be clear about your level of English before choosing, if you are a beginner you can opt for an action one since its dialogue is smaller. Once you’re clear about what kind of movie this will be for you, proceed to rent, download, or buy it. It is also important that you look for a movie that you know you will like, because that way learning will not be boring for you.
- The accent: it is good that you look for movies that have the accent of the English you are learning, if it is British, look for English movies, if it is American, look for movies produced in the United States, at least at first.
- Break up the movie: initially don’t try to watch it in its entirety and analyze it all, watch about 20 minutes each day, there will be good material to work on.
- Discipline: Remember that you are learning, so it is good that you set a daily schedule to watch the movie as if you had to attend a classroom.
- Intensity: it is not about watching a lot of movies and in the end you don’t learn much, you should take it easy and increase your intensity as you learn. Try to understand each movie seen well.
- Subtitles: it is important that you remove the subtitles from the film, it must not be translated; if you are a beginner you can put subtitles but in the same language, in English; if you are more advanced there should be no subtitle. If it was difficult for you to watch it without the subtitles, you can watch it again with the English subtitles, so you will improve your vocabulary.
- Comprehension: try to understand the dialogues according to the context of the movie.
- Notebook: you can use it in two ways: to write down everything you don’t understand so that you can consult it later, or you can write the expressions that you think are clear to you and then check that they are.
- Look up meanings: use dictionaries to find the meanings you don’t understand, you can use a physical one, look for applications or through search engines on the internet. It is recommended that you also use a monolingual dictionary, that is, the one that is in English with its meaning in English, so you can better understand expressions that cannot be translated as literally as a Spanish-English dictionary would.
- The grammar: in the dialogues of the film you will see that many times the grammar that you have been taught does not work 100%, you may even notice that sentences are said where the subject is omitted.
- Repeat the film: after having consulted and clarified your doubts, it is recommended that you watch the film again, so you will understand it better.
Tips
- You cannot leave grammar aside, you must study it, it is an essential part of a language; movies are just a supplementary help to learn English.
- Some days you can also apply zapping, you may come across an interesting movie to watch and learn.
- Take your time watching each fragment of the film; Do not hesitate to use the button on your control a lot to go back several times if necessary and be able to understand.
- Movies are the best tool to learn that street language that they don’t teach you at the academy or school, it will help you defend yourself in certain situations.
- It is not recommended that you choose movies that have a lot of scenes in slums, thanks to idioms, you might find it difficult to understand.
- Remember to search for movies according to the level of English you have.
- Find a movie that you have already seen and now watch it in English, knowing its plot will help you.
- If you are completely new, you can start putting English subtitles to the movies that are in Spanish.