Is it a good Idea to Learn English through Movies?
Who does not enjoy a good movie? Movies are an excellent way to get a view into the ideas, myths and values of the culture they represent and while they seem the perfect way to learn English, learners must be made aware of the pitfalls they represent.
Almost all ESL learners feel that watching English movies is a practical and enjoyable tool for learning the language and improving their language skills. Many watch English movies either via television or through DVD rentals on a daily basis. This practice has the advantage of presenting a ‘living language’ to learners, a language that is ‘up-to-date’ with the latest idioms and slang usage. But it is this very factor that can be a disadvantage to some ESL students.
The majority of dialogue found in movies uses non-standard usage and diction, which can easily frustrate a beginner student. If the student is learning the correct phonetics and pronunciation in the classroom and then listens to the average movie they can quickly become confused or pick up bad habits. Depending on the type of movie, the amount of cultural deviation from the English ‘norm’ might be severe enough to be unintelligible (try understanding the diction of ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’)! It is also important to understand the English country the movie is targeted towards. A UK English movie is quite different from an American or Australian film.
A good rule of thumb is to start with a DVD movie that the learner is already familiar with, say one from their own country of origin (if available) then activate the ‘subtitle’ function set to ‘English’. This will allow the student to see how their language translates into written English. Next they should chose a movie with a quite theme (such as a ‘love’ story) and avoid the car chases and explosions (these movies are usually full of slang and curses).
Learning English by watching movies in the language can be a fun and enjoyable way to help learn the language but should only be used as an ancillary tool by those who already have a grasp of English and is definitely NOT for beginners.
No Comments
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.