Let Hollywood help you to improve your English!
A lazy evening at home with a DVD and a glass of wine in one hand and a pen in the other- it’s time to learn English…the easy way!
Films, or movies, provide us with hours of entertainment but they can also be incredibly useful learning tools. If you are an intermediate (B1) student or higher, you should be able to watch an English language movie (with or without English subtitles) and understand the main gist of the storyline(s). Lower level learners will usually need to turn on subtitles in their native language.
Before you turn the film on, decide on your aims, e.g:
- Today I want to learn 10 new English words/expressions
- Today I want to watch an entire film in English without having to use subtitles / stop the film and rewind
If you’re watching a film that you’ve seen before, you should keep a notebook beside you and keep track of any English words or expressions that you don’t understand. Afterwards, look them up in your English-English dictionary (e.g. Longman’s Dictionary of Contemporary English, Macmillan’s English Dictionary for Advanced Learners)
After you’ve watched the film, why not write a review of it and post it on an English language movie website (e.g. Internet Movie Database www.imdb.com), or if you dont feel so confident, give it to your teacher to correct.
If you enjoy writing in your native language, you could try some creative writing in English by rewriting the ending to the movie or developing the story of one of the main characters. The sky really is the limit with these kind of activities!
So, what are you waiting for? Just press Play and soon you’ll be learning English from the comfort of your sofa!
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