How will watching English films help me?
Watching movies in English will help you in many ways:
1. Listening skills – You will hear English being used in a very natural way. Some parts may be spoken too fast for you to understand but it will be a perfect way for you to get used to hearing native speakers talk to each other. You will also hear informal English and slag words and phrases that you often do not find in books or dictionaries.
2. Speaking skills – Hearing natives speak will also help your speaking skills, especially your fluency. You will hear how to link your words together and where to put intonation on certain words and sentences. Why not watch films with your friends and speak about them afterwards? Or you could even find movie scripts online and act out scenes with your friends! You can then play the scene to check if your pronunciation was correct.
3. Pronunciation – We all know that English pronunciation is extremely difficult and when you read words it is hard to know how they should be said. Hearing native English speakers talk to each other will help you to hear how words are pronounced. If you are using English subtitles, you will also be able to see how the words are written.
4. Vocabulary – By watching English movies, you will hear many new words and phrases, especially idioms and colloquial expressions. I would suggest keeping a notebook with you and writing down any new words or phrases you hear and you would like to remember or you don‛t understand. You can look up the meaning later or ask your English teacher.
Which film should I watch?
Choosing a film to watch that is suitable for your level of English can be difficult. If your level of English is quite low, choose a movie that you have already seen or a movie made for children which uses simpler language (for example, Pixar films). However, if you have a higher level of English, you can try to challenge yourself and watch films with more advanced language. Whatever your level of English is, you might be tempted to switch on subtitles. If so, we would recommend using English subtitles so you can read along while you are listening. Of course, if watching a film in English and reading English subtitles is too difficult, you should start by watching films with subtitles in your language (this is meant to be a fun way to learn English after all!)
