Getting bored reading grammar books to learn English? Want to learn it in a fun way? Try watching a movie. While learning English by understanding its grammar is fundamental, you need to be exposed to it being used in real-life situations. If English is not a common language in your environment, you can find people using it naturally in movies. Find the subtitles, and you’re good to go.
Learning English by watching a movie is fun, and when you are relaxed you will likely learn more than when sitting in your classroom thinking about your turn for answering your teacher’s question. You can watch a movie alone and rewind it and freeze it whenever necessary. A movie provides you with a lot of input that helps you improve your language competence. A movie shows you how native English speakers actually interact with each other, how they communicate their intentions and desires.
There are a lot of ways to express things, and from a movie, you might find a different way of saying something other than what you already know. You can learn more about the background or situation and what kind of tone the people use in the situation. It is hard to picture one’s intonation when you are reading a written dialog, and less hard when you actually listen to it. However, nothing beats seeing the actor’s facial expressions and listening to how they express their feelings at the same time.
From watching movies intensively you will develop a feel for correctness. When exposed to a test on structure, one might get the correct answers because they “feel that those are the correct ones,” while actually, they have stored it in their memory albeit subconsciously. You can also learn about native speakers’ cultures, lifestyles, manners, and customs from watching a movie. For example, you will know that they start a conversation with a stranger by talking about the weather.
Pick up a movie that meets your purpose. Choose one that goes with your competence level and of a genre that you’ll enjoy. Turn the subtitles on. Prepare a notebook to write down expressions that interest you, and a dictionary just in case.
Beginners films:
2 Wallace and Gromit the curse of the were rabbit
Pre-intermediate
7 Hot Fuzz
8 The King’s Speech by Colin Firth
10 Shaun of the Dead by Kate Ashfield
Intermediate and above:
