english movie can help the students improve their english?

<b> Forum for the discussion of all aspects of bilingual education </b>

Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2

buniac1
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2011 11:45 am

Post by buniac1 » Thu Feb 17, 2011 2:48 pm

I agree with the fact that students can learn English while watching movies, or even television. I have personally watched several of my favorite programs such as The Simpsons and Family guy in English, helping me to improve my overall understanding of English. I was much better at distinguishing words.

At first, students can watch television using the close caption in French or in English, depending of they initial level of English. For the first six months, I have used close caption in French to build a bank of words I was able to translate to get some of the meaning. Then I switched to English captions, where I was able to see the orthography of words. This also helped me with pronounciation. Of course, each person has its own way of pronouncing words, but it gives you a broad idea of what is expected.

amrif317
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:48 pm

Post by amrif317 » Thu Feb 17, 2011 2:49 pm

I, personally, think that watching English movies or English television programs is an excellent and fun way to learn English as a second language. Movies tend to draw you into them and people genuinely want to understand what's going on in them. This forces them to try and concentrate really hard. As was previously mentioned, DVDs are also a great way to learn English. Being able to use subtitles is always reassuring in case you miss a word or a sentence. It's important to try to avoid using subtitles in your first language, or else it kind of goes against the whole point. I learned a big part of my second language (French) by watching movies and television, and I can now say that I am bilingual.

AndreAnn
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2011 3:15 pm

Post by AndreAnn » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:04 pm

I think that students CAN improve their English skill through the use of movie watching. However, I think that it is something that they can do at home rather than in class. Since teacher don't have a lot of time to spend with their students, it is more important to teach structures and improve oral and written skills in class rather than listening ones. I think that not only movies but also tv shows are good cultural transmitters for ESL learners. I would suggest to my students to watch a movie that they are already fanmiliar with and that they know very well. This would allow them to make links between English and French and also to help them concentrate on the movie instead of concentrating on trying to understand. It is also better for the motivation since they already know the storyline. Good movies for ESL learners can include: How to train a dragon, Harry Potter ( harder because of british English) and The lion king ( for younger students).

cathjean
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:08 pm

MOvies

Post by cathjean » Thu Feb 17, 2011 10:10 pm

I agree that students can learn while watching movies. I think students need to be interrested in what they are doing in order to learn. If they like watching movies it can only be a good way for them to enjoy english. It's a good start.Once they can enjoy hearing people speaking english they will want to learn more and they will probably want to be better so they can understand inside jokes in comic movies. Plus, it helps them practice their oral comprehension. Hearing anglophones speaking can only be a good thing. It could help students with their accent and if they start watching movies young enough their accent could be less present.

Post Reply