Studying and Learning English is a big task and without a teacher or people to practice with, it is very hard to keep up your progress. With the season finale of Game of thrones Season 7 out, which set up the next season really well, I’d like to point out the importance of watching films and series in English for all students around the world.
This technique works for all levels and will definitely help to expand vocabulary and to understand how various language structures are used. My first piece of advice for students who are not very confident in the language is to pick anything you have already watched so that you know the story and re watch in English. This will allow you to concentrate on the language rather than the story.
The next step is using subtitles. Firstly if you are new to the language and have just started your learning experience then you might need to start watching with subtitles in your own language. This will help to improve understanding and increase confidence. The real learning experience starts once you start watching in English with English subtitles. This is very important as very often actors are native speakers and will frequently speak in one of many British or American accents and they will also use words and language structures that a student is not familiar with. While using subtitles you can search for new words, try to understand those phrasal verbs and read real examples of structures such as the Present or Past Perfect being used in conversation.
Many students also ask, which series are the best to watch? This answer depends on personality and interests but purely for the sake of learning, the best series are probably comedy series such as How I Met your Mother, Will & Grace and Modern Family just to mention a few. Anything that discusses everyday life and situations is great and most of these shows are barely 20 minutes long so no excuses there!
I know that many of us would prefer to concentrate on who Jon Snow’s father is and what it might mean for the Iron Throne and Westeros but for all those GoT fans it’s going to be a long wait so in the meantime make watching an hour or two of series or films a weekly habit and the effects will become clear.
To finish off Remember to:
1) Choose a series or film you have already watched
2) Watch in English with subtitles in English
3) Take a note of new vocabulary, new language structures and grammar used in the episode.
4) Practice. Practice. Practice.