How to learn English with TV and films

Hi there, and welcome back to The English Breakfast. Your weekly collection of business English tips and tricks to make you look awesome in the office next week.

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I hope you’re having a great long weekend. Today I’m interrupting your Sunday morning with a CLASSIC question that every English learner asks me sooner or later…

How can I improve my English watching films and TV?

Here’s what I tell them….

If you want to learn English, watching TV shows and films is one of the best ways to expose yourself to the language in a natural and authentic way.

You'll hear lots of different accents, vocabulary, phrases, idioms, slang, and examples of what I like to call "real-life English" where you can see grammar structures and vocabulary in action.

Okay! So, let's just put on Netflix and we'll learn English automatically, right?

Well, it's not quite so simple. A lot of learners find the experience to be frustrating, sometimes even boring, and often not really useful for their language learning.

But why?

The answer's simple. It's because they don't have the right approach. So, I've put together this guide to show you some of the techniques and tricks that I tell my own students, to help maximise what you can learn while watching your favourite films and TV shows in a fun, relaxing and useful way.

Step 1 - Choose the right approach

Of course, the final goal of learning English is to be able to watch a whole film and understand everything. But as you're leaning it's important to have the right approach to listening practice. If you expect to understand every word immediately, it's likely that you'll feel frustrated and demotivated after about 10 minutes. This is a common situation among English learners and is easy to avoid by following these three approaches.

Imagine what you are listening to is like a river. It flows past you, you can't stop it, you can't go back. If you don't understand something, don't try to write it down, just let it go. The goal is to experience the language, not to understand every word. Easy This doesn't mean that the language used is simple or basic. It means that the river approach requires very little effort and focus from you. The experience feels easy and relaxed, so you can practise your listening skills this way for at least 1 or 2 hours (or even more) without feeling tired or frustrated. The river approach doesn't require your concentration, so it can be used while doing other things like cleaning the house, driving or travelling. Why is this useful? You'll reinforce the grammar and vocabulary you already know and help develop your ear for accents and the sound of the language. It also helps you to develop the habit of including English in your everyday life by watching or listening to things you would usually watch or listen to in your own language. What material should I use? You can listen to music, the radio, watch whole films, or long episodes of TV shows.

1. The River ♒️ 

Imagine what you are listening to is like a river. It flows past you, you can't stop it, you can't go back. If you don't understand something, don't try to write it down, just let it go. The goal is to experience the language, not to understand every word.

Easy 

This doesn't mean that the language used is simple or basic. It means that the river approach requires very little effort and focus from you. The experience feels easy and relaxed, so you can practise your listening skills this way for at least 1 or 2 hours (or even more) without feeling tired or frustrated. The river approach doesn't require your concentration, so it can be used while doing other things like cleaning the house, driving or travelling.

Why is this useful?

You'll reinforce the grammar and vocabulary you already know and help develop your ear for accents and the sound of the language. It also helps you to develop the habit of including English in your everyday life by watching or listening to things you would usually watch or listen to in your own language.

What material should I use?

You can listen to music, the radio, watch whole films, or long episodes of TV shows.

2. Conversation in the room 🗣️ 

Imagine you're at a party and there are two people having a conversation near you. They're laughing, whispering and it sounds like they might even be talking about you! You want to know what they're saying, but you don't want them to know you're listening. Your goal is to understand the general idea of what they're saying, not every detail. This is called understanding the "gist".

Medium difficulty

This is active listening. You're trying hard to understand what is being said. You understand some words and phrases, and you use your intuition to try and fill in the parts you don't understand. You can't stop and go back, you can't interrupt the conversation at the party and tell them to repeat that bit they said about you! You can do this for 30 to 45 minutes before getting tired.

Why is this useful?

This is the listening approach you'll use in real life when you're having a conversation and trying to understand what the other person is saying. It has the same benefits as the river approach, but if you want, while watching TV, for example, you can write down a few words or phrases to study later. Just remember to give yourself 5 minutes to translate the words and phrases, and to organise your notes after you've finished what you're watching or listening to.

What material should I use?

30 minute TV shows, longer YouTube videos (15-30minutes), podcasts, live streams on social media.

3. The spy 🕵️ 

Okay, now things get serious. The goal with this approach is to understand every single word. If you don't understand something. Stop what you're listening to. Go back. Listen again. Write it down, and translate it before continuing. You'll need something to write on, a dictionary (the wordreference app is great for this) and be in a situation where you can pause, rewind and repeat what you're watching or listening to (Friday film night with your partner, who doesn't want to learn English, is not the right moment!)

Very difficult/High effort

This is extreme active listening. It requires concentration and focus from you. You're trying hard to understand everything that's being said. You should expect to do this for 10 to 20 minutes before getting tired and needing a break.

Why is this useful?

This is focused studying. You'll learn lots of new vocabulary, phrases, idioms and really understand the details of the language used.

What material should I use?

5 minute YouTube videos, film trailers, the recap at the start of some TV shows, social media posts (reels, stories etc.)

Subtitles are your friend, sometimes.

One of the most common questions my students ask me is, "should I use subtitles?" Here's my answer…

There are three ways you can use, or not use, subtitles.

• Subtitles in your language:

This approach is useful if you just want to relax and enjoy a film you've never seen before. You won't really develop your listening skills, but you'll be exposed to the sound and rhythm of the English language.

• Subtitles in English:

This will help you to understand clearly what is being said, without the support of your own language. You'll match the pronunciation of words you see on the screen to what you hear, and start understanding how longer phrases are pronounced naturally. However, you won't really develop your listening skills because you're busy reading the subtitles.

• No subtitles:

This is the true test of your listening skills. You'll be able to feel how much harder your ear has to work to follow the dialogue. This is great practice for your listening and is exactly what you have to do when you're trying to follow a conversation in real life.

"How can I use these techniques?"

Here are some examples of how you can apply these approaches and techniques to different situations.

➡️ Click here for a worksheet you can use as a guide the next time you want to improve your english using TV and film⬅️ 

All right, that’s it. Have a great week and I’ll see you next time.

Ciao for now,

Dan

P.S Non hai ancora letto il mio libro?! Download the first two chapters of my book here for free

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