[Kookmin Review - Monday,May, 27, 2013]

Movie English: Self-study instruction with movies

  • 13.06.10 / 조수영
Date 2013-06-10 Hit 19580

I believe a lot of students would agree that using movies is a good way to learn English. They admit movies include authentic expressions which can be heard in real life. However, not many students would choose movie scripts for texts to study. They prefer texts where 'key expressions', 'grammatical explanations' and 'exercises' are clearly provided. They want to be told what to memorize and which expressions are useful rather than they find them themselves. However, I think that they miss a great opportunity by limiting themselves to these kinds of materials. In the upcoming summer vacation, why not study English with movies referring to the following process that I use?

1. Choose a movie you'd like to master. Usually, your favorite movies are the best choice but if you are not sure, I recommend romantic comedies in which we can observe a lot of turn-taking and misunderstanding with great emotion.

2. Get the script. Buy a book of movie scripts or simply go to http://www.dailyscript.com/

3. Watch the movie for 10 minutes with Korean subtitles to fully understand what is going on.

4. Read the English script and translate it into Korean by yourself. Do not use a dictionary. Highlight the words you need to check later. For example, in the statement from the movie The Accidental Husband, “Podolski! I own his team but nothing could beat Podolski!” you might want to find out who Podolski is, how good he is and who owns his team. Do not grudge the time you spend in finding this information. This background knowledge will help you later in real communication situations.

5. Watch the movie scene again without subtitles.

6. Read the script of the scene, focusing on expressing the emotions. You will realize that in order to express the characters’ emotional states well, you must first be aware of what they say. The more you understand your characters’ backgrounds, the better able you will be to act their roles. This process will help you to memorize the lines easily.

7. Act out the scene without the script then go back to the next scene and continue the process.
As movies scripts do not look like ELT (English Language Training) materials and you start to enjoy learning English through this process, you might doubt the effect. But trust me, it will bring a huge difference. The background knowledge you learn will help you get involved with real communication, translating into Korean will strengthen your reading and grammatical ability, and reading with emotion will help the lines remain in your long-term memory.

[Kookmin Review - Monday,May, 27, 2013]

Movie English: Self-study instruction with movies

Date 2013-06-10 Hit 19580

I believe a lot of students would agree that using movies is a good way to learn English. They admit movies include authentic expressions which can be heard in real life. However, not many students would choose movie scripts for texts to study. They prefer texts where 'key expressions', 'grammatical explanations' and 'exercises' are clearly provided. They want to be told what to memorize and which expressions are useful rather than they find them themselves. However, I think that they miss a great opportunity by limiting themselves to these kinds of materials. In the upcoming summer vacation, why not study English with movies referring to the following process that I use?

1. Choose a movie you'd like to master. Usually, your favorite movies are the best choice but if you are not sure, I recommend romantic comedies in which we can observe a lot of turn-taking and misunderstanding with great emotion.

2. Get the script. Buy a book of movie scripts or simply go to http://www.dailyscript.com/

3. Watch the movie for 10 minutes with Korean subtitles to fully understand what is going on.

4. Read the English script and translate it into Korean by yourself. Do not use a dictionary. Highlight the words you need to check later. For example, in the statement from the movie The Accidental Husband, “Podolski! I own his team but nothing could beat Podolski!” you might want to find out who Podolski is, how good he is and who owns his team. Do not grudge the time you spend in finding this information. This background knowledge will help you later in real communication situations.

5. Watch the movie scene again without subtitles.

6. Read the script of the scene, focusing on expressing the emotions. You will realize that in order to express the characters’ emotional states well, you must first be aware of what they say. The more you understand your characters’ backgrounds, the better able you will be to act their roles. This process will help you to memorize the lines easily.

7. Act out the scene without the script then go back to the next scene and continue the process.
As movies scripts do not look like ELT (English Language Training) materials and you start to enjoy learning English through this process, you might doubt the effect. But trust me, it will bring a huge difference. The background knowledge you learn will help you get involved with real communication, translating into Korean will strengthen your reading and grammatical ability, and reading with emotion will help the lines remain in your long-term memory.

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