So you read the title of this post and you’re probably thinking, “Adam, didn’t you just write an awesome post about how to use films and series to improve your English?”.
And the answer to that is, “Yes, I did”.
Watching films and series is a great (and fun and easy) way to practise English.
So why did I choose this title, you may ask?
Well, it’s not that watching films and series is bad per se.
It isn’t.
But there are a couple of problems with it.
The first problem is when you only watch films and series to practise English, or when the majority of your contact with English is via the TV.
Not because I think you should spend less time in front of the TV. That’s none of my business.
It’s more related to the quality and consistency of the contact that you have with English.
Too many people spend too much time only watching films and series in English to improve, or they go the whole week without any contact with English, then spend the weekend watching a load of TV to compensate.
In order to improve massively, you need to hit English from all angles.
The key here is variety.
Also, if you go a long time without any contact with English, watching a lot of TV over the course of two days can’t compensate for the five days of no contact.
The key here is consistency.
Let me put it another way.
Salads are very healthy and they can help you lose weight too.
But if you only eat salads?
Exactly. Not very healthy.
What about if you spend the whole week eating rubbish then eat a load of salad at the weekend? Will that compensate for the rubbish you’ve been eating?
No.
Salads and English have a lot more in common than you think!
Being healthy is much more than just eating salads. Likewise, you don’t need to be obsessive, but you should do at least one thing every day which contributes to your health.[thrive_leads id=’1049′]
If you want to really improve your English, you can’t spend most of your time doing nothing in English then watching TV at the weekend in English.
Likewise, you can’t only watch films and series to improve your English.
I’m not saying don’t watch films and series. I think you should. It’s fun, relaxing and entertaining.
Just don’t only do that.
Variety and consistency.
Before we get to the second problem, let’s ask ourselves what benefits you get from watching TV in English.
Many people think that the greatest benefit from watching films and series in English is listening.
However, the greatest benefit you get from watching TV in English is actually vocabulary. Now, because you hear that vocabulary, people automatically think it’s a great listening exercise.
That’s not exactly how it works.
Let’s say the best thing about it is vocabulary through listening and observation.
It’s a great vocabulary building exercise. You’ll learn vocabulary like expressions, phrases, proverbs and interjections.
Interjections are those short phrases, often a single word, that represent a feeling. Phew! Wow! Yummy! Yuck! Oh my! No way! are just a few examples of interjections.
These interjections really help you sound more natural when speaking English, and the best way to learn them is from films and series as they are the closest thing you have to a real life conversation with a native speaker.
The thing that makes it such a good vocabulary exercise is that you have visuals. Visuals help you understand what is being said when you don’t know what is being said.
The visuals give you context and situation, which are very important to understanding.
You can prove this by watching a programme without any sound. On mute. You’ll notice that you can more or less know what’s happening without listening to a single word.
This brings us to the second problem, though.
The visuals that make it such a good vocabulary exercise are the very thing that make it not a fantastic listening exercise.
It’s a good listening exercise, but it’s not fantastic.
We know that in a face to face conversation, only a small percentage of the message you want to communicate is the words you say. The vast majority of communication is nonverbal: body language (posture, facial expressions, gestures) and other vocal elements like intonation, sentence and word stress, and so on.
This also means that most of what you understand when watching TV doesn’t come from the words, but rather these other elements.
That’s not exactly a problem in itself because language is all of these things. But, if you’re trying to improve your listening skills, you can’t only depend on watching TV because only a small part of what you practise will be listening.
If you want to practise listening 100%, you need things that give you 100% listening.
That means no visuals.
To really challenge your listening skills, you need to remove the visuals.
The absolute best practice exercise for improving your listening skills can be found here.
But what are the best examples of listening practice without visuals?
Podcasts
You can listen to mine here.
There are thousands of podcasts in English as they’re very popular in the UK and the US. And they don’t even need to be about learning English. Find a podcast in English about your hobbies and interests and start listening.
You like running? There are running podcasts. You like archeology? There are podcasts about that too. You like gardening? You get the idea…
And the easiest way to learn is by finding something that you already do in your language, and do it in English.
Radio
There are loads of great radio stations out there. You can download a radio streaming app to listen to radio stations from all over the world to get a local perspective of the news and hear a variety of accents.
A good place to start is BBC World Service.
The language is slightly adapted for a more international audience and they cover world news from a global perspective.
Audiobooks
This one is the best.
I doubt many (if any) of you have “read” an audiobook, even in your own language.
It’s a great way to read a novel as you become completely immersed in the story. A book has on average 80,000 words in it. That’s 80,000 words that you’ll listen to and absorb.
Try it out, you’ll love it.
A good way to start is by listening to an audiobook of a book you’ve read in your own language. Or if you’re feeling confident, get one that’s on your to-read list.
You can get a free trial with Audible and start listening to a book today.
Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks
When you listen without the visuals, you find that you start to create the visuals yourself. It just goes to show how important visuals are for comprehension. When you create the visuals yourself in your head, it helps you understand and it reinforces the words and vocabulary in your head.
Clever brain!
So continue watching your favourite shows and films in English, but also practise listening occasionally without the visuals.
That’s what will take your listening skills to the next level.