Watching films to help you with learning a language

linguadmin

Nov 28, 2024

Foreign Films

Catching the latest film in a foreign language isn’t just entertainment; it’s a great way to increase your language fluency and motivation… but be careful!

Learning by immersion

Immersion in the foreign language can be very powerful when learning a language. Short of living in the country, what better way is there to immerse yourself than through film? Films ofer a great mix of visuals, audio and full context to help make your learning memorable and striking. You are exposed to a range of language, from street slang to specialist jargon. You will encounter new cultural references which text books cannot hope to keep up to date with. Even if you in the early stages, listening to the language helps get you use to the cadence and music of the speech. The use of subtitles can help you with integrating new vocabulary and expresions. The relaxation you experience watching a film can be beneficial.

Learning Words in Context

In films, you hear the words in context, just like a baby learning its mother language. A wide vocabulary is essential for real fluency. When the action hero says “cut the red wire”, you see the wire, read the subtitle, and have the excitement of the film to imprint “wire” in your vocabulary. Often a film will repeat the essential vocabulary for the plot so you get continuous exposure to help anchor the new words in your mind.

Pronunciation and Intonation

One of the trickiest bits of learning any language is speaking accuring. Watching films can be part of your solution. Just as you learnt from lots of listening when you picked up your mother tongue, so you can learn by listening to the actors’ intonation and pronunciation. You can imitate their pronunciation and speech patterns. Pay attention to accents, rhythm and emphasis; for most learners, this should ideally be a conscious process rather than hoping it will happen.

Films can often showcase conversational language which isn’t always covered in a formal language courses; expect to hear slang, idioms, contractions and casual language. In time, this can make you more comfortable with real-life, real-time conversations in a foreign language.

Cultural Insights

A foreign film will give you a front-row seat to the country’s culture. It will help you understand some of the cultural norms and traditions and even help with more mundane things like what the post-boxes, police cars or street furniture look like.

Watching a Japanese film will get you to observe the significance of bowing as a way of greeting and showing respect. A French film might show you some of the culinary or mealtime traditions for which our Gallic neighbours are famous.

And yet… pitfalls

If you are an early to intermediate learner of a new language, you must be aware not to be disheartened if you don’t understand everything. The will be lots of slang and fast conversation with unfamiliar vocabulary that you cannot hope immediately to absorb.

Subtitles can be great, but there are often mistakes, out of place Americanisms or poor synchronisation of the subtitles and audio. Slang and swear words are often erroneously translated. In my experience, this is particularly alarming in French films where the English translations are often rendered much more coarsely than the original.

Whilst a film gives you immersion, it isn’t the same as living in the country if you are only experiencing the culture for an hour and a half at a time.

Next steps

Sign up for a language course at Lingua Learn UK! We offer public courses, private tuition, lessons for businesses, adults and kids in French, Mandarin, German, Spanish, Italian and many other languages. All our lessons are with native-speaker, university graduate qualified teachers. Our teachers will be able to guide you so that you can make the most of the opportunities that watching foreign films will bring you alongside a Lingua Learn Course.

Why not check out…

Channel 4’s World Drama on demand selection

BBC’s World Drama

Easy French/ Easy German etc Youtube channel: short street interviews with subtitles in English and the target language so you can easily compare and contrast.

ARD Mediathek – A German mainstream broadcaster’s streaming service. No subtitles, but you can choose a documentary or similar where you can see what is going on.

Or change the audio and subtitle settings on your streaming service.

About your blogger

Hello, I’m Tim – head of Lingua Learn UK. I have been involved in languages teaching for over thirty years, principally in French, German and Spanish. At Lingua Learn UK, I co-ordinate native speaker teachers of 14 languages, all university graduates and qualified teachers like me.

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NAME	Ms Xxxxxx Xxxxx
NATIONALITY	German
LANGUAGES	German (Native) English (Fluent) French (B2)
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE	7 years of teaching / assessing experience
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NAME	Mrs Xxxxxx Xxxxxxx
NATIONALITY	Jordanian
LANGUAGES	Arabic (native) English (Fluent) French (Fluent)
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE	16 years of teaching / Assessing experience
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NAME	Mr Xxxxx Xxxxxxxx
NATIONALITY	Italian
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NAME	Mrs xxxxxx xxxxxx
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NAME	Ms xxxxxx xxxxxx
NATIONALITY	French
LANGUAGES	French (Native) English (Fluent)
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE	7 years of teaching / assessing experience
QUALIFICATIONS	- DAEFLE (Teaching French as a foreign language) - Bachelor's degree in business - 7 years teaching the French language

Watching films to help you with learning a language

Learning by immersion

Learning Words in Context

Pronunciation and Intonation

Cultural Insights

And yet… pitfalls

Next steps

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4 Skills Assessment Full Detailed Report
General Evaluation
Xxxxxxx has a great grasp of the English Language; however, there is definitely room for improvement. Specifically, in terms of grammar, some tenses need a brush-up to further emphasise their use and placement within a sentence.

Recommended Program: B1.4
The use of advanced vocabulary should be encouraged, followed by tips and tricks on how to avoid using basic vocabulary. In general, all areas could be improved, and reading/listening to certain media types, such as: articles, journals, e-books etc., would help to improve that.

Fluency
xxxxxxx is a confident speaker and is proficient at using the target language. He is talkative and can 'hold his own' during a conversation. He tries to answer in as much detail as possible, although he could be more informative. The conversation often fell short, with just a few short-phrase answers or awkward silences, between topics. There were some issues when linking sentences to each other, such as his heavy usage of 'and' and 'but' without using other linking words. Passive forms were also ok, but when posed to ask a question in the passive form he had some difficulty. Despite making a few mistakes here and there he tried his best to keep the conversation going and he did not let his mistakes ruin the flow of the conversation. He has limited knowledge on certain topics such as education, law and history in terms of vocabulary and his lack of knowledge in these subjects was quite noticeable.

Grammar
xxxxxxx showed a great use of grammatical rules and construction. He has a very good grasp of certain tenses, such as simple present / past perfect and past continuous tenses. He made a few mistakes with the past perfect simple / continuous, as he sometimes misused them. He also had some issues with the future continuous tense, not always using it when it was appropriate to do so. In general, he used passive structures correctly and also used inquisitive tags and phrasal verbs properly. In some cases, he did put the pronoun after the verb but once the structure was explained he was always quick to self-correct.

Pronunciation
His pronunciations were great overall; however, it should be mentioned that he has a strong accent and this does sometimes affect the clarity of his speech. Even though this was the case, it was not always so noticeable and he did not make many mistakes. The biggest issues are with certain advanced vocabulary related to certain themes and with adjectives such as 'reputable', 'overshadowed', etc. He also had several issues with the pronunciation of the past simple tense, especially with the (t) sound.

Vocabulary
He exhibited a great command of a broad range of vocabulary and its use during a variety of topics. He used extensive words and absolute adjectives, although he would more often than not use more simple vocabulary. The use of advanced adverbs was a little sparse, and words like 'very' and 'a lot' were used to replace them.

Writing
His writing skills are very good although, as with his speaking assessment, similar mistakes were made. In general, tense use was ok, but he was unable to use more advanced tenses in writing or speaking. He therefore didn't use them to their full potential and ended up using more basic tenses instead. The third and second conditional were not used to their full effect, especially considering the essay topic was about where he sees himself in the future.

Suggestions:
Xxxxxxx has a great grasp of the English Language; however, there is definitely room for improvement. Specifically, in terms of grammar, some tenses need a brush-up to further emphasise their use and placement within a sentence. In general, all areas could be improved, and reading/listening to certain media types, such as articles, journals, e-books etc., would help to improve that. The use of advanced vocabulary should be encouraged, followed by tips and tricks on how to avoid using basic vocabulary.

4 Skills Assessment Spoken & Writing Listening & Reading
Name of participant	ID No.	Date	Overall Grade	Oral Score	Written Score	Listening Score	Reading Score	Comments
			A2.2	A2.2	B1.1	A2.1	A2.2	Fluency is good. Accuracy is good. Tenses are OK. Does not use past tense. Vocabulary is OK. Understands questions asked, but struggles a little to speak due to lack of confidence.
			A2.2	A2.1	A2.2	A2.2	A2.2	Good sentence structure and good knowledge of the language. Fluency and accuracy are good. Speaks clearly. Some grammar gaps.
			A1.2	A1.1	A1.2	A1	A1.2	Has basic English skills. Sentence structure is OK. Fluency and accuracy are not very good. Bad habits from home language, does not use past tense (simple)
			A1.2	A1.2	A1.2	A1.2	A1.2	Has good fluency. Gets their point across easily. Tends to stick to the basics only. Lots of bad habits. e.g. continuous tense for everything.
			B1.1	B1.1	B1.2	B1.1	A2.2	Has good, clear sentence structure. Wide range of vocabulary. Has done English courses before.
			A1.1	A1.1	A1.2	A1.1	A1.1	Has some basic knowledge. Tends to use simple structure. No complex grammar. Their writing seems to be a bit better than their spoken.
			B1.3	B1.3	B1.3	A2.2	B2.1	Has very good fluency and OK accuracy. Tends to use continuous tense form for more structures. Bad habits and grammar gaps.
			B1.2	B1.2	B1.3	B1.1	B1.2	Shy, has good fluency. Wide range of vocabulary. Uses simple present and past tenses and sometimes past participles.
			A1.1	A2.2	A2.1	A1.2	A1.2	Spanish accent. Speaks very well. Sentence structure is good but not accurate, some grammar gaps and bad habits. Very chatty.
			A1.2	A1.1	A1.2	A1.2	A1.1	Speaks with an Ethiopian accent. Has good knowledge of the language. Sentence structure is good, has both good habits and grammar gaps.

2 Skills Assessment Spoken & Writing
Name of participant	ID No.	Date	Overall Grade	Oral Score	Speaking	Comments
			B2.2	B2.2	B2.2	Excellent language range. Some minor bad habits due to limited exposure and practice. This is also confirmed in their writing.
			B2.1	B2.2	B2.4	Very good language range and ability. Some minor bad habits. Writing skills are somewhat weaker than speaking skills.
			B1.4	B1.4	B1.4	Is very fluent when speaking. Has very good range and accuracy. Has just returned from the USA after completing studies. Writing is very good.
			B1.2	B1.2	B1.2	Very good fluency and understanding of the language. Has travelled to Scotland, UK and USA. Uses present perfect tense and past simple tense very comfortably.
			B1.2	B1.2	B1.1	Has very good fluency and range. Some grammar gaps due to limited exposures. Not always totally confident.
			A2.2	A2.2	A2.2	Good fluency and range. Has lost some accuracy and confidence due to limited exposure to the target language.
			A2.1	A2.1	A1.2	Has good language ability and knowledge but does not always use it unless prompted. Tends to stick to simple and familiar language structures and grammar. Writing skills are somewhat weak.
			A1.2	A2.1	A1.2	Has good fluency and range. Struggles with using more complex grammar and structure. Writing skills are somewhat weak.
			A1.2	A1.2	A1.2	Has good fluency and range. Does not use correct structure or grammar and tends to translate mentally from Arabic before speaking. Writing and comprehension are weak.

Spoken Assessment
Name of participant	ID No.	Date	Overall Grade	Speaking	Comments
			B1.4	B1.4	Is relatively fluent in their speaking and can relay their message across clearly. However, they lack the professional ambience.
			B1.4	B1.4	Two main weaknesses: pronunciation, and the need to learn to use short, precise, direct sentences which sound professional and accurate, rather than casual and inefficient. Also tends to speak quickly and thus articulate poorly because they want to show a strong command of the language, which is unfortunately reflecting negatively on their speaking abilities.
			B1.2	B1.2	Has an elementary background of the target language. However, they need to practice more grammatical skills in order to strengthen verb tense and sentence structure knowledge in order to use the correct grammar in spoken language.
			B1.2	B1.2	Has a sound basic background in communicating using the English language, but needs to be prompted to interact more frequently. Has not had much exposure to English whilst in Turkey,
			A2.1	A2.1	Has good fluency and range, but structure and accuracy is weak. Tends to translate from Arabic to English.
			A2.1	A2.1	Has good fluency and is able to get the point across very well. Lacking in range and structure. Has a lot of grammar gaps and bad habits.