3. Turn the subtitles on

 

3. Turn the subtitles on

English movies are a great and fun way to build up your language skills and can be very useful to practise listening, pronunciation and build up your vocabulary. As well, viewing movies in English will expose you to some very natural and authentic exchanges in everyday situations. 

Where you can, turn on the English subtitles for movies and listen and follow along. Use the pause and rewind functions to pick up on any vocabulary or phrases you are not sure about or that you are interested in. If there are close ups of the actors then use the close ups as an opportunity to study how they are making different words through mouth and facial movements, then pause and practise those sounds yourself. You might even find it helpful to use a mirror and imitate the sounds and movements yourself.

Active listening is a very useful way to improve your skills, listen to what you hear and apply it. If you have the captions on, turn them off and listen to what you hear and write down what you hear. Listen, pause and then write what you hear and then rewind and come back and check your understanding. This type of dictation will help you focus on the individual sounds in and around words, as well as how words link and the different stress points in those linkages.