During college days I often spent time watching TV series in English.
It was absolutely fun.
Some shows are really addictive. I often became night owl to watch those TV series.
I didn’t feel guilty about it though. Watching those shows thoroughly improved my English skills. I wasn’t just having fun but being productive by all means.
How TV series improve English
TV shows not only entertain you, but also help in improving English Language skills.
Vocabulary
While watching TV series in English, you are open to new words, phrases, idioms which are very common in spoken English and original native language.
TV shows entertain you both visually and audibly, unlike books which some people find its boring. So, they are more appealing to many people.
Listening Comprehension
If you always listen to easy English, your English listening skills won’t improve much. A more efficient way to improve listening skills is to listen something difficult in TV shown and series.
By watching various shows, you will meet both standard and regional accents of English language. With enough practice, you will get more familiar to common accents. And you will get a better understanding about how native speakers sounds in real life.
Social skills
TV shows contain a wide variety of human dialogues. Thus you will learn verbal social skills such as:
- How to greet someone
- How to show gratitude
- How to ask questions
Even though some show’s interactions are exaggerated you can still learn a lot from them.
You can make use of TV series and movies to improve the following skills:
- Vocabulary
- Reading comprehension
- Listening comprehension
- Spoken English
Watching TV series with subtitles in your native language is the least effective way to learn English. Since the subtitles are not in English you are not going to understand English uttered by actors.
Method 1
Watch TV series with English Subtitles.
It is one of the good ways to learn English without much effort. Through this method you came to know what exactly is spoken on screen. But this approach may find it difficult if your English reading skills are poor. Most English language streaming services will offer English Subtitles. Moreover, it is now common on social media platforms to add captions to videos for accessibility. So, it should be easy to find engaging TV shows and videos with English subtitle. Visual learners can benefit from being able to see the words as they are spoken, and in general, all learners can follow dialogue more easily if they can read along with it.
Watch at a lower speed. Another way to make videos and shows more accessible is to watch them at a lower speed. Channel like Netflix offers various playback speeds. So that you can listen at a pace that suits you well.
Watching a show at lower speed can improve listening skills as you will focus on each word rather than being overwhelmed by the rush of noise and missing large chunks of dialogues.
Listening comprehension is one of the more challenging language skills, so be patient with yourself, do not be disappointed if you need to slow the playback speed, and give yourself the time you need to build this important skill.
Method 2
Watch TV series without English Subtitles
Now there’s nothing to read. You’ve no choice but to pay full attention to what is being screened. The first time you watch each scene, you have no prior knowledge about what is happening. So, you have to rely completely on your listening skills. This will improve your listening comprehension like nothing else
Write Down useful words and Expressions
You will come across new expressions, slangs, words and idioms while you are watching TV shows. When this happen don’t forget to write it down. You can list out words and revise these at regular intervals. You will retain the information and deepen the grasp of the language.
Try to use new vocabulary in real life
Once you have noted down some useful sayings, you can make an effort to use them in the correct context in the real-life scenario.
Using a new vocabulary in real-life situations is a great way to affirm the learning and make sure that you don’t forget the phrases. In addition to that, it ensures that you can use them in the apt context.
Best shows for beginners
If you are a newbie animated movies are your best pals.
- The Incredibles (2 movies)
- The Toy Story (4 movies)
- Monsters Inc and Monster University
- Finding Nemo
- How to Train Your Dragon (3 movies)
- Kungfu Panda (3 movies)
- Shrek (4 movies)
Best Shows for Intermediates
- Stranger things
- Harry potter Movie series
- Peaky Blinders
- Breaking Bad
- The crown
Conclusion Watching TV can be a powerful and engaging way to learn English. It is important to realize that watching television can be an effective and enjoyable source for learning English if active learning strategies are coupled with watching. Active learning strategies would include: watching with subtitles, stopping a program to take notes. By choosing programs of interest and language level, prioritizing listening skills and working towards engaging with more complex forms. Watching it with active learning strategies will produce interesting and valuable language acquisition and learning permutations when utilized consistently and intentionally.