Using Movies to Improve Your English Speaking Skills in a Week or Less
Oh, say, have you seen…?
Have you seen the “Star Wars” saga? Do you remember the funny long-eared green character called “Yoda”? Well, he is quite an interesting character for EFL teachers and students because of the way he speaks English. He doesn’t speak incorrectly, but his particular word order is specialized and unique. Can you say why?
Who hasn’t seen one of the “Harry Potter” movie series? While reading JK Rowling’s books may be more interesting, the movies also lend themselves well to use by English teachers and students. The gardener, the giant Hagrid, speaks an exemplary version of Northern British English that can serve as a distinctive model.
The plan
Whether on VHS or DVD, select scenes in which the character you want to model speaks. You, the EFL English teacher, can prepare the script directly from the scenes of the film or use the original dialogues from the book. A practical sequence could be the following:
Play the selected scene and dialog
Rewind and replay, but now you, the student, are the character.
Imitate the character’s speech and dialogue.
Repeat the imitation process as much as necessary to improve
Try to record your voice at the same time you speak at the beginning of the process.
Practice several times for at least three to five days.
On the last day of your imitation practice series, tape yourself again.
Now listen to your first efforts and compare them with your last recordings. You should notice a considerable improvement. Select another scene from the same movie with dialogue from the same character, if possible, and repeat the process.
don’t stop there
Once you’ve gone through a couple of different scenes imitating the same or different characters, you’ll definitely have a noticeably greater ease and fluency with speaking. Plus, it’s usually pretty fun, especially if you’re working with a friend, classmate, or partner. But don’t stop there, find other scenes and movie clips that you can use.
some of my favorites
How about trying other movies by your favorite actor or actress? A variety of English speaking models will help you expand your range of listening comprehension and help you complete your pronunciation of connected speech elements. There are plenty of actors and actresses with remarkable speech in the English language who can have you speaking like a native in no time. There are also, unfortunately, some whose speech is more reminiscent of something where the cat gets high.
These actors usually make good English speaking models that I like to use with my EFL students:
Harrison Ford
sidney poitier
Sean Connery
Pierce Brosnan
Clint Eastwood
brendan fraser
danny glover
James Todd Smith (aka LL Cool J)
John Travolta
These actresses are usually good English speaking models that I also like to use with my EFL students:
Angelina Jolie
Sandra Bullock
Julia Roberts
Angela Bassett (pictured above)
Halle Berry
Cameron Diaz
Reese witherspoon
Remember to review Hagrid’s speech in the Harry Potter movies and Yoda in the Stars Wars saga. You will find that they and many other characters are excellent models of what to say (or NOT to say).