CAN WE LEARN ENGLISH BY WATCHING THE SUBTITLES OF MOVIES AND TV SHOWS?
Reason why watching English Subtitles are Good
Watching subtitles is a good idea indeed as by watching and reading the subtitles on the screen you will be able to understand what the characters are trying to say. Not only that but the images and story will make some of the vocabulary clearer. The same way we learned our native language in school but with only one difference that is as a kid you learned without subtitles and your listening and speaking probably improved faster than your reading and writing.
Disadvantages of using this approach: Worst Impact on Listening and Speaking skill
As you depend so much on reading the subtitles you stop focusing on Listening and hence your listening skill gets impacted. It’s not for sure that your Listening skill will be affected but if it does, you could end up with poor listening skills.
Not only your Listening skill but it will also impact your pronunciation skill .Your pronunciation could also get worse. That’s because in English words are not always said the way they are spelled. We don’t say ‘Sit down’ as two separate words – we say ‘Si-down,’ we don’t even pronounce the ‘b’ in ‘comb’ or the ‘w’ in ‘wednesday’.
Reading the subtitles may focus you too much on the spelling and hurt your pronunciation.
In conclusion, watching with English subtitles is good for improving your language skills (vocabulary, grammar, etc.) but it may hurt your listening and pronunciation.
You should combine the approaches to make sure that your skills are well-rounded – moderation in all things.
1. No Audio: In the initial phase for learning try to watch a video without its audio. Try guessing what the actors are trying to say by their body language and also by just looking at the actors. Write down some basic ideas. After that you play and listen and also make sure you take some notes and then again watch it and make some notes of the vocabulary they have used. Lastly watch the video with subtitles and check again your notes. Try to remember what the actors said.
2. Tip of Beginners: Native Language First: Watch subtitles with your native language first so, that you understand the context fully and the meaning is clearer to you. Then make notes on some of the English vocabulary used. Try to rewrite the whole thing in English. Keep watching until you fully understand the English.
3. Eng Subs First: Watch it with English subtitles first. How much can you understand? Make notes in two columns: things you understand and things you don’t understand. Watch it a couple of times with English subtitles and try to move everything into the understand column. Then watch it with your native language subtitles and again try to move everything to the understand column.
4. No Subtitles Initially: In the starting watch the video without subtitles and write down things you can understand and also the things you can’t understand .Keep playing the video again and again until you understand to the fullest . Try to understand as much as possible .Than play the video again this time with English subtitles. If there is something unclear left in the video try to use your native language subtitles to understand it completely. Lastly watch the video again with no subtitles this time and see the progress you have made.
5. Short Videos: All the above ideas work very well with short videos that you watch repeatedly. It might be a bit boring. While watching movies or TV show don’t just use one technique try to mix it up, sometimes no subtitle, sometimes use the technique of native language subtitles and sometimes English subtitles. By regular practice you will see improvement in your overall skills.
6. Success is in Review: Review your goals twice everyday in order to be more focused achieving them. I have seen so many students following this technique and achieve the results they are looking for. All the above ideas will work – my personal guarantee as a teacher and former IELTS examiner. But the most important thing to make real progress is to review. Studying without reviewing is like working out once a week – you won’t see a big difference.
Thank You 🙂
