Using Movies to Improve Your English Speaking Skills in a Week or Less

Website design By BotEap.comOh say, have you seen…?

Website design By BotEap.comHave you seen the “Star Wars” saga? 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 tell why?

Website design By BotEap.comWho hasn’t seen any 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 learners. The gardener, the giant Hagrid, speaks an exemplary version of Northern British English that can serve as a distinctive model.

Website design By BotEap.comThe plan

Website design By BotEap.comWhether on VHS or DVD, select scenes where the character you want to model speaks. You, the EFL English teacher, can prepare the script directly from the movie scenes or use the original dialogue from the book. A practical sequence could be the following:

Website design By BotEap.comPlay selected scene and dialogue

Website design By BotEap.comRewind and play, but now you, the student, are the character.

Website design By BotEap.comImitate the speech and dialogue of the character.

Website design By BotEap.comRepeat the imitation process as much as necessary to improve

Website design By BotEap.comTry to record your voice at the same time you speak at the beginning of the process.

Website design By BotEap.comPractice several times for at least three to five days.

Website design By BotEap.comOn the last day of your imitation practice series, record yourself again.

Website design By BotEap.comNow listen to your first efforts and compare them to your latest 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.

Website design By BotEap.comdon’t stop there

Website design By BotEap.comOnce 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 in speaking. Plus, it’s usually pretty fun, especially if you’re working with a friend, classmate, or significant other. But don’t stop there, find other scenes and movie clips you can use.

Website design By BotEap.comsome of my favorites

Website design By BotEap.comHow about trying other movies of your favorite actor or actress? A variety of English speech models will help you broaden your range of listening comprehension as well as complete your pronunciation of connected speech elements. There are a plethora 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 the cat gets high on.

Website design By BotEap.comThese actors are usually good English speaking models that I like to use with my EFL students:

Website design By BotEap.comHarrison Ford

Website design By BotEap.comSidney Poitier

Website design By BotEap.comSean Connery

Website design By BotEap.comPierce Brosnan

Website design By BotEap.comClint Eastwood

Website design By BotEap.combrendan fraser

Website design By BotEap.comDanny Glover

Website design By BotEap.comJames Todd Smith (aka LL Cool J)

Website design By BotEap.comJohn Travolta

Website design By BotEap.comThese actresses are usually good English speaking role models that I also like to use with my EFL students:

Website design By BotEap.comAngelina Jolie

Website design By BotEap.comSandra Bullock

Website design By BotEap.comJulia Roberts

Website design By BotEap.comAngela Bassett (pictured above)

Website design By BotEap.comHalle Berry

Website design By BotEap.comCameron Diaz

Website design By BotEap.comReese witherspoon

Website design By BotEap.comRemember to review Hagrid’s speech in the Harry Potter movies and Yoda in the Stars Wars saga. You’ll find that they and many other characters are excellent models of what to say (or NOT say).