How Movies Can Help You Learn a Language Even Without Noticing It

Scrolling through the questions on LiveXP, I saw a few about how visual arts can be used to teach and learn. It is an interesting topic to think about. Ask yourself the question, “What do I remember about a movie?” I have read a few articles discussing how film and visual arts could be an effective teaching tool.

Think about children’s books. The first form of language a child learns is to recite the names of book characters or describe elements within. Thinking back to when I was young, one of the first words I learned in English was “wild dog.” I have always loved documentaries and watching a lot of Animal Planet. I had a burning passion for those shows and paid a lot of attention to “learning,” even though I didn’t understand the language at all at 5 years old. The word was mentioned a lot as the episode where about those animals in the wild, and I especially learned as our dog at the time had a slight resemblance to a wild dog.

Take time and look at children when watching their favourite animated movies or shows. Even if they don’t understand the language, they will have no problem reciting every line from memory due to the repetition of watching it over and over again. When the time comes for them to start learning in school, they are usually first to give examples or answer questions solely on their subconscious knowledge from movies and shows and the words they have learned. Watching something is the act of subconscious studying. Jumping back to the question of what you remember from shows. Usually, when you discuss a movie or a series you and your friends have watched, you generally tend to mention how you laughed at certain scenes. By quoting those scenes and remembering them, you will realise that you have remembered them in far greater detail because you have “learned” by paying attention to them.

Conclusion

So to conclude. Using this strategy, I believe, is an effective teaching tool that can be used to practice phrases and words or just simply to familiarise yourself with words you have learned during class with a definitive guarantee that down the line, when you hear something relating, your subconscious will take over. You will come to realise that you “know it.”