LISTENING PRACTICE WITH FILMS 4
12 / 01 / 2012
LISTENING PRACTICE WITH FILMS 4: meaning and examples
Good morning everyone. Today we finish our series on listening practice with films. Yesterday we gave some ideas for listening for the "gist" (the general idea) of a film, and today we talk about how to use films to practice detailed listening.
Objective: To improve ability to listen for DETAILS
Strategies for Watching: When watching a film or TV programme, you will understand different things depending on your general level of English, how often you listen to spoken English or if you are familiar with the accent that is used in the film (British, American, Australian, etc.). You can use films to improve your comprehension using the following 4-step process. It's easy to do with a DVD, which allows you to choose a scene and change subtitle options.
1) Choose a scene of the film to watch (maximum 7-10 minutes). Turn off the subtitles. Watch the scene for the gist. What do you understand? To help you focus you can use the 'journalist' questions: Who? What? Where? When? Why? If you can answer most or all of these questions, it means you have probably understood the gist.
2) Watch the scene again without subtitles. Listen carefully for any words, phrases or expressions that you don't understand. If you hear something that you don't understand, rewind and listen again. If you still don't understand it, make a note of what you did understand (even if it might be wrong). Maybe you have difficulty understanding a particular character's accent or a conversation between two people. Try watching this person or this exchange again.
3) Turn on the subtitles in English. Watch the parts that were difficult with the English subtitles on. Now that you can read them, do you understand the difficult parts? Turn off the subtitles again and listen to the difficult parts. Now that you know the words, can you understand them without the subtitles?
4) Look up the words or phrases that you don't understand in a dictionary or turn on the subtitles in your own language to check for meaning. Make a note of new words or expressions. Then change the subtitles to English and listen again, associating the sound and the words. Finally, watch a final time without the subtitles to see if you can understand the words in context.
Watching the same short scene various times and with different objectives can be very useful.
This concludes our series on Listening Practice with Films. I hope these strategies have been useful for you. The important thing is that you constantly work on your listening skills in different ways.
If you have questions or comments about today's Daily Vitamin, you can post a query in the Daily Vitamin section on our website.
Remember that tomorrow we present the Essential Weekly Vitamin for Spanish-speaking students of English.
Have a great day!
Objective: To improve ability to listen for DETAILS
Strategies for Watching: When watching a film or TV programme, you will understand different things depending on your general level of English, how often you listen to spoken English or if you are familiar with the accent that is used in the film (British, American, Australian, etc.). You can use films to improve your comprehension using the following 4-step process. It's easy to do with a DVD, which allows you to choose a scene and change subtitle options.
1) Choose a scene of the film to watch (maximum 7-10 minutes). Turn off the subtitles. Watch the scene for the gist. What do you understand? To help you focus you can use the 'journalist' questions: Who? What? Where? When? Why? If you can answer most or all of these questions, it means you have probably understood the gist.
2) Watch the scene again without subtitles. Listen carefully for any words, phrases or expressions that you don't understand. If you hear something that you don't understand, rewind and listen again. If you still don't understand it, make a note of what you did understand (even if it might be wrong). Maybe you have difficulty understanding a particular character's accent or a conversation between two people. Try watching this person or this exchange again.
3) Turn on the subtitles in English. Watch the parts that were difficult with the English subtitles on. Now that you can read them, do you understand the difficult parts? Turn off the subtitles again and listen to the difficult parts. Now that you know the words, can you understand them without the subtitles?
4) Look up the words or phrases that you don't understand in a dictionary or turn on the subtitles in your own language to check for meaning. Make a note of new words or expressions. Then change the subtitles to English and listen again, associating the sound and the words. Finally, watch a final time without the subtitles to see if you can understand the words in context.
Watching the same short scene various times and with different objectives can be very useful.
This concludes our series on Listening Practice with Films. I hope these strategies have been useful for you. The important thing is that you constantly work on your listening skills in different ways.
If you have questions or comments about today's Daily Vitamin, you can post a query in the Daily Vitamin section on our website.
Remember that tomorrow we present the Essential Weekly Vitamin for Spanish-speaking students of English.
Have a great day!
