You may read this title and think that you’re being encouraged to take time off. Would that be such a bad thing? However, while watch a movie will mean that you enjoy a well-earned rest, it can also be very beneficial to your English learning process. While watching, you’ll be spending the full duration listening to natural English dialogue, spoken for the most part, by native English speakers. Be sure to put on the subtitles to make it easier to understand, and you’ll also see the spelling of the words. Maybe you’ll even surprise yourself by how many of them you already know. We’ve selected what we think are the best examples of dialogue and subtitles, to get you started!
Sing Street
This movie, set in 1980’s Ireland, will keep you entertained from start to finish with its colourful characters and a storyline with a massive heart. Watching these young kids evolve through their band and seeing their friendships change and grow, and this alone will keep you hooked. The dialogue is quick, but the accents are open and easy to understand. English students at EC Dublin will adore this movie as they’ll recognise many of locations used.
About Time
A wonderful comedy-drama-fantasy about a family of time-travellers. You’ll instantly be hooked on the relationship between awkward Tim and his father. When Tim turns 21, and discovers his ability, he decides to use it to get a girlfriend. This sounds like a simple story and being honest, sometimes those ones are the best of all. The dialogue is delivered in both British and American English so your ears will get a touch of both, making for a broader overall experience. As always, subtitles on and enjoy!
Harry Potter
There can’t be many people who haven’t heard of Harry Potter. You’ve either read it, seen it, or been friends with someone who was a mega-fan of it! Following the lives of these child wizards is literally magical and as well as learning English you’ll also learn some really fun magic terminology. For example, ‘wingardium leviosa’ – to make things levitate; ‘lumos’ – to light the end of your wand; ‘pack’ – to pack your bags and luggage. That last one would come in useful, no?
The Breakfast Club
One of the most famous and most iconic movies of the 1980’s, this a great watch from beginning to end. This little moment of learning English is guaranteed to be enjoyable. Following a group of five teenagers in detention, all very different from each other, through talking with each other they soon discover to have more in common than they thought. This movie is entirely based around dialogue so prepare yourself to listen to the words, read the subtitles and enjoy learning.
Monsters Inc.
The dialogue in Monsters Inc. can be summed up in one word: hilarious! It tells the story of 2 monsters as they go about their daily routine at work; and what are their jobs? Scaring children, of course! We soon find out it’s the children who scare the monsters though and this is where the fun begins. Expect easy dialogue, funny colloquialisms, idioms and some intentionally bad singing. Possibly the most entertaining one on the list for flexing those English muscles.
So, there it is. You now have your study time and relaxation time mapped out for the next little while. Try one and see how much you remember. Try a second one and you’re sure to notice how your English has improved already. You’ll notice that you start to pick up natural trends for speaking to others, an ear for conversation and more vocabulary. All thanks to some movie magic.
