How to Learn English From Movies One way to better your English is to watch lots of movies. By watching movies of native English speakers again and again, you will pick up slang terms that you are not likely to learn in classroom. In addition, listening to native speakers will help you to improve your accent, and will also help to train your ears. Here are some steps to get the most out of movies: Choose a movie that interests you. Whether it is the story or the actors that draw you to the movie, watching a movie you enjoy will make you more likely to work hard to understand it. Match the movie to your understanding level. Choose a movie where you can understand 80 percent of the dialog, and you will likely be able to figure out the rest within the context. If you are new to speaking English, try a children’s movie. You won’t learn anything from the movie if you don’t understand it, and you won’t enjoy it, either. Choose a movie that will provide you with useful vocabulary. If you are learning English for business, watch a movie like Wall Street or Office Space. If you are learning English in order to attend school overseas, watch a movie that is tied to your coursework. Get comfortable with the idea that there will be lots that you won’t understand when you watch the movie the first time or two in English. This is quite normal. Enjoy the movie and pick up as much of the vocabulary and grammar as you can each time. Watch each movie at least twice, back to back if possible. The second time through, turn off the subtitles. Watch the movie with a copy of the script in English whenever possible. You can often find movie scripts online or in bookshops. Rewind the movie whenever you come across a difficult line of dialog or a new phrase. This can help you fully understand it and master the pronunciation. If you are playing the movie from DVD, you can stop it whenever you don’t understand a sentence. You can then play the sentence many times and, with the subtitle the DVD offers, look up difficult words in your dictionary.