It’s Monday night. You get home from work and you want to relax, maybe have a beer or a coffee and enjoy a nice TV show. But you also want to practice English. What to do?
If you already have a Netflix subscription you can do both: enjoy your favorite English language movie or TV show, and improve your spoken English and pronunciation at the same time.
Here are 5 simple steps you can take to improve your English (or American! Or Australian!) pronunciation with Netflix:
1. Choose the right movie or TV program for YOU
You wanna speak like an American? Perhaps you prefer to improve your British accent. Or maybe you really want an Australian accent, right mate!?
In my personal language studies, I always choose a specific accent, from a particular region even, to try and master. For example, when I was living in Japan, I had a lot of friends from Osaka. I learned and used the slang from that region, and copied my friends’ accents. When I would travel to Tokyo, my Japanese friends there would laugh at me, because I spoke like someone from Osaka! This was a compliment, though.
Be focused. Choose one accent. Make it good. Then you can work on another if you’d like!
Choose a program like “Friends” if you want to perfect your American accent. “Downton Abbey” is a popular British TV show if you want to work on your English accent. You can focus on the Australian characters in “Lost” if you want to ‘speak Aussie.’
2. Keep it short
After choosing the right program or movie for you, pick a short (and I really do mean short – 2 to 3 minutes MAXIMUM) dialogue to work with.
A short, focused study session can be just as helpful as browsing your favorite grammar website or watching YouTube English lessons for an hour. By choosing a 2 – 3 minute long clip from the program or movie you are able to really focus and learn the specific pronunciation of phrases and words.
Remember: only 3 minutes max!
A short, focused study session can be just as helpful as watching YouTube English lessons for an hour. @SpeakEngLive Clic para tuitear
3. Follow the leader (or in this case, the actor)
Okay, so let’s look at the best way to really practice your pronunciation now that you have chosen your 2 minute clip.
Start the video clip and repeat after the actors and actresses. This method of practicing pronunciation and speaking is called shadowing. You can repeat after the actors and practice shadowing in a few different ways:
- Variation #1: Keep the English subtitles on and read and repeat after the characters
- Variation #2: Turn off the subtitles and try and repeat all the sounds and tones the characters make (this can be helpful even if you don’t know every single word)
- Variation #3: Listen as one of the characters says a sentence and phrase, then pause the video and repeat the sentence
- Variation #4 (Most advanced): Repeat after the characters at almost the same time as they are speaking
Here’s an example of me practicing with shadowing so that you can see the different ways that it can work. I chose a clip from the TV show “Modern Family”:
4. Repeat. Repeat again. Did I mention REPEAT?
Repeat after the actors/actresses using different methods of shadowing. (See step #3).
Then repeat again.
Yup, then repeat it again.
And then one more time. Or three more times. Sorry! Are you feeling like this?
Maybe it sounds boring to repeat the same 2 minute clip over and over again. But it works! Try it yourself.
Each time you listen to the dialogue you will hear something new. Each time you can focus on something different. Maybe the first time you focus on pronouncing the letter R better. Then the second time you can focus on the emotional tone. The next time you can try and repeat the intonation correctly. (You c’n TRY and rePEAT the IN-TO-NAAAY-sh’n correctly.)
My most successful students get great results by following these steps.
I know you want to be successful too, so keep repeating these steps and watch your pronunciation improve quickly.
5. Take notes
Here’s your final step (and the most important if you are working on building your vocabulary along with improving your pronunciation).
Put the phrases that you want to practice again in the future into one of your Anki decks. Or if you prefer paper like I do, get some little flashcards or write everything down in your English notebook.
You do have a place for all your English notes, right? If you don’t have an English notebook for all your notes, vocabulary and phrases, go out and buy one now! If you prefer to have an electronic copy, make a new little section or folder in your Evernote app (or make a Google document) and keep all your notes together there.
You can read your notes out loud later, and you will still be able to use Netflix as your study inspiration, even if you are without Wi-Fi.
BONUS STEP
You can even write down what you think the word or phrase REALLY sounds like in your notes or Anki flash cards. For example, when Claire says, “And soon we’ll all be dead…” (see the video in step 3), it ACTUALLY sounds like, “N’soon w’uhl-all bee-dehd.” Whoa! Crazy blended sounds there! Writing down the actual pronunciation sounds will help you take your pronunciation to the next level.
To summarize, you really only have to do step 1 (choose which accent to practice) once. Then do step 2 (choose a short clip), step 3 (try different variations of shadowing), step 4, 4, 4, 4 (repeat, repeat, repeat and repeat again), and step 5 (write down phrases). And yes, really do step 4 a bunch of times. See what you like and do more of that.
Good luck and have fun with pronunciation!
What movies or TV shows will you use to practice pronunciation? Share your favorites in the comments!
Guest Author
Sabrina Fletcher
Sabrina tutors and coaches ambitious, open-minded professionals, helping them reach their English fluency goals over at Calm English. She is currently offering a free pronunciation guide which you can access here: www.calmenglish.com/free-guide to start improving your spoken English today.
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