Movies Vocabulary and Self-Study Discussion

Movies vocabulary and self-study discussion

Work in groups of two or three. Together rank the things in each section below by how useful you think they would be to you to learn English. If you can’t rank the whole list, just choose the most and least useful, e.g. the top three and bottom three.

Useful phrases for ranking “I (most) recommend… because…”/ “I think… is (one of) the most useful because…” “I don’t think… is (very) useful because…” “I agree.”   –                “Really? I think…”/ “I see what you mean, but I think…”

Different genres of movie (= kinds of movie) that you could watch

• action movie
• animation/ cartoon
• art house movie/ independent (American) movie
• Australian movie
• biopic
• black and white movie
• blockbuster
• Bollywood movie
• British movie
• children’s movie
• classic
• comedy
• cop movie
• costume drama/ historical drama
• documentary
• domestic drama
• fantasy
• Hollywood movie
• horror
• literary adaptation
• murder mystery/ whodunit
• musical
• nature documentary
• Nollywood movie
• remake
• romance
• rom-com
• sci-fi
• sequel/ prequel
• silent movie
• spy movie
• superhero movie
• TV spinoff
• western
• wildlife documentary

Different ways of watching a movie

• stop the movie every time you don’t understand to use your dictionary
• watch in English with English subtitles
• watch with English sound and subtitles in your own language
• watch with no subtitles
• watch as much as you can with no subtitles, switching on the subtitles whenever you can’t follow the story
• watch movies in your own language with English subtitles
• watch movies in other foreign languages with English subtitles
• watch with the director’s commentary in English

Ways of making watching a movie easier

• watch the trailer first
• read the whole script before watching
• read the book before watching the movie
• read a plot summary of the movie in your own language before watching it
• read a synopsis of the movie in English (e.g. from imdb.com) before watching it
• watch a movie and its remake
• watch a movie in your own language first, then in English
• watch all the movies in the same series (e.g. every Harry Potter movie)
• watch the same movie as many times as you can
• watch the beginning of the movie with subtitles in your own language and then switch to English subtitles when you are sure you know what is going on
• watch the beginning of the movie with subtitles in your own language and then switch to no subtitles when you are sure you know what is going on
• watch a movie in your own language dubbed into English

Ways of choosing a suitable movie to watch/ Important things to think about

• by genre
• by setting
• by main actor
• by accents
• by the plot (e.g. how complicated it is)
• by the year it is set in
• by length
• by the year it was made
• by the director
• by the age of viewer it is aimed at
• by how familiar you already are with the story

Things to do after watching

• read the whole script
• read a summary of the story to check that you understood
• read reviews (e.g. on amazon or imdb.com)
• write a review
• write and publish a review
• write a plot summary
• read about bloopers in the movie
• read more about the movie, actors and director

Discuss things above as a whole class, starting with any which were difficult to understand or agree on.

 

Movie vocabulary presentation brainstorming stage

Without looking above, brainstorm vocabulary related to movies such as genres and people involved the movie business into the gaps below.

Movie genres

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People involved in movies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writing connected to movies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other movie vocabulary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Compare with the lists above, brainstorm more, then compare your extra ideas as a class.