When learning another language you need to practice as
 often as you can, everyday is best. Do you agree?

When I asked my students, they all answered 'YES' but then they said, 'I don't have enough time' or 'I'm too shy to speak English with my friends'. As a result many restrict their language practice to the English classroom and to their scheduled 3 hours a week. But if you do this your progress maybe very slow and you can lose motivation for learning English.

Leisure time + Learning = Success
 

If you do want to make practicing and learning English part of your daily life I hope this article can help. Most students I know enjoy watching movies, surfing the Internet and listening to music. I want to give you some ideas and enjoyable activities that you could do in your free time.

If you do these activities with your friends you can have fun, help each other, improve your English language skills, expand your vocabulary and before you know it, you will be able to gossip together in English.
 

Let's start with movies, I think English language movies can be a good opportunity for English practice but I'm sorry to tell you that I don't mean just relaxing with popcorn and reading the Thai subtitles! If you really want to improve your English you have to work harder than this.

Next time you go to see a movie with your friends, choose to see the English version and try really hard not to read the subtitles, after the movie, talk about it (in English of course). When watching an English language movie don't worry if you can't understand every word. Remember that the English teachers or native English speakers you know probably speak more slowly and simply when talking with you to help you to understand. The actors in movies don't do this, watching movies therefore gives you a more accurate reflection of English - as it is really spoken.

One of my students, Pat sends this advice to you.
My suggestion is to watch movies without reading the subtitles and try to understand the story in English. (Try not to translate them into Thai in your head after hearing, if you do this you will not be able to catch on or learn) After a few frustrations of not being able to understand, you will soon discover that your listening skill has been improved. After practicing this way till you think you can catch most of the words, now try to copy their accent and stress and pronounce the word right after you hear it. You might have to say it quietly but you will learn a lot from doing this. Write down new words or idioms that you heard and try to put them to use.

Here's another suggestion if you have access to a VCD or DVD player.
Just follow these 3 easy steps

Step 1
Ask your friend to choose a short scene from the movie that you haven't seen. Sit with your back towards the television. Your friend starts the movie. You can only listen and no peeping! At the end of the scene your friend stops the movie. Tell your friend (in English) everything that you can about that scene. For example, how many people were talking, what they were talking about, where they were, what was happening and so on.

Step 2 Cover the subtitles with some paper. Play the same scene again but this time you can face the television and watch the scene. Did you understand what was happening just by listening? Did watching the actions help you to understand? Talk about these questions with your friend.

Step 3
Take the paper away and watch once again, this time you can use the subtitles to check your comprehension. Talk about your misunderstanding with your friend, sometimes this can be very funny. Don't worry if you didn't understand correctly, the important things are that you are practicing your English and having fun while learning. You can easily adapt this activity if you are alone and make notes instead of talking but it's more fun with friends.

If you are watching a DVD, don't put on the Thai subtitles but use the English instead, now when you watch, you are listening and reading English. (Be careful with subtitles, many cheap copies have inaccurate subtitles that could make you very confused!)
 

Surfing The Net If you search on the Internet you can find many, many ideas and web sites that are designed to help students.

Have a look at ESLnotes.com. This web site continues the movie theme as it covers a range of movies to suit all tastes, there's the cartoon ogre Shrek, or the suspense Sixth Sense. If you like true stories check out A Beautiful Mind, you may enjoy the love story Titanic or the romantic comedy My Big Fat Greek wedding or Meet The parents there are many more to choose from. If you subscribe to their newsletter you will get a message when another movie is added.

For each movie there is a list of the main characters and an outline of the story. It then lists words and expressions that you may not know.
For example Seize him! He's getting away! "To seize" a person is to forcefully hold or stop them. "To get away" is to escape, in this case by running quickly.
These definitions can be a great help to you. The next example shows how the writer explains what the word means both in the context of the movie and how it can be used in other situations. I guess that's cool. In this case, "cool" means not bad, though it more often means good or excellent.

You are also told when a word or expression is colloquial and that will help guide you about when it is OK to use it. An example taken from Shrek.

This web site gives you full instructions on how best to use the guides but it's easy - all you have to do is print out the information for the movie you want to watch and read it. You may need to check some of the words in your dictionary. When you have prepared thoroughly you can watch the movie, listen for the words and expressions and tick them as you hear them. To complete your study there are discussion questions at the end that you could talk about with your friends -in English.

If you want to watch a movie that does not have subtitles click on http://www.script-o-rama.com/ This web site has hundreds of film scripts and gives links to other useful sites. You should be able to find the script of your favorite movies. If you print it you can read and check some vocabulary before watching then follow the script while watching. You might find the meaning of some words that you don't know just by watching the actions. For example, Dobby's actions in the movie Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets would easily explain BURSTS INTO TEARS, LEAPS and FURIOUSLY in the script below.

HARRY What... Who are you?
DOBBY Dobby, sir. Dobby the house elf.
HARRY I see. Not to be rude or anything, but this isn't a great time for me to have a house-elf in my bedroom.
DOBBY Oh, yes, sir, Dobby understands. It's just that, Dobby has come to tell you... it is difficult, sir...Dobby wonders where to begin.
HARRY Why don't you sit down?
DOBBY S-s-sit down?
Suddenly Dobby BURSTS INTO TEARS. LOUD TEARS. Harry panics.
HARRY Shhhh! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you or anything --
DOBBY Offend Dobby! Dobby has heard of your greatness, sir, but never has he been asked to sit down by a wizard, like an equal...
HARRY You can't have met many decent wizards then.
Dobby shakes his head, then without warning, LEAPS off the bed and starts to BANG HIS HEAD FURIOUSLY ON THE FLOOR.
DOBBY Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby!

Listening to music and singing are also a popular activities that can be useful in improving your English skills. Listening to English language radio stations such as, Smooth 105FM or Easy FM 105.5 are good places to start. If you want to listen to music, learn the words and sing along, the Internet can help you. http://www.lyrics.com is a good site but there are many to choose from simply type 'lyrics' into a search engine and you will find thousands. Usually you can search by the Artists name, title of the song or words from the title and the lyrics you want are easy to find.

The British Council has made some very good web sites for English students.
I like http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/songs/archive/weekly_songs_archive.html
Here you will find the lyrics for a new song every week and there are many more in the archive for you to choose from. You can download the music, listen to the songs, and read or sing the lyrics. Each song has a link to the artists official web site and there are many popular singers such as Craig David, Dido, Gareth Gates, Coldplay, Westlife and others.
 

If you click on http://www.musicalenglishlessons.com/music-index.htm you will find many activities with instructions as well as lyrics. If you like Arvil Lavigne you can use Complicated to practice sequencing, Thing's I'll Never Say to practice tenses and Sk8er Boy for nouns. Esl-lounge.com has some exercises that are graded according to your ability. I will give you some instructions to get you started. Go to http://www.esl-lounge.com/songs/songangels.shtml you will find this gap fill activity.

Angels - Robbie Williams I sit and wait Does an angel contemplate my________ ( destiny ) And do they know The places_________ we go When we're ________ ( an adj.) and_________ ( opposite - young ) 'Cause I've_______ ( past participle: be) told That salvation lets their wings__________ (opposite - fold ) So when I'm_________ ( put your body in a resting position) in my bed ___________ ( ideas produced by thinking ) running through my head And I feel that love is __________ ( not alive ) I'm loving angels instead.

Read the lyrics and the clues then guess the answers and write your guesses in the gaps.
Listen and write down the words you hear.
Compare your guesses with the real vocabulary. Were you correct?
Listen again and double check
Look at the full lyrics to confirm your answers
Check the dictionary for any words that you don't know, such as contemplate or salvation

I sit and wait
Does an angel contemplate my fate
And do they know
The places where we go
When we're grey and old
'Cause I've been told
That salvation lets their wings unfold
So when I'm lying in my bed
Thoughts running through my head
And I feel that love is dead
I'm loving angels instead.

On the British council web site you will also find games, stories, poems and magazine articles that cover a variety of topics from magic, Chinese New Year and Pirates. I think that the Cambridge online dictionary facility is very convenient and can really help you. As you are reading you can double click on any word and the definition will appear, this could save you a lot of time and you can learn many new words.

I hope that some of these ideas will be helpful to you and that you have fun while developing your English skills. Please don't forget to follows Pat's advice and use the words you learn because if you don't use new words you will forget them very quickly.

Good Luck
Helen

Helen Martin
English Language Specialist
Faculty of Pharmacy
Srinakarinwirot University
Ongkarak

Glossary

Restrict - to limit. If you restrict your study, you only study for a limited time.

Motivation- becoming enthusiastic about doing something. If you lose motivation you don't want to finish something that you started.

Leisure time - time when you are not studying and can do activities you enjoy, such as watching movies.

Gossip - informal conversation about other people's private lives that might or might not be true.

Reflection - a mirror image, in this case it means, the same as.

Frustration - the feeling of being annoyed because things are not happening in the way that you want, or in the way that they should.

Access - having an opportunity to use something. For example Internet access.

Peeping - looking at something when you should not be, having a little look.

Adapt - to change something so that it is suitable for a different use or situation.

Designed - to have been planned or done for a particular purpose. For example designed for students to use

Ogre - An ogre is a big green monster found in fairy stories (if you see the movie Shrek you will see that he is a loveable ogre and does not eat humans!)

Colloquial - words or expression that are informal. You can use these in conversations with your friends but not in formal speech

Thoroughly -very much, a lot of attention to detail

Archive - a collection of documents that provides information about the past, or a place where they are kept. This is a common word on web sites, if you look in the archive you will find much more data that has been stored.