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Choose a series
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Remember to choose the series according to your objectives and also to vary the series to discover the diversity of accents and registers of the language being studied.
SLIDE 3Watching a series can help you to develop LE skills in a number of areas, as long as you are active in your learning and set yourself goals. Listening, speaking and vocabulary acquisition are the areas for which we suggest activities in this tutorial.
SLIDE 4You can watch a series with the aim of understanding a scene as a whole, or even the whole episode. Several activities are possible. You can watch the series in English with the subtitles in English. Using the subtitles in the language will help you to associate the written form of a word with its spoken form. You may have a tendency to read at the beginning without listening to what is being said: one possible solution is to read before then listen afterwards while trying to read to work on this oral/written link.
Having the subtitles in LE allows you to see how the words are spelt, so it’s easy to look up words in the dictionary that really seem to be blocking your overall understanding. Look up the words if you feel you need to, but don’t look up all the words or you’ll lose the thread of the scene… You can also watch the series in English without the subtitles and then check your understanding in the video series with the subtitles in English or French.
SLIDE 5In any case: don’t worry about not understanding everything in detail, that’s normal and that’s not the point !
SLIDE 6If you want to understand how the language works in more detail, you can choose a line that seems interesting to you and dissect it: look for the vocabulary, try to understand how the sentences are constructed… Don’t do this for every line !
SLIDE 7Losing your accent is not a very important objective when learning a foreign language, but it is important that this accent should not be a barrier and that you should be able to make yourself understood in a foreign language. Pronunciation difficulties are often due to the fact that you have to string sounds together in an utterance, respecting intonation and rhythm. You can work on this aspect by watching a series. For example, you can listen to a character’s line, paying attention to pronunciation, intonation, the way the words are grouped, identifying the most accented parts, those where the voice rises or falls, etc. You can then practise repeating them after him. If you want to assess your progress, remember to record yourself so that you can compare your utterances with the model. « Acting » can also help you overcome your apprehensions about speaking the language. Of course, remember to be critical of the model you choose and to vary the models !
SLIDE 8If you want to work on the production of statements in LE, you can use a series you already know, which you have seen in LM or with subtitles in LM, for example. You can select a scene and then try to invent what a character is going to say in LE. Then you can check with the LE version. Be careful, even if your statement doesn’t correspond to the LE version, that doesn’t mean it’s wrong… There may be different ways of saying the same thing.
SLIDE 9Just as it is not useful to try to understand everything when watching a series, it is not useful to try to learn all the words that you do not yet know. Indeed, the word that prevents you from understanding a statement is not necessarily interesting to remember for expression or even understanding… It is important to differentiate the lexicon useful for understanding from that useful for expressing oneself. Listening work in FL accompanied by lexicon research already allows you to memorize useful vocabulary in oral comprehension. You can use a translator to translate words or expressions that you do not know, also consider using a monolingual dictionary or a concordancer to understand a term or expression that does not necessarily have an equivalent in LM.
SLIDE 10/11Seeing the lexicon available for oral expression requires deeper memorization, in fact you need to be able to find this lexicon quickly when you express yourself. You will therefore have to learn this lexicon. Set a goal for yourself based on your possibilities. For example, 5 words to memorize and 2 expressions for example. Look for expressions, words that come back often and above all which seem reusable to you or which you think you need the most. You can note them with the context, it’s better than a simple French translation of the word.
SLIDE 12We can learn to write by reading but the transfer is not automatic. This requires going through several stages and training, so look for as many writing tasks as possible, corresponding to your level. For example, take reading notes or when you listen to something, write about it. This will help you overcome the fear of writing in a foreign language, gain confidence in your expression ability and above all clearly improve your writing skills. Use every opportunity for real exchanges. Mail and exchange emails with acquaintances, friends, teachers. Or take a text that interests you and summarize it in writing. The ideal is to be able to send these writings to a third party likely to give you constructive feedback on your production.
SLIDE 13Be careful once again to keep a critical eye: can the language used by the characters be transposed into the communication situations you have to deal with ?
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Up to you ! Set a goal, be active and regular and above all enjoy learning !
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