If you’re watching films and TV series in original version to improve your English, this is the perfect podcast episode for you.
My special guest this week is Cara from Leo listening and she’s going to give you tips and advice on how to use video to improve your English.

If you’re a new listener, there is usually a co-host on this show, my good friend Reza. He’s not here today, but he will be back next week.

Cara Leopold is my guest today, She’s an online teacher and you can find her and her movie club at https://leo-listening.com/. Cara is originally from the UK and now lives in France.

Cara and I talk about how to improve your listening skills with movies and TV series and she has lots of great advice for you on how you can make the most of video content to take your English to the next level.

By the way, if you want to take your speaking fluency to the next level, there are some places left on my next online conversation course.

If you feel a bit shy and hesitate a little when you speak English and you want to improve your fluency,

Come and join me and a small group of motivated students on Zoom and we’ll work together to improve your speaking, pronunciation and vocabulary.

Are you interested? Send me an email to [email protected] and I’ll give you more details about the next course.

And now, please enjoy my conversation with Cara from Leo listening.

Where’s your accent from?

Cara was born in Scotland and then moved to the Midlands. Cara now lives in France. Her accent is a mixture of different regional accents.

What’s the difference between ACTIVE listening and PASSIVE listening?

Passive listening is just listening to something.
Active listening means making a bit of an effort to understand what you’re hearing. For example, reading a podcast transcription at the same time or listening to very short pieces of audio and trying to write down what you hear.

How can students improve their listening?

Shadowing (sometimes called echoing) is a useful technique to improve listening and noticing pronunciation features of English. Here are some famous actors you can ‘shadow’:

Geoffrey Rush
Colin Firth
Cate Blanchett
Helena Bonham Carter
Maggie Smith
Meryl Streep
Tom Hardy

How can learners get the most out of films and TV series to improve their listening?

Find out about the film before you see it. Watch the trailer and read out it online.

https://m.imdb.com/ is a good resource.

Read the plot summary of the film or TV series on Wikipedia after you’ve seen it to check that you have understood.

Search for summaries and review on YouTube.

Subtitles or no subtitles? – What should students do? How should they watch?

Try to watch with subtitles in your native language. If it’s still too difficult, you could find easier material that is shorter than a full movie.

You can turn the subtitles on and off whenever you want to. You can have them on for a passive viewing for enjoyment and then turn them off to focus on pronunciation.

Try watching with the subtitles off and turn them on to focus on vocabulary and expressions you want to make a note of or check in a dictionary.

Are some film genres (action/adventure/romance/thrillers/horror etc) easier to understand than others?

Generally speaking, TV series are easier to understand than films. Sitcoms (situation comedies), like Friends, Modern Family or Schitt’s Creek can be easy to understand once you get used to the way the characters speak.

To start, find a film or series that you have already seen dubbed in your native language and watch it again in English.

Cara’s TV Series recommendation: What We Do In The Shadows: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7908628/

It’s really important to watch, or listen to, content that you enjoy.

Cara’s website: https://leo-listening.com/
The movie club: https://leo-listening.com/movie-club/
Cara Leopold on Linkedin

Cara on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeoListening

I really enjoy talking to teachers like Cara who are specialising and focusing on particular skills so that you can improve your English.
Watching films and TV series is a great way to improve your listening. So much fun!
All the links that we spoke about are in the show notes to this episode, inglespodcast.com/cara.

…and now it’s your turn to practise your English. Are you watching video content as a way to study English? Who’s your favorite actor or actress? Do you have any recommendations for what to watch?
Send us a voice message and tell us. We’ll include your voice message in a future episode. https://www.speakpipe.com/inglespodcast
Send us an email with a comment or question to [email protected] or [email protected]

Visit our online store: https://store.mansioningles.net/

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The music in this podcast is by Pitx. The track is called ‘See You Later’