How pop culture can help you learn English
Learning English is not only about grammar and writing but also about culture. Language and culture always interconnect. This is backed up by recent study on the way the mind processes language, promoting the use of different technologies to facilitate the learning of a second language. Find out how pop culture can help learn English.
Pop Culture as a term became mainstream during the 1980s, and it refers to the thoughts, ideas, music, films and entertainment preferred by the general people. Pop Culture has become more globalised now in the 21st century with smartphones and social media.
But how can we use pop cultural material that is so widely available for our own benefit when it comes to learning English? We have some every day tips that will improve your learning of English in an easy (and fun!) way.
Using your phone to your advantage
YouTube
Apps like YouTube can be your best friend when it comes to learning English. You can find video lessons about a wide range of topics like grammar, pronunciation and others.
Channels like BBC Learn English OR British Council LearnEnglish are a great tool to accentuate what you learn in your English course.
Lyrics Training
LyricsTraining is an easy and fun app that allows you to learn English through music videos and lyrics from your favourite songs and artists. The app also has a special Karaoke mode that lets you sing and enjoy the full lyrics – while practising your English.
Movies and Television Series
Netflix
Movies and tv series are a great way to pick up on slang and idioms. We want to recommend a new Chrome extension that actually facilitates your language skills development while watching Netflix. Language Learning with Netflix lets you watch shows with two subtitles on at the same time so you can visually pair translations with dialogue and learn some new vocabulary in the process. There’s even a catalogue of recommendations for movies and shows that are good to study.
Sitcoms
Sitcoms provide a fun and easy way to speed up the progress you’re making with your English lessons. With casual and everyday situations, it helps improve your English language comprehension, pronunciation and more
Advertisements and memes
Advertising companies spend millions on highly-effective campaigns to sell us products. Translating adverts provides an awesome opportunity to practice rhetorical analysis and learn the language of sales and persuasion.
A meme is usually an image shared over the internet that can express different ideas, or describe many different situations. You’ll see the same words and phrases used repeatedly with similar meanings or the same structure. This is a great way to memorise vocabulary and to understand the structure of phrases by repetition.
The English Studio offers a variety of English courses for students of different levels. So why not get in touch with a member of our friendly team today and ask us about studying English in London or Dublin? We’d be more than happy to help!
