UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGGICA NACIONAL

EXPRESIN ORAL Y ESCRITA II

ESSAY

ENGLISH THROUGH TELEVISION A GOAL TO GET

Watching television has been an excellent way of entertainment since 1927,

when the BBC in London transmitted the first television show. From 1927 until the
present time, television has become a mass media communication, which allowed
us to have cultural interchange. Moreover, English has turned into an international
language because people often use English on business, news and leisure
activities. Due to this, t elevision is useful to learn English, when someone wants to
improve his/her pronunciation and to get new vocabulary. On the other hand, it
does not help if someone likes to learn an academic or formal use of the language.

When we watch television in English, it lets us to know more about American

and British culture and society. For instance, there is big amount of channels that
show us how the British and American style way is: how people speak, how people
enjoy and how people live. Besides, on the television we can listen to idiomatical
expressions, which we can use in our daily speeches and their meaning usually
depend on the context where they are used. In relation to idiomatical expressions,
when we watching television we can see and hear informal dialogues, which help
us to increase our vocabulary. In fact, while we watch television in English we take
a look at fluency an accuracy in informal speeches.

However, Watching television in English does not permit us to become good at

formal and academic speeches, because most of the channels show us an informal
speech, and we know there are some channels which transmit news, talk shows
political shows and cultural shows that use a formal speech, but that kind of channels
are not very popular between young people who prefer musical, movies and
entertainment channels. Furthermore, when we are learning English we should be
able to have a formal speech, but sometime we combine formal expression with
informal one because we have a big influence from mass media means between
them, television. As well, when we watch television in English we realize that even
English speakers have problems with grammar and pronunciation. Therefore, when a
person is learning probably he/she could feel bored listen to much English and he/she
start to have problems not only in English but also in his/her own language.

Finally, from television, we can gain knowledge of new vocabulary, idiomatical

expression and daily dialogues, which are related to culture and life style. However,
we cannot acquire formal expressions and academic English. As a conclusion, I agree
that learning English on television helps us to improve our vocabulary and our fluency
and accuracy; even it is not formal or academic English.

Carlos Eduardo Mora Cifuentes

2005134044
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