MOVIE IMPACT IN IMPROVING

ENGLISH VOCABULARY

Ihsan Muhammad Haq

English Department, Teacher Training Faculty
Muhammadiyah University of Purwokerto,
Central Java, Indonesia
ihsan.eha414@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Movies, also known as films, are a type of visual communication which use
moving pictures and sound to tell stories or inform for people. Movies also help
people to learn about something or to search information. This time, some people
prefer to watch western movies or foreign movies. For example, Thor, Spiderman,
Iron Man, etc. Usually, among teenagers who prefer western movies. The language
is used in western movies or foreign films can also affect mastery in English
language. English language is very important in life currently. Especially in the
field of education. When a person is often watching western movies, it would be a
good mastery of the English language. With this method, it is expected of everyone,
especially the students can easily master the English language with movie western
or foreign. For example, to understand about pronunciation, vocabulary, etc. In the
other hand, the movie is expected of understanding in English will easily conveyed.
Keywords: foreign movies, pronunciation, English language.

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INTRODUCTION

Students arrive in universities with many English language problems: poor

comprehension, limited vocabulary, slow reading, bad grammar and low-level
conversational skills. Movies can help on all these factors. This is because of the
fact that cartoons and movies use language so extensively in performing their
cultural aspect. Language plays a crucial role in connecting and defining the various
forms of visual and sound information that presents the movie experiences as a
whole. As realism is the main concern and style of a movie, therefore its language
approximates the language use, its practical application and benefits in different
situations in real life. Vocabulary and listening-comprehension are not the only
skills improved by watching movies. Subtitles and closed captioning (dialogue and
other sound information placed at the bottom of each frame of the movie) can help
the watchers increase their reading and comprehension speed. In short, movies
provide an invaluable extension of what we might call the technologies of language
acquisition that have been used to teach students the basics of English learning in
elementary and high schools or institutes.

Nowadays movies that are in great demand to watch are Western movies or
foreign movies. Western films or foreign films are popular among many, especially
among teenagers. In addition to an interesting story, Western movies or foreign
films also use English. In the field of English education is very important. The
language used in foreign movies or Western films can also influence mastery in
English. Usually someone who often watch Western movies or foreign movies, his
mastery of English is good.

Watching foreign movies or Western movies can also affect the skill
improvement in mastering English. In this case, the experience in question is when
a child or teenager watches Western or foreign films then he or she will experience
a change in his English mastery.

Prambudi in Trianto (2013) says that the most effective way of learning for
English is to listen to the film seriously. In this way, his mastery of pronunciation

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will be easy to understand. One can imitate the pronunciation of a Western film or
a foreign film so that it will take a long time to pronounce it. Film can also be an
alternative in learning English at school, one of which is in the listening process.

DISCUSSION

Statement of the Problem

This study is to answer the question: is the use of English movie can improve
students’ vocabulary mastery?

Teaching English Through English Movies

Movies can be an entertaining and motivating tool for students. Movies can
provide the learners with real life language input, which may be difficult to receive
otherwise in a non-English-speaking environment. Teachers of English can use
some kind of movies such as action, drama, comedy, romantic, science fiction, etc.

Advantages and Disadvantages Using English Movie

There are many advantages and disadvantages of using English movie in

EFL classroom, are:

a. Advantages using English movie

There are many advantages of using English movie in EFL

classroom. First, movie can keep student’s interest in learning English. The
students enjoyed the activities in the classroom. Students were more
motivated to see and hear real life situation.

Second, movies can improve student’s listening skill. Some actors

and actress may speak to fast so that it is difficult for students to understand
stress what they are talking about, but with English subtitles they can easily
to understand the conversation.

Third, movie improve student's speaking skill. In this case, when

students listen to the conversations going on in the movie and found new
vocabulary or new sentences that sound more memorable, they can also find

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movie scripts online and imitate what the actors and actress said in the
movie.

Fourth, movie improve student's pronunciation. We all know that

English pronunciation is extremely difficult and most of the English words
are different pronunciation from the words itself. It is difficult for students
to say the words. Before they watched movie, the students had some
difficulties in English stress patterns. But after they watched, they were
knowing English stress patterns.

Fifth, movie improve student's vocabulary. By watching English

movie with subtitles, students will see new vocabulary and how the words
are written and spoken.

b. Disadvantages using English movie

There are many advantages of using English movie in EFL

classroom. First, getting English movie generally is expensive and cost a lot
of time to watch the movies so that students may get bored. Some types of
movies are sometimes difficult to obtain, while the movie is very suitable to
be brought into the EFL classroom. This is because the movie wanted to
look for is not available on the internet, so the teacher should look elsewhere
such as the place of where to rent movie cassettes. Sometimes there are also
students who just do not like certain types of movies, so they will be bored
to watch movies. Especially if the film only contains a conversation that is
less liked by the students.

Second, maybe the students prefer watching actors or actresses so

the students would forget to focusing on the main instructional goal. This is
sure to happen, considering the actors and actresses in the film have to be
good looking.

Third, movies not always appropriate with the needs and desired
learning objective. Most movies are currently reserved for entertainment

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 activities, not for learning. Therefore, teachers need to use movies that
contain many moral values, not just mere entertainment.

Fourth, movies can make students imitate bad scenes from the actors
or actresses. This case cannot be denied, because the movie used comes
from western or foreign which their culture is very different from that in
Indonesia. This case is the same as previously mentioned, that teachers need
to select the movie first, which is good for learning.

This is the reason why the writer is interested in taking up the title of the
research, because movie gives a new enjoyable atmosphere when they are learning
in class. Although this procumbent movie has disadvantages, the writer has some
planning to overcome the problem by doing strategic stopping and rewind giving
student a chance to receive the information given from the movie and remove some
appropriate scene shown in the movie so the students’ concertation will not
decrease if they watch for too long.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

Movie is one of audio-visual media that can be used by English teachers to

improve student's English skills. There are some advantages of using English
movies in English teaching, such as movies can keep student's interest in learning
English, movies can improve student's listening skill, can improve student's
speaking skill, can improve student's pronunciation, and can improve student's
vocabulary. However, teaching English through English movies also has some bad
effects or disadvantages, such as getting English movie generally is expensive and
cost a lot of time to watch the movies so that students may get bored, maybe the
students prefer watching actors or actresses to focusing on the main instructional
goal, movies not always appropriate with the needs and desired learning objective
and movies can make students imitate bad scenes from the actors or actresses. To
overcome the bad impacts of movies, English teachers should consider some
solutions such as teachers should use short English movie to save time in learning,

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teachers should always remind students the main instructional goal before and after
watching the movies, teachers should control student's thinking, imagination, and
emotional, and teachers should select a good educational English movie.

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