Improve your English Listening with Films

Watching films is a good way to improve your English listening and your vocabulary.

Get a film. The film should have English soundtrack, and subtitles in English (most films have English subtitles for people hard of hearing) AND in your language.
Illegal copies of films often don't have correct subtitles, so be careful.

Get the subtitles. If your film doesn't have the right subtitles, find them at subtitlesource.org. First search for the title of your film, then select the correct version (check on the VCD/DVD cover) and language (the British flag for English). Click on the green arrow and download the text.

You can use the downloaded text automatically with the free KM Player and VLC Player (as explained in the site's subtitle guides), or you can just open the file with Notepad and read along while you play the film.

Watch a scene in English without subtitles. Try to get the main idea of the story and catch the keywords. If you don't understand the meaning, try to guess from the context ("context clue"). You are watching a film, so much of the meaning should be clear from what you see. It also helps to read a description of the story at e.g. Flixster before you watch.

If they are speaking too fast, the free KM Player and VLC Player can play the film at lower speed.

It's best to do only one or a few scenes, as watching the whole film three times is tiring and boring. Keep it fun!

Watch the scene in English with English subtitles. Check if you got the main idea and keywords right. You can check keywords in the dictionary now that you see how they are spelled. Listen carefully to the pronunciation and repeat what you hear.

Watch the scene in English with subtitles in your language. If there are too many words you don't know, switch on the subtitles in your language. Pay attention to the meaning of new English vocabulary.

NEVER watch a film with soundtrack in your language if you want to improve your English.