In a previous post, I recommended Bill Murray’s “Groundhog day” as a good movie to watch to improve the learners’ English. There’s another movie that’s just as good for learning English especially for improving grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. Did I make you curious? I certainly hope so. Do you wanna (want to) take a guess? OKAY OKAY, I’ll tell you, you don’t need to SHOUT. The movie is titled “12 Angry Men”.
The 12 angry men are the members of a homicide (murder) trial jury. In the beginning of the movie, we see 11 jurors (jury members) unanimously (in full agreement) voting that the boy accused of killing his father is guilty but 1 dissents (disagrees) and votes “not guilty”. Due to the requirement of a unanimous jury (they must all agree on one verdict or decision), the 12 jurors are forced to discuss the case. Despite the anger of several jurors and a lengthy and heated re-examination of the facts, one juror after the other begins to change his vote from “guilty” to “not guilty” until everyone unanimously vote “not guilty”.
Read about “ANOTHER” good movie for English learning
Why is it good for learning grammar?
First of all, in order for you, as a second language learner, to comprehend grammar, you should not only study the rules as that never truly works. The best way to improve your grammar is to approach it as a mathematical problem that needs to be solved. The only way to get better at math is by solving math problems, and the best way to improve grammar is by trying to solve a problematic situation through communication. The situation has to be specific, well described and presents a certain sequence of events unfolding within a specific unit of time and place.
In 12 angry men, the jurors discuss and debate a very precise event (a murder trial) that took place in an apartment at a certain time of the night. The 8th juror who disagrees with the other 11 jurors on the “guilty” vote in the beginning of the movie presents compelling arguments and counter arguments to defend his verdict. In the process, you as an audience are forced to follow the logic of the events and comprehend the arguments and counterarguments presented by the jurors and that helps you make sense of the grammar. For example, you will understand how and why the conditionals are used not by just learning the rule, but by trying to understand the actions and sequence of events of the murder.
Why is it good for improving pronunciation?
One of the most important aspects of pronunciation is intonation, that entails stress, rhythm and voice pitch. Intonation has to do with how to communicate large chunks of words/sounds as clearly as possible. In 12 angry men, most of the jurors are fiercely attempting to convince or persuade the other jurors in changing their verdict. In order for them to do that, they have to make very good use of stress and voice pitch to get the other jurors to change their verdict.
Why is it good for improving vocabulary?
Because you will hear the 12 jurors speak about justice, morality, everyday objects, physical traits, character traits etc, so you will learn loads of new words in context. You’ve got to make sure to grab a nice dictionary and take notes. Watch it again and again and see how fast you’ll improve.
The movie is a great tool for English learners, no doubt about it. It provides a good context for you to make sense of how the language is used. Here’s the trailer on YouTube:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zagNR35teCY]
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