The importance of seeing films in ov and how to do it

 

 

As most language students know, the level of exposure we have in the target language is a key factor in language learning. Exposure means listening, reading, and interacting using the target language. Exposure doesn’t necessarily mean, as many people believe, living in the country where the language is spoken. We can have exposure to the target language by listening to radio programmes, watching TV programmes, reading magazines or newspapers, interacting with natives and non-natives, etc. Thanks to the technological advances, the number of available written and auditory sources is endless these days.

Listening in particular is crucial in language acquisition, and watching films and/or TV programmes in the target language seems to be an interesting tool that students should take advantage of.

In a country like Spain, where films are dubbed into Spanish both on TV and the big screen, language students  may find it a bit harder to see films in ov. However, there are still some simple ways of having access to these types of films.

One of these is an function present in most TV sets that enables us to change the film’s language to the original language. This is both simple and fast.

Another option is to try to get the TV programme/film on the Internet. For those of you who would still like to have subtitles, there are different programmes such as VLC Player or Real Player that allow us to load subtitles, which we need to download from other sites. You can easily install any of these two players on your computer.The subtitles can be found on specific subtitles websites, where you look for the subtitle that you need and download it. If the subtitle has the same name as the film, then you won’t need to open the file (via the video player), it’s displayed automatically. If it has a different name, you’ll need to open the file using the video player (after you open the film file).


There are many websites where you can find films or series in ov (with and without subtitles) that you can download or watch online. In some cases you need a subscription, like in Netflix or Popcorn for instance.

It is necessary to remember that subtitles are advised to elementary students, those who have a basic or intermediate level of the language or who have difficulties to understand the spoken language. For the more advanced ones, it’s a good idea to start seeing films or series without subtitles or, at least, using fewer subtitles each time.

Finally, there are cinemas which show films in ov in almost every city here in Spain. The films do not tend to be very commercial and, therefore, one part of the audience may not like them but they are still an interesting option.


Enjoy watching films in ov and learn English!

 

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