Children are one of the most important costumers of this product and this kind of public can learn a lot if they have the correct material to work with.
The brain has been described like a sponge in kids before 12 years old. In the first six years of his life, the brain changes more with learning skills and the gaininf of a language than with any other cognitive skill. Children born with natural abilities to imitate pronunciations and understand any language by themselves, without the need of studying in a conscious way the grammar rules.
Cinema can teach English, this is a fact, but what kind of films are suitable for children and which are the premises to allow them enjoy and learn?
1. Subtitles: It is recommendable for the children to watch the film for the first time in their own language. After that you can put on the subtitles and the audio in English... the images will do the rest. Children learn fast, so you'll be surprise about how soon they start to repeat some expressions in English.
2. A film they like: They should love the movie don't matter how many times they have watched it before. In addition to enjoy it, they will memorize without realizing it some scenes and the conversations.
3. A correct vocabulary: No cockney, no slang and no bad language. The best way to learn a language is practicing it with the formal and right level. For children is easier to learn the other level (the informal) with songs or being in touch with native kids.
The boyish and family films are the best to learn English because they have short dialogues, easy plots, a lot of gesticulation, exaggerated and expresive characters, words followed by actions and no niceties or double senses.
Here we have five personal recommendations from the members of the group:
1. E.T. (1982):
The main character of the film has left his home and he finds himself in an unknown place where he has to make questions and express his emotions to come back home.
2. The Nightmare before Christmas (1993):
It's a funny, dramatic and a bit scary film where Jack Skellington, the main character, fight for the triumph of the good over the evil in a fantasy world called Halloween Town.
3. The Lion King (1994):
Representing Disney Company, which has created a lot of animated films since Snow White and the seven Dwarfs, in 1937, allowing the children to be closer to popular tales and culture. Here we can see values like kindness, friendship and love.
4. Harry Potter films (2001 - 2011):
Combining literature and films like in the Harry Potter saga is a good way to teach them two skills: reading and listening. It's recommendable the reading of the books of the saga and to start little by little with a dictionary or the help of the parents (if the books are in English) or to read the books in Spanish and to watch the films in English, although the best option is to do the two things in the original language. It all depends on the level of the children.
5. Finding Nemo (2003):
Representing Pixar Animation Company. This kind of films have a high level of creativity which kids love and represent a change from the boyish films.
In addition, we have created a presentation in Slideshare where you can learn more about animated films:
