BASIC LISTENING

LISTENING THROUGH A MOVIE

By :

Adjeng Sagieta Aultya (18340046)

Gesia Afifah Ayu Wulandari (18340049)
 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF METRO
MARCH 2019
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. All praised be to Allah,
Lord of the world, who always guides and protects his in every step of his life.
Because of his guidance, blessing, and love, finally, we could finish this paper.
Peace and salutation forever to a noble character, Prophet Muhammad who has
brought the human beings from the darkness to the lightness and from the bad
character the good one.

We would like to express our deeply gratitude and appreciation to our lecturer
Rahmad Adhi Pamungkas., S.Pd. who kindly helped and suggestion during the
process of writing this paper.

At last but not least, we realize that although we made our best effort, this
paper is still far from perfect. Therefore, any constructive criticism and
suggestions for enhancement of this paper are highly appreciated. Then, we really
hope that this paper is able to give contribution to the readers and useful for for
the teaching and learning process.
 Metro, March, 20th 2019

The Writer

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENT………………………………………………………….I

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………...1

1.1 The background of the study……………………………………………

1.2 The formulation of the study……………………………………………

CHAPTER 2. DISCUSSION…………………………………………………….
 2.1 The movie introduction…………………………………………………

2.2 The use of the listening through a movie………………………………

2.3 The tips for learning English through a movie…………………………

2.4 The disadvantage of learning English through a movie………………..

CHAPTER 3. CONCLUSION………………………………………………….

REFERENCES………………………………………………………………….
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 The background of the study

Listening plays significant role in the acquisition of the English language.

The development of listening has stolen many English teachers in many countries.
Generally, listening is considered as the simplest process of receiving a spoken
language and also listening is considered to be the easiest skill to be mastered
because it only requires short amount of time rather than the other skills which are
speaking, writing and reading. Listening process in mother tongue (language) is
one of factors that support this perception because listening process in mother
tongue looks easy and brief.

Listening is one of the important skill that student should have learned in
learning a language such as learning English, but learning to be good in listening
is not easy as it seems. This cannot be separated from the influences of listening in
constructing students vocabulary and enhancing language usage. Listening has the
potential to develop students pronunciation, words stress, and syntax acquisitions.
It also contributes for language expertise and proficiency. Additionally, listening
facilitates student to obtain 45% of the total language competences. It involves not
only cognitive processes but also some behavioural and affective processes.

Recent research has proved that listening skill especially in English affects
their other language skills such as reading, writing, and speaking achievements.
For example, if students watching English movie once a day in their spare time,
their listening skill might improve and also their speaking skill because as they are
watching, they are not only listen to the spoken language but also they are seeing
the way of movie characters speak so they can imitate it. The students who are
good and mature in listening are considered to be better in the other English
language skills which are reading, conversation or speaking, and writing rather
than students whose listening skills is not mature or good yet, another advantage
of having a mature listening is that it facilitates personal and professional
development to the students themselves. For students being a good listener are not
only giving them benefits in learning language, but also in other subjects as well,
the basic purpose of listening is to gain information, so being a good listener
means that students can obtain many information by only listening, Ron
Iwankovitsch gives one example the benefits of being a good listener, Ron gives
an example if someone has a report to do or to find how to build a deck or a table,
he or she rather finds someone who is already good at building a deck or a table,
and listening to them for only a few hours would surely have many information
about it than spending a week or maybe a month reading or researching of what to
do.

Finally, from the explanation above, the writer found that it is important to
teach and learn English listening through watching English movies.

1.2 The formulation of the study

Based on the background of the study, the problem is formulated as follows

“How do we improve our English by listening through a movie?
 CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

2.1 The introduction of the movie

Purl is a 2019 American computer-animated short film written and directed

by Kristen Lester, with the story being written by Michael Daley, Bradley Furnish,
Lester, and James Robertson, and produced by Pixar Animation Studios. The first
short released as a part of Pixar's "SparkShorts" program, the film focuses on a
ball of yarn named Purl, who gets employed in a human-dominant company,
which causes her to be ignored by her fellow employees. The short was released
in February 4, 2019, to universal acclaim from critics, particularly for its themes.

2.1.1 Plot

Purl, a humanoid pink-colored ball of yarn, begins an entry-level position at a

company named B.R.O. Capital. While excited at first to work there, she soon
realizes that her partners ignore her, in spite of her attempts to fit in. After being
left alone while her coworkers go out for a group lunch, a devastated Purl feels
left out. Reassessing her place in the company, Purl observes from photos of the
company's capital team that it is composed entirely of men in similar power suits
and hairstyles. This inspires her to change her appearance and personality to
resemble theirs. After the other employees return, Purl, now imitating her
coworkers, is noticed by her coworkers, who invite her out for drinks. Before the
group leaves, however, a yellow-colored ball of yarn named Lacy arrives at the
office to begin working. Upon watching Lacy experience the same isolation she
did by her coworkers, an empathetic Purl befriends Lacy, and invites her to join
them for drinks. After some time has passed, Purl has returned to her original
appearance, and B.R.O. Capital is shown to be staffed by a more equal
combination of humans and balls of yarn, who work together as a team.

2.1.2 Cast

Bret Parker as Purl and Emily Davis as Lacy

Pixar employees Michael Daley, Michael Frederickson, Erik Langley, Jimmy

Lillard, Austin Madison, Kelsey Mann, Kyle McDaniel, Victor Navone and
Michale Yates provided the voices for the male employees at B.R.O. Capital,
while Aphton Corbin, Mitra Shahidi, and Pixar director Domee Shi voiced the
female employees.
2.1.3 Production
Purl is the first short of Pixar's "SparkShorts" program, in which employees
at Pixar are given six months and limited budgets to produce short animated
films.Producer Gillian Libbert-Duncan described the short as "a movie about
belonging". Writer/director Kristen Lester was inspired by her first experiences
working in animation, in which she was the lone female, in writing the film's story.
Lester related that in order to fit in, she "sort of became one of the guys" until she
began to work with female employees at Pixar, which made her rediscover the
female aspects of herself that she had suppressed. Upon explaining the story to
Libbert, whom related to Lester, and explained the short's concept, she agreed to
work on the project.
Lester described the B.R.O. Capital office as "a hyperreal office". Animators
developed the office so it could seem "modern and sleek", so the character of Purl,
whom she described as "fluffy" and "fuzzy", could be easier to portray "as an
outsider". Lester explained that her choice of depicting purl as a ball of yarn was
inspired by her hobby of yarn bombing, and how that activity demonstrated the
versatility of yarn. Lester also borrowed elements from movies like Working
Girl and 9 to 5 for the story. Having started production by September
2018, Purl is the first Pixar production not to involve former Chief Creative
Officer John Lasseter, who left Pixar in June 2018 due to allegations of sexual
misconduct towards female employees.

2.2 The use of the listening through a movie

1. You’ll get to learn real English, not textbook English.
The English you learn through textbooks or in ESL class is not what you’ll
hear people say. For example, in beginner English classes, you might have learnt
how to say “it’s a quarter to seven” or “it’s raining cats and dogs”. While these are
correct, we almost never say these in real life.
In contrast, the English spoken in movies is very natural. It’s also very
close to what you’ll hear if you speak with native English speakers too. This
will help improve your spoken English.
2. You learn English words in context.
This is one of my favourite aspects of watching movies. Let’s say that
you like watching crime films (these are great!). After watching ten or
twenty movies, you’ll start to learn vocabulary related to the context, or
subject, of crime.
Usually, when we learn words traditionally (e.g. in school), we study
things like vocabulary lists. The problem with learning new words with
vocabulary lists is that you can learn what words mean, but
not where and how they are used.
For example, let’s say you learn the new word “detective”. From the
dictionary, you’ll know what that it means “a person who investigates
crimes”. But unless you use it, it can be easy to forget. It also doesn’t give
you an idea where the word is used most frequently, and how it is used.
On the other hand, if you learn the word “detective” through watching
 crime films, you’ll know “detective” can mean many things. For example,
it can be a title in front of a person (e.g. “Detective Beckett”). Or maybe it’s
the noun referring to the job (e.g. he’s a detective). And maybe you’ll even
hear things that will let you form opinions about the word (e.g. “you lousy
detectives”).
This way, you won’t only learn what each word means, you will also
know how it’s used. Killing two birds with one stone. You will never be able
to do that through textbooks.
3. You hear how things are said.
In English, people often say that 30% of what we say is expressed
through our words. So what about the other 70%?
Well, the other 70% is all about how you say it. You know, things like
your expressions (like a smile, a frown) and your tone of voice (like when
you sound angry, or when you sound sad). As you can guess, the how is
usually more important than the what to English people. Let me give you an
example :
I’m sure that one of the first phrases you wanted to learn in English was “I
love you”. But did you imagine that depending how you say it out loud, it can
be very different?
“I love you” – you might hear this after two people (especially lovers) fight!
One person may be trying to say to the other person “I really love you…why
don’t you believe me!?”
“I love you” – a person might really want to say “I love you (and not anyone
else…don’t worry!)
“I…LOVE…YOU” – this might be a person saying “I love you” in a very
loud voice…while trying to really confess their love!
“I LOVE YOU!!” – the person might be saying “I love you”…while they’re
really angry!
As you can see – if you try to learn this by reading – you might have
been confused. Even though the four phrases are written differently, they use
the exact same words. But if you hear these phrases out loud, they will make
perfect sense to you!
 Knowing what someone is saying is important. But knowing how they
are saying it is even more important. We call understanding the “how”
the nuances of the English language.
Through observing actors in films, not only will you be able to learn new
words, you will be able to understand how they are said. The characters might
be sad, happy, surprised, angry. And you’ll understand this immediately

2.3 The tips for listening through a movie

1. Choose an interesting movie.
This probably sounds obvious, but if you choose a boring movie,
you’ll be bored. And if you’re bored, it will be difficult to pay attention. For
more than one and a half hours! Select a movie that is about something familiar,
such as:

 A movie that is set in your home country: this should be easier than a
movie set in some place you’re less familiar with.
 A movie that you have seen before, perhaps in your home country with
subtitles or a translated soundtrack, so that you know the story and
characters.
 A movie with close captioning: in this case, watch the movie first with
the close captioning on, so that you become familiar with it. Then watch
it again with the close captioning off.
 A movie that is based on a book: this way, you can read the book first to
learn about the characters and story and then watch the movie.
 A movie that is one of several in a series: in this way you at least get to
know some of the characters and may even have a continuing story.
 A movie that has a lot of visual elements to support the dialogue..
2 .Select a movie that matches your current English level.
For example, for beginners in English, I usually recommend you learn
English through animations. The main reason is because the English is
usually very friendly, nice and easy to understand.
 For language learning purposes, some movies are not as useful
  Movies with slang, fast speakers, ethnic dialects, and so on are more
difficult than ones with speakers who speak a relatively standard version
of North American English and speak it clearly.
 Older movies often have patterns of speech that are no longer common,
especially in this area.
 Movies about historical events, especially from the distant past, if done
well will have patterns of speech that are uncommon today, and the
situations will not be relevant.
Some animated films do not give as accurate a rendering of lip movements
associated with specific sounds
3. Bring your dictionary.
Maybe I’ll add point 3.5 too – choose a film with subtitles! So when
you hear a word you’re interested in, check it up! Because you went
through the trouble to understand it…you’ll be able to remember that word
for a long time too!
4. Repeat short phrases!
Some times, you might hear something cool in the movie. For example,
some short phrases, or slang like, “hell yeah!”, or “sure thing”, or “you
betcha!” that are commonly used in English. If you like how it sounds, it
really helps to repeat it! After saying it out loud a while, you will be able to
remember it for a longer time! It’s a great and enjoyable exercise – one of my
personal favourites.
5. Without subtitles.
I know it can be really challenging to watch a film in a foreign language
without subtitles. So here’s my recommendation. When you watch a film the
first time, just turn on subtitles. But if you get the chance to watch it a second
time, try turning off subtitles.
This way, you already know the story from the first time you watched it.
And this time, you can try listening to some individual words that you might
have checked up last time. Or you might try to see how much you can
understand the film without subtitles.
6. VLC player.
 This is actually a video player I recommend for watching films on your
computer. This is one of my favourite tools. Most people use it just to watch
movies, but I use it a little differently. (And if you don’t have it, you can
download VLC player, it’s free.)
VLC Player allows you to play back movies at half speed or quarter
speed. So if there are parts you don’t understand, you can play these back at a
slower speed and try again! It’s very helpful to practice your listening.
7. It’s okay to miss words. Just let it go.
Last of all, remember what we said in the start? Watching movies should
be fun…so if you miss a word, a phrase, or even many sentences, that’s okay!
Just follow along the subtitles and learn that way. Don’t make yourself feel
bad…watching films is supposed to be fun!

2.3 The advantages of learning English through a movie

There are a few disadvantages too. Here’s a few problems you may run into:
1. There are no subtitles.
This is pretty rare nowadays. But if you watch a film without subtitles, it
can be difficult to understand what’s going on.
2. You have to keep on pausing and playing to understand.
It can take you many times to understand something said on screen,
because sometimes, the film might be easy. But at other times, it might be hard
to understand. (As an example, characters who play “professors” in films can
be difficult to understand. They use some difficult words, which you may have
never heard of before.)
3. You have to keep on checking up words.
For every word you don’t know, you might want to look it up in the
dictionary. While it’s a lot faster to check up words nowadays on our phones, it
can be annoying to keep pausing and checking up words.
4. You can’t remember these words afterwards.
It can be difficult to keep track of what you’ve learnt, because it takes time
and effort to take notes, and we want to have an enjoyable experience in
 watching the movie, without having to be interrupted every minute to write
down a word!
5. You don’t know if you remember these words after.
After a week, or a month, or even three months, you might forget what
you’ve learnt! And because you didn’t jot down notes, you can’t really test
yourself either.

CONCLUSION

Watching movies is a great way to improve your English, especially listening

and speaking skills. Films are not usually created for English language learners –
they are made for native English speakers. Therefore, the language is exactly how
you hear it in real life – it is spoken quickly, with native accents and
pronunciation and using many idioms and colloquial expression. However, there
are some disadvantages of learning English through a movie. Also, we won’t get
the impact of it, if we do it continuously.
 REFERENCES

. Purl (2019 film). Cited in March, 18th 2019 from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purl_(2019_film).

Purl (2019 film). Courtesy by Disney Pixar :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6uuIHpFkuo
 . Learn English through Movies and Film: A Complete Guide. Cited in
March, 18th 2019 from
https://www.fluentu.com/blog/english/learn-english-movies-film-esl/