LEARNING ENGLISH THROUGH DISNEY FILMS
I am a big fan of Disney classics. Last Saturday, while I was watching “The Little Mermaid 2” I thought “wouldn’t these movies be a fantastic way for small kids to learn English?”. Children love this kind of films but, have they ever seen them in English? I wanted to know how difficult could it be for children to understand, so I did an experiment and I tried with my little cousin. She is 7. As I had expected, she got excited about this. I asked her for her favourites Disney movies, and guess what she said: Mulan.
I got shocked, it’s not the typical film you expect a child is going to choose as his favourite, but I felt happy for this: although all Disney films are full of values and learnings, this one is especially interesting due to the image it shows about a brave and independent woman. It was completely successful: I asked her what were the characters talking about in some dialogues and she knew it perfectly.
Additionally, who doesn’t like Disney soundtracks? I was surprised to see that, after ten minutes of the film, she was already singing in English. Mulan’s songs are my favourites, and as we all know for sure, songs are a very easy, fun and fast way to learn a foreign language, so I think this is a perfect combination. Also, the good thing about these films is that they are precisely made for children, so they are very understandable. So, why not trying this with your children? Play a Disney movie in English and enjoy it with them!
