Interesting Ways for Improving English Ability

Improving English ability is always being a hot issue in current time. Since English become an important language  in students’ lives, many students have the desire to improve their English. Moreover, learning English gives many advantages to students to get better jobs and enable them to communicate with people around the world. Since it becomes a crucial language, students have the ways to improve their English. Started from watching English movies, listening to English songs, joining English courses, talking to native speakers, going to abroad, and doing the discussion of English topics. Each way has its own  special aspects. Two of the most interesting ways of learning English are listening to English songs and watching English movies.

One of the way to learn English is listening to English songs. Students can easily find English songs in their lives. They are familiar with music, especially English songs. There are some advantages of learning through English songs, such as improving listening, pronunciation, vocabulary, sentence structure, and mood for learning. Moreover, listening English songs are enjoyable and interesting, and enrich cultural knowledge of the students. According to Jolly (1975), using songs can give students the opportunity to acquire a better understanding of the culture and target language. In addition, Purcell (1992) said, “ Students become bored by repeatedly listening to a narrator or dialog as they attempt to understand the meaning of new words or phrases in context. In contrast, listening to a song over and over again can seem less monotonous because of the rhythm and melody.” English song that students can listen to improve their English ability are Hello, I have a dream, My heart will go on, My mother, and so on.

Another way of improving English ability is watching English movies. English movies are movies that use English as the language to make conversation, discussion, and actions. English movies might come from America that be called Hollywood movie or British movies. Through movies, students can improve their listening, speaking, vocabulary, critical thinking, and cultural understanding. Students are easy to learn English through movies because they work with their visual and auditory memory that enable them to absorb and remember the information or vocabulary that they have learned. They don’t need to feel stress while learning because their brain in the relaxed position. There are 3 most popular movies that can be watched like Toy story, Free birds, Charle & the chocolate factory, and so on. A survey undertakes by Sommer (2001) and Kusumardyati (2004), stated, “Films in the video format can become an integral part of the curriculum because movies provide exposures to the real language used in authentic settings and the culture in which the foreign language is spoken.” They also found films can motivate them to learn because films draw learners’ interest.

The ways of improving English ability play rule to make students feel enjoyment in learning English. If students feel enjoyment, they will be more motivated to learn. Some interesting ways are chosen by students. The other ways are the assistances of improving English ability. However, all give the good impact to the improvement of student’s English ability.