In the research literature, there has been some argument about how good
sitcoms are as a source of learning for conversational, everyday spoken English.
I’m Dr Julian Northbrook from https://doingenglish.com, the place
for high level English learners to go from okay at speaking English to speaking at extraordinary
levels of fluency, naturalness, and confidence. So, is watching sitcoms a good way to improve
one’s spoken English? This is a great question, and it’s one with several elements,
and it’s a question that’s perhaps, a little bit more complex than people think.
First off, as with any question like this, the implication behind the question is,
“Can I just watch sitcoms and improve my English?” and the answer to that is probably no. At least
not effectively and definitely not very quickly. Any kind of passive exposure just by itself is
never going to be that effective. Just watching sitcoms is not going to do that much, just like
just reading books, or just listening to podcasts. Now, any of these things are helpful as a form of
passive exposure but ultimately, if you want to improve your spoken English fast, you are going
to need a balanced, structured routine of focused intensive study, designed to grow your English
as quickly as possible. Combined with as much exposure and usage of English as possible and
this is where sitcoms can be very useful. If you want to learn more about the
structured balanced routine, head over to https://doingenglish.com/freetraining.
Now again, by themselves, they’re not going to be enough. But if you love sitcoms, then yes,
absolutely they are a fantastic source of exposure to English. I personally absolutely
love sitcoms and since I’ve been pretty much locked up in an apartment now for six months,
I have watched probably every American comedy sitcom on Netflix… probably more than once at this
point. I absolutely love them and I think they’re brilliant. And if you love them too, then yes,
they should be a part of your exposure to English. However, we can go a bit deeper into the question
because in the research literature, there has been some argument about how good sitcoms
are as a source of learning for conversational, everyday spoken English.
On one hand, one study published in 2012 in the TESOLquarterly journal found that in terms of the
lexical elements that you will encounter in sitcoms – that is the words, the phrases,
the expressions, the bits of English – they are excellent, they are very conversational,
and you will encounter the kind of conversational language that you will encounter in everyday
situations. And if you are, then, you know, studying that in your focus study time,
and then being exposed to that in these sitcoms that is excellent, it’s an excellent way to be
exposed to the actual elements of the language. However, there is a flipside to this because
they’ve also been heavily criticised for being hyper real. And what I mean by that is that the
way people use the language that you hear is not always very real. Take for example, something
like “The Big Bang Theory”, a sitcom that I absolutely love and I’ve seen a couple of times
now. “The Big Bang Theory” purposely uses a lot of complex, difficult lexis and jargons, scientific
terminology in order to create the style that you see in that show. And if you as a non-native
speaker watching that thinking that you have to speak in that kind of way… well, you’re very, very
wrong. And if you’re watching it, thinking, “Oh I don’t understand a lot of these words, I must be
shit at English”, you’re kind of missing the point of the show because it’s designed like that. Even
as a native speaker we watch that show and we don’t understand all of that complex, technical
language. And that is a part of the humour that's constructed and seen in The Big Bang Theory.
Another great example would be something like “How I Met Your Mother”, another
sitcom that I absolutely love and that I’ve seen every season twice now after one of my
Extraordinary English Speakers recommended it to me. In terms of the actual language, again,
it’s very conversational and you will encounter the kind of things that you’ve learned in your
study time in that show. However, what you’ve got to understand with things like “How I Met
Your Mother” is it’s designed for comedy effect, it’s a comic book representation of real life. And
“How I Met Your Mother” is very much all jokes all the time. Basically every line in the show
is some kind of joke, some kind of pun. And it is exaggerated and blown out of proportion, again,
for comic effect – that’s what makes it funny. But if you were to act, and behave, and speak like
that in real conversation all the time, far from sounding very good at English, you’re probably
just going to come across as very, very annoying. Now of course, as well as exposure to the language
of conversation, sitcoms are an excellent way to expose yourself to cultural norms and different
ways of thinking or behaving. For example, American sitcoms are a great way to expose
yourself to American cultural norms. However, once again here, you have to be very, very careful and
you have to understand that these sitcoms are hyper real. They are comic book, or theme park
representations of culture and how people behave. For example, the show “Emily in Paris”,
another one which I absolutely loved, has been heavily criticised because it is so blown up out
of proportion and so exaggerated to the extent that the representation of Parisian culture that
you see in “Emily in Paris” is totally not real. They have taken stereotypes, stereotypes held by
people outside of France and Paris, and they have used those to create the humour and it is so,
so exaggerated to the extent where it no longer actually represents Parisian culture. It is so
hyper real that it is like going to Disneyland and thinking that that is representative of American
culture. Obviously, it’s not. Disneyland is designed to be this hyper real fantasy world and
that’s the sort of thing you often see in sitcoms and especially with things like “Emily in Paris”,
which, again, has been heavily criticised. So the point that I’m trying to make here is yes,
absolutely, sitcoms are a great source of exposure to supplement your study time. You do have to
understand what they are in the same way as a newspaper is fundamentally different to, say,
the way we speak in conversations. Sitcoms are a genre of English unto themselves and they are not
necessarily the same as to how people actually behave and speak in the real world. So, yes,
they are a great source of exposure. But no, you shouldn’t take them too literally. And you’ve kind
of got to take what you see there with a pinch of salt if you’re using that as a source of learning.
Right. I think that’s enough for this topic. Again, I absolutely love sitcoms and I’m not
trying to discourage you or dissuade you from watching them in any way. I think you should,
I think they are a great source of passive exposure. Just be careful with how you,
you interpret what you see. So, if you want some help from me,
particularly regarding this balanced structured routine of focused study and exposure to English
to grow and improve your English fast, head to https://doingenglish.com/freetraining
and study the free one-hour training I put together to teach you the top 5 changes, the
structured routine included, that my best clients make to improve their English fast. This is me,
Dr Julian Northbrook, signing out from another video. See you soon guys, buh-bye.