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Mr Bean teaches English: how film is helping language learners

For students fathoming British accents, cinema is a godsend. Three Ukrainians getting used to Yorkshire explain how light entertainment has been seriously useful

Similarly, for Iryna Bielikova, 39, it has taken a while to get used to speaking English more frequently as she adapts to her new home: “Sometimes I make mistakes but I understand I need time and a little more practice.” Recently, along with her children, she watched Inside Out 2 at the cinema. Photograph: Cinetext/Universal/AllstarThis in fact ties into a common roadblock that Driver has encountered, leading to her incorporating TV and films into her teaching; many students, she says, arrive with a good level of reading and writing but often have problems with understanding people talking. John Gray, professor of applied linguistics and education at UCL says that language learners largely find it straightforward to get to a certain level of English, but that it gets gradually more difficult.

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