Learning American English through tv shows: “Friends”, a journey between language and culture

Abstract

This dissertation aims to explain the importance and the fundamental role played by the audiovisuals during the process of learning and commanding, step by step, a foreign language. In this thesis, the idiom object of study is American English. In particular, since both language and culture-bound elements need to be taken into consideration to fully handle a foreign language, this work is based on the linguistic and cultural analyse of a famous American tv show from the Nineties, early Two Thousands, the popular and evergreen “Friends”. The following work will deal, in different sections, with the power of videos during the process of learning, especially tv shows, focusing in particular, among the other topics, on the use of subtitles. A section will be dedicated to the the cognitive studies in the field of linguistics linked to the use of audiovisuals along with the problems related to it, such as brain overload, and to the role primarily played by the so-called “mirror neurons”. Afterwards, the relationship abilities in the field of communication will be studied starting from the tv show, following a communicative competence model which includes both verbal and non-verbal issues, such as the ones linked to gesture and the value of culture-bound elements, more generally, present in the show. Finally, the issues of teaching and learning with audiovisuals will be presented, along with the different activities and games which can be proposed after watching the show, and the benefits they can produce in this field, in a playful and “cheerful” perspective of foreign language learning.