I have already written a post about the importance of imitation, but I am coming back to this topic because I think imitation it is a great learning tool.
Imitating is fun. It is just like playing a game. We grow up imitating our parents, our favorite singers and people we admire. We also love to imitate our teachers and people we do not like. Although it is true that some people have a gift for imitating, this is an ability we can develop, too. It is a matter of practice. The more you practice it, the better you can do it. As everything you learn in life, in fact.
On the video below, a girl has fun imitating her favorite Nintendo characters.
Here the same girl imitates the Disney princesses.
Do you see how much fun she is having? Of course she must have spent a lot of time practicing for that. As we can see, the result great.
Learning English can be more efficient if we try to imitate, too. You can imitate the sounds you hear, and as a consequence your pronunciation and intonation will get better. You can imitate the way native speakers move their mouths and you will learn how to articulate the sounds better.
You can also imitate words and expressions people use. At first you are going to repeat them, but with time they will become part of you active vocabulary.
Watch this video, for example, and try to imitate the way the characters speak. It’s a scene from the TV show Suburgatory where a lot of comparatives are used.
This is another scene from Suburgatory, and the character speaks a lot and very fast. Try to imitate her, too.
I am not implying that you should spend your life imitating people like a parrot. I am just saying that you start by imitating and soon you will be using the language naturally and creating your own sentences. Imitation is just the beginning of the process.
As teachers, it is important to encourage students to do the same. You can give a few examples in class, and encourage them to do it on their own. Not only is it fun, but it is also very effective. Your students will learn a lot while having a great time.
