70 Ways To Improve Your
English
- Start your own English language blog. Even for people who don't have to write in English,
writing can be a great way of properly learning the kind of vocabulary you
need to describe your own life and interests, and of thinking about how to
stop making grammar mistakes. The problem most people have is that they
don't know what to write about. One traditional way to make sure you write
every day in English is to write an English diary (journal), and a more up
to date way of doing this is to write a blog. Popular topics include your
language learning experience, your experience studying abroad, your local
area, your language, or translations of your local news into English.
- Write a news diary. Another daily writing task that can work for people
who would be bored by writing about their own routines in a diary is to
write about the news that you read and listen to everyday. If you include
your predictions for how you think the story will develop (e.g. "I
think Hillary will become president"), this can give you a good
reason to read old entries another time, at which time you can also
correct and mistakes you have made and generally improve what you have
written.
- Sign up for a regular English tip. Some websites offer a weekly or even daily short
English lesson sent to your email account. If your mobile phone has an
e-mail address, it is also possible to have the tips sent to your phone to
read on the way to work or school. Please note, however, that such
services are not usually graded very well to the levels of different
students, and they should be used as a little added extra or revision in
your English studies rather than as a replacement for something you or
your teacher have chosen more carefully as what you need to learn.
- Listen to MP3s. Although buying music on the internet is becoming more
popular in many countries, not so many people know that you can download
speech radio such as audio books (an actor reading out a novel) and speech
radio. Not only is this better practice for your English than listening to
English music, from sources like Scientific American, BBC and Australia's
ABC Radio it is also free.
- Listen to English music. Even listening to music while doing something else can
help a little for things like getting used to the natural rhythm and tone
of English speech, although the more time and attention you give to a song
the more you will learn from listening to it again in the future.
- Read the lyrics to a song. Although just listening to a song in English can be a
good way of really learning the words of the chorus in an easily memorable
way, if you want to really get something out of listening to English music
you will need to take some time to read the lyrics of the song with a
dictionary. If the lyrics are not given in the CD booklet, you may be able
to find them on the internet, but please note that some lyrics sites
deliberately put a few errors into their lyrics for copyright reasons.
Once you have read and understood the lyrics, if you then listen and
read at the same time, this can be a good way of understanding how sounds change
in fast, natural, informal speech.
- Sing karaoke in English. The next stage after understanding and memorising a
song is obviously to sing it. Although some words have their pronunciation
changed completely to fit in with a song, most of the words have the same
sounds and stressed syllables as in normal speech. Remembering which words
rhyme at the end of each line can also be a good way of starting to learn
English pronunciation.
- Write a film, music, hotel or book review. Another motivating and easy way to make yourself write
in English is to write a review for a site such as Amazon or Internet
Movie Database. Many non-native speakers write reviews on sites like this,
and if you have some special understanding of the book, music or film due
to your first language or knowing the artist personally, that would be
very interesting for the English speakers who read and write reviews on
the site.
- Only search in English. Switching your search engine to the English language
version of msn, yahoo, Google etc. can not only be a good way of
practising fast reading for specific information in English, but could
also give you a wider choice of sites to choose from and give you an idea
of what foreigners are writing about your country and area.
- Read a book you've already read or seen the movie of in
your own language.
Although most language learners under Advanced level would probably learn
more from reading a graded reader or something from the internet than they
would from reading an original book written for English speakers, for some
people reading something like Harry Potter in the original can be a great
motivator to improve their English. To make this easier for you and make
sure that it motivates you rather than just making your tired, try reading
a book that you already know the story of. This not only makes it easier
to understand and guess vocabulary, but you are also more likely to
remember the language in it. If you have not read the book before, reading
a plot summary from the internet can also help in the same way.
- Read a translation into English. Another way of making sure books are easier to
understand is to choose a book that was originally translated into
English, preferably from your own language. Even if you haven't read the
book in your own language, you will find the English is written in a
slightly simplified way that is more similar to how your own language is written
than a book originally written in English would be.
- Skip the first ten pages. If you have given up with a book in English or are
reading it very slowly, try skimming through the first ten pages or
skipping them completely. The start of most books tend to be mainly
description and are therefore full of difficult vocabulary and don't have
a clear story line yet to help you understand what is happening and to
motivate you to turn the next page. If the book is still too difficult
even after the introductionary part is finished, it is probably time to
give that book up for now and try it again after you have read some easier
things.
- Read a book with lots of dialogue. Opening up books before you buy one and flicking
through them to find one with lots of direct dialogue in it has several
advantages. If there is less text on the page due to all the speech marks
etc, this can make it easier to read and easier to write translations on.
Dialogue is also much easier to understand than descriptive parts of a book,
and is much more like the language you will want to learn in order to be
able to speak English.
- Read English language comics. Even more than books with lots of dialogue, comics can
be easy to understand and full of idiomatic language as it is actually spoken.
There can be difficulties with slang, difficult to understand jokes and/
or dialogue written how people speak rather than with normal spellings, so
try to choose which comic carefully. Usually, serious or adventure comics
are easier to understand than funny ones.
- Read English language entertainment guides. Nowadays most big cities in the world have an English
language magazine and/ or online guide to the movies, plays, exhibitions
that are on in the city that week. Reading this in English is not only good
value, but it could also guide you to places that English speakers are
interested in and where you might hear some English spoken around you.
- Read English language magazines. Like books, if you can read two versions of the same
magazine (Newsweek in your language and in English, for example), that
could make understanding it much easier.
- Take a one week intensive course. Although you cannot expect to come out of a very short
course speaking much better English than when you started it, if you
continue studying a little over the following weeks and months, the
knowledge you gained then will gradually come out and mean that your level
of speaking, listening etc. are better than they would have been if you
hadn't taken that course. This positive effect can still be true up to a
year later.
- Follow your intensive course up with an extensive course. The more time you can spend studying English the
better, but studying periodic intensive courses with a few hours of study
a week in between is probably better value for money than any other system
as it gives your brain time to subconsciously learn and start using the
new language you have learnt before you introduce the next new
"chunk" of language.
- Supplement your group class with a one to one class. Another good way to combine two different kinds of
classes is to study both in a group class and one to one. Having a one to
one teacher, even if just a couple of times a month, will mean that you
can be taught exactly the language that you need, that you will have more
time to speak, and that you can have as much error correction as you like.
- Supplement your one to one class with a group class. The benefits of having a group class are often less
clear to students, but they include the fact that you will learn to deal
with several people speaking at once, have a chance to practice skills
such as interrupting people, and will hear a range of different viewpoints
and topics.
- Teach your children or friends some English. Recent research has shown that elder children tend to
be a couple of IQ points above their younger siblings, and the most likely
reason is that explaining things to their little brothers and sisters
gives them an intellectual boost. In the same way, teaching someone lower
level than you the English you already know is a great way of permanently
fixing that knowledge in your own brain.
- Ask your company to start English lessons. Even if you don't need to speak English at work,
English lessons can be a fun and reasonably priced way for your company to
spend their training budget in a popular way.
- Have English radio on in the background while you are
doing your housework.
Even if you are not listening carefully, it will help you get a feel for
natural English rhythm and intonation.
- Play English language learning games on your Nintendo DS. Although such games can have quite random language and
are unlikely to improve your ability to speak English on their own, the
next time you hear or read the same language elsewhere it will be really
fixed in your brain by the fact you have played a game with it in already.
It is also a nice way of taking a break from your other English studies
while also doing some English. To make sure it really is a break and to
avoid wasting time learning language from the game that is not much used
in daily life, don't bother writing down any new language you see in the
game, but just try to learn it from playing the game again.
- Say or think what you are doing in English as you do
your daily tasks. As
you are doing your chores, try creating sentences describing what you are
doing, e.g. ‘I am unscrewing the ketchup bottle cap'. This gets you used
to thinking in English without translating, and can be a good way of
seeing what simple vocabulary that is around you everyday you don't know.
yet
- Watch English language films with English subtitles. For people who can't understand a film without
subtitles but find themselves not listening at all when reading subtitles
in their own language, this should be the way of watching a film that you
should aim for. If it is too difficult to watch the whole film this way,
try watching the (usually important) first 10 or 15 minutes of the film
with subtitles in your own language, switch to English subtitles after
that, and only switch back to subtitles in your own language if you get
totally lost following the story of the film.
- Watch films in your language with English subtitles. If you are finding English films with English
subtitles too difficult or you can't find English films with English
subtitles in your local video shop, this is a good second best option.
Looking for local films with English subtitles can also sometimes be a
good sign of quality, as it means the producers of the film are expecting
it to be popular internationally as well.
- Watch English films with subtitles in your language. Again, this is not as good practice as English
language films with English subtitles, but is more relaxing, can be easier
to find suitable DVDs for, and is also possible with VHS.
- Watch the same film or TV episode over and over again. This can not only save you money on DVDs, but will
mean that you can really learn the language without having to study it.
Some comedies can also get funnier the more you watch them, especially if
you watch them with no subtitles and so understand a little more each time
you watch it.
- Be realistic about your level. One thing that holds many language learners back is
actually trying too hard and tackling something that their brain is not
ready for yet. Checking your level with a level check test on the
internet, by taking an English language test (FCE, CAE, IELTS, TOEIC,
TOEFL etc.), or by taking a free trial level check and/ or lesson in a
language school will help you find out what your level is and so choose
suitable self-study materials.
- Be realistic about your reading level. Most researchers agree that people learn most when
reading something they understand almost all of. If there are one or two
words per page that you have never seen before, that is about the right
level. If there are three or more on every page, you should switch to
something easier and come back later.
- Read graded readers (= easy readers). These are books that are especially written for language
learners like you, e.g. Penguin Readers. Although it can be difficult to
find something as interesting as things written in newspapers or on the
internet, in terms of learning the language only people who need to read
for their work or an exam usually gain more from reading things written
for graded readers. Graded readers of classic books like Charles Dickens
also have the benefit of giving you a lot of knowledge about the
literature, and culture more generally, of English speaking countries in a
short time.
- Read the whole thing with no help. Although using a dictionary has been shown to help
with both short term and long term learning of vocabulary, the fact that
using it slows reading down can stop some people reading in English at
all. Reading a whole book quickly through just for pleasure from time to
time will help you remember how fun reading in another language can be.
- Read and learn everything. At the opposite extreme, it can be hard work but very
satisfying to get to the end of a book knowing that you have learnt every
word in it. See other tips on this page to make sure it is a book that is
easy enough to do this with and to ensure that the vocabulary you learn is
useful.
- Watching English children's films or TV programmes. Although some of the vocabulary you can learn from
things made for children can be a bit strange (lots of animal names and
maybe animal noises, including baby names for things), the fact that not
only the language but the structure of the story is simplified can make it
an easy and motivating thing to watch. Like good language learning
materials, the same language is also often repeated to make it memorable,
and the use of catchy songs etc. can increase this positive effect on your
memory.
- Read English children's books. This is very similar to watching English children's
movies, but with the added advantage of there being more illustrations
than adult books, which both helps you to understand the story and makes
the page brighter and more motivating to read.
- Keep a list of language to learn, e.g. a vocab list. Even if you don't often find time to go though your
vocab list and it keeps on building up, just the act of choosing which
words you need to learn and writing them down on a special list can help
you learn them.
- Go through your vocab list several times every day. If ticking off words on a vocabulary list on the train
to work is inconvenient or embarrassing for you, you can keep your list of
words to learn as an entry in your electronic dictionary, as a mobile
phone to do list or as a text file in your MP3 player (e.g. iPod).
Although the time spent transferring the information between different
formats like these may seem wasted, in fact any time you spend using the
vocabulary like this will help you learn it.
- Convert your vocab list to English only. One way to stop yourself translating and therefore
increase your speed of comprehension and production is to learn all your
vocabulary without the use of your own first language. Ways you can write
a vocab list in only English include with synonyms (words with the same
meaning, e.g. "tall" and "high"); with opposites
("high" and "low"); with pronunciation factors such as
number of syllables (the number of beats, e.g. three for "de- ci-
sion") and the word stress (the syllable that is pronounced louder
and longer, e.g. the second syllable in "baNAna"); and gapped
sentences (e.g. "I am not _________________ in science fiction"
for the word "interested").
- Cross out and delete. Crossing out or deleting words, sentences or whole
pages that you have learnt can be a great motivator, and save your list of
things to learn becoming too big to handle.
- Throw everything away and start again. One of the things that can put most people off
learning is a stack of half finished books or a huge list vocabulary
waiting to be learnt. Simply getting rid of all that and starting again
with something new from zero can be a great motivator and get your studies
underway again.
- Label things in your house or office with post-its. The easiest vocabulary to learn is the vocabulary of
things you see and use everyday. If you can write the names of things
around you on slips of paper and stick them on the real thing, this is a
great way of learning useful vocabulary. If you can leave them there over
the following days and weeks, this is a very easy way of revising the
vocabulary until it is properly learnt.
- Label a drawing. For people who can't put labels on real things, the
next best option is to take a photo of a real place in your life like your
office, print it out, and then draw lines to all of the things you can see
in the picture and label them in English with the help of a dictionary.
You can do the same thing with places you pass through everyday like the
station. Because you will see the same thing again and again, it should be
easy to really learn the words for those things.
- Keep a diary in English. This is a popular method of making sure you use
English everyday for people who don't often speak English and can't think
of things to write about. The fact that you are writing about real things
that have happened to you means that any words you look up in the
dictionary will be vocabulary that is useful for you and easy to learn.
- Online chat. The closest thing to speaking for people who don't
have the chance to speak English is online chat, as you have to think and
respond quickly, and the language is short and informal just like speech.
- Listen to the radio news in English. You can make this easier by reading the news in
English first, or even just by reading or listening to the news in your
own language.
- Read an English language newspaper. Freebie newspapers like "Metro" in London
are usually the easiest to understand, followed by mid-brow titles like
"The Daily Express" or "The Daily Mail" in English.
Popular newspapers like "The Sun" are more difficult because of
the idiomatic, slangy use of language and the number of jokes in the
headlines and articles.
- Write fiction in English, e.g. short stories. For people who find writing a diary about things that
happen to them everyday boring, the best thing is to let your imagination
go and write about whatever comes into your head. The advantage of this is
that if you can't think of how to say something in English, you can just
change the story to something that is easier to explain. Perhaps the
easiest way to start writing fiction in English is with a diary, changing
any details you like to make it more interesting and adding more and more
fantasy as the weeks go on.
- English language exercise videos. This is quite similar to how babies learn, by
listening, watching and copying. It is also good for your health!
- Learn a famous speech or poem in English by heart. Although you may never hear or get the chance to say
exactly that line, having one memorable example of an English grammatical
form in your head can make it much easier to learn other examples of the
same grammar as you hear them. It is also something you can practice over
and over without being as boring as grammatical drills.
- Get tipsy (= a little drunk) before speaking English. This can not only improve your fluency while you are
drinking, but can also improve your confidence in future days and weeks by
showing you that you can communicate what you want to say.
- Use a dictionary while you are watching a movie. Films often have the same words many times, so if you
look up important words the first or second time you hear them, you should
have learnt them by the end of the film. It is easier to use a dictionary
if you watch with English subtitles.
- Learn and use the phonemic script. Although there are many sounds in English, there are
even more spellings. By learning the phonemic script and writing
vocabulary down with it, you can both add another stage to your vocabulary
learning that should help you learn it more thoroughly, and improve your
pronunciation. It can also make things easier for you by stopping you
trying to pronounce different spellings of the same pronunciation
different ways.
- Learn some spelling rules. Many people think that English spelling is random, but
in fact most words follow some kind of rule, e.g. the "magic E" that
changes the pronunciation of "mad" and "made".
- Record your own voice. For people who don't have much or any correction of
pronunciation from a teacher, recording yourself and listening back makes
it easier to hear whether you are really making the English sounds that
you are trying to or not.
- Use computer pronunciation analysis. Although most programmes that claim to tell you when
you are pronouncing correctly or not don't actually do that, listening
many times and seeing how your voice changes as you try to match the
sounds and waveform given by a pronunciation CD ROM can be good practice
and more motivating than just recording your own voice.
- Learn as many words as you can of one category, e.g.
animal words.
Learning similar words together can both expand your overall vocabulary
and make them easier to learn by forming links between the words in your
brain.
- Take holidays abroad. This is not only a good opportunity to speak English
in situations where you really have to make yourself understood in order
to live, but it is also a good motivator to study English seriously in the
weeks and months before your trip. If possible, also try to use English
even when you could use your own language, e.g. when you pick a guided
tour of a museum or historic place or when you book a flight on the
internet, and try to avoid package tours.
- Draw pictures of the words you want to learn. Especially if you are artistic, this can be a better
way of learning vocabulary than writing translations or example sentences.
- Find a foreign boyfriend or girlfriend. No tips on how to do this here, but everyone agrees
that getting or even just looking for a date in English can be a great
motivator to improve your language skills.
- Arrange a conversation exchange. Swapping lessons and conversation with someone who
wants to learn your language can be a good alternative for those who
aren't looking for romance, or can sometimes lead onto dating for those
who are!
- Sign up for an English language exam. Even if you don't need to take an exam and don't want
to or can't take a special course to study for it, paying to take an exam
like TOEFL, TOEIC, IELTS or FCE can really motivate you take your English
studies seriously.
- Model your accent on one particular actor. e.g. try to
speak like Robert De Niro. Students who say they want to sound more like a native
speaker have the problem that native speakers don't sound all that much
like each other. Choosing one model can make the task of improving your
pronunciation more clear, and is quite fun. Doing an impression of that
person also makes a good party trick.
- Use an English-English dictionary. Trying to use a bilingual dictionary less and
switching to a monolingual one can help you to stop translating in you
head when you are speaking or listening, and other useful English
vocabulary can come up while you are using the dictionary.
- Occasionally talk to or e-mail your friends in English. Many people find this a bit false or embarrassing, but
if you think of it as a study club and set a particular time and/ or
place, it is no different from studying maths together.
- Go to an English or Irish pub. As well as having a menu in English and being a good
way of finding out something about the culture of English speaking
countries, you might also find there are free English language listings
magazines, English language sports on the TV and/ or foreign people you
can speak to.
- Buy a speaking electronic dictionary. Although most electronic dictionaries are not as good
as paper ones for the amount of information they give you about each word,
some of them have the very useful function of saying the word with the
correct pronunciation.
- Learn your electronic dictionary vocabulary list. Most electronic dictionaries also have a button which
you can push to see the last 30 or more words you looked up. By deleting
words you decide are useless or you have already learnt from this list,
you can use it as a "to do list" of words to learn that you can
look at several times a day in the train etc.
- Switch operating system to English. Changing the operating language of your mobile phone,
video recorder etc. to English can be an easy way of making sure you use
the language everyday.
- Set goals. Deciding how many hours you want to study, how many
words you want to learn or what score you want to get in a test are all
good ways of making sure you do extra study.
Copyright © 2008 dzul
Written by dzul skcd
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