1.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.
2.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.
3.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.
4.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.
5.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.
6.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.
7.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.
8.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.
9.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.
10.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.
11.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.
12.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.
13.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.
14.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.
15.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.
16.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.
17.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.
18.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.
19.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.
20.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.
21.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.
22.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.
23.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.
24.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.
25.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
26.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.
27.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.
28.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.
29.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.
30.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.
31.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.
32.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.
33.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.
34.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.
35.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.
36.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.
37.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.
38.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.
39.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").
40.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.
41.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.
42.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.
43.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.
44.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.
45.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.
46.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.
47.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.
48.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.
49.English language exercise videos. This is quite
similar to how babies learn, by listening, watching and copying. It is also
good for your health!
50.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.
51.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.
52.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.
53.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.
54.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".
55.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.
56.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.
57.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.
58.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.
59.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.
60.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.
61.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!
62.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.
63.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.
64.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.
65.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.
66.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.
67.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.
68.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.
69.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.
70.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.