Away from the classroom

Some of the most important learning you’ll do when you’re learning English as a Foreign Language takes place away from the classroom environment, and we’re not just talking about homework. There are lots of things you can do to help accelerate your progress without it even seeming too much effort.

1. Make English-speaking friends

Speaking English conversationally is a great way to get your confidence up, and you’ll pick up new words and phrases almost without even realising it. What’s more, you’ll learn the colloquial language spoken by native Brits every day — the constantly evolving slang that language books don’t tend to teach you.

Email is simpler, quicker and certainly cheaper, but you might find the delight of getting airmail letters helps motivate you to learn.

While ‘real-life’ English-speaking friends are great for helping you develop your conversational English skills, corresponding with a pen friend by letter or email will help develop your written English. You’ll get practice at writing about yourself and what you’ve been up to, and you’ll also develop your reading skills when you receive their response.

2. Get a part-time job that involves speaking English

Try getting a job in a touristy place where you’re likely to need English skills to talk to visitors — for example, a job as a tour guide around your city, or a job in a restaurant popular with tourists. This will give you valuable practice at speaking English and will put you in situations in which you have no choice but to speak it. If that’s not possible, you could try volunteering for an English-speaking helpline or charity.

3. Watch English TV and films

Watching English-speaking television programmes is a fun way of picking up more new words and phrases at the same time as helping to familiarise yourself with how English sounds (and learning to understand different dialects). You could start by using subtitles in your own language, and then when you start picking up more, switch the subtitles off. If you’re feeling particularly confident, why not try a cinema trip to see an English-speaking film? If it helps, try seeing the film in your own language first, so that you know what’s going on, and then you’ll be able to make more sense of what’s being said in English.

4. Listen to English radio

Having the radio on in the background is a good way of tuning in to the sounds of the English language, and you may be surprised at how much you can pick up without even realising it. The news might be a good place to start, particularly if you already know the story, as you’ll be able to make sense of what the words mean more easily. The added benefit of listening to the news is its immediacy — if you don’t understand it straightaway, the story will come and go before you’ve had a chance to digest it.

5. Make the most of your travel time

Invest in an audio English course, such as those designed for iPods, and listen when you’re on the bus or train or in the car. This will help develop your pronunciation skills as well as introducing you to helpful phrases.

6. Use Google in English

When you’re searching for things on the internet, try going to Google.co.uk instead of your native language. This will force you to find the results you’re looking for in English, and using English will slowly start to become a habit.

7. Adorn your room with flashcards

Decorate your room with flashcards containing things you need to learn, so that you’re constantly exposed to the words, phrases and grammar you should be memorising. On the mirror you use to get presentable in the morning, on your wardrobe door, next to your bed — anywhere you’re likely to see them on a daily basis.

8. Read a favourite book in English before bed

If you’re serious about learning English fast, even bedtime can be given over to making progress. Pick one of your favourite books and buy the English version. Each night when you go to bed, try and read a few pages, and keep a dictionary next to your bed for any words you don’t understand. That way, not only do you have a head-start because it’s a book you already love, but English will be the last thing you think about before you go to sleep — and it’s when you’re sleeping that the brain works hard to store all the new words, phrases and grammar you’ve picked up, converting this valuable new knowledge from short-term to long-term memory.

Improve your English!

1. 1. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Be confident. People can only correct your mistakes when they hear you make them.
2. 2.  Surround yourself in English. Put yourself in an all English speaking environment where you can learn passively. The best way to learn is through speaking.
3. 3.  Practice every day. Make yourself a study plan. Decide how much time a week you are going to spend studying and stick to it. Establish a routine.
4. 4.  Tell your family and friends about your study plan. Get them to push you to study and also don’t let them interrupt you. 
5. 5.  Practice the 4 core skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening. They all need to be worked on for you to improve.
6. 6.  Keep a notebook of new words you learn. Use them in sentences and try to say them at least 3 times when you speak.
7. 7.  You will find words easier to remember if you try to remember an example sentence using that word rather the word on its own.
8. 8.  Give yourself a long term goal. Focus on working towards it.
9. 9.  Do not translate into English from your own language. Think in English to improve your fluency. Talk to yourself…
10. 10.  The most natural way to learn grammar is through talking.

REASONS FOR LEARNING ENGLISH!

1. English may not be the most spoken language in the world, but it is the official language in a large number of countries. It is estimated that the number of people in the world that use in English to communicate on a regular basis is 2 billion!

2. English is the dominant business language and it has become almost a necessity for people to speak English if they are to enter a global workforce, research from all over the world shows that cross-border business communication is most often conducted in English. Its importance in the global market place therefore cannot be understated, learning English really can change your life.

3. Many of the world’s top films, books and music are published and produced in English. Therefore by learning English you will have access to a great wealth of entertainment and will be able to have a greater cultural understanding.

4. Most of the content produced on the internet (50%) is in English. So knowing English will allow you access to an incredible amount of information which may not be otherwise available!

Work smart, not hard

One of the biggest shocks that people have about high school English is that although everyone has studied English at school, hardly anyone speaks it. I'm sure you had English classes for many years in high school, yes? And can you speak fluent English? Just imaging if you had studied your own writing for 6 years in Elementary School and couldn't write a single word! So why can't you speak English? Well, the reason is that you were working hard, but not smart. You had the wrong goals and targets in mind. Up until now the High School English system was built on ideas from the Victorian period. In that time the target wasn't communication English, because there was no-one to communicate with! The aim then was to learn foreign knowledge. People would read books in German or English or Dutch about arms, or medicine or engineering. They would dissect the grammar and translate it into for everyone to read and understand. If you think about your high school English, it was probably something just like that. And in that respect the world has succeeded. But it's not the Victorian period anymore, it's now about communication. Unfortunately the school system hasn't caught up yet, but it will! So realise that what you learnt in high school won't really help you. But don't feel bad about the time you spent, you were just working towards an unsuitable goal. And now things are different, now you have a new goal, a new motivation, and a new determination to achieve that goal!

Why is learning English important?

Why learning english is important? Victoria International College for Education will answer this question.

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