Learning English requires action. You may know all the learning
tips, but if you don’t start doing things, you will achieve nothing. The fact
is, if you want to learn to speak English well, you must change your life.
Here are some examples of things you will have to do:
read
a book in English for an hour every day, analyzing the grammar in sentences and
looking up words in an English dictionary
listen
to an audiobook or other recording in English, stopping it frequently, trying
to understand what is being said, and trying to imitate the speaker’s
pronunciation
spend
30 minutes in the afternoon practicing the pronunciation of the English “r”
sound
carefully
write an e-mail message in English, using a dictionary or a Web search every 20
seconds to make sure every word is correct, and taking 5 minutes to write one
sentence
think
about an English sentence you’ve read, wondering if it could say “a” instead of
“the” in the sentence, and trying to find similar sentences on the Web to find
out the answer
walk
down the street and build simple English sentences in your head (talking to
yourself in English about the things you see around you)
What kind of person would do all these crazy things? Only one
kind.The kind of person who enjoys doing them.If you want to learn to
speak English well, you’re going to have to become that person. Have you ever
heard of anyone who became successful by doing something he hated?
The problem
The problem with learning and teaching English as a foreign
language is that all English learners want to speak English well; however, most
learners don’t want to spend time on learning English on their own.
(Which is probably why they sign up for classes and hope their teacher will
force knowledge into their heads.)
This lack of motivation means that learners basically don’t
spend their own time on learning English, and if they do, they don’t do it
regularly. For example, a typical learner might study English phrasal verbs for
12 hours before an English exam. However, he will not read a book in English
for 30 minutes every day. He just doesn’t feel that learning English is
pleasant enough, so he will only do it if he has to. The problem is that a huge
one-time effort gives you nothing, while small, everyday activities will give
you a lot.
Negative attitudes
One of the reasons why people don’t want to spend their time on
learning English is that they associate learning English with unpleasant things.
When they think “learning English”,they think about boring English classes,
boring exercises and boring homework. Even if they know they need English in
their career, that might not be very motivating if the job itself is boring! In
their minds, learning English is something they have to do, not
something they want to do.
Typical learner vs. motivated
learner
Paula is a typical learner of English with a generally
low level of motivation. She has occasional moments of high motivation — like
the day before her English test or that time when she couldn’t communicate with
a foreign customer who called her at work. These kind of situations make her
think “I’ve got to do something about my English!”. However, they happen very
rarely — less than once a month. So even if she studies quite intensively (e.g.
for two whole days before an exam), the results are poor, because she forgets
90% of the things she learned within a month. This is no surprise: The way
human memory works, you need to review things all the time; otherwise you just
forget them.
Now let’s look at a different English learner: Judy. Judy
reads a special novel for English learners (written in simplified English)
almost every day for 30 minutes. She bought an English-English dictionary and
uses it to look up English words whenever she doesn’t understand a sentence in
her book. It was hard to study regularly at the beginning: Reading books and
using a dictionary were not “normal activities” for her. And every English
sentence was a challenge.
But now, after only two weeks, she can read much faster. While
reading, she often sees words that she has learned in the past two weeks. When
she recognizes such a word, she doesn’t have to look it up in a dictionary and
she knows she has made good progress. Judy feels she has learned a lot of
English recently, and she is eager to learn more. Every day, she looks forward
to reading her book. The book gives her the chance to use what she has learned
(enjoy her progress) and to learn even more. Because she reads regularly, she
forgets little and her vocabulary keeps growing.
Judy is on the right track. She will soon be able to read
English-language newspapers and other resources written for native speakers.
What to do?
If you are like Paula and don’t feel like reading in English in
your free time, focusing your attention on English sentences, or practicing the
pronunciation of the “r” sound, you will have to do something about it. There
are many techniques to help you with motivation, but
the best one is probably to do something fun.
If you can use your English to
watch a funny video on the Internet, read an article about your favorite band,
or communicate with smart people on a discussion forum, you will begin to think
of English as your key to fun. When you think “English”, you will no longer
think about boring classes, difficult grammar rules or lists of words to
memorize— you will think about a funny TV show, your favorite band and people
you like. In your mind, English will no longer be another boring subject at
school — it will be the way to have fun every day.
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