How to Finally Learn English: Advice from an Expert

Millions of people around the world study a language for years, but never reach the desired level. The reasons may be different: boring textbooks, lack of practice or simply a lack of motivation. Oksana Tozik, an English teacher with 20 years of experience, told the publication Point about special techniques that allow you to learn a language with pleasure.

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Better five minutes, but with concentration

Learning English translated into the language of formulas looks like this: vocabulary + grammar and functions. The importance of the last two components is greatly underestimated, and in vain. Translated into actions, this is: writing, reading, speaking and listening.

"The main rule of language learning is: any action you take should be conscious. Not a movie, song or podcast in the background, but five minutes, but only in the language, immersed in the task," Oksana emphasizes.

Make it a habit to immerse yourself in the language every day. The most effective way to do this is to give your usual activities a second chance to trick your brain into thinking they are completely new tasks. Here's how to do it.

On the subject: How to quickly improve your English: advice from professionals about what is really important in a language and what you can forget about

Let's start talking!

Translate everything you see into English, as if you were four years old again and wanted to share your impressions with the world. You can speak not out loud, but to yourself. Set a timer for 2/4/6 minutes. Conduct an analysis: where words, expressions, constructions were missing.

Set your alarm for two-hour intervals, and every two hours, spend five minutes talking about what happened to you: conversations, communication, routine tasks, the environment around you, the weather. Even if you describe it mentally.

"Make the task more difficult: today you are the narrator, tomorrow someone else will describe you. In a week, you will be telling about events with time and adding details, then you can think about sounds, smells, emotions and feelings," Oksana advises.

Turn on the timer starting from the minute and speak where it is convenient: on the way to the car/bus stop, on a lunch walk, even around the building. This way you will be able not only to strengthen this skill, but also to systematize everything that you have learned, repeated, and consolidated.

“Some people don’t like the way their voice sounds at first, but others, on the contrary, will immediately see what they need to pay attention to: intonation, pauses, clarity, articulation, even manner of speech,” the teacher adds.

Make a plan of what you will do every day: writing, reading, speaking, listening, vocabulary, grammar, functions. This way you will add variety to the process and by the end of the second week it will be clear what you are better at, what you are more interested in and capable of.

More tips for learning English easily

Watch the video without sound and listen to it without a picture. When you watch a program or a movie, guess what the dialogue could be about. When you listen, imagine the picture, gestures, facial expressions of the characters, their emotions.

"After watching, be sure to reflect: what kind of video is it, where is the action taking place, what problems and questions are raised. Express your opinion on everything," Oksana advises.

Use different stock images to create stories, compare and contrast. Find two differences and two similarities. Make up a story, describe the details, indicate the time and place, characterize the characters.

Look around. What colors dominate? What movie/song/event do you associate this room with? Find unusual objects and guess how they ended up here, who they might belong to. Think about how you can use familiar objects in a new way.

Turn on a song in your headphones, write down five to seven key words, using which you will then tell what the composition was about. Think about associations for each word, remember in what situations you had to use these words.

Create a channel in Telegram, write short messages, your thoughts, insights, record voice and video messages. Do this regularly, and in a couple of weeks you will notice your progress, victory over anxiety and fear. You can share impressions about the day you lived, a film, a book, a video. Of course, all this is in English.

Organize your word bank properly: flashcards, notebook, or app. It is important that everything has a context, not just a word and translation.

There is no universal working method here either. For some, it is the good old sticky notes on the monitor or in the kitchen.

Learn tongue twisters - it's not only productive, but also fun. You can start listening to them at different speeds, in British and American versions.

"Counting rhymes and tongue twisters are a very underrated tool. By regularly listening and repeating them, you can basically improve your articulation even in Russian," the teacher is sure.

Unboring grammar

Observe grammar while doing things like listening to songs or watching videos: notice new constructions, new word combinations where you can guess the meaning from the context.

Grammar is not just a collection of boring exercises. It is language mathematics, which has its own laws, principles and tasks.

"If you were tormented at school with tenses and tables with irregular verbs, then you were simply unlucky. Now you can learn grammar by listening to the news, podcasts, watching videos," Oksana believes.

We use it in our work

In business correspondence, ask more clarifying questions, try new formulations, constructions and set expressions.

Specifically add new units in conversation and writing, select synonyms, and reformulate familiar patterns.

Motivate yourself

You can come up with a reward for completing a certain amount of work or achieving a goal. A great idea is to find a partner or take part in a marathon.

But motivation should appeal to you personally, solve your problems: relocation, interviews, communication during trips, on dating sites.

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Conclusion

In our fast-paced world, people try to do several things at once: drink coffee and listen to a podcast, watch a video and reply to a message, scroll through a feed and think through the structure of a presentation.

“Language can also be simply integrated into the work context so that the brain does not perceive the situation as learning or punishment,” Oksana concludes.

Read also on ForumDaily:

5 Habits That Are Slowing Down Your English Learning

Enriching our speech: 45 English analogues of Russian proverbs

13 Pairs of English Words That Many People Confuse

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