Learning a language can be a long, hard road. Anything that we can do that would be helpful in achieving our goal is always appreciated. I know I do when someone gives me an idea on how to do something better or in a different way.Everyone has a their own system for studying, and sharing study tips can be helpful. Perhaps they can give you an idea on how to get over that particular stumbling block that's been in your way.
While reading theses tips, try to imagine how they would affect or improve the way you study.
- Watch, listen and imitate. How do little babies learn to speak? They watch the people around them, listen to the sounds that are made and imitate them. You can tell that they understand what is being said to them after a while, but it takes a little longer for them to vocalize these same words. Nevertheless, this is a good system to use when trying to learn a language.
Watch videos, movies, TV or just watch and listen to people who are using English outside or inside the home.
Listen to the other students in your class when they speak. Did they pronounce correctly? Did they use the correct word? Was there a mistake? You can learn a lot from your own or other people's mistakes. Pay attention.
- Speak. You have to speak out loud in order to hear yourself pronounce the words. Saying something in your head isn't going to be enough. Read books aloud or read your lessons aloud when you study.
Learn short phrases and practice them until you say them right.
Record yourself and listen to the way you are pronouncing words.
Speak up in class and if your teacher corrects you, repeat the correction over and over a few times.
Watch learning videos online and repeat the lesson in front of the mirror. Does your mouth move in the same way when you pronounce those words?
- Keep a vocabulary notebook. I would recommend a beginner to learn at least 5 new words a day and higher levels more. You know best what you can do.
Buy a small, cheap notebook and draw a line down the middle of the page. On the left write the words you are learning and on the right the translation of the word in your language. Then, fold the page so that the words in your language don't show.
After that, study the words, recite them, spell them, and learn the definition in English. As soon as you have learned all the words on that page, you can start a new page in the same way, except that while learning the new daily words, you have to review all the words you have previously learned.
If you have forgotten any of the old words, you must write it on a new list and learn it again.
This is a pretty good system and I've had a lot of success with it over the years.
- Read everything you can in English. Practice trying to read by context. Do not translate every single word, it will take you forever.
Start out with children's books because they're fairly easy to read and you will start to be familiar with common phrases. Also, they usually have pictures and those will help you with understand the context.
Listen to a song in English, perhaps something slow, and look up the lyrics on the Internet. This will help you to practice reading quickly while you follow the words of the song on the screen.
Get the English version of your countries newspaper or even get English newspapers online.
Whatever you do, just practice your reading every day. Being consistent is what helps you to become better.
- Make a study schedule and keep it. Take a certain time, every day and set that aside for your language learning studies.
It doesn't have to be once a day, you can divide it up into different segments. Perhaps a half hour in the morning, an hour in the afternoon and another slot of time in the evening. Do whatever your time will allow, but do it.
Your study area should be neat and free of noise. You can't concentrate in a noisy, cluttered space.
Do not deviate from your schedule. If you absolutely have to, you must make up for it. For example, if you have an appointment and can't study at your usual time, make your study time earlier or later the same day. You should really try to keep to your schedule as much as you can.
Do you have any tips that you use and you feel they help you immensely? What other study habits do you think are good for learning a language? Do you think it makes a difference having a scheduled time to study?
Please feel free to leave a comment, question or suggestion below in 'comments'. I'd love to hear from you!
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