Learn English Easily

Many people think you need to live in a foreign country, have a close foreign friend, or spend long nights with your head buried in a boring grammar book, to master English…In fact, you can become a very successful learner of English if you follow some basic rules.

1. Relax and enjoy speaking

When you use English, don’t worry about making mistakes. The chances are you will always make small mistakes when speaking a foreign language. The important thing is to learn from the errors you make. Babies don’t learn to walk without falling over a lot!

2. Learn about how you learn

Recent research has shown that many of us have a preferred way of learning. If you are a visual learner, you can link language to pictures and images. Watch films with subtitles, try to visualise yourself in imaginary situations speaking English, fix words with pictures in your mind  If you have an auditory style, you have a ‘good ear’ for language and should listen to as much music as possible and watch movies in English. If you have an analytic style, then spend time studying grammar and comparing Vietnamese with English. A learner with an interactive style needs to spend as much time as possible speaking with others, discussing language and generally working in a team. A really good learner spends time on all these styles. Yet it is a sad fact that all over the world, many people are still taught in a traditional style that favours analytic and auditory learners.

3. Learn memory techniques

There are plenty of books on how to improve your memory. It is a skill that the successful learners I know take very seriously.

4. Immerse yourself

I once visited the home of a Spanish student who was actually quite a successful businessman. His house was littered with those small pieces of yellow paper called post-it notes! Every time he went to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee, to the bathroom to shave or used the remote control to change channel, he looked at those words. Again and again and again. Once the word was fixed in his mind, he put the paper into a file that he looked through at the end of the week. This way, he learnt 10 words a day, seven days a week. Read, listen and speak English at every opportunity! The best musicians and football players practise their skill over and over. The skill of communicating in a foreign language is the same.

5. Get Connected

I recently met someone who three times a week leaves her small village outside Hanoi, travels 1 hour on a motorbike and when she arrives at her destination, speaks in English for two hours to her friends in Britain, Australia and the US.  Her destination?  An Internet Café with voice chat facilities in the nearest small town. When I met her, she had never spoken to a foreigner face to face before, but after only two months of practising, she could hold a conversation with me in English.

The Internet has brought so many benefits to language learners. You can find great sites for practising grammar, vocabulary, listening, pronunciation and now, most importantly of all, speaking.

6. Learn Vocabulary systematically

Remember that learning English is not just about learning grammar. When we speak, we express most of our ideas through our choice of vocabulary, through collocations and fixed expressions. Think carefully about how you organise your notebook, don’t just write a long list of new words! Try to divide your notebook into sections. Here are some ideas…

subject pages; shopping, holidays, money verbs and nouns that go together; do your homework; make a cakeexpressions which use common words; overweight, to get over something, over the moon phrasal verbs; to grow up, to tell off, to look after fixed expressions; on the other hand, in my opinion, by the way idioms; once in a blue moon, to be over the moon, out of the blue expressions with prepositions; at night, at the weekend, in March, in 1988

Finally….

7. Get motivated: don’t put off until tomorrow, what you can do today.

In London, I had a Thai friend who was attending university there, studying fashion design. Her English was excellent. She told me that when she was fifteen she decided that it was her dream to study fashion in the UK. She found out what IELTS score she needed and started studying right away. When she was nineteen and old enough to go, she was ready. Her early start was a smart move: when she returned to Thailand after a year, some of her friends were still studying English, waiting to go abroad to study. She is now fluent, well qualified and walked into a great job!

Listening is fun

It is not about understanding something today and forgetting it tomorrow or the next week.  This is a waste of time.  I could tell you my phone number and you might be able to remember it for 20 minutes, but it's not "learning".  This is key.  Many people make the mistake of trying to study too much at once and their brains simply can't handle all of the new material.  They end up "overloading" their brains and waste most of the time. 

It's much better to study and remember 3 things a day than it is to pretend you are learning 50 new things a day but remembering almost nothing after a week.  This is the trap that most students fall into.

Consistency is key to studying just like it is for exercise.  You should exercise your body almost everyday but not too much or too little.  You can't handle it.  In the same way, it is much better to do 20 minutes of quality study per day than it is to do 5 hours of study once per week.  It might sound like it doesn't make sense but we need to make sure we understand how our brains work.

Then next tip I want to share is how important it is to choose what to study.  If you play around with a dictionary you are wasting your time.  Most words are rarely used by native speakers.  It's not about how much you know.  It's about what you know and how good you are at actually using this.  

In all my years of teaching, I truly believe that listening to something that challenges you is the best way to learn English quickly.  There is something almost magical that happens when you listen to native speakers talk.  The connection between listening and speaking is much stronger than reading and speaking.  This will indirectly help your pronunciation as well.  Listening can be done from anywhere too like while you are walking or in the gym.  Reading is less flexible in this way.  That's another reason why I believe in a great MP3 learning program. 

A lot of my tips come from real teaching experience and watching what truly works and what doesn't in the real world.  I've seen students learn quickly while others take years.  It's all about the method.  20 minutes per day.  Everyday.  Focus on listening to native speakers.  Learn the important words and phrases and you will improve quickly.

Be Teacher Be Confident

As a teacher, you’re often put into a situation where you’re way beyond your comfort zone.. it happens from day one of your career when you find yourself in front of thirty kids who expect you to know what you’re talking about whilst you quietly quake in yourboots.

Whether you’re anxious because you’re new to this, you’re teaching a topic you’re unsure of, or you’ve got to deal with THAT class, there are some tried and tested ways of appearing to ooze confidence… and the funny thing is that you’ll soon find that if you act confident, you’ll feel it.  And the kids will have confidence in you too.  So why not give it a go?

Be Prepared – Know what you’re getting yourself into

This isn’t always possible of course, but if you’ve got some prior warning then the thing that can make you appear more confident than anything else is taking the time to prepare.  If you’ve had a chance to really think through the lesson ahead and to work through the potentially difficult situations that could arise and how you might deal with them, then you’re halfway there already.  Never skimp on preparation time, especially if you’re anxious.  But make sure you don’t write too prescriptive a plan, you need to write in flexibility, otherwise you might panic if you need to change things part way through.

Walk tall and confident

Think about your body posture… make sure that you’re standing straight, not slouching and holding yourself well.  People who are scared or unsure tend to slouch or cower so walking tall will give you an air of confidence (though this is not advised if you’re 6 foot 8 and teaching infant school kids or they’ll be the ones cowering!)

Set out your ground rules from the word go

A common mistake is to think that the lesson starts once the kids are sat in their seats and paying attention.  Wrong.  For your class, the lesson begins the minute they clap eyes on you.  So if they’re waiting outside your classroom start the lesson here.  If you don’t make them stick to the ground rules from the get go, they’re unlikely to adhere to them in the classroom.  Calmly and confidently demand the behaviour you expect of them before you even let them in the room.  It sends a strong message that you expect respect.  In return, treat your students with respect. 

Project…

This is a biggy.  If you sound like a church mouse then the kids will walk all over you.  Even if you’re not confident about what you’re saying, conveying confidence in the way you say it will help to carry your message across and ensure it is heard and acted upon.  If you are a naturally quiet person, practice projecting your voice – you’ll be amazed at the difference it makes when you’re stood in front of a class.

Slow down and Breathe!

We all get that feeling of rising panic occasionally and worry that we’re losing control.  The best thing to do in this situation is to take a step back, slow down, take a few deep breaths and relax.  You should have a copy of your lesson plan to hand which will act as a handy prop if your mind’s gone blank.  Once you’re more relaxed, try to regain control of the lesson calmly and authoritatively. 

Silence is a powerful tool

One of the most common ways that teacher confidence is eroded is by a class that simply refuses to listen.  Don’t try shouting over them.  It will quickly frustrate you and it won’t encourage your class to listen.  Instead stand completely calmly and quietly (no matter how you’re feeling inside) and wait.  Silence will come.  It might not come right away, but it will come.  If you’ve not tried it before you’ll be amazed by what a powerful tool silence is.  And it commands instant respect.

Remain professional

It is easier to appear and feel confident when you have a strict teacher-pupil distance maintained.  Don’t let students get you off topic and chatting about your weekend etc.  Breaking down the professional barrier will make it harder for you to command the respect of a difficult class.

Keep the focus

Stick to your plan and keep referring your students back to the task in hand.

Accentuate the good

A very positive way to boost your confidence is to pick out the positive behaviour or learning that is happening in your classroom.  Be sure to comment on it and make the whole class aware of what is going right.  It will increase your confidence that you’re doing a good job and make the whole class more motivated to work well.  Where possible, always avoid rewarding negative behaviour with more of your attention than it deserves.

Teaching Speaking

 Provide maximum opportunity to students to speak the target language by providing a rich environment that contains collaborative work, authentic materials and tasks, and shared knowledge.

·         Try to involve each student in every speaking activity; for this aim, practice different ways of student participation.

·         Reduce teacher speaking time in class while increasing student speaking time. Step back and observe students.

·         Indicate positive signs when commenting on a student's response.

·         Ask eliciting questions such as "What do you mean? How did you reach that conclusion?" in order to prompt students to speak more.

·         Provide written feedback like "Your presentation was really great. It was a good job. I really appreciated your efforts in preparing the materials and efficient use of your voice…"

·         Do not correct students' pronunciation mistakes very often while they are speaking. Correction should not distract student from his or her speech.

·         Involve speaking activities not only in class but also out of class; contact parents and other people who can help.

·         Circulate around classroom to ensure that students are on the right track and see whether they need your help while they work in groups or pairs.

·         Provide the vocabulary beforehand that students need in speaking activities.

·         Diagnose problems faced by students who have difficulty in expressing themselves in the target language and provide more opportunities to practice the spoken language.