Recently I have taught a lot of new students. The same as I usually do, I talked to them about their study habits. Their reactions have left me a bit confused.
Tag: motivation
Questions Come After Reading and Listening
Reading and listening are excellent ways to learn new vocabulary but they can also help you learn more about a subject if you ask yourself questions afterward.
Five Things I Always Get Asked That Don’t Matter
I teach at schools, universities, NPOs and companies. I teach beginners all the way up to advanced. Here are five things I always get asked that don’t matter.
Continue reading Five Things I Always Get Asked That Don’t Matter
Podcast – Perfection
Today’s episode is about perfection and why being perfect isn’t always good when you’re studying English.
The podcast is also available in the iTunes Store by searching for Get Great English or clicking here.
Also, you can stream it on Stitcher here or in the sidebar.
Use Downtime to Study English
Everyone has time that is spent waiting for people or waiting for things to happen, which is sometimes called ‘downtime‘. The next time you have some downtime, study English.
Something to Remember about Mistakes
You will definitely make mistakes when learning a language and you will definitely learn from mistakes. Keep them in mind but don’t worry about them.
Learn English Quickly and Effectively
Students always want to know how to learn English quickly and effectively. There has to be some way of doing it, right? In this post I’ll let you know the four things you need to do to learn a language effectively and efficiently.
Is This Right?
When you start learning a language everything is unknown. You take in vocabulary and grammar and make fast progress in making those new, unknown words become old, known words. The speed of progress becomes normal.
What most language learners aren’t prepared for is the plateau at the intermediate level, where there is less clear meaning. As a beginner, you studied the difference between ‘apple’ and ‘orange’; as an intermediate learner you study the difference between ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’.
What can you do to feel more confident in your language use and studies?
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Love the lack of clear difference
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Enjoy the language like a native
The lack of clear difference means you have made so much progress already. You are ready to learn the different nuances (small differences in meaning) between similar words, try longer sentences and use more complex grammar structures.
This means you don’t have use textbooks as often as before. If you have a grammar reference book, a dictionary and a notebook you can write down the interesting language usage you see and hear in the things you read, watch and listen to. Remember, native-speaking children do not understand every word of all they hear from the television. They guess and they are used to making mistakes. Relax and enjoy yourself.
How to Make Yourself Study English
This is how to make yourself study English.
- Change your phone’s settings to English if you haven’t already (or if you can).
- Change your computer’s OS language to English (if you can).
- In your work or college bag, take out any books, magazines or anything else that you don’t need that is not English and replace them with English ones.
- Only have music on your computer, phone and music player that is English.
- Only play videos in English.
- Write notes to yourself in English.
- Write your diary, daily planner and to-do lists in English.
- Use the ATM in English.
Repeat these as often as necessary to make it a habit.
Podcast: Distractions
Today’s podcast is about distractions, especially distractions from studying English and how you can get your focus back.
The podcast is also available in the iTunes Store by searching for Get Great English or clicking here.