LANGUAGE TRAINING CENTRE - GERMAN | ENGLISH | FRENCH | CHINESE | SPANISH | SWAHILI | KENYA SIGN LANG
Title: LANGUAGE TRAINING CENTRE - GERMAN | ENGLISH | FRENCH | CHINESE | SPANISH | SWAHILI | KENYA SIGN LANG
English Learning Tips: 9 Best Tricks to Improve Your English
Do you want the best English learning tips?
If so, you’ve come to the right place.
Here are 9 most powerful tips to improve your English.
- Listen and read in English daily
- Use English whenever possible
- If you want to speak English well, practice!
- Create an English-learning routine
- Let your brain learn English for you (the best tip)
- Don’t be obsessed with grammar rules
- Consume content that’s not related to grammar
- Spend more time improving your English
- Reduce time wasters
Tip #1: Listen and Read in English Daily
If you want to improve your English, you must listen and read in English on a daily basis.
Why? Because these two activities are like “compound exercises.”
What are compound exercises?
In bodybuilding, a compound exercise is a movement that train multiple muscle groups at the same time (instead of only one muscle group).
Listening and reading are like that; they improve multiple skills at the same time:
- Vocabulary
- Comprehension
- Grammar
That’s why they are so powerful.
Even if your goal is to improve your spoken English, it’s still important to listen and read a lot.
Why? Because you won’t be able to communicate well if you have a limited vocabulary or have poor listening comprehension.
No matter what English skill(s) you want to improve, be sure to listen and read in English every day.
Tip #2: Use English Whenever Possible
This tip is powerful.
The idea is to always choose to do things in English (instead of in your native language).
Examples:
- Watch English movies and TV shows (as opposed to shows in your native language).
- If you need to read subtitles, enable the English subtitles.
- Watch English-language YouTube channels (instead of channels of your home country).
- Read American or British novels in English (original text), not the translated versions.
- If you enjoy online discussions, follow some English Facebook pages.
Do you get the idea?
Examine your daily activities. How many of them involve using your native language?Choose to do those activities in English instead (if possible).
In the beginning, you will feel uncomfortable when doing the activities in English. But as your English improves, it will get easier.
Tip #3: If You Want to Speak English Well, Practice Speaking English!
This tip seems obvious, but few people apply it.
Many people want to improve their English speaking skills, but they NEVER actually open their mouths and speak English.
Instead, they just passively watch English learning videos, hoping that it will somehow make them speak better.
Sadly, it doesn’t work that way.
If you want to speak fluent English, you need a lot of active practice.
But what if you don’t have a speaking partner?
That’s not a problem. There are many ways to practice speaking English by yourself.
Many people, myself included, managed to improve their spoken English by practicing alone. You can do it too!
Tip #4: Create an English-Learning Routine
You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily.
John C. Maxwell
This quote is so true.
If you want your English to improve, you need to have “a routine” for learning English — a set of learning activities that you do every day.
Without a routine, it’s easy to get stuck in a cycle of no progress:
- You get motivated to improve your English, so you learn English for a few weeks.
- Then your motivation fades, and you stop learning. (It’s more fun to browse social media or play video games.)
- After a while, you forget what you’ve learned. (So all those weeks you spent learning have been for nothing.)
- Then one day, you get motivated to learn English again. (Repeat Step #1.)
Many students repeat this dreadful cycle over and over.
Don’t make the same mistake.
If you want to have a good command of English, you must do something daily to improve it.
What exactly you do is up to you. But if you want some ideas, here’s my English-learning routine:
- Practice speaking English in the morning. (10 – 30 minutes.)
- Listen to English audio content while exercising. (I enjoy listening to scary or creepy stories on YouTube.)
- Read something in English during commute (sometimes before bed).
These activities have become my habits now, so I don’t have to remind myself to do them.
Don’t just learn English whenever you feel like it. Create a routine.
Tip #5: Let Your Brain Learn English for You
For many students, when they hear the phrase “learn English,” they immediately imagine someone studying boring grammar rules.
But that’s not the only way to learn English. There’s a another, better way. (The same way you learned your first language.)
Here’s how: expose yourself to English without thinking about grammar rules.
Here are some examples:
- Reading an fun novel in English.
- Listening to a interesting story narrated in English.
- Talking to a native English speaker (about random stuff).
- Practice speaking English alone.
- Engage in a discussion on an English forum.
Basically, you can do any activity as long as it doesn’t make you think about English grammar.
Focus on meaning, not grammar.
If you learn English this way, you’ll be able to speak and write English more naturally.
Of course, you’ll still make mistakes when speaking English, but words will “flow” out of your mouth more easily. Your English will be easier to understand.
The Science Behind This Way of Learning
Note: the scientific explanation below is pretty long. If you don’t want to read it, just skip to the next tip.
Is it really possible to improve your English without studying grammar rules?
Yes, it is.
In 2011, scientist Daniel Kahneman published the book Thinking, Fast and Slow (which later became a best-selling and award-winning book).
The book explains that thinking (and learning) is controlled by two separate systems in the brain: System 1 and System 2.
System 1 is fast and automatic.
Examples of things that use System 1:
- Detecting that one object is more distant than another.
- Recognizing the face of someone who know. (“Hey. That’s my friend Sue!“)
- Forming sentences in your native language (finding words from memory, putting words in the right order).
Your brain does the above tasks automatically and quickly. You don’t have to think about it.
If you want to speak English naturally (just like you speak your first language), you need to use System 1.
Why not use System 2?
Because unlike System 1, System 2 is slow and effortful.
Examples of tasks that use System 2:
- Solving 17 × 24.
- Naming a few movies you recently watched.
- Explaining a grammar rule to someone.
Your brain cannot perform these tasks automatically. You have to actively “think” during these tasks.
Why am I telling you about these two systems?
Because you can learn English in two different ways: using either System 1 or System 2.
Let’s discuss which system is better at learning English.
Using “System 1” to Learn English
Here are random examples of learning activities that use System 1:
- Reading a how-to book in English.
- Listening to a fun story told in English.
- Watching a TV show in English.
- Listening to an interesting podcast in English.
In these examples, you don’t try to learn English directly.
Instead, you focus on understanding “the meaning (ideas)” and let System 1 learn English for you (in the background).
This is how you learned your native language — by listening to your parents and others talk.
When you were a child, you didn’t study any grammar rules of your native language. But you still managed to speak the language perfectly.
Why is that?
It’s because System 1 (the automatic part of your brain) learned all the rules for you “behind the scenes.”
When you let System 1 learn English for you, you gain something called implicit (automatic) knowledge.
To use this knowledge, you don’t have to “think” about it. It’s 100% automatic. That’s why you can form grammatical sentences in your native language quickly and effortlessly, without thinking about any grammar rules.
If you want to communicate in English more naturally, you must learn English using System 1.
Using “System 2” to Learn English
Here are examples of learning English using System 2:
- Reading an article explaining the Past Perfect tense.
- Watching an English lesson titled “How To Use Say, Tell, Speak And Talk.”
- Listening to an English teacher explain how to use “have been.”
Most English students learn English this way. They try to learn English “directly” using System 2 (the non-automatic part of the brain).
When you learn English this way, you gain explicit (non-automatic) knowledge.
To use this knowledge, you have to actively “think” about it. (It will be slow and effortful.)
This might be okay when writing English (because you have time to think).
But it doesn’t work in English speaking.
When you’re talking to someone, you have to respond quickly. There’s no time to think about what tense to use. No time to decide whether to use “say” or “tell” or “speak.”
This is why students who’ve studied English for many years still speak terrible English.
They use the wrong method to improve their English!
The bottom line: don’t study English grammar like most students. Just listen and read English content that interests you, and practice speaking English. Let the automatic part of your brain (System 1) learn English for you.
Tip #6: Don’t Be Obsessed with Grammar Rules
Many English students are obsessed with grammar rules.
They love grammar lessons, and they ask lots of grammar-related questions.
If you’re one of those people, be careful.
Studying grammar can be harmful to your English.
Let me explain why.
English grammar is very complicated. Nothing is simple or straightforward.
As an example, consider the Present Continuous tense (I am doing).
This tense can be used in many different scenarios.
First, it can be used to talk about something that’s happening at the time of speaking. (“I’m looking for my son.”)
It can also be used to talk about an activity that’s unfinished or incomplete. So, if I say, “I’m reading a really good book right now,” that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m reading the book at the time of speaking. (It could mean that I have started reading it, but have not finished it yet.)
That’s not all. The tense can also be used to talk about future plans! (“We are playing football on Saturday.”)
The confusion doesn’t end here. Some verbs (such as want, like, believe, understand, assume, hate) are not normally used in the continuous form. (“I want something to eat.” Not “I’m wanting.”)
This is just the tip of the iceberg. If you continue to study this tense, you’ll find more exceptions, complicated usages, and confusing details to memorize.
My point is, the more you study grammar rules, the more confused you get. You’ll never be able to speak or write English naturally by studying grammar.
Now you might be wondering, if English grammar is so complicated, why don’t native English speakers get confused?
Well, it’s the same reason you don’t get confused over your native language.
Here’s why: you learned your first language through exposure to correct input (and let your brain automatically learn the language in the background). You didn’t study any grammar rules.
Your brain is powerful. It can detect/learn grammar rules automatically without your conscious awareness. You just have to expose yourself to a lot of correct input (through reading and listening).
I used to study English grammar during high school and college, and my spoken English was terrible (couldn’t speak much English). But then in my mid-twenties, I stopped studying grammar and started listening, reading, and practicing English, and my spoken English improved dramatically!
Tip #7: Consume Content That’s Not Related to Grammar
Sadly, even after reading the previous tip (don’t be obsessed with grammar) and the tip before that (let your brain learn English automatically), some people will continue to study grammar and learn English intentionally.
They’ll keep consuming content with titles like these:
- Basic English Grammar: How to use ALSO, TOO, AS WELL
- Learn English: When to use EACH, EVERY, WHOLE, ENTIRE, ALL
- 15 English Expressions & Idioms using ‘ALL’
- ONLY & JUST: What’s the difference?
- TO, ON, ABOUT: Prepositions of behavior in English
- Easy English Lesson: turn on, turn off, turn up, turn down
Why do they love grammar-related content so much? Because when they listen to an explanation and understand it, it makes them feel good. They feel like they have “learned” something.
But as I said before, the knowledge you gain from learning this way is “explicit” (non-automatic). So, even if you understand the explanation, you won’t be able to use that knowledge “automatically” during a conversation.
So instead of consuming grammar-related content, I strongly recommend that you consume English content on other topics, not related to English grammar.
Let me give you a few examples of my own.
I love listening to scary stories, so I watch/listen to videos like these a lot:
When I consume content like this, I get to enjoy the content and learn English at the same time.
What are some of the things you’re interested in?
Are you interested in health and fitness? Dating and relationships? Investing and business? Self-improvement? Beauty and skincare? Technology and gadgets? Video games? Software development? Gardening?
No matter what your interests are, there’s an unlimited amount of free English content for you on the Internet (YouTube, blogs, podcasts, and other mediums).
Tip #8: Spend More Time Improving Your English
This is another obvious but powerful tip.
If you feel like your English isn’t improving fast enough (even though you’re using the right methods), then you need to examine how much time you spend improving your English each day.
Suppose you want to improve your listening skills, but you listen to English for only 10 minutes a day, a few days per week, then you aren’t going to notice an improvement.
So if you want to improve fast, dedicate more time to improving your English.
Tip #9: Reduce Time Wasters
What if you don’t have enough time to improve your English?
In that case, you need to reduce the time spent on unnecessary activities that eat up your time.
Examples:
- Playing video games.
- Keeping up with the news.
- Texting.
- Checking email constantly.
- Social media.
- Mindless web surfing.
Many people waste several hours each day on these activities.
If you’re one of them, why not replace these time wasters with English-learning activities?
Of course, you don’t have to eliminate your time wasters completely. (It’s okay to have fun and relax.) But if you could allocate just 50% of that time to improving your English, that’s more than enough to make a huge difference.
Thanks for reading. I hope you find some of these English learning tips useful.
Learning English is not complicated. You don’t have to study boring grammar rules.
Just read and listen to interesting content in English (and practice speaking too if you want to speak fluent English). Do the activities on a regular basis. Be patient. And your English will definitely improve.
