Tips for Learning & Improving English

[Language ★★★]

(P1) Whether you are a foreign student or a native speaker, English skills can always be improved. There are many tried and true tips for learning English. These are five English tips that are often taught to the foreign language speakers coming into English. These tips not only help you learn English, but they are also tips on improving English skills.

1.) Read a book, newspaper or journal in English that is just above your current level of reading with a dictionary. This will help you learn new vocabulary words in a fun way. This is also a great tip for improving English in a technical field. Even by spending a mere 15 minutes a day, your skills can improve drastically.

2.) Listen to speeches or watch movies or documentaries in areas you aren’t familiar with are fun tips on improving English. This activity will help improve listening and vocabulary at the same time. At first, you can use subtitles then turn the subtitles off when the listening part of this activity becomes easier.

3.) Although less fun, learning grammar is an essential tool for English. Knowing English grammar inside and out is one of the top tips on learning English. This should be tackled at the same time as both reading and listening exercises so that you understand how the sentence is constructed and can manipulate it later to suit your needs.

4.) Keeping a diary allows you to utilize all of your English skills that you’ve been practicing with reading, listening, and grammar. As a bonus, you can go back over your entries and grade yourself, noting where you can improve more. This is one of the greatest tips on improving English at any stage of learning the language.

5.) When you feel you are ready, go for total immersion. This means surrounding yourself by English speakers. Of all English tips, this one will test all of your skills.

(P2) After all your hard work, don’t forget to reward yourself. Learning English is difficult, but with these tips on learning English, you will get better.

WORDS: 345

SOURCE: http://www.5minuteenglish.com/learn-english-tips.htm

VOCABULARY: journal, mere, drastically, essential, tackled, manipulate, entries, immersion

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

If you found the passage difficult to read or had problems understanding specific words or idiomatic expressions, please discuss them with your tutor. The following discussion questions should be answered in your own words and with your own arguments.

1. Briefly, summarize the content of the article in your own words.
2. What is your opinion about these tips?
3. Which English skill is more important to you: reading, speaking, listening, or writing? Why?
4. Which of these tips are you currently using? Do you plan to start using the others? Why or why not?

READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS:

1. How many tips does the article suggest to increase your English proficiency?
2. Can native speakers also improve their English by using these tips?
3. The article states learning grammar is more fun. (T or F)
4. Which tip will force you to use all your English skills?

EXPRESSIONS or PHRASES:

What do the following expressions or phrases mean?

• Tried and true tips (P1)
• Suit your needs (tip #3)

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