I have been teaching English for over ten years and I can say that it has been a very interesting, joyful experience, the best job one can ever have. I´ve had different kind of students. I´ve had students who learn and understand everything I teach them without or almost without any problem; but I´ve also had students for whom learning English has become a very difficult issue, which is why most of the time they just quit trying and finally, drop out.
For those students, learning English can be very challenging and sometimes frustating. However, it shouldn´t be that hard. Obviously it takes a lot of patience and dedication, and it highly depends on their level of interest and motivation, but anybody is capable to accomplish that goal sooner than they expect it as long as that´s what they really, really want. It takes having to commit themselves with the learning process, change their minds and get deeply involved in it, assume control of such a process with new attitudes, habits and practices, investing time to spend on it and all resources necessary, but most importantly, It should be something enjoyable.
You need to be aware that to reach the goal of getting a good command of English you have to develop your speaking, listening, reading and writing skills,as well as have an extensive knowledge of grammar rules and vocabulary use. So I´d like to write about some things that you can do to help you develop those skills. However, remember that at at first, you don´t have to know many complex grammatical structures to be a fluent speaker, I mean, you can try to speak as fluent as possible even making mistakes, then little by Little, you can focus on grammar aspects and work on accuracy.
We all agree that the purpose of learning English is to develop our comunicative competence, that is, the ability to understand and be understood in that language
Unfortunately, most students usually get stuck in the process of learning how to speak English due to many reasons, and one of the most important one is the fact that, even though they know some basic things, they never use them outside the classroom and don´t speak it at all, and I know that the main reason is fear, pure fear. What worries them the most is saying or writing things incorrectly or look stupid when they speak English, so they don´t talk at all, even if they have the chance to do it.
My suggestion is that you shouldn’t let fear stop you from achieving your goal. You need to keep in mind that the best way to learn how to speak English is to do it as often as possible until you get it right. Remember that you won´t learn any English if don´t practice as it is required.
Now, moving on, let´s take a look at my recommendations on how you can improve your English and studying it on your own. First of all, let me point out that there are many different ways you can learn it and improve it, so you shouldn´t limit yourself to only use one or two. It is totally up to you to find and use as many different sources, methods, materials and tools as possible. Don´t limit yourself to books or think that you cannot learn or practice outside the classroom.Teachers can help you a lot, but we don´t perform miracles, Do you know what I mean?
Books are not all you need. Watch English films and TV series, it is fun and very effective. Be always attentive to new vocabulary and expressions used and write them down. Study and use them everyday, every time you can.
You can also use English music. It will help you improve your listenig, your reading and your pronunciation skills. It´s easy. Get the lyrics(words) to the songs you like and read them as you listen to the artist sing the song, then sing along until you feel capable to do it without reading the lyrics. You can find the words for most songs on Internet sites. There are lots of them (i.e. lyrics.com) .
Little by Little you will surround yourself with English, which is absolutely necessary to learn it. Beside music and televisión, you could also get magazines, novels, stories, or any kind of product that may have English written on them, and put them where you can see and reach them easily. Listen to English language radio broadcasts, Watch english news (i.e. Fox News, CNN), listen to audiobooks or audioprograms from English books (i.e. the Interchange Series books with CDs), speak English with other friends whenever you have the chance. Talk to native speakers without any fear.
You can also take advantage of the technological boom that has been taking place over the past few years, specially the Internet, which is perfect for English learners since it can provide you with practical, interesting,and very useful material.
Get a private tutor if necessary. That would be really helpful and this way all the questions and doubts you have will be answered and clarified.
I could go on and on giving you tips on this subject, but there´s a lot I can say about it and I wouldn´t finish now so let´s just leave it right here, ok. I hope that all that has been said here could serve you to achive your goal.
Finally, I just want to say that nowaday there´s no excuse for not being able to learn and improve your English. You can do it on your own. It´s up to you.
IVAN PEREIRA HERRERA
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