ESL Blogs

Learning English as a second language has proved to be a major challenge for many people. You may know the grammar and are able to write, but still don’t feel confident enough about speaking. Or you may simply feel that learning English is a huge undertaking that you are simply not ready for. Do not fret. Here are 10 hacks to speed your English learning process.

1. Learn The Similarities of English to Another Language You Know Well

The majority of languages always has similarities to other languages. English, for example, came from the Latin language. This means that it has similarities to other languages that originated from Latin such as Spanish, French, Italian, etc. find out these similarities and voila, you already have a large vocabulary in English.

For example; Spanish words ending in -ción becomes -tion in English. Portuguese words ending in -endo/ando becomes -ing in English. If you read more in your target language, you’ll come up with more examples. This way, you get to learn English much faster.

2. Cultural Inspiration

When you want to learn English, you have to make an attempt to imagine yourself in the English culture. This cultural inspiration is crucial as it will help you understand the cultural aspects of the English language. What are these cultural inspirations, you may ask? These are things you already enjoy doing now, but you do them in English. Instead of listening to Spanish music, listen to English music, watch films and videos in English. When you cook, try to name all the ingredients in English. If you get creative enough, then very soon, you will incorporate English in every part of your life.

3. Learn The Survival Phrases

Once you have learned some basic grammar in English, the next step is to master the survival phrases. Survival phrases are the phrases that you need to communicate with a native speaker, right from the start. These include:

• Greetings. These include hello, hi, good morning, how do you do, etc.
• How to ask for direction.
• Sorry? Excuse me?
• Can you please repeat what you have just said?
• What do you mean?
• How do you say (the new word you have just heard)?
• What does it mean?
• Do you know what I’m saying?

You also need to learn the appropriate body language. You shouldn’t cross your arms or legs when you are speaking to someone. When someone is speaking, lean forward to show that you are interested, just to mention a few.

4. Form A Learning Group

Online learning and writing services e.g. essayrepublic are great way to improve your English, however as it is quite easy to obtain professional help, you need to make friends with people who are also inspired and motivated to learn English with you. It’s not a must that they need to be native speakers. Even though you should have at least one native speaker who will correct your mistakes. While at it, have fun. Learning English shouldn’t sound like a choking task that you have to get through every day. Incorporate games into the learning. You can make flashcards, let people choose randomly and they explain the meaning of the word, how it is used and its example in a sentence.

5. Practice

It has always been said that practice makes perfect. Don’t time yourself. Focus on learning, repetition. Repetition is important because it wires your brain to remember whatever you are learning. If you ask Olympic gold medalists the secret to their success, they will tell you they practiced till they perfected the routine. Read your notes thrice. Take a small pop quiz and correct the answers you got wrong. Then read through it all over again. With time, you will realize that the words are being ingrained into your brain.

6. Break Down Topics into Small Chunks

Rome was not built in a day. Same way, you cannot master the language in a day. Break it down into smaller topics and each topic further into smaller sub-topics. Think of it as a story. You break it down into paragraphs. Each paragraph into sentences and each sentence into words. The words form the topics, which form sentences and then paragraphs. Read it slowly by slowly and soon you will finish reading the whole story.

7. Turn The Learning Process into Games

Let’s be honest, reading with no fun gets boring and tires the brain easily. But what if we turn the learning process into a game, complete with rules and rewards? Turning learning into a game, makes our mind tolerate and enjoy the repetitions of learning. The rewards make the game more enjoyable and turns learning experience from a behavior into a habit. We all know how hard it is to break from a habit. This helps us improve our English skills easier and faster.

8. Create Your Own Learning Activities

You need to develop your own personal learning activities. After you have learned beyond the basic, you need to constantly re-evaluate yourself. Ask yourself your weakest points, what you are interested in, the field you commit many mistakes, the areas you need to strengthen, etc. Create a simple learning activity to correct the issues you have discovered. Create something. Try. Fail. Correct. Practice. Examine. Fail. Try again. Repeat this until you finally succeed.

9. Persistence

Persistence is key. You can try, fail and try again. You are human. You are allowed to make mistakes and fail. At the beginning, learning will be fun.  But, then you reach a point where you feel like you are not learning anything new and you are tempted to quit. Don’t give up. If you do, you risk forgetting everything you have learned.

10. Think Outside the Box

Are you taking an English class? Then you need to widen your learning scope. Do not limit yourself to the lecture notes only. There are several language learning apps that you can employ. One of them is Duolingo. You can also download podcasts and listen to them. Look for materials on the internet and make use of them.

Are you planning on learning English? If you are, consider these hacks to speed up your learning process.