How to improve your English

                         For sure, most of us know that any language deals with four skills ,namely listening ,speaking,reading and writing .Two skills dealing with the input : listening and reading while the other two  remaining  skills dealing with the output.Let me clarify! let's take the  baby ,s/he is born with no specific  phonological or linguistic system .That  is to say ,the baby is not born speaking a certain language but s/he acquires it from the surrounding.And if you take ,for instance, a baby born in England and brought s/he up in France what language does the baby speak? French is the answer as it becomes the baby's native language.For more explanation, we are all born with an empty phonological box as children we start  listening to our native language gradually  filling this empty box that is why a child starts by uttering separate words  moving to simple sentences jumping to incorrect complex  sentences reaching to a whole correct complex ones . We not only acquire languages but also the dialects as well.To summarize, listening and hearing  lead to speaking.You may notice that I introduced another  term:hearing.Do not worry ,it is not separated  from listening with a slight  difference.Hearing is receiving sounds with the ear but listening is doing the same but with attention.Clear?So let's follow this natural way in our learning English .let's hear and listen  a lot to English native speakers through media , tapes, videos,songs and whatsoever .If you have a native speaker friend  with whom you can practice your spoken English ,then lucky you!This cuts the long distance short  .( I stress the word native as I do not want you to have a distorted ,exotic,awkward spoken  English.)The point is the more you listen,the better you speak.                                                                                  Reading not only the second input skill but also the main source of knowledge .It is your mean to build up vocabulary in different fields and understand the applying of   grammar rules.Pick up a series of learning books(They are written in a professional way to take  you  bit by bit from one level to the upper next one and most of them have a  glossary at the end containing the new words you have to learn )For example, there are The Ladybird series .stick to one of these series and study them by heart and try to analyze the sentence structure and grasp it .I have a lot to say about reading with its two main ways skimming and scanning  ,however I think this is enough for now.Writing is the out come of reading .You should learn academic writing .One should confess although writing is a talent ,it can be mastered by continuous practice.                                                                                                                                                                                                               Practical tips :                                                                                                               1_ Listen to  English native speakers a lot  through an available media                                    2_Try to concentrate an pick up  new  words                                                                                   3_Read  books, try to understand what you are reading and make up your own personal dictionary                                                                                                                                                     4_Try to speak English with a friend and practice what you learn  

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  • Nice One. Thanks for sharing.

  • Thanks a lot for your encouraging speech.I'll take into consideration every word you told me about.But I don't know whether I have the enough *boldness to start writing in blogs. Although I have many ideas, sometimes I don't know how to explore it in a good way.Another problem I face  is that I know a lot of vocabulary but I don't know when& how to use.

    To be more practical I'll start writing and I hope u'll be my Mentor if you don't mine.

    Again thanks a lot...

    Hope we can be friends...    *courage* I was confused which word is better  

  • Dear Dina,first we should establish a big difference between being a creative , professional writer & being able to express my self through correct writing.A professional writer is a mixture of talent and creative tools (figure of speech , clarifying & supporting episodes ,elevated & new ideas,refined style ...ect.).This is a gift from Allah ,and this is what we mean when we say: a writer is born , not made.In MyEC there are some professional writers on their head comes Talibah.But I am sure this is not the sort of writing you mean in your comment.Listen Dina, since you have no problem with using grammatical rules & vocabulary ,I am sure you have no problem with writing .That is why ,when I,as well as anybody else,read your comment ,I found it clear and understood it.The clarity of your writing denies your claim.Since I can shape language correctly to express certain thoughts & ideas in a clear & understood way means that I can write!Imagine!!!Believe me it is that easy.I know you will say: why then when I take a piece of paper & a pen& try to write a bout something minutes or maybe hours pass while the paper remains blank?!I will tell you why,it is simply because of two things namely :muzzling fear & lack of ideas.1)Muzzling fear results from your internal belief that you are unable to write.For years you kept internalize this belief ,and it is time to get rid of it.Do you know what I mean by"internalize"?It is to keep pushing the idea orally deep inside until it becomes an internal belief."My major problem is *the writing I do not like it","I am good at everything except *the writing",you kept repeating such claims until you deeply believe them.Doing so ,you have built a wall of fear between you & writing that hinders you from it and you must pull it down.2)lack or poverty of ideas makes you feel you are unable to write .So when you are to write about a certain topic start by collecting ideas about it.This will help enriching your writing and make it valuable .Finally,"Dina you are a good writer" say this aloud and repeat it over and over again until you become convinced .Use simple & correct sentences .Use correctly spelled words.Use correct punctuation .And before all have the ideas you want to discuss or write.Try to achieve a)clarity b)unity c )coherence. I am waiting for your first blog Dina and I am sure it will be fantastic because you are a good writer. (*it is without the)
  • That's what I'm doing but my major problem is the writing I don't like it that much and I don't know what should I do?

    I need ur advice please urgently because now I have started to teach English for primary students and I'm good at almost everything except the writing...

    I really will appreciate your concern. 

  • Notears the only comment on what you say is"no comment"!
  • Talibah ,skimming and scanning are two ways of reading to understand them ,you have first to understand the meaning of these two verbs namely,to skim &to scan."To skim" means to remove the floating  solid part from the surface of a liquid.The act of removing the cream from the milk is skimming.You know that the most rich part of the milk is its cream,it is full of useful substances.Similarly, the act of reading quickly to get the main idea is skimming.The main idea is like the cream,you leave the whole milk &take it .You leave minor deals to reach the main idea .For instance,if you are reading an article about globalization and you want to know the author's opinion of it ,so you quickly left the details to catch his/her opinion.This kind of quick reading to reach main ideas is skimming.You usually use this type of reading with magazines & newspapers.The second way of reading is scanning ,when we "scan" something ,we closely examine it in searching of something.So if you are scanning an essay or whatsoever ,you reading it carefully to get the full details.When we study for exams ,we usually need this type of reading.I hope it is clear now Talibah.
  • Those are good advices. I am going to put in practice them. Thanks.
  • Thanks for sharing! Take note of advices and continue to improve our English)))
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