Learn to Speak English Fluently

If you want to speak any language fluently, including English, the first thing you need is to master certain skills. Many students focus on learning vocabulary. They want to learn as many words as they can, as quickly as they can. This however is a mistake. Students who learn many words end up forgetting most of the words they study! Even worse, students who study many words do not know how to use those words correctly and end up making many vocabulary mistakes when they speak English.

Students of English, then, need to learn many sentences. But before learning many sentences, the very first skill is to learn how sounds work in your new language. For example, a learner of Chinese not only has to learn to pronounce each word, he or she must also learn to master the "tone" of each word. In English, you not only have to learn to pronounce the sounds of English (see Basic English Pronunciation but you must also learn the rhythm of English.

After mastering English pronunciation, then you can begin to learn more and more sentences. One of the best techniques for learning English sentences is the Backwards Sentence Technique. Use this technique to help you whenever you have trouble remembering a sentence in English. You can then successfully practice sentences such as these "tongue twisters" and you are on your way to speaking English fluently!

When you have mastered both the sounds of English and basic sentences, you need to do "extensive" practice. A good way to do this is by using a technique called Shadow Practice which you can use to study English movies, TV programs, or songs. You don't have to study English alone. Go to our Speak English Fluently group where you can meet other learners of English and Speak lots of questions. In the future, we will have live classes online so that you can find out just how fluent you really are!

Learn to Read English Faster

How many words can you read in English in one minute? Generally speaking, native English speakers can read between 200 and 400 words in one minute. (We normally say "200 words per minute" or "200 wpm".) Many students of English can read fewer than 100 wpm. If that is true for you, then you need to practice a lot. Better students can read between 100 and 200 wpm. As you learn more English, including vocabulary, your wpm will increase too.

Try each of the readings to see how fast you can read. Try to get the main ideas while you read, but if you have trouble with many words, just try to guess their meaning. If this is the first time you have ever tried to see your reading rate, don't worry if it's a bit difficult. As long as you keep trying, you can improve your wpm quite quickly.

In the future, continue reading, at least for 20 minutes every day. Try to get main ideas first, trying to build up speed. You can get the details later, if you decide that you really need that information. With your daily practice, try reading one article or book for ten minutes. Count how many words there are in the first ten lines. Divide that number by ten to get the average number of words in each line. When you count how many lines you have read, you can easily calculate the total words read. Divide by ten (because you read for ten minutes) and you have the number of words per minute or wpm.

As you read faster, you can enjoy more of what you read. Then you will find that your English vocabulary improves greatly. Not only will you know more words, you will also start to use them correctly, because you have seen them many times in your reading. As always, practice makes perfect, so keep on practicing your reading!

The Top Five Mistakes of English Learners

Teacher Joe has been teaching English for almost 20 years. Here are the biggest problems he sees in students' study methods. If you can avoid these mistakes, you can learn English much more efficiently.

1. Students practice their mistakes. Sometimes it's helpful to practice fluency and make lots of mistakes. Other times, however, it's necessary to practice carefully and accurately, so that you develop good habits in speaking and writing. Many students recite sentences and memorize words and phrases with poor pronunciation or incorrect grammar. When repeating incorrect language over and over again, the mistakes actually become stronger. The lesson is: Be careful how you practice!

2. Students memorize lists of words. The best way to learn vocabulary is to read, and read a LOT! The human brain learns by making connections. The context provided by a book or story in a magazine or newspaper gives your brain what it needs to remember better. Word lists lead only to more and more forgetting!

3. Students worry too much about grammar details. It would be better to learn the most important sentence patterns rather than try to learn every detail about English grammar. It is much easier, much faster, and much more effective to focus on key sentences. After you master the most important sentences in English, you can spend more time on fluency practice.

4. Students don't listen to English spoken at normal speed. It's extremely difficult to successfully listen to fast English, but it can help you make big improvements in your English. At first, you don't need to understand 100%. In fact, you don't need to understand much at all! You just need to keep on trying and understand a little more each time you listen. This is what I am now doing in my study of Chinese and it's helping me so much.

5. Students don't read in English. Reading real English (newspapers, magazines, books, stories) can be as difficult as listening to English at normal speed. Real English is very rich and complex, but it is this richness and complexity that can help students learn much more than any textbook can teach. It is not necessary to understand everything you read. The more you read, the easier it will become. Then, one day, you'll realize that you have the skill to read easily. And it will be enjoyable. From that time forward, your English will really "take off"!

Good luck with your studies!

If + Sentence + Might be + Long Noun
(1) If (2) you feel sick, it (3) might be (4) a good idea to see a doctor.

Pronunciation Practice - Repeat each sentence out loud!
1. If tomorrow is sunny, it might be a good time to wash the car.
2. If they are in a hurry, it might be a good idea to take a taxi.
3. If she wants to lose weight, it might be worth it to start exercising more.
4. If your parents come, it might be a great chance to take them out to dinner.
5. If you are hungry, it might be a good time to cook something.

Discussion Practice - Speak these questions to your friends!

1. If you want to play tennis well, might it be a good idea to take lessons?
2. If you have a good job, might it be a good time to save money?
3. If you have a pain in your stomach, what might it be worth doing?
4. If you get a phone call from a customer, what might you do?
5. If your friend has trouble, what might it be a good idea for him to do?

Read Children's Books

Successful students study a variety of materials and review often. You can do both (kill two birds with one stone!) by reading children's books. It's a fun and interesting way to review English. You can start by reading short poems or stories, then keep on reading until you can easily understand school textbooks and longer books such as Harry Potter.

Kids' books are that you might see some strange vocabulary. Stories and poems often use childish vocabulary that you won't see anywhere else. And you might see words related to magic and fantasy, but you don't need to use them, so don't worry about them. The only words you should worry about are words that come up often, but you will be able to understand them easily after you read those three or four times, just by seeing how they are used in the story.

Paying attention to basic sentence structure by reading and seeing how words are used in various situations is much more important than learning new words when you are reviewing. The key to success is to enjoy what you are reading so that you will do more and more. Remember what Teacher Joe tells his students

Have you ever tried "shadow practice"? It's a great way to improve your fluency. I'm using it now to try to improve my Chinese speaking ability and my students have used it for many years with great success. The technique is quite simple. Whenever you hear English, whether from a teacher, from TV or radio, from a DVD or a song, try to follow the voice by moving your mouth, but do NOT use your own voice. You should listen to the natural pronunciation and intonation of the speaker while exercising all of the muscles of your face.

                                 

Here are some general tips to follow while doing "shadow practice":

1. Do not worry about meaning at first. Your goal is to speak faster and faster. You will understand more in the future.

2. Try to feel like a native English speaker. Some of my students even IMAGINE that they are a TV or radio announcer! This helps to to pay very close attention to every sound and word of English.

3. Be consistant. That means you should practice a little every day. Think like an Olympic athlete or a professional musician. If you practice every day, you will be sure winner!

                        

Five Methods of Successful English Learners

In our previous article, The Top 5 Mistakes of English Students, we looked at five common mistakes that learners of English make. These mistakes cause students to waste time and sometimes give up learning English. This article describes the positive things that successful students do to learn English very well. Do you do these five things?

1. Successful students learn the whole sound system of English. They not only learn how to pronounce English vowels (A, E, I, O and U) and consonants (sounds other than vowels), they also learn to use natural English rhythm and intonation. Some experts say that learning natural English rhythm by itself can correct most pronunciation mistakes that students commonly make!

2. Successful students learn "whole language" using their right brain. Most students around the world naturally use their logical left brain to study and pass tests. The best language learners do more than that. The best language learners also use their creative right brain to learn new things in different ways. To use your right brain, try learning English through songs, or play games in English, or watch TV and movies in English. Another good way to use your right brain to learn all about English humor.

3. Instead of studying every detail of English grammar, successful students learn useful sentence patterns that can be used very often. Teacher Joe is putting some of these most common sentence patterns on his Grammar Page. Try practicing these until you can use them easily, then your ability to speak English in any situation will greatly increase!

4. Successful students listen to English often. You can listen to all kinds of things; just listen at least 30 minutes every day. You can begin by listening to some short jokes, and then try these funny videos. As your listening improves, you can listen to BBC radio for British English, or try National Public Radio to learn an American accent.

5. Finally, successful students read at least a little bit every day. Reading helps students learn vocabulary, especially how vocabulary is used in a variety of ways. If you don't read often yet, you can begin by reading these funny news stories with vocabulary explained. After that, you can go to almost any news site to find interesting things to read.

Good luck with your studies!

Here are some tips which may help you to master the English Language!

Speak without Fear

The biggest problem most people face in learning a new language is their own fear.  They worry that they won’t say things correctly or that they will look stupid so they don’t talk at all.  Don’t do this.  The fastest way to learn anything is to do it – again and again until you get it right.  Like anything, learning English requires practice.  Don’t let a little fear stop you from getting what you want. 

Use all of your Resources

Even if you study English at a language school it doesn’t mean you can’t learn outside of class.  Using as many different sources, methods and tools as possible, will allow you to learn faster.  There are many different ways you can improve your English, so don’t limit yourself to only one or two.  The internet is a fantastic resource for virtually anything, but for the language learner it's perfect. 

Surround Yourself with English

The absolute best way to learn English is to surround yourself with it.  Take notes in English, put English books around your room, listen to English language radio broadcasts, watch English news, movies and television.  Speak English with your friends whenever you can. The more English material that you have around you, the faster you will learn and the more likely it is that you will begin “thinking in English”.

Listen to Native Speakers as Much as Possible

There are some good English teachers that have had to learn English as a second language before they could teach it.  However, there are several reasons why many of the best schools prefer to hire native English speakers. One of the reasons is that native speakers have a natural flow to their speech that students of English should try to imitate.  The closer ESL / EFL students can get to this rhythm or flow, the more convincing and comfortable they will become. 

Watch English Films and Television

This is not only a fun way to learn but it is also very effective.  By watching English films (especially those with English subtitles) you can expand your vocabulary and hear the flow of speech from the actors.  If you listen to the news you can also hear different accents. 

Listen to English Music

Music can be a very effective method of learning English.  In fact, it is often used as a way of improving comprehension.  The best way to learn though, is to get the lyrics (words) to the songs you are listening to and try to read them as the artist sings.  There are several good internet sites where one can find the words for most songs. This way you can practice your listening and reading at the same time.  And if you like to sing, fine.

Study As Often As Possible!

Only by studying things like grammar and vocabulary and doing exercises, can you really improve your knowledge of any language. 

Do Exercises and Take Tests

Many people think that exercises and tests aren't much fun.  However, by completing exercises and taking tests you can really improve your English. One of the best reasons for doing lots of exercises and tests is that they give you a benchmark to compare your future results with.  Often, it is by comparing your score on a test you took yesterday with one you took a month or six months ago that you realize just how much you have learned.  If you never test yourself, you will never know how much you are progressing. Start now by doing some of the many exercises and tests on this site, and return in a few days to see what you've learned. Keep doing this and you really will make some progress with English.

Record Yourself

Nobody likes to hear their own voice on tape but like tests, it is good to compare your tapes from time to time.  You may be so impressed with the progress you are making that you may not mind the sound of your voice as much.

Listen to English                                                 

By this, we mean, speak on the phone or listen to radio broadcasts, audio books or CDs in English. This is different than watching the television or films because you can’t see the person that is speaking to you.  Many learners of English say that speaking on the phone is one of the most difficult things that they do and the only way to improve is to practice.