HOW TO LEARN ENGLISH
Most English Learners
want to communicate better in English. If this is one of your goals, it is
important to study a balance of the four major skills. Listening, Speaking,
Reading and Writing are the main skills you need to communicate in English.
How To
Learn Listening
The first thing to do is
learn to listen actively. Learning a language is a lot like learning to play a
musical instrument. You can listen to music for enjoyment, but if you want to
study the music you have to listen more critically. It's the same with
languages; you need to make a conscious effort to hear not only the words that
someone is saying but, more importantly, pay attention, and try to understand
the complete message behind the words.
Here are some proven ways
to help you learn Listening :
1.
Listening to English CDs in order to improve your listening
skills, you need to change what you're listening to and change it often. When
listening to English CDs or MP3 recordings, you're going to find that there are
some things you don't understand. So switch to a different CD or MP3 recording
and listen to that for a while. After a few days, go back to the first one and
you'll find that you're going to be able to understand many of the parts you
found difficult to understand before.
2.
Listen to English songs on your MP3 whenever and wherever
you can. The reason is that music stimulates the brain to learn faster and
easier, without our even thinking about it. So, if you want to speed up your
listening comprehension listen to English songs long as you do.
3.
Don't try to understand every single word that is being
spoken to you when you're with a native English speaker. Just try to relax,
listen and be patient. Why be patient? What you'll find is that the general
ideas will be repeated often throughout the conversation, including many of the
individual words you're having trouble understanding.
4.
Listen to English television and radio programs, and watch
English movies. You've got to do what you can to create an English environment.
How to
Learn Speaking and Pronounciation
The first rule of
speaking English is to learn to speak clearly and concisely and remember you
won't just be speaking to native speakers: There are roughly 380 million native
speakers out there, but as many as a billion people speak English as a second
language, you do the math.
Short sentences are just
as good (if not better) than long rambling explanations. The value in what you
have to say is what you say, not how clever you look or sound when you say it.
So it's a good idea to try to use simple, clear vocabulary, keep it short and
simple sentences when you speak.
The most important thing
to think about is can people understand you? If you have a problem being
understood then find someone who speaks English clearly and try to copy the way
they speak. Pay particular attention to speed and enunciation.
Here are some proven ways
to help you learn Listening :
1.
Talk to yourself Talk about anything and everything. Do it
in the privacy of your own home. If you can't do this at first, try reading out
loud until you feel comfortable hearing your own voice in English.
2.
Try singing along to English songs. With friends or in the
privacy of your own bathroom. Lots of the major games consoles have karaoke
games nowadays, like Sing Star on the Playstation.
3.
Find English speaking friends. Look for people with the same
interests as you. It's no good asking everyone you meet to help you with your
English, rather develop natural friendships based on your hobbies etc.
Eventually you will make friends and they will be much more likely to give you
correction / guidance.
How to
Learn Reading and Vocabulary
Make a habit of reading
regularly. Read as many English books, newspapers and magazines as you can get
your hands on.
Here are some proven ways
to help you learn Reading :
1.
Read something every day Children's books, simplified
readers (Penguin), newspapers, magazines, Internet sites, novels, and etc
2.
Read what interests you. Remember that you learn better when
you are having fun.
3.
Review Who, What, Where, When, Why for each story you read.
You can do this for almost any type of
reading. Who is it about? What happened? Why did it happen? Where did it take
place? When did it take place? This is
very useful when you have no comprehension questions to answer. You can write
or speak your answers.
4.
Always have an English-English dictionary nearby It is a bad
habit to always rely on a translation dictionary or electronic dictionary.
5.
Record vocabulary in a personal dictionary.Keep this
notebook separate from other work, Record vocabulary in alphabetical order
Record the part of speech, Write a sample sentence for yourself, Review your
personal dictionary every night before bed.
How to
Learn Writing and Spelling
Write . it’s as simple as
that. To get good at something, you have to do it. You it over and over. So
write. Every day. It can be a diary entry, it could be your next bestseller, it
doesn’t really matter. Just put that pen to paper and get going.
Here are some proven ways
to help you learn Writing :
1.
Write frequently, in a wide range of formal and informal
situations.
2.
Get the most out of your dictionary by understanding how to
use it correctly . You can use a good English dictionary to find words, for
meaning, for pronunciation, to check your spelling and to understand explanations.
3.
Copy out short passages of English text from newspapers,
magazines or books.
4.
Try dictation exercises. You can do this online or get
friends to read out text for you to write and then check your writing -
concentrate on spelling and punctuation.
5.
Keep a notebook of words you find difficult to spell.
Underline the part of the word that you find most difficult.
6.
Use a dictionary to check your spelling.
Sumber :
http://m-allison.hubpages.com/hub/The-Top-Four-Ways-To-Improve-Your-English-Speaking-and-Listening-Skills
http://www.learnenglish.de/ImproveEnglish/improvelisteningpage.html
http://www.englishclub.com/learn-english/learn-english-how.htm
http://www.learnenglish.de/ImproveEnglish/improvespeakingpage.html
