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