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In this month's newsletter, I would like to talk about everyone's favourite topic: grammar! OK, I know. I know - nobody likes learning grammar – myself included - but it is necessary if you want to take your English to the next level! A common problem for students is the fact that they find it difficult to implement grammar rules in real life situations. When they read the rules and the examples in the book, they understand them without any problems but then struggle to apply the rule in a real life situation. This strategy aims to show you how to make grammar easier to embed into your mind so you can use it in real life situations. With some practise, it will become automatic to you. Here it goes: Use stories to embed the grammar rules and patterns. Why stories you ask? Because humans remember stories. Think about how many stories you already know in your head! See, what I mean? Now, back to reality. Here’s how you can apply it to learning grammar: Let’s say you are learning the present perfect. You can make a story to remember the situations in which we use the present prefect. For example, you are having a conversation with your best friend about traveling. You ask him, “Have you visited Brazil (imagine your favourite country is Brazil)?” He replies, “No, I have not but my sister has many times.” Just from these two sentences, you already have seen one situation when to use the present perfect, how to use it for questions and short replies, the negative and positive and some of its conjugations. I admit that the story is not very memorable though! It is only to show you an example. The only limitation is your imagination! What do you think of that? Do you think you'll try this method in the future? This is from my free monthly email. Join here: http://www.learn-englishonline.net/newsletter.html This is from my free monthly email. Join here: http://www.learn-englishonline.net/newsletter.html
What I would like to talk to you about this month is something you can do while enjoying the sunshine. What is it, you ask? Reading, of course :D You are probably sick and tired of me talking about the benefits of reading but I truly believe it is a great learning tool. For example, did you know that you learn 300 - 500 new words from every new book you read in another language? That is pretty good, right? Now, you may say that reading is too difficult. And I agree - it can be difficult. But I have discovered your secret weapon in reading with any problems. It is called... Dual Language Books. You probably used them while you were studying literature in school. For example, if you ever studied Shakespeare, you probably had your native language on one side and English on the other. Does it ring a bell? If not, a dual language is just that. It has English on one page and your native language on the other so it is really easy to read. At the moment, I am using it to improve my German. I am reading Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. It is quite difficult for me but having the English on the other side really helps. You can buy dual language books as paperbacks. For the traditionalists, this will be really useful. But for those who use e-readers, you are in for a treat. Allow me to explain... Generally, I read on an Amazon Kindle. With the kindle, from inside the e-book, I just tap the screen and I can access a dictionary, a translator and Wikipedia. It is really unbelievable. But that's not the best part... For every word that I look up the meaning, it is saved to a notepad where I can then access all of the words in the form of flashcards. So now, you can not only find out the meaning of each word but then memorize it using flashcards. It is as close to perfect as learning can be. Plus it is so easy to do. Of course, if you prefer paper books, it will not be as easy but it extremely useful regardless. Here are some links where you can find some dual language books for FREE: http://bilinguis.com http://www.trilingualmama.com/online-stories-for-children/ http://lingolibros.com/free-books/ Here is a link to Amazon where you can find Kindle ebooks: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/138-6032897-2614954?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=dual+language+books That's all for this month. Make sure you take the time to use this amazing tool and watch your vocabulary sky rocket! Let me know how it goes for you :-) This is from my free monthly email. Join here: http://www.learn-englishonline.net/newsletter.html This is from my free monthly email. Join here: http://www.learn-englishonline.net/newsletter.html
This month’s newsletter is a bit left-field. I was listening to an audio course and it talked about how people got over their fears. It instantly struck a chord with me because often people are so afraid of making mistakes in another language that they do not speak at all. Study after study proved that the most efficient way to overcome a fear is to keep doing the task which causes you the fear. They call it “systemised desensitisation”. I have spoken about this with other students but I didn’t have such an elegant name for it. But in fact, it is really true. I personally can attest to it being true. It is almost impossible to build fluency if you are frightened of making mistakes. For example, when I first began to speak German, I was so afraid and nervous about making mistakes. But after making mistake after mistake, I just stopped caring. It just didn’t feel like a big deal any more. And it wasn’t. Did you know that some sales companies have prizes for the first person to get 10 rejections every day? They found that by repeating this process, the sales people no longer cared about getting rejections, called on more people and made more sales as a result. What does this mean for you? Well... The simple truth is: mistakes seem much bigger to you than to your interlocutor. They may not even notice them at all. And if worse comes to worst, your interlocutor will simply ask you to repeat. It's really not a big deal - certainly not something to get nervous or anxious about. So your homework from this mail is to speak with as many people in English as possible and not care if you make any mistakes. The goal is to simply speak. After a while, you won’t care if you make any mistakes or not. This will really help to speak English better Try it and let me know how you get on. :) PS. Did you notice all of the phrases I used? For example, “struck a chord”, "left-field" and "big deal", etc? Do you know what they mean? If not, just ask. I’m here to help. This is from my free monthly email. Join here: http://www.learn-englishonline.net/newsletter.html This is from my free monthly email. Join here: http://www.learn-englishonline.net/newsletter.html
How are you? I hope you're well! Funny title, huh? What do I mean by English is two languages? Well, actually, I think you already know. For sure, you have come across this already! Let's test ;) Have you heard any of the following phrases or something similar:
What I am talking about here is the difference between spoken English and written English. And why English really is like two difference languages. But why is this important? It is important because usually when people learn English, they learn to how to speak written English. This is not bad but also not totally helpful. Generally, what people find when they speak with an English native is that the native uses language and phrases that they don't know. And that's where this email will help. I will show you some key differences between spoken and written English:
These are not all the examples of spoken English but they are the most common. If you would like an even more examples and explanations, simply respond to this email :) This is from my free monthly email. Join here: http://www.learn-englishonline.net/newsletter.html This is from my free monthly email. Join here: http://www.learn-englishonline.net/newsletter.html
This month's newsletter is a simple one. A lot of people have been asking me lately how to sound more native in English. And that's exactly what this email will try to do. Of course, pronunciation is important to sound like a native but it is also important to use native sounding phrases. I won't cover pronunciation in this email but we will look at some very cool phrases. I have picked phrases for every day conversation. Hopefully, some of them will be useful for you. I have written the meanings and given an example for context as well. Let's see them:
Now, your job is to start using them when you speak ;) If there is any other topic you would like covered in these emails, please tell me. This is from my free monthly email. Join here: http://www.learn-englishonline.net/newsletter.html This is from my free monthly email. Join here: http://www.learn-englishonline.net/newsletter.html
Firstly, happy new year to you and your family! I hope you had a lovely break over December and are looking forward to the new year! It is around this time of the year that everybody decides that this year will not be like last year. They create their new year's resolutions but often stop doing them by February. I must admit that this happens to me as well. But this year, I decided to do something different. I think you will find it useful too! Here's what I mean: This year, I am creating a list of new year's language resolutions and I am sharing them with you so you can do the same. Basically, you probably already know, I live in Germany but really struggle with the German language. I can speak German but it really should be much better. I always find excuses not to learn German but then I always have the same problems...even after 3 years! This year, I thought enough is enough. So I made a list of ten goals to complete by January 1 2018. They are:
I will update you with news as I complete my goals so you can track my progress and I can stay motivated! Feel free to ask me for updates too. If you have ever felt like this in English, why don't you do the same? It will keep you motivated and give you a concrete path to improvement in English. But how do I start, I hear you ask. Well, here's what I did: I figured out what my biggest problems are in German. They are pronunciation, German cases and word order. Then I created a plan to overcome these problems. I also need more grammar and vocabulary so that is why I decided to do the exams. I will learn more grammar and vocabulary by preparing for the exams. Also, they will show me OBJECTIVELY my progress! Here's another crucial part to this: I know exactly why I am learning what I am learning. It is very important to ask yourself this question. There are no right or wrong goals - only what is useful for you to improve. Keep your goals simple, measurable and with a finish date. To keep you motivated when times are tough, set a penalty if you do not complete a goal. It can be anything that will make you complete your goals on time :) I hope you found this useful. Please tell me about your new year's language resolutions! I can't wait to hear them. This is from my free monthly email. Join here: http://www.learn-englishonline.net/newsletter.html This is from my free monthly email. Join here: http://www.learn-englishonline.net/newsletter.html Hi there, How are you? Are you enjoying the festive period? There's nothing like a little bit of snow to remind us that Christmas is near! I hope this month's newsletter will be really useful for you! Allow me to explain... Have you ever sat down to learn some vocabulary, learn it and then forget it? I know I have! It's really frustrating, isn't it? It's like one step forward, two steps backwards. You are not alone in this problem. As language learners, this happens to all of us. But today, I would like to show you one simple (scientifically proven) way to remember twice as much vocabulary from every session - easily! When I say "easily", I mean "easily". Here's what to do: From now on, when you learn new vocabulary, grab a pen and pencil and test yourself immediately! Rewrite the vocabulary and see how much you remember. Then relearn what you forgot! For maximum effectiveness: repeat the following day and relearn again what you do not remember. Then, repeat in a week, in two weeks, in a month and finally every three months. Look at the graph at the bottom of this post to see what I mean. Doing this simple exercise will help to remember twice as much as vocabulary! See, usually when we want to learn, we simply read the information again and again. We're actually practising the wrong skill here. If we only read, then of course, we are improving our reading skills - not our retention skills. So, in order to improve how well we remember, we must practise remembering! Now, where did I put that pen and paper? :D If you have any questions about this, don't hesitate to respond to this email. This is from my free monthly email. Join here: http://www.learn-englishonline.net/newsletter.html  This is from my free monthly email. Join here: http://www.learn-englishonline.net/newsletter.html
Hi there, Do you think you make some mistakes when you speak? Have you ever noticed that you make the same mistake again and again? Well, here are a few tips to stop that from happening again: 1. Work on the most important mistakes first What do you find most difficult? Choose the biggest mistakes you make and pay special attention to it when you speak. For example, if you always say "I must to do it" when you mean "I must do it", be aware when you're do not need "to" after modal verbs. Stop yourself if necessary and make sure you're using the correct form. 2. Listen to native English speakers Everyone makes mistakes (including native speakers!) but you can reduce your mistakes by listening to English. How do English speakers use modal verbs, or prepositions, for example? As well as watching TV in English, watch YouTube videos on subjects you're interested in. Or another option is listening to podcasts or maybe, even watching videos on www.ted.com if your level of English is a little more advanced. 3. Balance accuracy with fluency It's important to speak English as correctly as you can so that you can avoid misunderstandings, particularly if you are using English for business. In some occasions, you don't need to worry as much about being accurate. When you're with friends or when you're socialising at work, concentrate on fluency and keeping a conversation going. Remember mistakes are a natural part of learning any language so don't become annoyed when you make one. Simply learn from it ;) This is from my free monthly email. Join here: http://www.learn-englishonline.net/newsletter.html This is from my free monthly email.
Hi there, How is everything? I hope the crazy weather this week didn't disrupt you too much! We had -2 and snow. Unbelievable, right? In this month's newsletter, I want to talk about fluency. Of course, everybody wants to be fluent. But what is fluency? See, that's the problem. "Fluency" is totally subjective - it means different things to different people. For some, it could be handling customers in English and for others, it could be understanding movies in English. It depends on the person. The first step to solving this problem is figuring out what fluency means to you! However, I don't really suggest this solution because I think there is a better way. "Really?", you say, "What can be better than fluency?" Well... How about being highly functional and comfortable in every situation? Now, that is something we can aim for! This is something you can measure and it is a concrete goal that you can hit. On top of that, you already have a good idea in which areas you need to be highly functional and comfortable. A good idea would be pick the three most important and common situations for you and understand what do you need to have to be highly functional and comfortable. Once, you have achieved this, pick another three situations and continue. What you will probably find is at you become "fluent" much faster learning this way :) If you want to travel, learn the three most important situations for travelling. For example, accommodation, restaurants and transportation. If you need English for work, learn about meetings, giving your opinion and phrases for telephone and email communication. If you are taking an exam, learn key phrases for speaking, writing and vocabulary for reading. Fun Fact: Researchers say that in order to be fluent, you need about 2000 words and to be functional in a language, you need 1200 words. Which means if you learn ten words a day, you can be functional in English in less than 6 months and more than fluent in one year! Not bad at all! I hope this helps. If you have any questions, please ask :) By the way, I'd love to know what you think of this article! Leave your opinions in the comments below Summer is almost over and autumn will soon be here. As we say goodbye to the nice weather, we can also say hello to a usual period of good learning because of the longer evenings! To get you started, here are some very useful online tools for helping you with English:
I left YouTube off the list because I think nearly everybody is already familiar with YouTube but please use it if you find it useful. I have tried to include something for everyone so hopefully I haven't missed too many good resources. But if you know of any more, please tell me and I will add them in next month's newsletter. All the best, Jay *Please note that these tools are not placed in order of importance. |
AuthorMy name is Jay and I am the teacher at Chemnitz Englisch. This is the blog that I wish existed when I was learning German. Archives
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