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This is from my free monthly email. Join here: http://www.learn-englishonline.net/newsletter.html
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 |
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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