How to get the most of your English lessons? To be a good student, a lot depends on you. We’ve prepared some advice for you to be more productive, achieve a real improvement and reach your learning goals.
- Make a plan
The most important thing to do is probably to create a plan and the most difficult thing is to follow that plan. Start with your learning goals, and then make a specific plan to succeed, discuss it with your teacher or prepare it yourself. No need to be a perfectionist, learning a new language takes time, be patient and make your plan look interesting.
- Learning should become your habit
What do you want to learn this week? – asking yourself this question each time will motivate you to get back to your plan and do something for your big goal. If you don’t have enough free time, it is a good idea to focus even on one grammar exercise or one simple activity. You will be surprised how fast you will be progressing. 5 minutes every day is much better than 2 hours once a week.
- Differentiate
It’s crucial to have a look at different areas; don’t be blocked by grammar exercises or some specific topic. Try to read as many various sources as possible (world news, film reviews, etc.), as it all will help you not only to enrich your vocabulary but also to widen your background knowledge.
- Say it out loud!
It’s a great exercise when you are at home doing your exercises alone. Read it out loud, don’t be afraid of somebody correcting your mistakes. It’s not a secret that English pronunciation and articulation may differ from your mother tongue so you would like to teach your mouth and vocal cords to articulate new sounds. Warm up your facial muscles and practice the act of speaking. One more variant could be to record your voice and then to listen it once again. Don’t forget to praise yourself!
- Think in a foreign language
If there is nobody around to talk to you, you can always talk to yourself. Start thinking in English, try to describe your day, your plans for the evening. You can practise different tenses, tell what you were doing yesterday using past tenses and what you are going to do tomorrow using future tenses.