[I made this worksheet in response to the question I always get from my adult students: "How can I improve my English?"
Actually there are two responses I usually give. The first one is something along the lines of "Well don't ask me. I'm a native speaker. If you want to know how to learn English, the last thing you should do is ask a native speaker. Native speakers have never had the experience of having to study English. It's true I have some training in teaching English, but independent study is really a whole separate field of expertise. What you should do is find a Vietnamese friend of yours whose managed to learn English really well, and ask them what they did." (Vietnam being my current country.)
But then when I get done saying that, I give them this sheet as well.
This is mostly just a re-working of a sheet I posted last year on "Advice for Further Study." The difference, however, is that the previous worksheet was designed for students who were coming to the end of their English course, while this sheet is designed for students whose English studies are still ongoing, but are frustrated that they're not making faster progress.
The emphasis on this sheet is also slightly different, reflecting the fact that my views have evolved slightly since designing the original sheet. (Largely as a result of having read Krashen (Review Here) and The Lexical Approach by Michael Lewis (Review Coming Eventually) in the intervening time.)
Admittedly, it always dangerous to inflict your own personal ideology on your students, especially as there is so much debate about all of these factors, and as in a year from now I might believe something totally different. So I do feel slightly guilty about this. But I've been giving it to the students anyway.]
How to improve your English
80% input
15% studying vocabulary
5% studying grammar rules
Some students spend most of their time studying grammar. But I would advise against this. It is important to study grammar some, but you don’t want to spend all of your time on it. If you spend all of your time studying grammar out of a textbook, it will be very difficult for you to remember the grammar rules. You need to see and hear these grammar rules being used in real situations in order to truly remember them.
So I recommend dividing your independent study time like this:
80% input (reading and listening)
15% studying vocabulary
5% studying grammar rules.
That is, if you study English for 10 hours a week, try to spend 8 hours reading and listening. Spend 1.5 hours studying vocabulary. And spend 0.5 hours studying grammar.
80% Input
Input includes any reading, listening, and conversation.
Reading: read books in English, newspaper and magazine articles.
Listening: Watch TV in English, read books in English, listen to English songs, listen to English radio programs, watch cartoons in English. If you have any English speaking friends, try to talk to them in English.
Read in English as much as possible. But don't start with something too difficult. You can't make any progress if it's too difficult.
Find something that is easy for you, whatever level that happens to be.
Work through step by step, level by level, and you will improve eventually.
Ideally, you should be able to understand 98% of the words in the reading. A good technique when choosing a book to read is to count the first 100 words. Then of those 100 words, count how many words that you do not understand. If it’s more than 5 words, then the book is probably too difficult for you.
2. Studying Vocabulary (15%)
https://quizlet.com/ is an excellent website for studying vocabulary. Create an account, and start making your own vocabulary quizzes. You can study select whatever words are most important for you to learn.
3. Studying Grammar (5%)
I recommend English Grammar in Use book series. The red book, Essential Grammar in Use, is the easy grammar, the blue book, English Grammar in Use is the intermediate grammar, and the green book, Advanced Grammar in Use is advanced grammar. The answers are in the back, so you can check your own answers as you study. Start at the first unit and work your way through all the exercises. It's guaranteed to improve your English accuracy.
No comments:
Post a Comment