Advice on speaking

Many people think that when you talk about speaking strategies you are talking about speaking like a native speaker, but this is not true. It’s very difficult for a foreign learner to have the same pronunciation as a native speaker because in England and the United States there are such a big variety of accents and dialects. However, you can try to have the standard pronunciation, which is understood by everybody.

As all the other advice of the other topics, what you need to improve your speaking is practice and confidence. You don’t have to be a shy person because the practice of speaking involves having to speak in front of other people or maybe by video-chats.

Another useful advice is to look for an English-speaker friend and speak with him or her. You find that this advice is a bit “boring” and you want more “adventures”, you can also travel to countries which have English as first language. By doing this, you will improve your speaking abilities and you will know the culture, the traditions and the habits of that country.

There are lots of travel possibilities, for example, you can organize the travel yourself, but also, another good possibility is to travel abroad and made a course of English in another country. You will meet lots of great people, you will made new friends, you will enjoy the country, but also, you will learn English because you will be speaking it all the time.

Now, that you know all the chances, you only have to choose what you want to do and do it! I’m sure that you will have fun and learn a lot at the same time.

Advice on listening.

For me, this is one of the most difficult parts of learning a language. For those students who find it difficult, they don’t have to worry.

First of all, it’s usual that you don’t catch the meaning of all the words you listen, and more if you are learning a second language. Sometimes it’s difficult too in your mother tongue, so don’t worry. You don’t have to be nervous, because then you will catch less words. You have to pay attention to the listening and if you miss some meanings you can repeat the track.

You have to practise the listenings in order to get used to words in English. As an example, you can watch daily TV films or series in English that you like. By doing this, you will get used to the vocabulary and the pronunciation of the words. The first days you can watch the films with subtitles in English and, little by little, you will improve your listening to the point that you won’t need the subtitles.

An aspect related with those listening strategies is that you will also improve your speaking and pronunciation by listening to English films and you will learn new vocabulary.

Advice on writing.

Most of the people prefer writing in order to speaking. They think that writing is easy in comparison with speaking because you have time to think want you want to say or express, you can rewrite what you have done if you think that it’s wrong, you can made elaborated sentences, look to the dictionary and when you write something you know that is permanent.

You also have to be aware that there are different types of writings in English and each one requires concrete aspects. For example, in a formal letter you have to use complex grammar.

You have to take the act of writing as a process because it’s very difficult to write something perfect at the first time, neither in your mother tongue. First of all you have to make notes about what you want to say. When you have enough notes, you can start writing your first draft. It’s not necessary to make it perfect now, because then you will have time to improve and correct the mistakes. You have to look for the words you don’t know to the dictionary. When you have finished your first draft, and correct all the mistakes, you can start rewriting the final composition. You can make as many drafts as you want. You can’t start rewriting the composition if you are not sure that you have put all the information you want.

You can improve your writing by writing a little every day. You can also learn useful expressions used in English or connectors… when you are writing something, it’s very important to use all the knowledge that you have of the language in order to reach the best mark.

Advice on reading.

When someone is learning a new language a very important issue is the reading. The first strategy is to find a book of a topic that you like and which has the level that you have.

Another problem that the learners have is due to the meaning of some words that they are reading. A very useful advice is that you don’t have to look for all the words that you don’t know in the dictionary because then you get stressed and discouraged. Most of these words are deductible by looking the words that are around.

You can also find the meaning of the words you don’t know by guessing. Here, the context of the texts is very important in order to find the correct meaning.

There are 3 more reading strategies called: skimming, scanning and reading for detail.

● Skimming is a strategy which you have to read the text quickly just to understand the main ideas.

● Scanning is a strategy which you have a specific point in your mind and you look for it quickly in the text.

● Reading for detail is a strategy where you read a text very carefully for finding very specific information.

A strategy related with the first one is that you can skim the first page of a novel to see if it is of your level or not. If the page has got more than six key words that you can’t understand or guess the meaning on the page, you will probably find the book hard, and maybe the book has a higher level that you have.

When you want to read at home, you have to made a timetable of the time that you want to spend on reading and you have to be very organized in order not to distract with other things. You can also joint a reading club and share your interests and favourite books with the other members of the club. They will probably help you to find a book that you like. Another great idea is to buy English magazines of something that you like and read them. You will enjoy the text and you will learn new vocabulary.

How to learn English grammar and vocabulary.

In this article I’m going to talk about the most useful ways that students should use to learn English grammar and vocabulary.

When you want to learn vocabulary in English you can use some techniques to memorize the new words, for example, you can use funny pictures or cue cards. Some researchers say that it’s useful the idea of associating the words with the picture.

When you have to learn English grammar you can buy a grammar book in order to check you knowledge about a specific grammar rule. If you don’t want to buy any grammar book, you can also look for a suitable English grammar book on the internet. The principal aim of learning grammar rules is to build the sentences in the correct way in order to communicate effectively. Some people say that it’s not necessary to study grammar if you want to learn a language because when we were young we learn to speak our mother language without having any knowledge of grammar.

You don’t have to expect that English grammar will follow the same patterns as your mother language.

In order to remember the grammar rules and the new vocabulary that you learn in each lesson, you have to revise it at home. The sooner you revise, the most you will remember. Many people think that they have to revise lots of hours if they want to learn lots of things, but this is not true: ten minutes are enough to remember effectively everything you have learn in a day.

Auditory learners power point

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STUDY TIPS

Auditory learners

TEACHING STRATEGIES

Here are some strategies that teachers might take into account if some of their students are auditory learners are the following:

Teachers can use its voice, tapes and records because these students learn best while hearing and speaking.

Do oral tests occasionally.

Let the student sit in front on the class the days that you are going to do blackboard activities and let it sit in the back the days focused on lectures.

It’s a good tool to begin the new units with a brief introduction and when it’s finished is recommended to do a summary of everything.

If the activity they have done is wrong, you have to explain orally how they must solve it.

They can discuss with other students about a topic.

It’s also helpful to create an environment that allows the student to participate actively and ask questions.

LEARNING STRATEGIES

There are also some strategies an auditory student can use in order to learn more effectively:

Students can buy a tape recorder that can be used for recording notes, reminders, brainstorms, etc…

They should also try studying in an environment without any distracting noises and only use music as a reward for a job well done.

Studying out loud and talking to a friend about what you are studying can also help auditory learners study.

Participating in debates, lectures and asking doubts will help an auditory learner understand a subject better.

A method that might be useful in order to memorize a lesson is to repeat them verbally.

Singing a lesson to a favourite tune or song can also be useful when memorizing a lesson.