So now you are reviewing your grammar and recognising your errors. You are talking to yourself and your neighbours think you’re mad! What have you been doing for the last three months? You have been laying the foundations for genuine change in your English. If you missed our first installment, here it is Months 1-3 – Improving your English Quickly – A 6 Month Strategy.
Breaking bad habits through error correction. Learning to recognise and correct your own English is crucial and must never stop. This is the one skill from the last three months you must definitely take with you into the next three months.
What is next? Next you need to need to work on making your passive English active. You have been talking to yourself to exercise your English. This too can continue into the next three months and beyond, but it is not real life. How do you make the transition into the real world. Easy! Follow this plan:
Get your online fix in English
We love the internet. We feast on its content daily like starved vultures, waiting for the next fix. Look at a couple of your online habits. The news is just one great example. To be understanding this blog your English is of a high level. Therefore you can read the news online in English instead of your mother tongue.
It doesn’t mean you should never visit your favourite online news sites from your native country but for international news, at least 50% of what you read can be in English. Although it may be a struggle at first, why do this?
- Your lexis with hugely improve.
- Your grammatical accuracy will hugely improve.
- Your natural English (phrasal verbs, idioms etc) will hugely improve.
The same goes for ANY online site. If you are into science, technology, the arts to name but a few, find an English online equivalent to be equally passionate about. How lucky are we that we have all this FREE English language material at our fingertips!?
If you need any advice on which English language websites may match your interests, EMAIL US and we’ll advise!
Don’t forget about listening skills
We all love American movies. They dominate cinemas worldwide. Go see them! They’re in English! Don’t watch dubbed films. They’re sinful. They’re not the real actors’ voices – it’s crazy! Besides, you don’t need to! You understand English and although you will miss some of the subtleties of the language, you will understand the overall plot and your English will improve at the same time.
Do you find it difficult to sleep at night? Are you bored when sitting in a traffic jam daily? Listen to English language podcasts. The BBC is amazing for this.
You’ll find every conceivable topic covered and it’s real English with regional accents from both the UK and abroad. It will challenge and inspire you! You won’t only be improving your English but increasing your general knowledge. They’re there. They’re free. DO IT!
Speak to a native
We are an online Skype English language school so it goes without saying we would recommend speaking regularly with one of our CELTA trained native teachers. Rapid improvement is made this way. Just check out our testimonials to see. If you don’t have the time or finances for lessons. Find an English person online to ‘language swap’.
There are many sites online which offer this. If you want serious improvement though, you need error correction and that is where highly trained native English language teachers come into their own. We strongly recommend having a trial lesson. It costs £1 and you won’t believe what you’ve been missing! We work around your schedules so you’re the boss! 😉
Get to know your English – Record yourself!
Think you know your English? Think you really know your English? Try recording yourself while talking to yourself. At Brown Cow English we record lessons too so you can hear yourself and review your error corrections. In doing so, you will start to understand your English intimately, thus reinforcing your active English.
You will hear you weaknesses and strengths. You will know what to work on and what ROCKS! It’s quite a scary thing to do at first. No-one likes hearing their own English – not even English language teachers! But it will make you aware of your English, and that really is the key. If you don’t actively think about what you’re actually saying and how you could improve things, you’ll always remain at the same level with the same habitual errors.
Good luck – we’re here for you!
