Hello everybody,
I believe that anyone has useful informations and experiences has to share them with other people, also it is good that we have this space which gives us the possibility to do that. Most lerners of English can not speak fast, they translate when they want to speak, they are worry about the grammar faults and prononciation. Generally, they do not feel relax when they start speaking. So, how can you avoid this: Firstly, do not spend a long time reading and memorizing grammar rules. when you spend a long time with the grammar books, you will think like a computer and you will think slowly. Secondly, look for a funny short stories which are easy to understand and memorize. Thirdly, try to read loudly, not very loud, try to enjoy with your speaking.
do you know who are the best learners? children are the fast and the best learners. why? because they do not care about the grammar rules when the start speaking. they do not read grammar books, here i am talking about Canadian children,American,Australian,British…, when they are too young, they watch carton programmes, they read easy stories, they learn by their ears; they listen to their parnets and brothers. You have to hear English at least 2 hours daily.
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Your friend:
Nour.
I appreciate your approach. Your write up is all encompassing. There are four areas in learning English-reading, writing, listening and speaking. The first two are easily possible for all, including sincere non-natives who learn English. But listening and speaking come with inter-action and your capacity to speak fast or slow and to listen and understand what is spoken,(normal interaction, speech and films) are things that depend on where you live and at what age you get the chance to speak that language. I think you should read some Noam Chomsky and get some idea about transformational generative grammar.(But before all that try to polish your grammar by doing some of the exercises found here.)
nanu.nana
I must subjoin If you want to speak with British accent, you should listen only British films and news. If you want to speak with american pronunciation try to spent time with Americans films accordingly. What about me ? I always try to listen news, watch films, when I’m go to work by metro I’m listen some news from BBC, when I have a free time I do grammar exercises which you can find on this site. But I dont know how improve my vocabulary. I know a lot of words but I dont know how they use.
To use words one has to read a lot. You try to read at least a few pages a day - some interesting thing, a story, a comic book, a news item or news on films and fashion. Just read anything and the writing will improve automatically and you will be using new and correct words.
Hi Tilt
How you retain and expand your vocabulary is a very hard task which requires discipline.
I would suggest looking at your system of recording vocabulary.
How do you write vocabulary down?
How often do you engage with it, or edit it?
It is a good idea to not just have lists, but other ways of recording;
monolingual explanations, pictures, lobster/ crab diagrams, brainstorms as well as categorizing vocabulary.
Writing words down in the ways they are commonly used is also beneficial.
So not just dealing with words but phrases.