Great Language learning habits

Dear language learner, there are many activities you can do to help you to imrove your language and to enjoy your studies. Take a look at the following activities and start doing the ones you like most on a regular basis. I also recommend to combine these habits and see which one of them helps most. Always start with one, and start simple, do not read or do much if you are just beginning, as you do them consistently and become more confident, you can put more pressure on yourself.

Reading Habits for Language Learning. - Reading in English can help a lot to improve your vocabulary, reading compherension and your world view. You can also improve pronunciation and listening if you listen to an audiobook. Here are some suggestions:

1. Find a book or article that is suitable for your level, it should not be too difficult nor too easy, but enough challenging to push you out of your comfort zone.

a) Read and understand more of what you read - for this read daily for 10-15 minutes at least, do not pay attention too much when you see new words, instead try to guess the meaning from the context.

b) Read and improve vocabulary simultaneously for this keep a vocabulary notebook, and write at least one word in every 2-3 pages to learn new words as you read more. For example: if you read a book that contains 50 pages, you should have learnt 20 to 50 new words at the end of the book.

c) Read and improve Speaking, your memory - read one chapter and retell to someone or to yourself aloud what you remember in your own words, this can help you to retain more of what you read and improve fluency in Speaking

d) Listen to audiobooks and improve pronunciation. Listen to an audiobook and follow the speaker, immediately repeat every word or sentence. This can help you to improve how to pronounce words that you don't know and also somehow helps to speak naturally.

Listening habits for Language Learning - Listening on a regular basis can improve not only this receptive skill, but also your speaking skills, and improve your other skills too. Here are some suggestions:

2. Download or subscribe to a platform which helps you to listen to podcasts of various kinds and levels. Do not listen to podcasts that are boring or very difficult, it should not be easy. For example: if your level of English is pre-intermediate, find and listen to podcasts designed for intermediate level. After some time, when you start to understand them easily, listen to podcasts designed for upper-intermediate level students.

a) Listen and explain to improve Listening comprehension, memory, and speaking skills - for this, you should listen to a podcast or an audio in English, then retell it in your own words, compare your version with original version

b) Listen and read This is really good for IELTS candidates.

Listen to the recording again, but this time read questions as you listen. Don’t answer questions, simply pay attention to the features you noticed earlier, and how they relate to different questions. Pay attention to how you know when to move to a new question, and how the questions, and speakers help you stay on track.

c) Listen and write - this can help you to take notes better, follow the speaker and listening overall.

Listen to a short extract and try to write down what you hear. Do this with section 2 and section 4 to practice keeping track. Pause the recording or repeat it as often as necessary. You can do it in 2 ways:

• To test your ability to decode the words you are hearing, write down exactly what you hear, word for word. The benefit of this form of dictation is that it can help you to identify gaps in your own language the words or phrases you miss and od not hear.
• To test your understanding, as you listen, write notes in your own words. As this is what the test questions do, it is good practice for recognizing paraphrase, and will also help train you to keep track in the test.

Writing habits for Language Learning - Writing on a regular basis is not an easy task, many have not developed this habit even in their first language. Before we start, my general advice is Love Writing, and write a lot and increase the amount of your active vocabulary, if you don't write as much as you listen and read, do not expect this skill to get any better. Now let me suggest more specific ones

a) Buy a beautiful copybook and start writing your thoughts, something interesting or important happned in your life on a regular basis. This is not a practice for some exam writing, but helps a lot to improve the quality of your writing and you are more likely to improve your (coherence and 'fluency') at writing.

b) if you are preparing for IELTS, use official materials and learn the writing skills from them. I have recommended the Official Guide, Writing advantage and Key to IELTS writing task 2. Study units thoroughly or improve your writing together with https://ielts-simon.com/ website. Check out the writing task 1 and 2 sections, follow the posts. They can really help

c) Practice with and without time limits, do not be afraid if you have not finished books, just practice writing, practice how to plan, how to write one paragraph, and then two, ultimately you will learn to write fully.

Speaking habits for Language Learning - Speaking is also productive skill, which means you need active vocabulary a lot and consistent practice. Based on your level of English, choose topics that are appropriate for you, and have a conversation with other learners, or speak to yourself. For example: if you are elementary level student, do not talk about complex topics like "what are the effects of globalisation?". Instead, talk about books, music or hobbies. Think outside the box to speak in a unique way. Now let me suggest more specific ideas:

a) Improve the speaking skills - Study the books which I have recommended like Official Guide, and most importantly, make a habit of watching videos from the YouTube channel called "English Speaking Success" on a regular basis and then answer the questions in that video yourself. Select videos based on your interests and needs. While watching, do not just watch passively, but take notes, make it active learning. Then share your work with other learners, if you are alone, just open a group on social media and share there. Having people around you helps you to be more responsible.

b) Just practice speaking whenever and wherever you can, even to yourself. Use a headset to pretend you are talking to someone, and speak in English everywhere, nobody thinks you as crazy person. For example: While walking in the park, I would talk about parks, and how good they are, what people can do and so on.

c) Go to Speaking club, or create one yourself, find speaking partners in social media groups and communicate with them online.

Vocabulary and Gramamr habits for Language Learning - These two skills are key skills, without them no other skill can be improved. So if you are doing something to improve the other skills, but not these two, you don't make much progress. Now time for some specific tips

a) For grammar, choose a grammar textbook suitable for your level and needs. You can start from Essential Grammar in Use for elementary skills or English Grammar in Use for intermediate level students. Make a habit of studying grammar on a regular basis. Check yourself and analyze your mistakes, if you don't understand certain topics, google it or watch animated explanatio from YouTube, or simply ask your teacher for help. But do search yourself first before asking everything from a teacher, become more independent learner.

b) Grammar in Context - Try to speak or write using the grammar rules you have learned. For example: if you have learned how to use Perfect tenses, practice them, but make stories about yourself, this will be interesting and when new grammar rules you have learned changes from passive grammar to active one in practice. Try to also pay attention to grammar when you read or listen something

a) For Vocabulary - choose a vocabulary textbook suitable for your level and needs, you can learn from Vocabulary in Use (it has versions for all levels) or Collocations in Use, or another vocabulary books. Make a habit of studying new vocabulary lessons on a regular basis. Check yourself and always check multiple meanings of a word, its pronunciation and how it is used in different context, its collocations and different word forms.

b) To change the passive vocabulary into active vocabulary you should use it, A LOT. You should usually use the word up to 21 times to be able to use it naturally while speaking or writing. Let's say you have learnt new words on a topic of weather, now talk about weather in your city, country and in general using some of the words you have learnt. If possible, write a short story.

As you have understood if you want to make progress and become a better language learner, you need to take action, and study CONSISTENTLY. Consistency is the key to Success. In addition, you should be patient, thankful and revise once a week what you have learnt. Before you start, think about it, which one habit you want to start first? When you do it easily, then add another one, do not overdo or try all at once. Start simple and easy, but be consistent in your efforts.

This list of activities can be updated and illustrated, but I encourage you all to share your progress in our group on Telegram Messenger, link is @betterielts.