In my earlier article, I mentioned that motivation is one of the most
important factors in successfully learning a language.
In this article, I would like to talk about another equally important factor:
good learning habits.
Many students complain that they can’t speak English although they’ve been
studying for “over one year”. When asked how many hours they spend every week
studying English, they usually will say, “one hour – in class.” No wonder!
Think about it: one hour a week in a year (with holidays) is about 45-50 hours
of learning. That’s about 2 days’ worth of learning! Do you think your English
will improve much after spending 2 days in an English speaking country?
My point is, if you really want to improve your English, study regularly –
preferably every day! It’s much better to spend 15 minutes a day reviewing
and studying, than to spend 1 hour a week trying to “cram in” as much as you can.
Learning a language, like anything else, requires perseverance and good learning habits.
You need to do a lot more on your own if you want to improve your English.
Here is some of my advice:
- Set aside 15-30 minutes every day to study.
- "Immerse" yourself in English - listen to English news on TV or the radio;
read English magazines and newspapers; write your diary in English; etc.
- Watch English movies - it's a good way to pick up natural, spoken English.
- Practice useful expressions by repeating them to yourself - it's important
that you actually SAY the expressions, not just repeating them "in your head".
- Talk to yourself in English.
- Be organized. Those notes that you took in class mean nothing if you don't organize
and review them.
- Use different strategies to memorize new words and expressions.
The last two points (#6 and #7) are particularly important, so I will talk more about these
two points in my next articles.
