Learning English is fun, but it can also be challenging at times. It’s these times when your motivation can be at its lowest. Many English students reach a point, where they see little or no improvement and can feel like they are getting nowhere. So, I would like to share five ways to help you keep super motivated when learning English.
1. Set clear achievable goals and objectives.
Having a goal and knowing what you need to do to achieve it, is a great way to keep motivated. It’s really important to have goals that motivate you as it helps you to focus on what you want to achieve. Think about what you would like to achieve and then write it down and set a ‘deadline’ a date when you want to have accomplished your goal. You will be amazed at the results.
2. Choose meaningful materials that interest you to practice with
General textbooks can be a little boring, as they are too focused on the language itself and not what you can do with it. Use your knowledge and skills of the language as a tool to read about or listen to materials that are of interest to you. It is important to choose materials that you find easy, but then again choose materials that will challenge you. The key is to find the right balance to ensure you don’t get bored and lose your motivation
3. Review your progress.
An
excellent way to stay motivated is to review your progress. A good way
to do this is to record or video yourself speaking in English. You will
at first probably not notice much of an improvement, but then later on,
as you continue to record yourself you will notice how much of an
improvement you have actually made. This will then help you to realise
that progress happens over a period of time and help you stay motivated
It
can be useful to think of learning English as an ongoing process in
which you advance your understanding step by step. See your learning as a
spiral – as you follow the spiral you realise that the tasks you once
had difficulty with are now clear, and you want to move on to take new
tasks and think them through.
4. Have a study friend.
Having
a study buddy means you can motivate each other and make the learning
experience a lot more fun. You can agree on mutual goals and come up
with a reward scheme when you both reach each goal. You study buddy may
be able to teach you concepts that you don’t understand as well as new
research skills and methods. Also, explaining concepts to someone else
is a great learning method in itself as it allows you to consolidate
what you have learnt. Sharing your strengths and complementing each
other’s weaknesses will improve the overall outcome for both of you and
most importantly keep you motivated.
5. Use English to help others
Do
you remember when you first started learning the language? Everything
seemed difficult, didn’t it? Many people are just starting their English
learning journey and are in that situation that you once were. My last
tip to keep you super motivated is to use the English you know to help
others who have difficulties. There are hundreds of groups online where
people are asking questions about the English language. If you know the
answer, why not help them by explaining it to them? This is a really
nice way to keep you motivated to continue learning English as you are
actually helping others and that’s a great feeling.
There you have it, 5 ways to stay SUPER motivated – use these points and start advancing your English.
Tell us, what do you do to stay motivated?