Every day here at Online
English Skills we receive lots of questions from English learners. Some
of the most frequently asked questions are;
How can I learn English faster?
Is there a way to learn English quickly?
So,
I decided to create this blog post around these frequently asked
questions. My answer is that there are certainly ways that you can speed
up language learning. There are proven techniques that you can apply to
you learning, that will greatly increase the speed on which you
progress.
Now as you know English is ‘classed’ as difficult language to learn. I have to say that this is a belief system, and it is also a limiting belief, which will stop you from acquiring the language quickly. I talked more about limiting beliefs and how they can stop you from making progress in my previous blog posts. Now, am I saying that you can learn English in six months? I’m not sure. I think that in six months you can reach an intermediate level by studying and immersing yourself in the language. But, I don’t think you can reach fluency in such a short space of time. However, there are ways in which you can accelerate your learning. There are even a couple of videos from TEDx that teach you these techniques. I am going to talk about some of them in this post.
We are going to look at two crucial parts that you can use to increase your capacity to learn. The first area we are going to look at is the mental side of learning and how it drastically affects the way you learn. The second area is the practical side of learning. The physical exercises, activities, and techniques. Mental side The mental side of learning is equally important as the practical side. Without improving the mental side, you will find it difficult, if not impossible to improve the practical side. It’s worth remembering that they come as a pair. So, what things do you need to do or change about your mental side in order to learn faster?
1. Change your beliefs.
Your beliefs determine your success. You need to adopt the belief that you can make huge progress in learning English. If you constantly think that it takes a lifetime to master English, then you will find that it takes a long time. I talked more about how to eliminate your negative beliefs in a previous post. So, the key is to believe in your ability to learn grammar tenses easily and quickly, also your ability or learn and remember new vocabulary faster and easier.
2. Find ways to keep motivated.
Motivation is what keeps you excited about learning English. Without motivation, you will never feel like learning and practising English. You need to find things that keep you motivated to learn. Some great ways to do this are;
- Set clear achievable goals and objectives.
- Have ambition to use English effectively.
- Choose meaningful materials that interest you to practice with.
- Review your progress constantly.
- Use English to help others
- Find a study friend.
3. Find confidence in your ability to learn.
Have
you ever wondered why confident people always seem to achieve great
results in almost everything they do? The reason for this is that they
are comfortable with their ability to do certain things, which makes it
easier for them to achieve certain tasks better than someone who is
slightly less confident. Now you may not be the most confident person in
the world but you can do things that will help you to develop more
confidence. Here’s a list of things you can do to boost your confidence.
- Be as positive as you can about your abilities.
- Don’t be afraid of making mistakes
- Focus on what you want, not what you don’t want.
- Remember how far you’ve come.
Remember that you need to improve in these three areas so that you achieve maximum results from the practical exercises I am going to share next. Practical side The practical aspect of learning is the physical exercises that you do when you learn English. You may have heard that English is a practical skill, like football. You cannot expect to be any good at English if you never practise and only read or study books.
1. Practise what you have learned.
If you spend your time reading and studying and not practising what you learn then it will take a long time to achieve results. Like everything in life, you must practise to get better at something. Make time for your English. You must do some type of practise each day. This is the most important piece of advice. If you only spend once a week practising English then it’s going to take a long time to reach a high level of English.
2. Listen a lot.
Put yourself in the situation where you are listening to lots of English. Listen to all sorts of English material for example, podcasts, videos, radio shows, audiobooks, there is no end to the material you can listen to online. By doing this you will be listening to rhythms and patterns of the spoken language. You will notice how words, phrases and sentences are pronounced. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand most of what you listen to. It is still being recorded in your subconscious mind.
3. Learn language in chunks/ phrases.
If you learned only single words, it’d take you forever to become efficient in English. One easy way to learn faster is to learn the language in chunks. This type of learning is known as ‘chunking’. If you listen to English it is made up of combinations of langue chunks. If you learn these chunks which are phrases and practise mixing them together you will be able to create other sentences and structures.
4. Make English relevant to you and your interests
In order for us to learn something and remember it, it must be relevant to us. If we try to learn things that are not relevant to us we find it difficult to remember. Find things that you like in English to study. If you like motor racing read and listen to English material around this topic. If you like cooking watch videos on cooking certain dishes. Anything that you like or have interest in do it in English.
If you enjoy talking about topics that interest you, we can provide speaking classes around your topic of interest. Talk with a native teacher and work towards improving your spoken English. Learn more about our speaking classes here If you found this post useful please share it and give it a like.