My question is how I would learn English if it wasn’t my first language. Here is what I would suggest if you want to learn English as a second or foreign language.
Language Goals
First and foremost, you must be clear about what your goals are with a language, for example:
- Do you want to be able to speak to locals when you travel to an English-speaking country for a holiday?
- Do you plan on immigrating to an English-speaking country?
- Do you need a certain score on an English proficiency test such as IELTS or TOEIC?
- Do you have family that speaks English?
- Do you enjoy learning languages and want to learn the lingua franca of the world?
Depending on your goals you would do different things. However, this article will suggest things you can do, depending on your level, to improve your English generally.
You must use English and learn English regularly to see improvement. My recommendation is half an hour of active study a day and 1 hour of using English / exposure a day.
Beginner learners:
Here I would recommend following an English course or textbook of some kind going over the basics of English. This would give you a good foundation in things like vocabulary and grammar and gain more understanding of the language through input or receptive skills. This would allow you to output (writing and speaking) later, which you can choose to do from day 1 or delay until you have acquired more of the language.
I would use flashcard apps such as Anki to drill vocabulary flashcards so you can remember English words more easily.
Reading:
In terms of reading, I would recommend graded readers once you have covered a few hundred words or so. I would read these extensively, looking up words in a dictionary rarely or never because this will slow down your reading flow.
Instead, you can do two forms of reading: intensive and extensive. I would focus more on extensive reading and graded readers become more accessible at the A2 or pre-intermediate stage.
Extensive reading is when you read for pleasure not worrying about knowing every word but rather skipping over words you don’t know and just reading for general meaning and gist.
Intensive reading is the opposite where you would read to understand every word and grammar structure.
One way of making whatever you read more comprehensible is to use the Google Translate camera function which allows you to take a photo with your camera. This will then allow you to translate the text from English into your native language, which also has a text-to-speech function for both languages.
Listening:
Listen to content within your course/textbook audio to familiarise yourself with the language. Also, around A2 start watching Television in English, with subtitles still in your native language.
Writing:
I would start output in the form of writing at around the A2 level. At this level, I recommend writing basic sentences using the vocabulary and grammar you’ve been learning in English. You can either handwrite it or use a keyboard.
You can use various writing prompts you can find online or otherwise to try to write.
Speaking:
Once again, I recommend that you start speaking the language at around the A2 level; I would find a conversation partner whether that is an informal tutor or a language exchange it is up to you. But it’s important to try and start speaking sooner rather than later.
Intermediate learners:
At this level, you will be quite familiar with English already. You will now face the intermediate plateau where you feel like you’re progressing not as fast, and you seem to have hit a wall in this regard. The point here is that despite this feeling as long as you keep using the language regularly you will make progress even if at the time it seems sub-conscious, and you will find that over time progress will stack on top of each other and you will reach fluency / the advanced level.
My suggestion to progress past this level is to continue using the language regularly and to start consuming material designed for native speakers of English rather than for learners of English.
I would also suggest using a course or a textbook at this level to have a clear pathway of what to learn to progress from the intermediate to the advanced levels.
Reading:
I would continue to focus on extensive & and intensive reading. Here, however, graded readers may still come in handy, but the focus should shift to reading material designed for native speakers, especially at the B2 or upper-intermediate level.
Simple novels, web articles and web novels can be recommended here. Novels that are more non-fiction too can be good. Complicated novels that use a lot of flowery language can be read but note that it may be harder to understand.
Listening:
Here you can start listening to podcasts and music of a wide variety designed for native speakers of English. Also, you can watch TV with no subtitles or subtitles in English. This is one of the best ways to spend your dead time, or time when you’re doing other things – you can still get exposure by listening to English.
Writing:
Here, I would choose to try and master typing on a keyboard, as well as improving handwriting in your English. There is a variety of things you can write at this level; including:
- Creative writing
- Blogging
- Social media entries
- Keeping a diary
And so on. One of my favourites is creative writing as it will stretch and challenge you, especially in your vocabulary usage.
Speaking:
Keep speaking and bring topics to your exchange and start talking about more abstract and complicated topics such as the environment, social welfare etc, so you can grow and stretch your use of vocabulary.
Advanced Learners:
At this level, you will be perceived to be “fluent” and can even start using the language professionally such as in teaching or translation/interpreter. You will improve even more at this level if you want to continue to improve but now you will continue to put in work but have diminishing returns where your perceived rate of improvement will be less and less.
This is because at this level you will have learnt the most common words. The more technical and rarer terms will be learnt at this level which is present not as much in everyday conversation.
You can continue to use a course or a book to learn but the main thing here is to continue using the language regularly to improve.
Reading:
Intermediate level plus feel free to add more words to SRS flashcards and to do more reading in a range of literature and reading materials. The wider the range the better.
Listening, Writing & Speaking:
Same as intermediate.
Accents:
With learning the IPA and learning the different speech gestures; it is possible to learn and acquire different English accents such as the American or British accent.
Conclusion:
This is my recommendations if you’re trying to learn English. What have you tried so far? Here’s a link to a similar article. Let me know in the comments below.
Eunice Yuan says
I have read this article,thanks Mathew!
According to your suggestions from this article, I’ve done a simple plan to improve my english:
1. Reading ——Read graded reader 20mins/day
2. Listening——Listen to the english podcast on my way to work 30mins/Day
3. Writing——Write a short English diary in the moments of Hellotalk APP 10mins/day
4. Speaking——talk with someone in Hellotalk APP 20mins/day
matthew_mo says
加油!I recommend using a textbook for active study on top of these activities (one aimed at your level, written in Chinese teaching English). Also; listening to English podcast for English learners is highly recommended for you, but otherwise your plan looks great! 繼續努力!