How to Improve your English

Click here for general tips on how to be a good learner

Speaking

•Listen to English and try to imitate the sounds & intonation.

•Buy books with a Cd.

•Make a list of frequently used words that you finddifficultto pronounce and ask someone who speaks the language well

•Read aloud in English for 15-20minutes every day.

•Record your own voice and listen for pronunciation mistakes.

•Be patient.

•Focus on removing the mother tongue influence (Spanglish!!!)

• Sing karaoke in English. (

•Thousands of topics to talk about. And even more!

•BBC “Better speaking”

•Practice your speaking online through one of these programmes:Skype,GoogleTalk, iVisit, PalTalk, MSN Web Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger,. You don’t need to meet in person, you can be at home and talk daily with your friends or classmates.

•If you are not familiar with technology, then meet in person with classmates or friends and make it a habit. Meet every week and speak about the topics we see in class.

Reading:

•Be realistic about your reading level.

•Buy graded readers (for example Penguin adapted books classified into levels)

•Read books with lots of dialogue.

•Read English language entertainment guides, newspapers, magazines, etc)

•Check our wiki for reading online (

•Read a book you've already read or watch a movie you have already watched previously in Spanish. You’ll find it much easier.

Advantages of reading:

•Learning Vocabulary In Context

•A Model For Writing

•Seeing "Correctly Structured" English

•Personal Interest

•Working at your own speed

Some British newspapers:

•The Telegraph

•The Times

•The Independent

•The Guardian

•The Sunday Times

Writing:

•Write a dairy

•Write a news diary.

•Write a film, music, hotel or book review.

•Write fiction in English, e.g. short stories.

•E-mail your friends in English.

•Get some new ideas for your writing in this site:

•For even more ideas: try this other site:

•Take notes of your mistakes so that you stop repeating the errors again

•Be familiar with common errors

•Be familiar with punctuation

•READ A LOT!!!! (That’s the only way to improve your writing. The saying is: “ A good reader makes a good writer”)

Listening:

•Get used to the natural rhythm and tone of English speech

•Listen to English everyday

•Listen to your textbook transcripts

•Listen to books with Cd (graded readers with audio)

•Listen to radio stations

•Listen to Vaughan radio:

•Listen to your favourite music and do activities with the lyrics: sing karaoke style and record yourself:

•Check our wiki for extra practice

•Watch series online in English:

Vocabulary:

•Use self-reference vocabulary books and do activities every day.

•Go through your vocabulary notes several times a week

•Classify your vocabulary into categories (weather, transport, family etc)

•Convert your vocabulary notes to English only. (No Spanish translation)

•Every time you speak or write in English, try to use new vocabulary. It’s the only way to remember new words and expressions.

•Make a flashcard box: on small pieces of paper, write a new word that you have just learned and write the definition in English on the other side of the paper. Place it in the box. When you have enough words in the box, try to test yourself by picking some flashcards everyday. If you don’t remember a word, put it back in the box. If you guess it right, take it out of the box.

Pronunciation:

•Learn and use the phonemic chart.

•Check our wiki for more practice

•Imitate, imitate, imitate!!!! Repeat, repeat, repeat until it’s perfect!!!!