Learning English as a second language can be tricky and a challenging task. Do you want to know why learning English is so important? English is a universal language that goes beyond national barriers and is spoken in many countries across the globe. Therefore, you should not be surprised if you are required to master the English language in order to communicate fluently with the wider community and diverse people in an ever-changing world. However, in reality, there are still many people who are confused to learn or improve their English language skills. Everyone usually has difficulty in learning a foreign language. There are four basic skills that need to be developed to complete communication in a certain language: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. If you are wondering how to improve your English, check out some of our best tips to help you accelerate your 4 language skills.
- Listening.
According to UNESCO’s annual report, listening skills are essential for learning to acquire insight and information and to achieve success in communication. By getting used to listening, we can practice and review a lot of English usage including vocabulary, grammatical structure, accent, intonation, and interpretability. Don’t worry; to make your practice not so boring you can start with the daily habit, try listening to music. This step is considered effective to improve English skills because you will not feel saturated, unfocused, and unpleasant. When we listen to music, our sense of hearing, brain, and memory will feel relaxed, excited, and can boost our mood so that our left brain will focus on some rhythms and language in it. There are numerous complementary tools for language learning with music, such as Spotify, Joox, and Google Play Music. To make you more understand how listening to music can improve your English skill, here is an additional YouTube video link as reference for you:
https://www.abc.net.au/education/learn-english/five-ways-to-improve-your-english-by-yourself/9085604
And this is additional information about how to improve your listening skill:
How to improve your listening skills
Don’t worry if music is not a fun thing for you to improve your English. Another step that you can do is to learn English by watching movies, news, entertainment, or listening to the radio. Everyone has their favorite movie, for example, several movies from Marvel. By watching movies, the memory in our brain will record all the activities and scenes contained in it, also the dialogue that also occurs.
However, we also need to use the new habit of the way we watch movies; be trying not to use subtitles. By not using subtitles, we will focus more on the storyline in the movie and we will use logic to answer what they say and do in each scene. That way, we will get used to listening to conversations between two or more people using English and hone our imagination skills in new pronunciation and vocabulary.
The next is watching the news. Have you ever felt very curious or surprised at what news is being presented by news anchors on television? Of course. News is an important event that happens when it is reported and can add to our insight. Therefore, every day we must listen to the news on television or stream news channel online just to find out the events that are happening around us today. However, if you want to practice your English skills by watching the news you need to choose certain television stations that present news using English or news that is worldwide including BBC News, France24, Vice, National Geographic, Fox, etc. Watching is a flexible way for you because news is a never-ending resource and sometimes anchors or journalists tend to enunciate clearly which is ideal for everyone. Let’s have practiced by watching this video on YouTube.
Learn English With News | Learning English With CBS News
- Speaking
Speaking can be done anywhere and anytime. By learning to speak, you can improve your skills in English. It can also improve our public speaking skills which will be very useful, especially in public relations. You can start by trying to speak to yourself in front of the mirror. With that, your pronunciation will sound better and more fluent. Then, you can talk to family or friends in English. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes or ashamed, you will know how to pronounce the words correctly through mistakes. That error will be an experience that will lead you to success.
For those who like online games, you can activate voice chat and talk to friends while playing games so that your speaking skills are growing. You can try making friends with people from abroad so you can learn to speak while playing games in English. If you are a student, try to be more active in speaking in class when there is a discussion session. That will make you get used to speaking and also expressing your opinion. Indirectly it can facilitate our minds to process sentences in the brain and then express them. You can follow some tips to increase your speaking skill, here is the links:
https://professional.dce.harvard.edu/blog/10-tips-for-improving-your-public-speaking-skills/
https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/exams/speaking-exams/speaking-tips
- Reading
Reading is a wonderful way to learn a new language and to improve our vocabulary. However, reading comprehension might be one of the most difficult skills to master when English is not your mother tongue. Before you start reading, bear in mind to take some time out to prepare, but it is well worth it. First of all, is by determining your reading level and vocabulary size. Understanding your reading level will certainly help you to find good reading materials or choose an appropriate book to read, as well as, to keep track of your progress. Against this backdrop, it is best to determine what your reading level is before finding the book or other reading materials you want to read. There are many different ways to determine your reading level. One of the methods for assessing reading level is taking an online test to help find your reading level, for example, the Oxford Graded Readers Level Test.
With the Oxford Graded Readers Level Test, you can find your reading level with its interactive online test and you may find it useful to help you check that you are reading the books most suited to your language level and requirements. Not to mention, try to read as much as you can without getting overwhelmed to improve your reading level, and try to challenge yourself with what you read. After you finish reading, don’t forget to give yourself a few minutes to think about what you just read. How much did you understand? Try to summarize what you read.
As fast as technology changes today, the vast majority of people are more glued to their technological devices than ever. Then why not make the most of your devices by finding ways to help you learn the English language? These technological advancements are right at your fingertips and can help you advance in your English learning. Simply by changing the language on your phone or other devices to English and have a look at some websites that offer relatively short articles or that describe your area of interest while giving you reading practice in English.
- Writing
Writing is the part where you can express with English words towards a written work. The written work can later be used as a project that you can publish for the public to read. You could write essays, journals, even your own articles in English that you have learned before. Besides being able to deepen your English skills, you will also get other benefits such as the public will visit your writing projects. Remember to not plagiarize other people’s work. Try to make your work in accordance with your English skills and thoughts, so that the written work can be used as a benchmark for your English skills. If you are not ready to publish your writings, you can write your daily diary in English, and indirectly you have deepened your reading and writing skills. Here is the link that can help you to write the essay easily.
How to Write an Essay: 4 Minute Step-by-step Guide | Scribbr 🎓
Also, check the other video about how to write English Diary
English diary- how to write English diary, personal journal (English subtitles)
Besides being able to create your own writings, you can also post comments using your English words in English content such as foreign influencers on various social media they use. Not only that, you can put a comment on one of the YouTube videos with whatever content you like. This will deepen your writing skills and your courage to express your opinion in public. But remember, stay within a range that does not contain racism and discrimination because you have an opinion where other people will see your comments.
And most importantly, practice is key when it comes to learning. Try to put a few of these tips into daily practice and do this again and again till it gets struck in your mind. Don’t be afraid! In order to improve your English skills, you must keep practicing more each day and stay focused on your priorities. Not to mention, you should track your progress regularly as it is necessary to keep yourself on the right track to reach your learning goals. To sum up, working through practice activities are essential to build your vocabulary and develop your English communication skills. The more proficient you are, the better you can express yourself. Keep up the good work!