How to Learn English
Content
HOW TO LEARN ENGLISH
The ³In-Context´ approach to vocabulary and language acquisition: Vocabulary, beyond the first 100 words, is best learned in context. First try to guess what the word means from the context; then if possible ask the meaning. Finally look it up in the dictionary and record its meaning on an ³in-context´ vocabulary list. You should compose one or two sentences using the new vocabulary to add to your personal 7X7 Memory Mastery Method database. Most people and the current ESL system will tell you to memorize huge word lists. It would be nice to learn all the necessary words like this, wouldn't it? Yes, but it doesn't work. You won't be able to use words you learned in lists, they will never come to your mind quickly enough. All you can do with them, if you¶re lucky, is to get good marks on some ambiguous English language knowledge test. But you can get better marks through learning in context. The intuitive way to grammar: Ask any six year old to conjugate a verb for you and he will stare at you, as if you were a monster from outer space. But the same boy will tell you, ³He eats toast for breakfast´, he won¶t say, ³He eat toast for breakfast. Grammar is best learned by seeing examples and imitating (inferring the rule) until your ear and mind recognize what sounds right and what does not; you will intuitively know the correct form and structure. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to learn the grammar book by heart, and then learn a few pages from the book of vocabulary lists? Bingo, here you are, you have all you need! Sorry, it just doesn't work that way. So how should you learn the language? First you need a good English text, and some basic ³Power Listening¶ sound tracks. Most ESL students, by the time they have decided to come overseas to study English, already have all the books and material necessary for becoming proficient at communicating in English. Most ESL students are more adept at quoting rules of grammar than the average native English speaker would ever want to be. Now the real work of learning English must begin« forget the rules and learn to allow the mind to fill in the correct propositions, phrasal verbs and conjugate intuitively. Learn through ³thought pattern sound recognition´, or mental images using all five senses and your feelings´ like one does when learning their native language. How should you study? There is nothing better than regular or consistent study: you can study as little as half an hour a day, but you should not stop to take breaks for extended periods of time. Why? Because you lose the thread, you won¶t remember what you have learned in the preceding lessons sufficiently to build another layer. Weak foundations topple buildings. The best way is to study is from 1 to 2 hours at a time, maybe with a short pause in the middle. What to do if you stop in the middle Most people will, during the course of their study, stop for a few day or even a few months, for all kind of reasons. So, if it happens to you, what should you do to begin again? Take your book and begin at the last lesson you studied, and from there go to the previous lesson. Look at the material, do an exercise. If you do not master it sufficiently, go to the lesson before and do the same self test until you reach a lesson you master well. Then redo completely every lesson where you failed this little test. Again, there is no one to watch you but if you think you can go on without knowing well every lesson you studied, you are wrong. Better lose a few days to repetition than to see after 2 weeks that you are not confident in your skills and risk abandoning everything.
Nice you've mastered the basic structure and are capable of reading. Your next steps should be to read and listening. Indeed, you must read, and read authentic material, not tracts you find in your textbook. Reading will challenge your knowledge, increase your vocabulary and make you want to learn more. And you'll know precisely where you are in the learning of this language, at least from the passive side (reading/understanding). Finding something to read or listen to Once you're started in the language, you need some stimulation, that is, you need to create some situations in which you want to use the language. Buy books, read newspapers, watch TV, go to the movies, listen to the radio, (the internet is an endless source of material in all forms) all of this in your foreign language. If you can, try to meet people from English speaking countries. Reading in English Now that you have your selected English material you need the right approach Every time you find a word you don't understand, record it on your ³In-Context´ vocabulary list; look it up in the dictionary and the create two or three sentences using it; sentence that you can practice in a real conversation. You can miss some words if there are too many but if you look them up and don't record them, you can bet your grandmother that the next time they show up in the text you will have to search them again. And while you're at it, you can bet your grandfather that they will show up again. This is a strange law, but useful when you think about it: words you find in an article have a tendency to be used again in the same article, or book. And it's also true for newspapers. Once you've looked up and written words like event, occurred, investigation, president, declared, etc... , you can read most newspaper articles. But remember that you have to record them unless you want to look them up every time. I can tell you as at first I did not record the words I encountered, and then these words had the nasty habit of coming to my mind after I looked them up for the second time "Ah now I remember what it meant"-too late. So if already you made the effort of looking them up, record them on your personal ³In-Context´ vocabulary list. And remember to use flash cards, because they are so superior and much more convenient to use once you started. If you just make a list you will maybe look at it a couple of times and then forget it. Don't worry about grammar, it's not a thing to be learned before, but after if ever. First read a lot, and when you will hear English phrases in your head under the shower, then you can open the grammar book again and see if it's more meaningful. At the same time you should go on with your method (books and tapes), working regularly. Toward the end of the method, you should be at the advanced learning stage, a topic for later discussion. The 3000 of the most common words in English make up 95% of normal speech. Once you master these words, you have a vocabulary that is more than sufficient for effective business communication and all general conversations. You should NOT be happy with being understood. It's easy to be understood and you will not command respect from the people you talk to if you speak to them in what will look to them like ESL English. Instead, you should always try to make your pronunciation perfect, including intonations and modulation (it's very difficult in English, very irregular). When you make a mistake, insist on being corrected and record the correct phrase for your 7 by 7 practice. How not to forget the language you learned: You must organize your life so that chances to practice your language come by themselves: travels, newspapers, setting your TV on foreign channels as default, marrying a native English speaker etc.
The ³In-Context´ approach to vocabulary and language acquisition: Vocabulary, beyond the first 100 words, is best learned in context. First try to guess what the word means from the context; then if possible ask the meaning. Finally look it up in the dictionary and record its meaning on an ³in-context´ vocabulary list. You should compose one or two sentences using the new vocabulary to add to your personal 7X7 Memory Mastery Method database. Most people and the current ESL system will tell you to memorize huge word lists. It would be nice to learn all the necessary words like this, wouldn't it? Yes, but it doesn't work. You won't be able to use words you learned in lists, they will never come to your mind quickly enough. All you can do with them, if you¶re lucky, is to get good marks on some ambiguous English language knowledge test. But you can get better marks through learning in context. The intuitive way to grammar: Ask any six year old to conjugate a verb for you and he will stare at you, as if you were a monster from outer space. But the same boy will tell you, ³He eats toast for breakfast´, he won¶t say, ³He eat toast for breakfast. Grammar is best learned by seeing examples and imitating (inferring the rule) until your ear and mind recognize what sounds right and what does not; you will intuitively know the correct form and structure. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to learn the grammar book by heart, and then learn a few pages from the book of vocabulary lists? Bingo, here you are, you have all you need! Sorry, it just doesn't work that way. So how should you learn the language? First you need a good English text, and some basic ³Power Listening¶ sound tracks. Most ESL students, by the time they have decided to come overseas to study English, already have all the books and material necessary for becoming proficient at communicating in English. Most ESL students are more adept at quoting rules of grammar than the average native English speaker would ever want to be. Now the real work of learning English must begin« forget the rules and learn to allow the mind to fill in the correct propositions, phrasal verbs and conjugate intuitively. Learn through ³thought pattern sound recognition´, or mental images using all five senses and your feelings´ like one does when learning their native language. How should you study? There is nothing better than regular or consistent study: you can study as little as half an hour a day, but you should not stop to take breaks for extended periods of time. Why? Because you lose the thread, you won¶t remember what you have learned in the preceding lessons sufficiently to build another layer. Weak foundations topple buildings. The best way is to study is from 1 to 2 hours at a time, maybe with a short pause in the middle. What to do if you stop in the middle Most people will, during the course of their study, stop for a few day or even a few months, for all kind of reasons. So, if it happens to you, what should you do to begin again? Take your book and begin at the last lesson you studied, and from there go to the previous lesson. Look at the material, do an exercise. If you do not master it sufficiently, go to the lesson before and do the same self test until you reach a lesson you master well. Then redo completely every lesson where you failed this little test. Again, there is no one to watch you but if you think you can go on without knowing well every lesson you studied, you are wrong. Better lose a few days to repetition than to see after 2 weeks that you are not confident in your skills and risk abandoning everything.
Nice you've mastered the basic structure and are capable of reading. Your next steps should be to read and listening. Indeed, you must read, and read authentic material, not tracts you find in your textbook. Reading will challenge your knowledge, increase your vocabulary and make you want to learn more. And you'll know precisely where you are in the learning of this language, at least from the passive side (reading/understanding). Finding something to read or listen to Once you're started in the language, you need some stimulation, that is, you need to create some situations in which you want to use the language. Buy books, read newspapers, watch TV, go to the movies, listen to the radio, (the internet is an endless source of material in all forms) all of this in your foreign language. If you can, try to meet people from English speaking countries. Reading in English Now that you have your selected English material you need the right approach Every time you find a word you don't understand, record it on your ³In-Context´ vocabulary list; look it up in the dictionary and the create two or three sentences using it; sentence that you can practice in a real conversation. You can miss some words if there are too many but if you look them up and don't record them, you can bet your grandmother that the next time they show up in the text you will have to search them again. And while you're at it, you can bet your grandfather that they will show up again. This is a strange law, but useful when you think about it: words you find in an article have a tendency to be used again in the same article, or book. And it's also true for newspapers. Once you've looked up and written words like event, occurred, investigation, president, declared, etc... , you can read most newspaper articles. But remember that you have to record them unless you want to look them up every time. I can tell you as at first I did not record the words I encountered, and then these words had the nasty habit of coming to my mind after I looked them up for the second time "Ah now I remember what it meant"-too late. So if already you made the effort of looking them up, record them on your personal ³In-Context´ vocabulary list. And remember to use flash cards, because they are so superior and much more convenient to use once you started. If you just make a list you will maybe look at it a couple of times and then forget it. Don't worry about grammar, it's not a thing to be learned before, but after if ever. First read a lot, and when you will hear English phrases in your head under the shower, then you can open the grammar book again and see if it's more meaningful. At the same time you should go on with your method (books and tapes), working regularly. Toward the end of the method, you should be at the advanced learning stage, a topic for later discussion. The 3000 of the most common words in English make up 95% of normal speech. Once you master these words, you have a vocabulary that is more than sufficient for effective business communication and all general conversations. You should NOT be happy with being understood. It's easy to be understood and you will not command respect from the people you talk to if you speak to them in what will look to them like ESL English. Instead, you should always try to make your pronunciation perfect, including intonations and modulation (it's very difficult in English, very irregular). When you make a mistake, insist on being corrected and record the correct phrase for your 7 by 7 practice. How not to forget the language you learned: You must organize your life so that chances to practice your language come by themselves: travels, newspapers, setting your TV on foreign channels as default, marrying a native English speaker etc.
