English Learning Tips

Here are a number of English learning tips to help you or your class improve your English. Choose a few English learning tips to get started today!

English Learning Tips

Ask yourself weekly: What do I want to learn this week?

Asking yourself this question every week will help you stop and think for a moment about what is most important to you. It is easy to focus only on the current unit, grammar exercise, etc. If you take a moment to stop and set a goal for yourself every week, you will notice the progress you are making and, in turn, become more inspired by how quickly you are learning English! You will be surprised at how this feeling of success will motivate you to learn even more English.

More on how to improve your general approach to learning English

Quickly review important new information shortly before going to bed.

Research has shown that our brains process information that is fresh in our brains while we sleep. By shortly (this means very quickly - just a glance at what you are working on at the moment) going over some exercise, reading, etc. before you go to sleep, your brain will work away on this information while you sleep!

Other ideas on how your brain works

While doing exercises and alone at home or in your room, speak English aloud.

Connect the muscles of your face to the information in your head. Just as understanding the basics of tennis does not make you a great tennis player, understanding grammar rules does not mean you can automatically speak English well. You need to practice the act of speaking often. Speaking by yourself at home and reading the exercises you are doing will help connect your brain to your facial muscles and improve pronunciation and make your knowledge active.

More on improving your English speaking/pronunciation abilities

Do five to ten minutes of listening at least four times a week.

In the past, I decided I needed to get fit and went jogging - usually three or four miles. Well, after not having done anything for many months, those three or four miles really hurt! Needles to say, I did not go jogging for another few months!

Learning to understand spoken English well is very similar. If you decide that you going to work hard and listen for two hours, chances are that you will not do extra listening exercises any time soon. If, on the other hand, you start off slowly and listen often, it will be easier to develop the habit of listening to English on a regular basis.

More on improving your listening skills

Look for situations in which you must speak / read / listen to English

This is probably the most important tip. You need to use English in a "real world" situation. Learning English in a classroom is important, but putting your English knowledge into practice in real situations will improve your fluency in speaking English. If you do not know of any "real life" situation, create new ones for yourself by using the Internet to listen to news, write English responses in forums, exchange emails in English with email pals, etc.

More on English on the Internet

Teaching Tips

Keep a folder of great lessons ready to go at a moment's notice.

This is self-explanatory. If something works, make sure to take the time to set it aside in a special folder for future use. You will be very thankful that you took an extra two minutes to make an extra photocopy for future use!

Find some great activities in the lesson plan library

Take note of the most common student mistakes made during an exercise and correct students after the activity has taken place.

Most ESL EFL classes have improved communication skills as a top priority. When a teacher corrects every mistake, students become hesitant when speaking because they are afraid of being corrected. You can give them more confidence by correcting them after the fact. Most mistakes made are repeated by a number of students and are of a similar nature. By correcting students after the exercise, you help increase communicative fluency by encouraging a natural flow of conversation that would otherwise be interrupted by frequent correction. Correcting students after the exercise also helps them to focus on the most common mistakes which is useful to all students, not just the student who has made a particular mistake.

More on choosing your class materials and approach

Use music in class.

Music can be incredibly helpful in setting the mood, helping students concentrate, or just improving the spirits of students before they get down to work. Put a recording on before students arrive and watch how students leave their cares behind them as they get ready to concentrate on the learning tasks ahead. Music provides a wonderful way of refocusing and relaxing at the same time.

More on using music in your classroom

Get your students more physically involved in the lesson.

Sitting at a desk for a long time can be incredibly boring and cause students to lose attention. Get your students up and walking about, even for just a few moments, and you will be surprised at how the energy level rises in the classroom. Not only do these short breaks help students refocus their energies, but they also improve learning by providing a physical link to the learning taking place at that moment.

More on getting students physically involved with some "Brain Gym" exercises

Focus on making standard activities more communicative.

When all is said and done, most students are learning English in order to be able to communicate in English. Each exercise needs to have a communicative aspect somehow connected to it to take the knowledge acquired from passive to active. If you are working on conjugation exercises, get students to ask each other questions about their past experiences using the tenses concerned. If students are working on a reading comprehension, take the time to ask their opinions on what they have read, how what they have read applies to their own lives, etc.

More on creating a lesson plan incorporating a variety of essential language skills