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How to bring up English from B2 to C1 ? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Enrico Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 3735 days ago 162 posts - 207 votes  Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Italian, Spanish, French | Message 17 of 66 12 September 2014 at 3:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you Iguanamon, I have downloaded several episodes of one series, I will give it a try. I've got how it can be
useful for me because yes, I mostly use English for learning something new, I don't read novels, mostly biographies or some useful books from the standpoint of new knowledge. So yes I think I have to listen more to everyday English, I was trying to solve that by watching movies but now I understand that TV series will be more beneficial. Edited by Enrico on 12 September 2014 at 3:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6587 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 18 of 66 12 September 2014 at 3:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
I agree that it's a great idea. But to nitpick a bit, it's not 100 hours but closer to 150 ideally. And 100 books are really 50-page items, so basically 5000 pages. Also just clarifying that "no L1 subtitles" is what iguanamon recommends, not the rule. Given how much your comprehension without subtitles can vary, I'd say you need to vary your strategies too. Decide for each individual case - if it's easier than expected, turn subtitles off, if it's too hard and you're struggling, switch them on. Also, learning the Romance languages should help you with the advanced vocabulary that was borrowed from Latin and French. Edited by Serpent on 12 September 2014 at 3:26pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4999 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 19 of 66 12 September 2014 at 3:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The gap between B2 and C1 is a lot about huge amounts of practice and small pieces being added to your skills here and there.
A few tips: -Yes, the tv series. Without subtitles. Your goal should be to understand without them and there is no better way than just not using them at all from now. Sure, you may have trouble understanding enough during an episode or two but your skills will skyrocket in just one season (a longer season, not a 3 episodes long one). But instead of subtitles, you can improve the learning curve differently. Choose easier tv series first and progress to the more difficult ones. For example, you could begin with Stargate, Friends, Once upon a Time and continue up to Sherlock. Or you may find other things easier/more difficult, so perhaps you should just listen to a few teasers on youtube and chose. -Books. Lots and lots. Again, you can start with easier ones and make your way to others. Get out of your comfort zone, go for genres you don't know much, use en.wikipedia for all your needs etc. -Writing practice. MUDs and other text based pc games are perfect for practice. Try a forum based writing community (either roleplay or creative writing or whatever). For some corrections, use italki or lang8. -Speak to yourself, if you haven't got anyone else for now. Repeat after your favourite movie characters etc. -Catch all the little bugs. Everyone makes an occassional mistake, even the natives. But you should no longer make them often and you should no longer make beginner or intermediate mistakes. -To complete your grammar knowledge, I recommend Murphy's English Grammar in Use and there is an Advanced Grammar in Use by the same publisher (I think Cambridge). English Grammar was enough to prepare me for the CAE. Based on some posts, it looks like a rigorous task. Sure, it is a long path but it is fun! I learn't 95% of my English from 0 to CAE while playing a text based multiplayer game. Books and movies were other 4% and a grammar book 1%. So, there are various options. Do things you enjoy, spend lots of time doing them, don't forget to leave your comfort zone and you should be fine. There is no other foreign language with such a wide range of options. Edited by Cavesa on 12 September 2014 at 3:51pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Enrico Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 3735 days ago 162 posts - 207 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Italian, Spanish, French | Message 20 of 66 12 September 2014 at 4:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
Basically books that I read have 600-1000 pages if it is something technical or 300-600 if it is a biography or something useful for new knowledge on a topic of interests so it is very useful update. I have read very many works of fiction in adolescence so now I'm not interested in them at all. Well maybe it would be interesting to read it all again in the original versions, but most of those novels was written by French authors so it is not so interesting to read it in English. Now I have so many useful things to read and watch so I simply have no time to read novels. I don't even have time to watch everything I need and planned :-) And this despite the fact that I almost do not watch TV. Edited by Enrico on 12 September 2014 at 4:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Enrico Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 3735 days ago 162 posts - 207 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Italian, Spanish, French | Message 21 of 66 12 September 2014 at 4:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Cavesa, first of all thank you for such a detailed answer. There are so many great answers in this topic so now I have
a very good understanding what to do to improve the language.
I was flipping through this book but I thought it is for Intermediate level. Do you mean only Murphy's English Grammar in Use or both books you used to prepare to CAE?
Can you write the name of the game? Edited by Enrico on 12 September 2014 at 4:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 5006 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 22 of 66 12 September 2014 at 5:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
I apologise if this has already been said, but wanted to add that playing a game won't be much help at all if it's not something you enjoy doing. I hope Cavesa corrects me if he disagrees, but the takeway from his advice is that you should keep doing things you already like, but now, you should do them in English. The idea is to immerse yourself in the language. While playing, Cavesa had to communicate with people in realtime. He didn't have time to pause and think. However, this wouldn't work well for someone who wasn't much of a gamer in the first place. Maybe, he likes gardening instead (, a hobby as far removed from gaming I can think of). He should then get books and magazines on gardening in English. Perhaps, join a forum where he can talk about gardening with like minded people. Attend a few seminars that are conducted in the language. You get the picture, don't you? The point I'm trying to make is there's no magic bullet. There are no shortcuts from B2 to C2. None. And it's probably going to take a few years to get there, if you work hard. :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Enrico Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 3735 days ago 162 posts - 207 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Italian, Spanish, French | Message 23 of 66 12 September 2014 at 6:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, I have already been doing that, but there are no TV series or novels among my interests. I have been watching master classes, youtube videos, video courses, language courses for English learners, movies, reading books and articles on interesting topics, writing business letters and here for example. My strongest skill is reading and weakest is speaking, or may be forming sentences while speaking. Edited by Enrico on 12 September 2014 at 6:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 5006 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 24 of 66 12 September 2014 at 9:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
Keep doing what you're doing. Just keep in mind that it will be difficult to make much progress if you confine your input to a particular variety. Just technical videos and books won't work. If you don't like watching TV and reading novels, you need to acquire a taste for them. Fast. Why? Well, because you need to be exposed to the language as it is used everyday by native speakers. A masterclass on youtube may teach many things. But it will probably not teach you how to buy eggs from a convenience store. But a novel might. You'll also get a feel for Anglophone culture that you wouldn't get otherwise. Also, you say you do not want to read novels because you've already read them in your youth. You say these are mostly French works you've read in translation. Why not read books that were written in English? Avoid the critically acclaimed ones. No James Joyce. Not yet. Novels that have a lot of dialogue are what I recommend. Stick to the bestsellers. Sample a few genres. See what you like. Agatha Christie's books are a great place to start. You can try something more contemporary if you want, though. If you like science fiction, try Asimov or Heinlein. The same applies for TV. Scoot over to imdb.com. Check out the popular TV shows. Watch the pilot (first episode) of each TV show that interests you. If you like the pilot, maybe you'll like the show too. Action. Crime. Drama. Soaps. Doesn't matter what. There's a reason people are telling you to watch TV shows without subtitles. Because it works wonders for listening comprehension. It'll be difficult at first, but you'll be thanking us later. Once you finish a book or a TV series, write a short review on lang-8 and pay close attention to the corrections you get. You may also want to work through the workbook Cavesa has recommended. It's very good. You'll have to do a lot of work. But there's no reason why it shouldn't be fun. :) Edited by napoleon on 12 September 2014 at 9:34pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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