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English: good to perfect - How? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| the96Kai Newbie Germany youtube.com/the96kai Joined 4035 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English | Message 1 of 15 04 May 2013 at 4:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hi guys,
I hope that's the right forum, if not sorry! This is a very important topic for me and I would be so thankful for every help. First of all 'my story': I learned the basic English at school. It helped me a lot and I thought that I made progress each and every lesson. What also helped me was my interest in American Football and Basketball - for many years I have watched games and shows from the United States, so I know all phrases etc. Now I'm 17 years old, next year I'll graduate. I'm the best in my class, writing an A+ nearly always in English. BUT there's one problem: Since about one year it has been way too easy for me. We learn so easy things. Normally this would be good, but I want my English to be perfect. So, to cut a long story short: How do I get it done to make my English go from good to perfect? I understand it perfectly, but the words don't come to my mind if I write or speak. When I speak I'm also nervous, because of my inexperience in doing that. This just makes me crazy, as, like I said, the problem is not that I don't know the words or that I don't know what they mean, it's that I'm not able to use them myself. Do you have any tips? Please! :) Thanks in advance! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6714 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes  5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 2 of 15 04 May 2013 at 4:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Just a couple of ideas:
- browsing through this forum - you'll find here more learning ideas and inspiration you could ever imagine. - looking for possibilities to speak as much English as possible (as you know, you need more experience to learn how to deal with stress) - you might want to do language exchange with English native speakers. Self-talk and writing might also be helpful, even if no one gives you any feedback. For writing, you can also use lang-8.com. - using more/other native media (movies, TV, books, newspapers, the Internet - look for a great variety of topics) - like you said, you've learned many expressions just by watching American football and basketball games. Now you have to look for other content, too, get out of your comfort zone and look for something challenging. - using learning materials that fit your level and your learning style (there is a great variety of language courses, textbooks, exercises books etc. for English). Don't use the "easy" ones, though. - reading "How to improve your foreign language immediately" by Bois V. Shekhtman for tips and inspirations how to improve your speaking fluency. Edited by Julie on 04 May 2013 at 6:26pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4820 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 3 of 15 04 May 2013 at 5:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
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For moving vocab from passive to active:
1.I found Anki (or another SRS) to be very efficient 2.try writing a lot 3.speak with yourself and ideally, find a conversation exchange partner Other things: 1.As Julie said, use high level sources to cover any gaps in advanced grammar, phrasal verbs and so on. 2.Other media. You need large amounts and variety. Try tv shows, documentaries, vlogs on youtube, books (both fiction and non fiction), and so on. 3. I learnt a lot (like 90% of my English) from playing a text based rping game. I don't speak like a native by far but I write like one (usually :-) ) and, what is the most important, I can think in English just as efficiently and fast as in my native Czech. If you want to speak perfectly as well, make the step I never had courage/means/time to make. Go to an English speaking country for longer time. Two weeks are nice and helpful but won't fulfill your dreams. Go there for whole summer or a semester/year. Many of my classmates went to the GB/USA/Canada/Australia during the highschool and it always worked. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| the96Kai Newbie Germany youtube.com/the96kai Joined 4035 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English | Message 4 of 15 04 May 2013 at 6:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks really much for the tips! :) To the specific points: - Ok, then I'll definitely do this. - Wow, this website looks amazing and is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks really, really much for this tip! - The Football and Basketball one was more of an example. I watch movies like 'Harry Potter' or sitcoms like How I Met Your Mother not only in German, but in English, too. I'm also reading the 'Harry Potter' books at the moment, read books like 'The Blind Side' or the Steve Jobs Biography. I visit the Website of Chicago Tribune daily to get the latest news of the Windy City. So, I think I'm on a good way with this. - Ok, I'll try this, too. :) - I will look next week at the library, maybe it's available. Again Thanks!
A HUGE thanks to you, too! 2. I wrote it above: I think I'm on track with this. But I will increase it. 3. Ah, I don't know about that. I hate RPGs (if you mean this, too). But if we really talk about games then I could offer you Madden, NBA 2K, MLB 2K and many other games which I play in English. To go to an English-speaking country like USA, Great Britain, Canada, Australia or South Africa would be a dream, but of course there's always the problem with the money - and as pupil I don't have a lot of that. :( But next year I'll start studying at a University and then I'll try everything to go abroad for a semester. And also to you again thanks! Edited by the96Kai on 04 May 2013 at 6:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6714 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 5 of 15 04 May 2013 at 6:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Good luck with your studies! Try to look for Shekhtman's book on the Internet, too.
I completely agree with Cavesa about Anki/other SRS, I even meant to write about it ;). For me, the best way to active my vocabulary with SRS was to use native language => target language cards. Many people argue that monolingual cards are better, though. One things about watching movies: it's good to alternate between movies with and without (target language) subtitles. Having subtitles makes some vocabulary stick. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4447 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 6 of 15 04 May 2013 at 11:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Definitely listen/read. I underestimated it severely and I'm learning so much more vocab/idioms than from movies now. There is no shortage of awesome novels in English.
2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4820 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 7 of 15 05 May 2013 at 12:33am | IP Logged | |||||
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The trouble with games like NBA is limited amount of language used. I find RPGs (and
adventures) to be the best for language learning. And the text based (MUD) are the best by far. I agree with sillygoose1. Listening and reading helps immensely. And, surprisingly, it helps with the active skills as well. Having read many books and having listened to the language for hundreds of hours, you will be much less likely to make common mistakes, some vocab will find way to the active skills and your pronunciation and accent will be much better than without all this. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4479 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 8 of 15 06 May 2013 at 12:35am | IP Logged | |||||
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Having a native speaker who would correct your English would be the best,
even many advanced L2 speakers of English make mistakes like*: 1 please speak slowlier 2 I feel quite better now 3 I recommend you to try the cake 4 It is not allowed to smoke here 5 quite many men smoke 6 I will fall! Please help me! 7 Don't smoke! You're not allowed! 8 the president Obama visited China What sounds right in L2 English may sound ungrammatical in L1 English. Many L2 users of English are not aware of this. That's why having a native speaker who would monitor and correct your English would help you a lot. (*Idiomatical English: 1 please speak slower / please speak more slowly 2 I feel quite a bit/lot better now 3 I recommend (that) you try the cake 4 It is not permitted to smoke here / You are not allowed to smoke here 5 quite a lot of men smoke 6 I'm going to fall! Please help me! 7 Don't smoke! You're not allowed to! 8 president Obama visited China) Advanced ESL Writing, Top Five Mistakes: http://www.really-learn-english.com/esl-writing.html Edited by Medulin on 06 May 2013 at 1:06am 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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