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The question I get from every student at some point is how they can really improve their level. Obviously, we are talking about students who already have a solid basis, but are ambitious to get better. In addition to a couple of private speaking lessons per week with a native speaker I tell them what I’ve learned from the study habits of my best students. Now I’m going to tell you!

An important point to make is that as a students character and personalty varies so will the method appropriate for them. I think the secret to good learning is do something consistently and in the easiest most enjoyable way possible.

Google translation exercise – The way this works is that you take an interesting text in your mother tongue and you get Google to translate the text into English. You now have all the words already typed, the exercise now is to be Google’s teacher and correct all the, mostly grammatical, mistakes.

(E) books – The advantage of the ebook over the traditional book, if you are happy to read a lot of text from an LCD style screen, is the quick definition possibility you have with difficult words (provided you’ve already installed a dictionary). My advice here is to select a book you really, really want to read. Make sure the language / writing style of the author is very straight forward. Then even if you can get quick translations avoid doing it for every word you don’t know. Try to immerse yourself in the story as much as possible only translating words that are essential for understanding or words that keep coming up over and over again.

Watching TV / movies / news – One of the big problems for learning English in European countries is that many still dub foreign language movies and TV programs into the native language. A convenient opportunity to hear ‘normal’ spoken English is therefore lost (if you needa spoken English course online, you know where to find us!). I put normal in ‘apostrophes’ because it is often very difficult to understand the language of the news as the language used is of a more formal, higher level. The language in movies in particular can be very hard to follow for different reasons. In a lot of modern movies the scenes change very quickly or don’t appear in a logical way. A lot of different characters get introduced quickly without time to get used to the way they speak and very often the language used is altered to give the movie more style.

For all of the above reasons this method while it would seem to be the most enjoyable can be the most frustrating. My advice is to find good kids movies with adult appeal where the language is a little easier, but even here I’ve noticed things have become more difficult, so first go for classic old Walt Disney movies. It is also going to be easier if you can watch a version with English subtitles, then you can watch, listen and read at the same time.

Grammar books / word lists – It sounds like hard work to me but for some it definitely produces results. There are software programs that can randomly test word knowledge on lists of problematic words entered by the student. If you have the discipline you can really improve your vocabulary. The best thing about this technique is that it only requires a few minutes a day. I’ve had other students who love studying grammar books. This works well when the student tries to understand a point by themselves and then reinforces and practices it later with a teacher. It’s particularly good if you need to prepare for an English exam.

Internet sites – There are 100’s of websites with different kinds of learn English exercises and tips. In particular if there is a grammar issue you want to practice or sample questions for different international tests there is a lot of help available. I personally like the sites that prepare audio files of conversations backed up with comprehension style questions.

I hope this has given you some ideas. Until next time keep learning English!

“Hi Jane, are we still on for the movies tonight?” “Sure pick me up at 7 and maybe on the way back we can drop in on Sally and the gang for a drink.”

From standard conversations like this one to more professional conversations native English speakers will constantly be using phrasal verbs to express ideas. The strange thing is that non native English speakers even those with a high level often don’t know these phrasal verbs. Consequently, a non native speaker can quickly feel hesitant and confused even in a simple conversation – what a shame.

It’s true there are a lot of phrasal verbs and often the same phrasal verb can be used to communicate different things but it’s a real weakness in the schooling systems that are not giving enough importance to phrasal verbs. It’s also true that often there is a standard verb that can express the same information as the phrasal verb but often there’s not. Trying to replace pick you up with a regular verb can quickly sound strange…maybe – I’ll collect you at 7, might work but it’s certainly not the usual expression.

So what’s the solution? First, start being more sensitive to the use of phrasal verbs, which are not just used in spoken language, but are also used a lot in written language, often to say something in a shorter more stylistic way e.g. the recent budget deficit blow outs in the UK have lead to a run on the pound.

The second way is simply to learn them. Directional phrasal verbs like get down or go away are straight forward and logical. Ones like – Do you get it? or Are you catching on? both which mean do you understand might need to be learnt by heart. The way you learn them is the same way you should learn any new vocabulary in the context of a sentence and / or a situation. The best site I’ve found for learning phrasal verbs is the English Pages’ website at the following link: http://www.englishpage.com/prepositions/prepositions.html

Lots of luck

David

Okay, so you’re understanding and speaking pretty well but you still feel your level is not where you want it to be. How do you keep working and making progress on your English?

This is a situation I encounter a lot particularly with business people who have a good level but still find themselves feeling uncomfortable about their English in pressured discussions, often when they are dealing with native speakers.

It can be a speed thing where the native speaker starts speaking faster when something important is being debated. Or it can be a cultural thing if there are several native speakers from the same country speaking at the same time. These two factors are probably the hardest to prepare someone for.

Perhaps it will give you some reassurance to know that even native speakers can feel a bit lost at times if they are mixing with native speakers from another country. There are just so many subtleties in conversation styles, sporting and cultural references that it’s impossible to always be following what’s being said 100% of the time. I think the best strategy is if you feel you missed something important say something like: “Sorry, you lost me there, what were you saying?” or “Sorry, could you repeat that”. The reaction will always be to then repeat the idea in a more straight forward way.

The key is to know when and how often to interrupt with a request to repeat information but you shouldn’t feel hesitant to do it a few times to remind the meeting participants that they need to be more considerate in their communication style.

Next blog: Phrasal verbs to help brush up your English