English is spoken today by more than 1.5 billion of the world's population. About 1 billion more people master it. There are many reasons, some of which will be discussed below. More questions give rise to another moment: how to master the language if the memory is not the same and there is always not enough time?
Spoken English for Beginners
This material will help identify the key difficulties in learning English that every adult faces. In addition, based on the experience of hundreds of successfully mastered people, practical recommendations will be given.
It is common knowledge that without motivation a person will not do anything. This must be accepted as a fact. If at the moment and in the future there are absolutely no paths that can intersect with the English-speaking world, then it will be difficult to force yourself to study aimlessly. True, there is another point - curiosity. To warm it up and bring it to the level of motivation, you should consider several potential prospects that English opens up.
What are the prospects of learning English?
If the number of students is approaching a billion people, then it is fair to believe that knowledge of English provides certain advantages. What are they? Here are the main ones:
- The simplicity of the language, which can be seen in the process of learning. There is a widespread opinion that there are as many as 16 types of tenses in English, while in Russian there are only three. In fact, in Russian there are also much more types of tenses. But no one talks about them, since the native language and its principles are understandable on an intuitive level. If a person needs only spoken English, which allows you to build the simplest dialogues, then there is no particular need to delve into the jungle of grammar. You can limit yourself to three main types of time.
- Increasing value in the labor market. Why do some countries learn the language of another country? Because economic processes are constantly taking place between countries: companies and states cooperate with each other, if there are no resources in one country, then it buys them from another, if somewhere there are few jobs or low wages, then people move to other countries. From this point of view, Canada, Australia, England and the United States remain the leaders where people move in search of a better career and life. A high level of remuneration allows you to realize your ambitions with economic benefits.
- Travel. For tourists, no country puts forward special requirements regarding the language. But it is much more interesting to delve into the identity of a foreign culture, communicate with local residents and get to know the country.from within.
- Access to the entire internet. Not everyone knows that about 50% of the Internet is occupied by English-language resources, while the Russian language accounts for only about 7%.
- Be the first to know. Most of the new discoveries and technologies are made in English-speaking countries. For example, in the field of programming. According to various opinions, until someone translates a new theory into Russian and publishes it, it takes from 5 to 20 years. Those who speak the language can learn about them almost immediately upon publication.
- Objective information. Anyone who knows even spoken English can read a small text from the media and understand the essence of events. A trifle, but the outlook will be an order of magnitude wider.
Where to start?
Spoken English for beginners is mastered with simple words and expressions. Everyone has a certain baggage of knowledge from the school bench. If not, then you should start by learning the alphabet. However, it is not enough just to learn the order of the letters. Each English letter has a transcription - the order of sound. The transcription is usually written next to the letters in any textbook. In the process of studying, it will become clear how much the sound differs from the written version.
Along with learning the alphabet, you should start reading simple words. As a rule, there are few long words in English. At the first stage, nouns and simple verbs are studied. Then, with their help, you can start compiling whole sentences. For this purpose, conversational English lessons ortutorials.
When learning a language, it is important to remember that it is not enough to be able to speak on your own. You also need to be able to understand the interlocutor. The complexity of understanding can be assessed if you watch a regular video - not for language learners, but live speech. For these reasons, conversational English lessons are not limited to exercises and the study of grammar. Listening, watching videos with sub titles and retelling are equally important components. Such skills will help you better understand speech and pronounce phrases correctly.
What is important for oral understanding?
If classes are held with a teacher, then the student's speech develops with a focus on his pronunciation. If you study on your own, you will have to study this part on your own. Here's what to look out for:
- Arrangement of stresses. Correct stress allows you to catch the meaning of speech even if there are unfamiliar words in the sentence. Everything is complicated by the fact that some letters in English “fall out” of the word - they are either not pronounced or pronounced in a highly modified form. For example, the word phOtograhp and photOgrapher.
- Similarly, there are phrasal stresses. If a sentence is pronounced, then every word in it is not pronounced in an even tone: The night was cold. The emphasis falls on night and cold.
- Some conversational English courses focus on listening. But there is an important change here. Two types of texts should be listened to: the first type is intended for students, the second type is ordinary video and audio materials in English,designed for native speakers and confident users. The first type should be listened to thoughtfully and repeated after him. In the second case, there is no need to strain your ears, trying to listen to every word. It is useless until the practice of spoken English reaches the intermediate level. But the benefit lies in the fact that at the moment of listening there is a subconscious development.
Every person has this ability. This manifests itself when the child is just learning to speak: he does not attend courses in spoken English or his native language. Learning takes place on a subconscious level. If we succeeded once, we will succeed the second time.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary in any language is divided into two types: active and passive. Active vocabulary - a list of the most frequently used words. Passive stock is words that are not often used, but their meaning is known and can be used in stylistically appropriate texts.
Spoken phrases in English follow a similar order. There are simple phrases, the meaning of which is clear to beginners, and there are idioms - separate phrases from different words, which in the end give a completely different meaning. For example: Not for all the tea in China. It would seem that we are talking about the total volume of tea in China. In fact, this idiom is pronounced as "no way." Or the equivalent in Russian: no money.
Spoken English should be updated with new words every day. There are different opinions regarding the number of words. Who-then he believes that it is enough to know about 300 verbs and this will be enough for simple communication. It all depends on the ultimate goals of the student. But for working in an international company or reading modern media, this will not be enough.
Those who master languages well and constantly strive to get ahead of themselves will have to face certain incomprehensible moments. You should be aware of another feature of the English language: there are about five thousand phrasal verbs in it. That is, this is a set of simple verbs that individually carry one meaning, and next to other words - a completely different one. The principle is similar to idioms, but differ in that they are much more common. For example: knock down - knock and down, but together means "destruction".
Phrasal verbs form a separate section of grammar, the study of which follows after the situation with simple words becomes clear.
Do I need a language environment?
Does spoken English require a language environment? Having an environment is a great opportunity to practice. Absence is not an obstacle if there is a specific goal and motivation.
Creating a language environment is not difficult. At its core, the language environment means the number of words heard and spoken. Constant listening to the radio in English, music and songs, watching English-language channels and daily reading can fully replace the language environment. Spoken English for beginners should be mastered with maximum immersion.
How to write an offer?
The intricacies of grammar and complex phrases should be learned with some vocabulary and sentence writing skills. The study of spoken English begins with mastering the order of words in sentences. If in Russian it is permissible to change the order of words in a sentence, then in English this is considered a gross mistake.
According to the rules for compiling sentences, there is a whole section of grammar that cannot be mastered if the grammatical terminology from the school bench has long since left the memory. Therefore, a simple guideline is used: you should make a sentence in Russian, and in the English version, reverse the words. However, this rule does not work for all phrases and sentences. In understanding the principles of construction of speech, a self-instruction manual for spoken English will help.
Times
For an elementary level of communication, three types of English tense should be studied: Past - past, Future - future and Present - present. Each of them is subdivided into other types. But this is for the advanced level.
To describe an event that happened in the past, you should know:
- verb;
- noun;
- ending for the verb –ed;
- types of irregular verbs.
Irregular verbs follow their own rules. They are divided into 1st, 2nd and 3rd group. There is no single principle for their formation, but most commonly used verbs are irregular. Therefore, the study of spoken English, where irregular verbs are present, is only possiblethrough memorization.
Example: She answered me.
If you need to communicate what will happen in the future, you should master the will construction. Will is applicable to both singular and plural nouns. He is also the same person: he is used as the first person (I, We), the second person (He, She), the third person (They), including inanimate objects - it.
Example: You will try it.
Colloquial phrases in English also include a story about events that are happening in the present. In this regard, it should be learned that the endings -s or -es are added to a noun or pronoun of a third person. And for I, We, You, They, the simple form of the verb is used.
Example: They love her. It rains all day.
How to learn new words?
The difficulty of memorizing new words exists only at the initial stage. Daily reading and vocabulary development helps keep you motivated. There are many resources and ready-made software applications where you can practice listening, grammar, correct sentences and spelling.
When an adult learns English, conversational phrases for communication should be repeated many times until the pronunciation reaches automaticity. The secret of perfect command of a language lies in the fact that a person thinks in that language. In this regard, there is a need to start thinking in English. Associations will help with this. For example, when learning the word deprivation or avoid,one should mentally “bind” these words to specific images.
Similar rules apply to grammar. Perhaps remembering sentences that are not related to the reality of the student creates difficulties and reduces motivation. Practical recommendation: before starting to study a particular topic, you should write a short story in your own language and open a dictionary. After the topic from the grammar has been studied, all unfamiliar words should be translated and only the studied grammar rules should be applied to the translation. This speeds up the process of thinking in another language.
From simple to complex
It is impossible to learn one language in a short time. Training should be gradual, but regular. You should really evaluate your knowledge and not get ahead of yourself. It is advisable to go through the entire beginner stage with resources that contain light texts with a dictionary. If you make an approximate algorithm, then it might look like this:
- Learning the indefinite and definite articles.
- Rules for to be and to have.
- Negative sentence forms.
- Video with sub titles.
- Memorizing rhymes.
- Short stories about myself.
Training will be more effective if there is an associate - another potential polyglot. When a person is learning spoken English, phrases and dialogues can make long texts much easier to understand.
How to consolidate knowledge?
The theoretical part is forgotten if there is no practice. Thanks to information technology inNowadays it is very easy to maintain the language level. One example is social networks. The circle of friends should be expanded towards other contingents. Communication with them, reading their posts allows you to better understand the practical application of certain parts of the grammar.
In addition, there are many resources with various tests. Spoken English from scratch is best learned when each lesson is regularly reinforced by taking tests for grammar, vocabulary and listening comprehension. Practicing for 1-2 months in this order will increase confidence in your knowledge and open the way to more advanced tasks.
