How to learn English at home on your own? In this article, we will take a step-by-step look at how you can develop the main four components of the language, and finally, what tools, gadgets and physical objects you can use to achieve the goal.
As a preface, the most effective way to learn to read, speak, listen and write in English is to learn to think in English. To do this, simply do not say the translations out loud, do not repeat them to yourself, do not write and, if possible, do not listen. Then you will build the shortest and most pleasant associative bridge between the meaning of concepts and their verbal designation, between an amorphous thought and a construction in which it can be dressed.
Before I tell you how to learn English at home, as a word of caution, when choosing material, be aware of what language you want to speak, American English or British, literary, or slang.
Reading
Becauselearn English at home? Start with the simplest literature, the simpler the better. The ideal option is a text in which you understand at least 80-90% of the words without an interpreter. Children's fairy tales and adapted editions will do.
Learn to see in the text 1) objects, phenomena, 2) signs of objects, 3) actions, states, 4) characteristics of actions, states, 5) directions, time intervals connecting words like "and" and "but", quantity, - that is, parts of speech.
Ask questions - "What's going on?" - "Who is it happening to?" – “By what happens?” – “How is it going?” “Who is doing what is happening?” etc. - that is, learn to separate the members of sentences and see the connections.
Speaking
How to learn English at home if you don't live in an English-speaking country? Think in English and just say what you think out loud and then correct. It doesn't matter if the statements are monosyllabic or not, especially at first. However, this does not mean that "uh …", "mmm …", etc. are acceptable. Chop the parasites of speech right on the vine. After all, in fact, these are not thoughts, but simply the ability of the speech apparatus to make some sounds in the background, while your brain is busy with other things. Then just watch for more complete constructs to emerge, and formulate them in such a way that they convey the relevant thoughts as authentically as possible. And after they are voiced, eliminate the errors. You can chat with anyone on Skype. There is a chance,that you would be more interested in talking to another person than talking to yourself. And someone will correct your mistakes instead of you, although not a fact. Remember that not all native speakers speak fluently.
Listening
It may seem that listening is easier than speaking - after all, you do not need to make any constructions, look for expressions, just focus on keywords. But it is difficult to isolate individual words from phrases if the ear is not tuned to English speech. Further, if the structure of the sentence is not clear, it will not help. And, finally, when parsing words and following the construction, you can simply not have time to combine all the logical units - that is, for example, to understand who, but not understand why and where, or understand why and where, but not understand who. Therefore, the more practice, the better, and we must not forget that the 80-90% rule also applies here. It is best to practice on an English video with synchronous English sub titles.
Writing (grammar)
Open your textbook. The textbook must be decent. This means that it should be short, understandable, structured by topic, not by lesson. That is, more like a directory, a root folder, divided into groups and subgroups, and not like a messy set of rules. Because how to learn English at home with a textbook designed for classroom work? Also, the prerequisites arenon-banal examples, and as close as possible to the original English syntax. And practice. Instead of exercises, it is better to compose independent texts and then correct them. Replenish the stock of used constructions and expressions according to the chosen speci alty or style.
You can start a correspondence with someone. Here, consider not only that not all native speakers speak correctly, but that only a few of them write correctly, especially on the Internet.
What you need to learn the language on your own
It may seem that one Internet is enough for all kinds of activities now. And it is. Paper books can be replaced with electronic versions and read from a computer, readbooker or tablet, the voice of a living person can be replaced by a recording available online, an interlocutor can be found in one of the social networks, and instead of a notebook, write in a Word document. It is not always convenient, productive and useful, but it is. For regular reading, you can enroll (if not already enrolled) in a library that has literature in English, or find a good language learning site with an archive of books. To understand how to learn English at home from scratch, remember how you learned your native language.
You will need:
- Explanatory English dictionary, author's choice - Colin Cobuld. The good thing is that it has a good design and a list of words in alphabetical order, which are most often used in the book, even with specific numbers. This allows you to replenish the vocabulary in the most rational way.
- Google Translate. Good becauseyou can listen and read the words. Use for translations is not recommended in principle (although as a translator it is not so bad).
- A decent textbook with original grammar, written by native speakers (because there are no decent English grammar textbooks in Russian yet), the author's choice is Colin Cobuld Grammar for students, it is very simple, clear and concise, convenient orientation, every topic occupies exactly one page - only 100 topics. On the left only grammar, on the right only exercises. An excellent division, given that you can not do the exercises at all and who needs them in the text, they only get in the way. Naturally, it will not be enough for a detailed study, but for the beginning and middle it is almost perfect. If you think it's time for you to get serious, make sure Colin has it all for you first.
- English-Russian dictionary. Use as little as possible.
- Russian-English dictionary. Use only when absolutely necessary.
- Depending on the preferred method of communication: social network account, mailbox, headphones with microphone, webcam. To chat with a native speaker or chat via Skype.
Bonus track: how to learn English at home in 5 minutes
First, here are the most general rules:
- A sentence consists of a subject (‘Martin’) and a predicate (‘is clever’ or ‘drink’). Object ('coffee'), circumstance ('now'), and definition ('in the morning') may be present.
Clever Martin drinks coffee in the morning.
Martin isclever.
- In general questions, the subject is preceded by ‘do’ or the first verb of the compound predicate. In special, a special word is added. In negatives, 'not' or 'don't' is added.
Is Martin clever?
Clever Martin doesn’t drink coffee in the morning.
Why is Martin clever?
- There are also 4 tenses, 4 aspects and a passive voice ('to be'+Participle II). Past Indefinite is a verb+'ed' or the II form of the verb, Participle I is the verb+'ing', Participle II is the verb+'ed' or the III form of the verb.
Second, here are the most common words and phrases:
‘Yes’/‘No’.
Third, if you don't understand what is being said, say: 'I can't understand' and 'don't kill me'.
