Many students find that once they reach the intermediate level of English, their progress seems to slow down and, in some ways, fossilize. This can be very discouraging. Looking at this situation, students slowly progress in the beginning stages from simple introductions and hobbies to more demanding topics on personal values, environmental issues, relationships, and even politics. However, students either find few opportunities to engage in such topics or are just not interested in discussing them. In this case, it is more a question of knowledge of broader topics than language skills. However, in any future job or educational experience, students will need such higher-level topics. Thus, what are some ways students can extend their learning beyond basic topics on shopping and sports? Share your ideas.
Randall
Welcome to the ESL blog by the owner of www.esl-lab.com. Share ideas about learning English as a second or foreign language. Study abroad, ESL programs, accent reduction, ESL study Tips . . . Anything related to learning English and cultural understading!
In my opinion, to extend the English knowledge is by learning vocabulary.Vocabularies help us to read and understand better and at the same time to express ideas very well.Another way that we can develope our English awareness is reading and watching magazines, newspapers, News and movies.Individuals can be informed by current issues as a result.These are the ways that we can do to extend our English Knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI think knowledge is very important to discuss something.
ReplyDeleteI'm Korean, and honestly I can't speak English very well. I'm just trying to practice speaking it as much as I can. When I attended some English study groups, I felt that some people can speak Enlgish very well, but some of them can'
t their thoughts in appropriate way. I realize that even though they could speak English, they didn't have knowledge about topic.
However, in my case, I had a lot of ideas and knowledge, but I couldn't speak a lot. because my English was not good.
I believe that language skills are different from communication ability. You should constantly be interested in various things that happen to all over the world anytime, anywhere.
The dots will make you.
I think knowledge is very important to discuss something.
ReplyDeleteI'm Korean. And honestly I can't speak English very well, but I'm just trying to practice speaking English as much as I can.
According to my experience, when I attended to some English study groups, some people could speak English very well. However some of them didn't think about something in serious way or they couldn't speak a lot, because they weren't aware of the topic. On the other hand, I had a lot of knowledge about the topic, and I wanted to speak about something a lot, but I couldn't, because of my speaking skill.
I realized that language skills are different from communication ability. And I still believe that as a foreign leaner, speaking English very well doesn't mean only language skill. You should constantly be intersted in every issues that happen all over the word as much as you can. Sometime, you'll be made by the dots.
I think knowledge is very important to discuss something.
ReplyDeleteI'm Korean. And honestly I can't speak English very well, but I'm just trying to practice speaking English as much as I can.
According to my experience, when I attended to some English study groups, some people could speak English very well. However some of them didn't think about something in serious way or they couldn't speak a lot, because they weren't aware of the topic. On the other hand, I had a lot of knowledge about the topic, and I wanted to speak about something a lot, but I couldn't, because of my speaking skill.
I realized that language skills are different from communication ability. And I still believe that as a foreign leaner, speaking English very well doesn't mean only language skill. You should constantly be intersted in every issues that happen all over the word as much as you can. Sometime, you'll be made by the dots.
I think knowledge is very important to discuss something.
ReplyDeleteI'm Korean. And honestly I can't speak English very well, but I'm just trying to practice speaking English as much as I can.
According to my experience, when I attended to some English study groups, some people could speak English very well. However some of them didn't think about something in serious way or they couldn't speak a lot, because they weren't aware of the topic. On the other hand, I had a lot of knowledge about the topic, and I wanted to speak about something a lot, but I couldn't, because of my speaking skill.
I realized that language skills are different from communication ability. And I still believe that as a foreign leaner, speaking English very well doesn't mean only language skill. You should constantly be intersted in every issues that happen all over the word as much as you can. Sometime, you'll be made by the dots.
This situation is just about me.
ReplyDeleteI would like to know how too.
I think you should be interested in various kinds of topics,and collect your thoughts with their own languages.Sometimes you might need to write down.
So now,I try to improve my English ability with using this blog!
Facing Randall's challenge was a good way to improve English.But how to make progerss in a second language. I would say that keeping study hard,trying a variety of topics as same as mother language, and paying attention on details, including listening, reading and writing. All of those are very important for students to keep practice in order to leap our level up. I desire to know how to improve and move on to next high-level topics. but somehow, I felt frustrated and critized myslef that "do I use the right ways to make myself improve?" During this periord, I did my best to memmorize the vocabulary as I can. The conclusion is that it is a hard time for us to think twice and adjust our attitude in order to make a big progress in our learning.
ReplyDeleteGood luck everyone
Best,
Jenny
I think if a student can engage in using English beyond the classroom environment then progress comes. It is important for students to have "real" experiences in the target language with any type of communication. Reading can help increase vocabulary, and having as many opportunities to use the language in an authentic way can only increase proficiency. Doing activities that are interesting may help a student engage in the language usage more readily! Blogging vould be one example!
ReplyDeleteI am an esl student I am going to SSC english is sometimes hard to me but I try to learn the english if i learn exactly english i think i'll take tofel class maybe whatever if you want to learn english firstly you can a lot of listen the english forexample music, movie or something like that anyway i happy to be here i hope see you soon have nice day byee:)
ReplyDeleteI think I aleady know and I am able to express the knowlege about high-level topics if I could talk in Korean. I'm Korean. But when it comes to speaking in English, all words that I want to speak in my brain:)messed up before they come out of mouth. Probably it's because I put the nouns, adverbs, and verbs etc.. in korean language order. So, now what I try to learn is to be comfortable at English orders. First I read lots of articles to get accustomed to that, and try to memorize idioms which comes from americans thoughts therefore, even if forigen people know the each words in that idioms, they could not figuer out what the sets of words mean, only americans can understand that. Because of this reason, I'd like to say, if you want to make progress in learning english, you should not only know english words and grammars but also have an american's thinking system in language. I think i would be better at this as spending time with americans and trying to forget my own language system. I hope so..
ReplyDeleteMy comment about nafis`s writing
ReplyDeleteMaybe you`re right.I also think vocabulary is a very important thing to improve the English skill.
The things you write are completely similar with my opinion . I have nothing to write anymore .
Hi, for me learning english is very important. I love to speak english,but it is very difficult for me, because I don't practice at home, they don't practice english with me, I don't have vocabulary.I try by myself. Practice english helps us to learning english very well. I pray to God for better knowledge with my english.
ReplyDeleteyes,I am facing the problem. Firstly, I don't want to remeber any new words now because I've already passed cET-4 and CET-6. two english tests for chinese university students. Secondly, I am still poor in writing compared to higher level learners. Thirdly, I don't know how to speak very smoothly and in a more local way.of course some daily basic dialogues are no problem for me.
ReplyDeleteAh~~~~~who can help me!
The way you write this informative and useful article, maintaining the transparency of the logic and keeping the article compact is truly admirable. Thank you for making this post available here. Keep blogging. One can learn and speak English in an effective way, just by downloading English Learning App on your own smartphone, which you can use whenever and wherever you want to practice your communication skills with experts.
ReplyDeleteEnglish Practice App Android | English Speaking App