Some ESL/EFL students become frustrated when they are not learning English as quickly as they expect. Others learners feel depressed when they seem to be making progress one day, and level off or appear not to make progress for some time.
What have been your experiences in learning English? Why do some students learn faster than others? How can students improve their language skills?
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!
I think successful learners are usually those highly motivated students who never miss the chance to practice their English. Also, They're often trying to experiment with different learning strategies to give their English a boost. Not being too self-conscious is also key to improving their language skills. It's ok to make mistakes and there's a lot to be learned from them.
ReplyDeleteJo/Hong Kong
ReplyDeleteI think the successful way to improve language is: "more read more practice", never give up any channel to learn it, even the result is got a little.
Those person learn language faster may be follow a valuable study guideline and have self-motivated by their belief/talent and effort.
Thanks
Why some learn faster? Why I learn so slower? I also think why I can’t get well ESL Cyber Listening Lab (Medium), but I can get them well from reading. Asking and complaining myself. I study English at home from internet, not in classroom, so there are not exams, not press in order to certificates. And don’t have my nose in the books so hard so that I can’t improve my English so quickly. If focusing on English, having the chance communion English with other people, and accumulating abundant vocabularies. Eating off English step by step.
ReplyDeleteI've studied English since 1998, and I'm not fluent yet. In fact, I just studied very hard 2 years, and I realize that English needs to part of day-by-day activities if you wanna be fluent.
ReplyDeleteI re-started studying seriously last November and I've improved my listening and speaking a lot. My tip is study hard even when you don't see a huge improvement.
Take myself as an example. I had a bad habit of learning English---ignoring English when I'm not ready for learning English. For example, the web forum I browse everyday mix Chinese and English articles together. Some English articles are translated by others into Chinese. I usually skiped English one, and read the Chinese version. Maybe someone thinks it doesn't matter. However I think this attitude is absolutely wrong. It made me hard to concentrate on learning English. Due to the bad experience, I try my best to read and listen all English imformation wherever they come from, whenever they come.
ReplyDeleteFrom my point of view, a good foreign-language-learner is the one who are highly movitated at first. They find it interested and stimulated when they learn them, and after a long time it becomes their passion. Another factor that makes someone learn faster than others is pratice. We often hear that pratice makes perfect, and it becomes truism.
ReplyDeleteFrom my point of view, people learn at their own pace, with the aid of a teacher, or some other resources. And we also need to consider the way people learn; some are good for one skill, others for another skill. Every person must find his/her own learning style.
ReplyDeleteI think the most important thing in language learning is that you don't have to be afraid of speaking. Of course it's more easier if you know many words and grammar, but the point is that you could also use it and don't be afraid of making mistakes.
ReplyDeleteI think the most important thing in language learning is that you don't have to be afraid of speaking. Of course it's more easier if you know many words and grammar, but the point is that you could also use it and don't be afraid of making mistakes.It's a good way to improve your English if you read a lot and listen some English speech.
ReplyDeleteHello:)
ReplyDeleteI think that one of the most important problem in learning foreign language is that people are afraid to speak. They don't want to make mistakes so they often are quiet. Very good way to learn new language is to watch films or listen music in that language.If we want to improve our vocabulary and grammar skills, we should find friends on the Internet from other countries and write letters to them.
Viktorija K.
I think that there are different ways to learn a language but the mos important thing that a person needs is to be convinced and give it all to achieve the goal.
ReplyDeleteTo tell the truth, it's really hard for me to speak english good, because i haven't had enough practise in real life. I think, practise is the most important thing in learning languages. So, people who don't have friends from another countries learn language slower. In my opinion, the best way to improve our language skills is talking with people in english. Judita Jaun
ReplyDeleteI think if you want to learn foreign language you need a lot a of regular work, practise and motivation. As Bruno/Ingrid said, motivated students never miss odds to proove their Enlish or other language skills so they are just better at languages. Better because of desire and hard-working experience.
ReplyDeleteTo proove your English or any other acitivty skills first you need a MOTIVATION. Without that probably you will not reach your goal. Also you need a lot of variuos things, which could be named one name - PRACTISE. Speaking, reading, writing and others language skills are proove by practise. So I think students must invest their time and powers to practise, of course, if they want to be good at English.
There can help TV shows, movies, music, variuos articles (choose topic you ar interested in) in English. And conversations. A lot of canversations.
I hope I help sameone. Greetings from European basketball capital 2011 - Lithuania!
English isn't for me, as it's difficult to write and speak correctly something in english. On the other hand, there are some people who can communicate with others in english like their mother tonque as they are interesing in it. But I strongly believe than all students can improve their language skills by watching films, reading books and learning english step by step.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I think the successful way to improve a foreign language is to practice everytime and never give up! Using different strategies to use the language.
ReplyDeleteI think that there are many ways to learn a language and the most important thing to do it is just reading and listening a lot of english conversations (or movies or tv series). Personally, I watch a lot of english films and tv series because I think that they use the same idiomatic esxpressions and words, so that it becomes easier to understand what they are saying. However, this kind of excersise must be done everyday and whenever you can (I listen english conversations taken from itunes podcasts every time I need)if you want to improve faster your english. Writing is also important and i'm trying to improve it in these days because i don't write very well.
ReplyDeleteI am from the Philippines and English is not my first language. For me people learn fast by constantly reading anything; books, magazines, left lets,brochures, newspapers everyday. And also interacting to native English speakers through online chatting or making comments to forums on the net. Practice, practice, practice. I guess that's what we really need to do to improve.
ReplyDeleteI think this paragraph is very difficult because the speaker speaks very quickly. Therefore, I need to listen carefully. Then I need to listen some key point for me to do the listening question.
ReplyDeleteI think successful way to learn english is practice. When you take communication with other people in english you have self-motivated. If you talk you remember words and remembered other people words and sentenses. Im little bit lazy but i know if i read english books and look more english film, my english be better and result have been great.
ReplyDeleteSome of the English I know I've learn it by myself because this language always fascinated me.When I was 13 years old I started studying English at a language school and soon I realized that I knew little.My English improved during the years that I studied there but after some months that I finished the course I didn't feel confident anymore to speak English with other people.I always watch movies and series without subtitles but sometimes I don't understand the main point of an episode and I get really frustrated because this is happening more often now and that makes me realize that I'm forgetting English.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the reason that I don't understand an episode is that I'm not familiar with the subject ,for example,I don't understand much about stock market and Law.
So I guess my point is that if you want to learn English and don't forget it you have to practice it and try to be involved with the process in every way you can.I think that the best tool for me would be living abroad for some time and then when I came back to my country,never stop practicing it.
The ability to learning languages is comming with avery person. Even that, it is possible to improve the knoledge and the speaking fluency when the people have a good method to learn and practice.
ReplyDeleteSome of the English I know I've learn it by myself because this language always fascinated me.When I was 13 years old I started studying English at a language school and soon I realized that I knew little.My English improved during the years that I studied there but after some months that I finished the course I didn't feel confident anymore to speak English with other people.I always watch movies and series without subtitles but sometimes I don't understand the main point of an episode and I get really frustrated because this is happening more often now and that makes me realize that I'm forgetting English.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the reason that I don't understand an episode is that I'm not familiar with the subject ,for example,I don't understand much about stock market and Law.
So I guess my point is that if you want to learn English and don't forget it you have to practice it and try to be involved with the process in every way you can.I think that the best tool for me would be living abroad for some time and then when I came back to my country,never stop practicing it.
I've studied English since 1998, and I'm not fluent yet. In fact, I just studied very hard 2 years, and I realize that English needs to part of day-by-day activities if you wanna be fluent.
ReplyDeleteI re-started studying seriously last November and I've improved my listening and speaking a lot. My tip is study hard even when you don't see a huge improvement.
I think successful way to learn english is practice. When you take communication with other people in english you have self-motivated. If you talk you remember words and remembered other people words and sentenses. Im little bit lazy but i know if i read english books and look more english film, my english be better and result have been great.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, every person has different skills and ability to improve new language. It depends on student motivation and personality features. There are many ways to study. Step by step learning system I think is irreplaceable. Because practicing in everyday life, real situations, natural resources gives us a brilliant communication baggage. My own experience says that if you want to be a successful learner, you must be high motivated and ready to focus on every single detail.
ReplyDeleteThe most successful way to learn another language is to practice many times and few everything many times until you remember it. Everyone has their own learning style and we should all figure out what our style is to learn that new language faster.
ReplyDeleteI think students can improve their language skills when they are speaking a lot, watching movies, also listening music is very helpful, because that is how I learned an English language. Of course there are students, witch learn language faster than others. I think that happens, because there are people, who have native fluency and people, who just don’t have it. But that’s not reason, why you can’t learn foreign language.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion people only learn when is expose to the language many hours
ReplyDeleteWhy some people learn languages faster? It's a good question. In my opinión, there are many factors that intervene, but through my experience learning English (for about 5 years now) I've realised that there are some people who have a natural capacity to learning languages, people who with less effort learn faster than others who spend hours studying.
ReplyDeleteHere in Spain, pronunciation is a challenge for adult students, only a few people are capable to pronounce properly, even if they are motivated. What should they do? Listen English a lot and repeat. Watching films in English, listening to music... Think in English in your everyday activities... Practise, practise and practise...
I think that students can learn languages faster if they learn the languages at there small age. Also if you learn new languages at different age; you can learn it. But if you practice every and speak regularly with people around you than you can learn it. Learning different language it take a courage and focus to learn anything. Example, if you buy new phone that has come out in market, than do you already know as magically that you can use; I don't think so. To use a new phone you have to learn it, use that and see what it is and how you can use it, well as try it and click the screen of the phone to see what will happen. That how in other languages you have to try even if you don't know anything that much try to speak. If you learn a languages than try to firsts how to speak, if you start to speak than you can easily learn other skills in that languages.
ReplyDeleteBecause they are smarter, and they probably learned the languages when they were little. Or they watch a lot of movies in different languages and that's one way to learn too. It can also depend on the language, because some languages are easier than others. Even going to school can help, because you only listen to that one language.
ReplyDeleteI've studied English since five months ago, and I'm not fluent yet. I think the successful way to improve language is practice and practice. Sometimes it's hard.
ReplyDeleteI think the best way to learn a language is by spending time in the country the language is spoken in and keeping the language in your life, for example watching TV shows, reading books etc. I have become fluent in english because I hear it everywhere and speak in English so often.
ReplyDeleteThere are several ways to learn a new langage. According to the skills we want to develop, the method will not be the same. For instance, to improve my reading skills, I read a lot of articles, books, sometimes I put subtitles on TV in the language I want to learn. it allows my brain to make a connexion between what I listen and what I read and makes it easier to understand. To improve my speaking skills, I talk a lot to myself when I think about something or when I need to take an everyday-decision, I try to think about how I would say it in the language I am learning and I say it out loud. It is a good way to improve the pronounciation. Of course, in order to do that, I first need to learn some vocabulary. It can be by reading articles, watching movies or just by translating a word I need. I try to make it a little funnier that class studies. To have a good idea of the culture of the country, of course the best is to go to that country. But if we don't have this opportunity, we can do it by watching documentaries about the country or by talking to people from there.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning, I have learn English at school. But that wasn't really concluent so I decided to start learning by myself. I starded with watching movies and series in original version with french subtitles. Then I starded to do something else while watching them and I realised that I understood the movie even without reading the subtitles. After that, I started to put English subtitles. That allowed me to understand everythings that were said but also to understand the structure of the sentences. Now, I watch movie without subtitles at all and I have a great level. At the same time, I used to read articles, books... I took every occasion to improve my English skills. I had the chance to go to England for almost a year, which has helped me a lot.
To conclude, I would say there not only one way to learn a language. It is the combination of sereral methods that has the best results.
The trick is : NEVER GIVE UP !
In my humble opinión if you are motivated to learn a language it is very important, and to speak constantly even by yourself,not to feel shy because you could make mistakes everybody does it so keep up with your learning
ReplyDeleteThere might be several ways to learn english, I believe the important part of the learning is to find which is the way that suits better for you, and then apply it. While for some of us some techniques will work, they might not work for others, but it doesn't mean that they can not learn as well.
ReplyDeleteI think that the best way to start studing langueage is going to classes. If you will learning by yourself, you can do many mistakes and dont see them. Teacher can fix your mistakes and say to you whats wrong in your english. But you cant learn language by one way. You must combine ways of learning for achieving a best result
ReplyDeleteI think that the best way to start studing langueage is going to classes. If you will learning by yourself, you can do many mistakes and dont see them. Teacher can fix your mistakes and say to you whats wrong in your english. But you cant learn language by one way. You must combine ways of learning for achieving a best result
ReplyDeleteEnglish for me was not as easy to learn as I espected at first,but after a while I got the hang of it and started learning it more frequently,because I had friends who were English speakers only.
ReplyDeleteSome students learn faster than others because it depends mostly on their personality. If a person wants to learn a different language and he has the will to do it - he will learn it.
In my opinion, students can improve their language skills by watching Movies or speaking to a person who's native language is English, thats what helps me to improve my skills.
I think that communication is the most important thing to learn a foreign language. I know many examples when people many years learn english language at school or other education place but still can't understand the language or can't speak clearly because they don't use it and usually they are scared to speak with others in foreign language. In my opinion, when you speak more and more in english you improve your foreign language skills.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion all depends on the learning style of the person, when someone finds its style, it becomes easier to learn (with images, sounds of experiences). In my case, for example, I'm better learning with images, so watching a movie can be a good idea. Exchanging with natives can also be a good idea.
ReplyDelete