STEP 2 - How to Improve Your English - CHOOSING THE RIGHT ACTIVITIES

Sabrena Doherty Author

This is part 2 of a 3-part series, which gives you step-by-step instructions on how to plan your English learning so that you will succeed.

Taken from our short Book:

IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH AND SPEAK FLUENTLY.

This guide gives you step-by-step instructions on how to create your personal English improvement plan.

You can download it free HERE.

STEP 2 - CHOOSE YOUR ACTIVITIES

In Part 1 we talked about setting your objective and deadline for English, and calculating how much time to you need to spend per week to achieve your goal. You can read that article here: https://inglesconkillian.com/blog/how-to-improve-your-english

In this post we will move on to Step 2:

Decide which activities are best to do, according to what areas you need to improve, your preferred way of learning, and your lifestyle.

In order to achieve your goals and objectives in English, you need to make a plan, and in order to make a plan that works you need to think about what activities you will do.

To be able to decide on these activities, you need to consider the following points:

Points to consider when choosing your activities:

Structured v self-directed learning.
Active V Passive learning
What type of learner are you?
Maximise your time
How to find resources for each area
Practice several areas with one activity.

Let´s look at each point in detail:

Structured v self-directed learning.

The ideal situation is that you receive some structured, formal learning regularly - depending on what you can afford, what free time you have, and how urgent your need to improve is.

You should combine this with as much self-directed or informal learning (learning by yourself) in your daily life as you can.

Are you able to have a structured class or at least join a speaking activity once a week?

This is important if your goal is to improve your speaking. You can improve your speaking by joining a class (see our group class here), join a language exchange group, or find someone to practice language exchange with.

If a structured speaking class is not an option, ask your language exchange group or partner to correct your mistakes.

2. Active V Passive learning

Active learning is when you are giving your full attention to the learning activity that you are doing.

Examples include:

● Speaking to someone, engaging in conversation.

● Attending class.

● Listening and focusing on the podcast or series you´re watching, or the blog, article or book you are reading, and making notes of new vocabulary and structure you hear or read, or reviewing parts you didn't fully understand.

Active learning is more effective than passive learning. Passive learning is when you have something happening in your environment in English, but you are not paying 100% attention to it, usually because you are doing something else at the same time.

Examples of passive learning include:

● Listening to the radio while driving - you are also concentrating on driving, thinking about what you are going to have for lunch.

● Listening to a podcast while you are at the gym.

● It can also be listening to a lecture or seminar, where you are expected to assimilate information without interacting.

Passive learning is less effective because you are not absorbing everything.

However, that does not mean that passive learning is not useful.

In fact, I advise students to do this as a way to improve their listening, and we even have a listening challenge in our online Membership to improve your understanding by listening every day, either passively or actively.

Dedicating time to actively engaging in an activity is fantastic, but passive learning can be very helpful because you can do it WHILE you are doing other things - you can incorporate it into things that you already do, like housework, exercising, travelling.

This way you are exposing yourself to as much of the language as possible.

An ideal combination includes all of the above elements - formal, informal, active and passive learning. How you do that depends on your lifestyle, your budget, and your personal preferences. The KEY is IMMERSION - doing as much as you can in English.

It is also really important to remember when trying to improve your level - you have to ENJOY IT!

3. What type of learner are you?

Scientists and researchers have vastly different opinions on this but there are generally 3 types of learners - auditory, visual, and kinesthetic - Which one are you?

We will look at which activities would be better for you, depending on how you like to learn.

1. Listening (auditory learner)

Examples and tips:

Listen to podcasts

Read aloud to yourself or record yourself practicing English

Listen to blogs instead of, or as well as, reading them

Watch movies and series

2. Seeing (visual learner)

Examples and tips:

Watching movies or series in original language

When you want to learn a specific set of vocabulary or grammar point, search for it in google images - you will get diagrams and charts instead of texts.

3. Doing (kinesthetic learner)

Examples and tips:

Doing quizzes

Testing your knowledge by practicing with other people in conversations

Taking tests

Roleplays and discussions in class

Moving around when learning.

Most people are a mix of these three types of learners.

Basically, it is better for you to choose activities that include some of your preferred learning styles.

If you would like to know more about learning styles, what style you are, and what resources are best for you, go to Google, type in ´What's your learning style´ or ´what type of learner are you?´

This will give you lots of quizzes to try and then suggestions as to how you can learn.

When you are choosing what activities to do to make up your weekly schedule, think of which type of learning you prefer and be sure to include them in your schedule that we will create in Step 3.

4. Maximise your time

Identify how you can find time in your busy schedule for learning.

Do this in several ways:

Combined learning:

Combine interests with English.

What existing interests and hobbies do you have?

What do you already do that you can do through English?

Ideas could be:

● Listen to radio while driving

● Listen to an English podcast while exercising

● Watch a series in English instead of your own language

● Join English language groups related to sports you like or interests that you have

● Join any activities in your area - or online - that are in English

● Change the language settings of all my devices, apps and social media to English

All of these can be difficult to become accustomed to at the beginning but they all have one thing in common - they are increasing your exposure to English, therefore helping you to improve faster!

Let´s do an exercise to help you consider ways to incorporate English into your life in an easier way.

Go to the table below.

In column 1, write down 10 things you do on a regular basis.

In column 2, write down how you could incorporate English into this activity.

Things I do on a regular basis

How can I do this in English?

10.

→ 1.

→ 2.

→ 3.

→ 4.

→ 5.

→ 6.

→ 7.

→ 8.

→ 9.

→ 10.

4. How to find resources for each area

We already established above which areas you need to focus on.

Now, you need to find resources for your preferred areas.

Here are some ideas to help you get started.

Add to the list if you have more ideas.

Listening

Podcasts

Youtube

Series

Movies

Music

Writing

Write homework tasks in English

Write a daily diary

Write all your notes at work and home in English - shopping list, to do list

Write on English social media groups

Vocabulary

Read books

Look for specific topics online

Listen to podcasts

Watch series

Speaking

Join a small group or one to one class that encourages speaking

Join groups with similar interests - check the Meetup webpage

Join language exchange groups - online or in person

Read aloud!

Reading

Read blogs in a topic you are interested in

Read social media in english

Change all devices to English

Read books and magazines in English

Grammar

Look at grammar websites such as https://www.perfect-english-gr... https://www.englishrevealed.co...;

Buy a little grammar book - try to find a short one, you don't ́t need long explanations
For Google searches, do it in English

Professional

Look online for your topic

Look for ebooks or books on your topic

Look for short online courses on your topic

Ask your teacher to focus on the areas you need

Perform tasks in English in work and accept any tasks given in English

Write any other resources you can think of here:

6. Practice several areas with one activity.

You can improve more than one area at a time, by doing one activity.

Below you will see examples.

Listening to a podcast helps your:

● Pronunciation - you hear how words are pronounced

● Speaking - you are learning how to say words properly and becoming comfortable with the language

● Vocabulary - you are learning, or reviewing, vocabulary

● Grammar structures - you are learning or reviewing grammar structures, and hearing them in real situations

● Understanding - you are improving your comprehension by practicing

Speaking improves:

● Pronunciation

● Vocabulary

● Speaking

● Confidence

Watching movies & series improves:

● Understanding

● Grammar

● Vocabulary

● Pronunciation

● Speaking

Changing devices to English improves:

● Understanding

● Vocabulary

Have a look again at the list of activities you can do in English.

How many areas are you improving at one time?

Remember you have to ENJOY the activities and BE REALISTIC about what you can do.

IN CONCLUSION

By now you should have:

● Identified different ways that suit you best to learn

● Identified how you can find gaps in your schedule for learning

● Defined how to combine interests/work/daily life with learning

● Identified what way of learning works for you

● Learned how to combine and maximise your activities

● Learned that one activity can improve several areas

● Learned that immersing yourself in English as much as possible is the way to improve and reach your goals more quickly.

Final note for part 2:

Have English activities ready to do in ´dead´ time, such as when you are waiting at the doctor´s or having a coffee break alone.

This activity could be reading an article or listening to a Youtube video in English, for example.

In Part 3, the final step in making your plan to achieve your goals in English, you will make your weekly plan to follow.

You will find part 3 of this process here: STEP 3 - CREATE YOUR PERSONAL ENGLISH PROGRAMME.

To complete the all the steps together, download our free Book:

Improve Your English & Speak Fluently.

Good luck!