STEP 3 - How to Improve Your English - CREATE YOUR PERSONAL ENGLISH SCHEDULE

´Sabrena Doherty Author

This is part 3 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 3 - CREATE YOUR PERSONAL SCHEDULE

In Part I 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 part II you decided which activities are best to do, according to what areas you need to improve, your preferred way of learning, and your lifestyle.

You can read that article here: https://inglesconkillian.com/blog/step-2-how-to-improve-your-english

STEPS 1 AND 2 lay the groundwork for the final step, STEP 3:

MAKE YOUR PLAN

Now that you have decided which activities are most suitable for you, and how many hours per week you need to practice in order to achieve your goals, it is time to make your schedule.

Using the table below, make a weekly schedule of English activities.

See the example underneath it for ideas on how to do your schedule.

Use this template or create your own to make your personal weekly schedule:

Schedule your activities in your calendar - Google, Outlook, or wall calendar, or even on your fridge - somewhere where you will see them every day!

Review your schedule regularly and change what isn´t working.

You are now ready to reach your goal in an effective, achievable and realistic way!

NOTES:

It is a good idea to review your schedule at least every month.

If you are not doing all the activities or the amount of hours you should be, you should look at why:

• Are the activities boring?

Change them for more interesting ones. Better to watch a movie you like in English than try to do grammar exercises (that you never do because they are boring).

• Do you not have enough time?

Go back to the section on combining and maximising your time - find activities you already do and try to do them in English in some way.

Do activities that practice several skills at once.

• Are you not improving quickly enough?

You will need to make your existing English activities more active - try to concentrate more on the podcast, movie, song - whichever activity you are doing. Think about adding more activities to your schedule, especially active ones - an extra class, speaking activity, online course. You also need to think about exchanging an interest or activity you are doing and replacing it with an English activity for the moment until you reach your goal.

• Every month you should also review your objectives and check if your activities are incorporating all of them.

When you are half-way to your deadline, you should try the same level tests you did earlier in the course (or check the assessment grid, or ask your teacher to reassess you). You should see some improvement already.

If not, go back to the course and look at your activities - are they active enough?

Could you combine more existing activities with English? Look at the checklist below - are you doing them all?

• Consider doing a challenge to improve an area of your English. You can do this by committing to doing something in English every day in a certain area for a certain period of time.

For example we have a listening challenge inside our online membership platform that improves your understanding in one month, simply by listening every day for one month.

CHECKLIST

Make sure you are doing all of the following:

• My schedule is realistic I have some active learning activities

• I am doing enough hours a week in English

• Some activities improve more than one area

• I am clear on my goals

• I am clear on my deadline

• I am clear on my current level

• I am clear on my desired level

• I am reviewing my schedule regularly and changing anything that isn't working

Final Notes and Motivation

OK, so now you have taken control of your learning, you should feel excited, motivated and ready to go -well done!

A few things to remember:

Improving your English is a process and it will not happen in one day. Try to maintain your motivation by keeping your final goal in your mind. It will seem like you are not improving but with every activity you do you are learning something new or consolidating something you have already learned.

Adjust your schedule, do your best, but be patient.

Lose the embarrassment and shame - this may be your biggest obstacle. Remember all the people you have heard speaking YOUR native language - did you notice their mistakes? Most probably not.

If you can be understood, and understand, then you have already achieved so much.

Everyone makes mistakes - even the ones with the highest level, trust me! Would you rather have perfect grammar, but you cannot understand the other person or tell him or her what you want to say in a fluent way, or would you rather make mistakes and speak fluently and understand well? Making mistakes is how we learn.

Ignore anyone who says anything negative - you are doing something incredible for yourself. Remember how proud you will feel when you reach your goal. And you WILL reach your goal if you make the effort.

Accept any challenges in English - accept that project in English, speak up in class, for example.

If you feel overwhelmed, break it down more into smaller baby steps.

Think of the next month only.

Think about and visualise how you will feel when you reach your goal - how much more confident you will be, and how many more opportunities you will have.

Be not afraid of going slowly, be afraid of standing still

- chinese proverb

What we do:

Here at Inglés Con Killian, we run speaking classes with a maximum 4 students - first class is free to try:

GROUP CLASSES.

We also organise government funding for Spanish companies:

COMPANY CLASSES.

Our online membership provides courses and conversation practice for those who need more flexibility:

MEMBERSHIP PROGRAMME

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Categories: : Improve Your English