How to improve English skills?

[Gosia & Tito 199]

Thank you everyone for ideas!!!!

Watching movies or TV shows with subtitle is an amazing idea. I don't usually watch them with subtitle because you know I can still understand most of the story and enjoy it. From now on, subtitles are must. So court shows are the best? You mean like Law & Order? I want to know what genre is the best for English learning. Probably not comedy...which I LOVE!

Meaning Judge Judy and others like that.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

The website isn't perfect. *doh*

Those pairs are showing the different vowel sounds. cat and cut, cat and cart. But, it's giving a different phoneme for the "a" sound in 6 and 7. It ought to be the "ae" for both cat examples. (edit: there is the slight difference in the British and American pronunciations there with #6 British, #7 American) Cut is the schwa "ə". Cart is the "a."

Okay, I was wondering if I was missing something... It's a very nice site though... my husband also struggled with this, especially the "soft" vowels as in bid, bad, bed. I would over pronounce them, but invariably made one of them longer than the other (by mistake), so he would say, "oh, so one is short and one is long." Then I would say," no, they are different!" and then make the same error again, but maybe in reverse. So something like this site would help in that regard. He is much better now though, and he was the one who noticed the cat error.

[issha2lynden 77]

Reading materials helps, watching movies, go out, socialize, talk and put 'em into practice. Make each and every conversation with people as your English learning opportunity to improve. Add your vocabulary, listen to english speakers twang and slang-they varies geographically. Learn their Vowel sound. In most Asian counties vowel sound is just 5 in US there are 15.

English language is fun to learn. You can do it

[EminTX 131]

Meaning Judge Judy and others like that.

That is genius for working on rapid speech comprehension.

Subtitles can be useful, but be very aware that they are often faulty. I have difficulty hearing and often elect to use the subtitles so that I don't have to blast everyone out of the house. I can hear well enough to see many, many errors (from misspellings to different words to missed spots to -haha--sometimes foreign words thrown in). I do agree that it can help to identify things you might not notice when listening (robot versus robock, for example).

There are also things we say that we write differently. These are sort of like waving a flag to say "I'm still learning! I'm still learning!" A couple of examples are gonna and wanna.

• Write: I'm going to eat lunch.
  
• Say: I'm gonna eat lunch.
  
• Write: I want to win the lottery.
  
• Say: I wanna win the lottery.
  
• Write: What are you doing?
  
• Say: Wotcha doing? (What are - Wotcha--rhymes with gotcha)
  
• (Note: If you are angry--say each word individually. It makes you scarier.)
  

When I was working with trade-offs of time in language study, I spent a few days writing down all the slang and tricky things I heard people saying while I was at work (a variety of accents and backgrounds). It was great material. (This trick about these common phrases is from a friend in Brazil that is now working as translator for an engineering company and in church services.)

There is an exercise that is killer difficult when you first start it, but makes you improve quickly--write down everything you hear in a selection of a recording. THEN check it with the subtitles/transcript. You have to really listen to the sounds and not gloss over the stuff you don't normally notice. It makes you more aware of the nuances. A recording is better than a live person because the recording is indifferent and more realistic and can be repeated without changes.

There are lots of tips and ideas in this thread (and hopefully more to follow). When you come across activities or whatnot that really helps to clarify something or "clean up" your speech, please come back here and share that with us. This is such a common theme here on this site that I am sure your experience could help others.

[Pinkrlion 2,719]

Another option is USCIS has a link to resources for classes. . http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.749cabd81f5ffc8fba713d10526e0aa0/?vgnextoid=b8bade58171ed210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=10dc9a485510e210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD It is geared toward citizenship but the classes are for everyone.

Edited June 17, 2012 by Pinkrlion

[menina 50]

Your local library may have free English conversation classes. You can also try this website. wespeak.com. I believe it is free, you just have to register your name. Rosetta Stone was also helpful. The best way is to find a good class where you can practice with others, but that can be expensive. Good luck!

[sms78 18]

you guys are giving me so much hope! Thank you very much. When it comes to learning English, laziness is my worst enemy. I have to conquer that as well

I'm gonna try making vocabulary note, visiting ESL class, finding language partner, and study with tv shows with subtitles or recordings.

It's good to see many people here are helping their partners' English. My husband is no help so

Problem I'm having with my English is that often times when I try to explain something complicated words just don't come out smoothly from my mouth. That's the issue I want to address first over anything. Any way to improve my English in this situation?

Edited June 18, 2012 by sms78

[EminTX 131]

I am excited for you, too.

Here are 2 more suggestions that seem to help with my husband:

1.) Make little goals that you celebrate. When my husband conquers some sound/word/whatever, automatically, he knows that we will dance around the living room together if we are at home. (We avoid this at Olive Garden.) The mini celebration is a great reward and it makes the learning much more enjoyable.

2.) Use a small mirror. Look at your lips and mouth as you practice. Compact mirrors from empty make-up containers are great for this. Often, the problem might not be your hearing or your effort at pronunciation as much as it that you simply aren't moving your mouth the right way but you can't "feel" it so you don't even know. Like dancers and weight lifters, you are doing something that is physical and need to actually see what you are doing.

[Ning 619]

you guys are giving me so much hope! Thank you very much. When it comes to learning English, laziness is my worst enemy. I have to conquer that as well

I'm gonna try making vocabulary note, visiting ESL class, finding language partner, and study with tv shows with subtitles or recordings.

It's good to see many people here are helping their partners' English. My husband is no help so

Problem I'm having with my English is that often times when I try to explain something complicated words just don't come out smoothly from my mouth. That's the issue I want to address first over anything. Any way to improve my English in this situation?

Sorry I messed up my other responce.

Putting effort into some or all of these things can only help. We see in these posts different opinions about ESL classes value but I can tell you from my own experiance it can help a lot. When I began there were 27 students. The motivation was different for some but those that came to do the work did well. At the end there were only 11 people. While I know you want to concentrate on speaking only I would suggest that you take a look at the overall program. You will find there are classes with plenty of speaking but you have to have the other skills to be able to do that in the way that you want. My vocabulary improved a lot so I can respond much better when speaking

[Darnell 8,478]

What are the good ways to improve English fast and efficiently? I want to improve my speaking skills especially

1. sing a lot

2. join yer local toastmasters guild.

[sms78 18]

1. sing a lot

2. join yer local toastmasters guild.

Singing is the greatest idea EVER!!!!!!!!! Genius

I think I just saw the divine lights coming from the sky. I really think this method fits me well. Thank you so much.

Geez I really have to subscribe to this thread forever. So many good ideas.

[Gosia & Tito 199]

you guys are giving me so much hope! Thank you very much. When it comes to learning English, laziness is my worst enemy. I have to conquer that as well

I'm gonna try making vocabulary note, visiting ESL class, finding language partner, and study with tv shows with subtitles or recordings.

It's good to see many people here are helping their partners' English. My husband is no help so

Problem I'm having with my English is that often times when I try to explain something complicated words just don't come out smoothly from my mouth. That's the issue I want to address first over anything. Any way to improve my English in this situation?

That is common and temporary, as you build vocabulary it will be easier. I'd say that at the beginning, don't worry too much about the grammar; most people would understand what you are trying to get to after a few words. What you want to do is talk all the time, and select a few people that speak well and ask them to correct you. I correct my wife, but is less and less. SOme sounds will be particularly difficult, but that is because your own language does not have them. You wol dneed to practice and practice, eventually it will happen. I'd give a year until yoour vocabulary and speech becomes good enough to carry a conversation of average complexity. SOme people are very good at languages and will get it faster, some will take longer. My wife speaks 4, unfortunaly not the same 4 I speak; our common language is English peppered with German and a couple of other languages. I'm learning Polish little by little, and let me tell you, it's tough. I sometimes see words and I have no idea how to even start pronouncing them, or even make my brain get that it is a word that happens to have few or no vowels

That said, the key is that you get to a point in which you are not translating in your head and you are directly understanding or talking. It is hard to get pass that, because it is the natural thing to do.

ALso, have a pocket dictionary at all times; nothing more frustrating than needing 1 word and not having it. When spouse does not want to collaborate, speak in your own language. Better yet, get with a few friends and speak your langauge. Nothing make people understand how difficult it is not to able to communitate than having first hand experience. At same time, spouse would be also learnign some words and eventually phrases.

[Gosia & Tito 199]

2.) Use a small mirror. Look at your lips and mouth as you practice. Compact mirrors from empty make-up containers are great for this. Often, the problem might not be your hearing or your effort at pronunciation as much as it that you simply aren't moving your mouth the right way but you can't "feel" it so you don't even know. Like dancers and weight lifters, you are doing something that is physical and need to actually see what you are doing.

Absolutely true. Each language has its own sounds and in an number of cases, that sound doe not exist in other language. First thing to do is understand how to get the mouth, tongue, etc in the right positions and understand how the sound is made; then practice, practice practice. Your mouth never had make that sound, the muscles are there, but don't know how to move.

[psycons12 0]

Try to search lifelong learning center in your area,I took my ESL for free .Our class is interactive they are more in conversation and we only took one written exam per semester.It is a United nation class,oftentimes it is challenging but at the same time it is fun.

[John Dam Dam 4]

Rosetta stone