Strategies for Improving Your English

English language is international language in the world. Many people certainly want to be

able to speak English well. But sometimes they don’t know how to make it happen. When we

were in school, the teachers actually given the exercises to improve our English language skills.

But most of us don’t feel confident with the abilities that we have in the English learning. Many

of those detailed and time-consuming strategies for learning English which were useful for you

in your initial English language classes may not be useful to you now. In fact those strategies

may take up too much time now that you have a heavy academic work land as well. We now

need to learn as we go.

CONCLUSION :

Speaking

How did improve our speaking ?

“BE AN ACTIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER”

1. Talk to yourself in English :

a. When we’re alone and walking, travelling and even bathing, we can often use English to

talk in our mind. By doing so, we can feel comfortable and confident.

b. Talk to yourself in English all the time either in your mind or just by whispering to

yourself in English.

c. Record yourself and play it back to see how you can improve.

d. Read aloud to yourself – a little each day.

e. Even in our thinking process, we’re can trying to think and speak to ourself in English.

2. Repeat what you here :

a. Sometimes when we watch English movies, we can try to repeat what they say in the

movie.

b. We can try to imitate the English spoken in movies.

c. Memorise the use of language by watching TV serials and imitating their pronunciation.

d. When we watch English movies and whenever we like a sentence, We say that sentence

EXACTLY like they said it in the movie over and over again. We even do the intonation

even though it’s meant to be a tone for LITTLE girls... We must try it anyway!!

e. Television really helps because the words are pronounced and used in the right context,

so you learn new words the right way by hearing how to pronounce them and how to use

them.

3. Have something to talk about :

Keep up to date with news and current affairs so that you have a topic of conversation that

you can draw on.

4. Share with student or other people from other cultures and language backgrounds

Try to live with people who come from different backgrounds because then you will have to

speak English.

5. Make friends with people from other country

a. Interact with native speakers. Don't be shy or afraid of making mistakes. When you feel

comfortable, ask people to correct you.

b. To pick up the expressions we can need in everyday life is to mingle with native

speakers.

c. Relax when you speak – it actually improves your articulation.

6. Talk to your family, your children, and your friends in English

Using English words when communicating with family or friends from home is another thing

you can do to improve your English.

7. Use English in your daily activities

8. Join a club or grup

We can joined a debating club, and went to meetings of societies that organise events which

we can actively take part in.

9. Keep on practising

a. Please don't forget – keep practising to keep up with the standard of your English, no

matter how fluent your English is, because once you become lazy at using English, then

you will go backwards.

b. The more you use English the better speaker you will become. You learn writing by

writing, speaking by speaking and reading by reading. Unless you use English more in

your day-to-day activities, you will not be able to cut yourself off from your first

language umbilical cord.

c. Seize every chance to practise your English on campus or other place. Practice makes

perfect.

d. If a phrase or word is always difficult, write it down and practise it.

So.. what we should not do ?

DON’T mix just with people from the same language background as you.

DON’T be afraid of making mistakes; native speakers will usually understand what you are

trying to say.

Reading

In their research suggests that students who read slowly and translate back into their own

language do not achieve well academically.

1. Read more to read better

a. Read local newspapaer even for international events and news.

b. Read magazines, simple novels, and newspaper, even the free newspaper and pamphlets

at railway station or supermarket, food labels, cookbooks, road signs, advertisement and

anything you can find.

c. You can read a lot of fictional and non-fictional works. You have the habit of reading at

least one novel or text every week. You also belong to a book club.

d. Try to read as many journals as possible.

e. Read course-related newspaper (for example, Financial Review or the business pages in

the daily newspaper).

2. Smart reading tips

a. Read widely to expand your day-to-day vocabulary.

b. Familiarise yourself with what you are about to read – the structure (chapters, sections),

the contents pages, the index, the reference section, any differences in typesetting and

what they signal, and note figures, tables and other features of a text.

c. Scan the text first and learn where information can be found in the text.

d. Construct a diagram of your understanding as you read – that way you will remember the

hierarchies of ideas and relationships between ideas embedded in what you read.

e. Read academic texts with a focus. Focused reading means you are looking for particular

information which keeps you concentrating.

f. If your textbooks have questions at the end of each chapter, try finding the information in

each chapter to answer each question – this is focused reading.

g. Pay attention to the headings and sub-headings – they will help you understand what

follows.

h. Pay attention to the first sentence in a paragraph, it can give you an idea of what follows.

i. Look for connecting words like ‘for example’, ‘then’, ‘in addition’, ‘similarly’,

‘therefore’, ‘firstly’, ‘secondly’, ‘finally’ or ‘in conclusion’. They will guide you through

the text and show you the relationships between sentences.

j. Avoid looking up every word. Try and guess the meaning from the context.

Listening 1. Watch movies and television, and listen to English radio and music

a. Listen to local radio and even news from your home country in English.

b. Watching movies with English and Indonesian subtitles is a good way for me to improve

my English. You don’t look at subtitles when you can understand the film. If you cannot

catch it, you will look at the English subtitles. Looking at Indonesian subtitles just

confirms whether you are right in understanding the meaning.

c. You mostly learn English by listening to songs and watching movies in order to improve

my listening and speaking skills. I expose myself to as much English as possible by

watching TV or movies and listening to radio or music.

d. Listen to English songs and sing with the English lyrics.

e. TV programs really help a lot to improve your English skills so you are trying to watch

dramas or shows more often.

f. Watching documentary movies – sometimes it is easier to understand the grammar and

learn new vocabulary.

g. Video record and replay TV shows until you understand the language.

Writinga. When you are writing for academic purposes, draft an outline of what you plan to write. List

your main points and use these as your topic sentences for each new paragraph.

b. Get a friend (especially someone who has English as their first language) to read what you

have written – tell them to let you know if there is anything that doesn’t make sense or is not

expressed in the usual way. (However, don’t assume that everyone who is a native speaker

will be familiar with writing in an academic style.)

c. Read your own text aloud. You will pick up errors more quickly because you are using your

eyes, and your voice. If you run out of breath, look at the structure of your sentences – they

may be too long. Most international students write sentences that are too long!

d. Keep a record of the feedback you get from your tutors and lecturers when they mark your

work – reflect on this feedback and see if there is a common pattern of problems. Refer to

this feedback when you are writing your next assignment - so you don't make the same

mistakes again.

e. Take the opportunity to write notes, emails and letters to your friends and acquaintances in

English.

f. When you are writing, take advantage of the ‘thesaurus’ option available on many computer

word processing programs. For instance, write a simple word and see if a better word can

replace it. For example, when using Microsoft Word highlight the word you have used and

‘right click’ synonyms.

g. Use a learner’s dictionary which gives you examples of how language is used to make sure

that you use new words correctly.

h. Keep a journal – it provides practice and gives you an opportunity to reflect on your language

and your experiences.

i. Have grammar resources readily available. There is lots of online help and there are a

number of good texts available – keep these on hand when you are writing.

j. When you come across a piece of text that is particularly well written, keep a copy and

examine it carefully. Consider those parts of it that you particularly like.

k. Many websites have discussion boards. Join one and contribute. Discussion board writing is

a particular type of writing, but it does provide practice.

Conclusion :English has four main skills which consists of speaking , listening , reading , and writing .

Many strategies can be used to improve the learning of English .

To improve our English language is actually the bottom line is we have to practice anywhere ,

anytime , and with anyone from small things .

we need more practice speaking English in daily habits . ranging from talking to other people ,

family , until when we think .

hear all relating to the English . for example, when watching television , listening to music ,

radio .

read the newspapers with English language , novels , works of fiction or non- fiction , and so on .

write email , journal , or any graffiti hand with the English language .

we need to know a lot of vocabulary . if there is an unknown vocabulary , look in the dictionary .

and if we can , find a friend in another country who have English as their first language .

we can learn good practice English with them .

try to get used to doing it all. simple .. but it really helped us improve ability in English.