6 Simple Ways to Improve English- Be a Master:

This article focuses on the SPOKEN part of English. If you are also interested in improving your grammar, read this.

Before we begin, let us talk about why we can’t work on our English. Why, after so many efforts, we still do not feel confident in English? It is due to some minor mistakes that we make while learning English.

Do you remember how you learned your first language?

• You tried to speak from the start, even though you could make sounds.
• You imitated your parents and others.
• You began with broken sentences.
• Your initial vocabulary included the words you heard the most.

Did you try all of this with English?

Now, let’s move ahead and take up a challenge to implement all the steps mentioned ahead from day one of our journey, with dedication.

1.Watch and Listen to English Songs, Movies, Web series and News:

This is one of the most crucial and fun way to work on your English. Find some interesting and easy to understand English songs and write down their lyrics. And try to sing along. This makes you familiar and comfortable with new words and their pronunciation. This will also improve your fluency.

Find movies and web series with English subtitles. Subtitles will make it easy for you to follow along. These will primarily build your context. You will understand what the natives say in a particular situation and what they mean by certain words in a situation. Remember to pause them and try to imitate the dialogues. This will prepare you for conversations.

Do not forget to incorporate English news into your life. News will help you with vocabulary and the formal aspect of the language.

Just do not hesitate from repeating what you hear over and over. Only this way you will improve your pronunciation and fluency.

2.READ what you like:

You might have heard a lot about this suggestion that read a lot of English, mostly books. And yes, this is one of the most effective ways to improve English.

When selecting your book, you prioritize good vocabulary and a high level of English. But by doing this, you might end up with a book that’s not that interesting and might eventually quit on it.

So, it’s better to go with something simple and interesting. It can be a simple storybook. Or any elementary book. Anything that intrigues you to continue. You can also go to an English newspaper if you cannot decide on a book.

3.SPEAK! Be shameless to make mistakes:

With all the knowledge you have acquired by doing the first two steps, it’s time to implement it.

Practise or Implementation is a must!

Remember, as a child, you learned to ride a bicycle. Did you just read the theory about it? Did you only see others doing it? No! You tried it yourself. And in the process, you fell, you stumbled, and you were injured. But you kept trying until you got it.

Do the same with English. Talk to your peers and family in English. Even if you fumble, make a wrong pronunciation, or are made fun of. Be shameless, and do not stop until you learn it.

4.Think in English:

The one thing that stops you from becoming a master in English is that you always think in your first language and then translate it into English.

This process makes it difficult and time-consuming. Also, you might lose context. This also affects your fluency. You might think of a particular word in your native language and then look for its counterpart in English. But initially, due to the lack of vocabulary, finding the exact English counterpart can be challenging and time-consuming, and you may end up feeling stuck. So, it is better to think in English. This will increase your speed to come up with appropriate English words. Thus, increase your fluency and comfort with the language.

You may also practise with an imaginary conversation. Imagine yourself in an imaginary situation having an imaginary conversation. Talk to yourself. This will enhance your thinking in English. And in turn, you will compel yourself to recall the vocab that you have already learned.

5.Do not relate English to your First language:

Another major mistake you continue to make is relating English to your native language. You need to understand that each language is different with a different grammar. Their origin is different. Thus, when you associate one with the other, you may lose context.

There may be expressions or phrases that you use in your first language, but they may not exist in English. Word for word translating, in this case, maybe absurd. The same follows for the local slangs. So better keep the two separate.

6.Memorize vocabulary! Keep your notes! Look for all the possibilities:

Keeping notes is really important. When you come across a new word, memorize it and write it down with the sentence you heard or read it in. It will help you to remember the context in which that word was used. Context is very important to understand what that word means. Also, you can use these notes to revise your vocabulary.

Likewise, you might find several ways to express something. Remember to write them all down, and then you can check them using the Google translator. This process may seem a little tedious but will improve your knowledge and comprehension of the language.

Often you are confused about some word or grammar in English and want to be sure if you are correct grammatically and contextually. In such cases, you can use tools like Google Translate, Ginger software and Grammarly. These are some great tools that can be no less than teachers for you. And more importantly, they are free.

Google Translate: This is a multilingual Google tool with over 115 languages. This tool translates words or sentences of one language to another with ease. However, its accuracy varies from language to language. But for English, it has a good accuracy of around 95%. You can use it recklessly to check yourself and to understand something in your language.

Ginger Software: This is again a great free tool that has almost 100% accuracy. You can rely on it for your grammar. It has two models. One is a grammar checker, which corrects your grammatical errors. The other is a punctuation checker, which is not just a punctuation checker but also a grammar checker. Also, it gives you rewriting alternatives. This enables you to understand your language better and to know all the possible ways to say something. You can also get this for your desktop and get suggestions on grammar all the time.

Grammarly: It is also free. You can download it for desktop or Ms office. Grammarly is also a grammar and punctuation checker. However, it does not provide you with writing alternatives. The free version has features like clarity and correctness, where it guides you about how clear your writing is. It also has a paid version which has many more features. The paid version guides you about your writing tone, checks plagiarism and gives alternative word choices. We can really give this tool a try if you do advanced writing and wish to create a phenomenal piece of writing.

To conclude, if you have read this page so far, you are undoubtedly motivated and would like to work on your English. So, take a 30-day challenge and follow these steps to improve your English. On day 1, take a pen and paper and try to write down 1000 English words. And these should be more than three-letter words. Take a timer to record how long it took you to complete this task.

Perform the same on day 15 and then on day 30 of this challenge. Each time try to write longer and unique words. It will give you a clear picture of your progress and motivate you to continue moving ahead. You can share your progress below to encourage others as well. All the best!