More tips for learning English

             LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES

Reading comprehension

1. Read the text quickly to get the gist of what it’s about.
2. Read the questions carefully, making sure you understand them. If you aren’t doing an exam, look up any words you don’t understand.
3. Read the text again, this time more attentively and underline the parts you think may be useful for answering the questions.
4. If you are not in an exam situation, look up the words and phrases you don’t understand, or ask the teacher if you are in class.
5. If you are in an exam situation, use what you already know about the text topic and about the English language to guess the meaning of unknown words.
6. Don’t take the shortcut of simply looking for the answers to the questions without reading the text! This can lead to mistakes.
7. Answer the questions. Try to answer them in your own words unless they are True/False questions and you have to justify them by quoting parts of the text.

Listening comprehension

1. Study the questions you are given carefully before you hear the recording, so as to become familiar with the content and be prepared when you hear it.
2. Don’t try to understand everything; just listen carefully for what is asked in the questions.
3. Make notes in pencil during the first listening and then confirm your answers or modify them during the second one.
4. Check your answers carefully before you finish.

Writing

1. Always have some rough paper to hand. Quickly write down any words or ideas that come to mind in relation to the topic of the composition. If you want to write initial ideas in Spanish, that’s ok.
2. Try to think of an original approach.
3. Use your knowledge and experience ‘of the world’ to find ideas.
4. Once you have some ideas, organise them, either in a diagram or a draft. Remember, you must have an opening paragraph, body and a conclusion. Remember that the conclusion must take up things you have said in your essay and not introduce new ideas.
5. Don’t forget to link your sentences using connectors. Make sure they are the right ones!
6. Adapt your ideas to your level of English, not the other way round.
7. If you are in an exam, you may not have much time, so start by making a short plan or diagram.
8. Check your composition (or your draft) carefully for mistakes such as subject-verb agreement, correct tenses and spelling.

Speaking

1. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. The more you speak, the fewer you will make.
2. Make an effort to pronounce properly but don’t worry if you don’t get it right. The important thing is to make yourself understood.
3. Try put verbs into the right person and tense.
4. Don’t answer questions with monosyllables. Explain or develop your answer.
5. Simplify your ideas so that your sentences will be clear.
6. In dialogue, listen carefully to what the other person says.