English learning
Everyday Habits to Learn English Successfully
English is indispensable around the globe. International businesses hold meetings in English, Universities offer courses in English, and all over the world, travellers and tourists use English as a standard language. Therefore, it is impossible to compete in the current competitive market without having good English writing or speaking skills. However, learning English can be challenging, and that progress requires time and effort. Can everyday habits help your English learning process?
10 Habits Can Help You Improve Your English
We have many habits. Some are good while some may be bad. But practising some good habits can help your learning process. Here are 10 proven tips to help you establish solid learning habits to make English learning a part of your everyday life.
Make a Routine
The process of learning a language isn't something that can happen over the night. It is necessary to set aside time for it and think about the best time and place to incorporate it into your schedule. Small, regular pieces of work tend to be more efficient than long, more frequent ones. Therefore, spending much time is not essential.
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You can take five to ten minutes to review your vocabulary or complete some exercises daily. A regular session with your teacher will eventually help increase your proficiency.
Focus on Pronunciation
When planning is done, focus on your pronunciation. Research on the internet and local English language learning institutes to collect resources. You can also follow helpful YouTube channels who teach English pronunciation accurately.
Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) will help you pronounce every English word accurately. Start studying and practising the correct pronunciation through following a daily routine. It would be best if you can practise your pronunciation while communicating with friends, colleagues or teachers in everyday life.
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The habit of improving pronunciation does not mean getting rid of your original accent artificially. Rather, it means making your pronunciation clear enough for others so that they can comprehend what you are saying when you speak. Proper English pronunciation will help you avoid many hassles and confusion in both daily life and career path.
Apply English for Doing Things You Love
You will be able to master the language faster by using the language while learning it. There are various ways to achieve this, but the most effective is to utilise it to perform something you love.
For instance, if your passion is music, travel, sports, fashion, art, or even reading news, you should try doing your work and making the necessary communications through the English language. This habit will help you hone your English language skills in a stress-free and natural way.
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Write
Make the habit of writing every day. It has incredible advantages. Writing is among the most effective ways to remember new English terms and phrases that you have encountered recently. It is the best way to remember vocabulary too.
While reading a book, online article, or watching television shows, you come across fresh concepts and phrases. Rather than just listening to the terms, and allowing them to remain in your head, note them down. You can keep a notebook for this purpose.
Later, you can utilise the new vocabulary and sentence structures to express your thoughts through spoken or written English.
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Read
The habit of reading will help you learn new vocabularies, sentence structure, etc. You should read something every day. It may be online news, articles, journals or a printed book or newspaper. However, you may feel overwhelmed confronting new words.
If you are at a basic level, consider comics or books for children. Although it may seem silly, the images, common words, and basic structure of sentences will help you comprehend the story. Thus, you can strengthen your grasp in English day by day.
Regular reading practice will not only help you to understand everyday vocabulary, but also enable you to develop the skill of speaking and writing in the English language.
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Listening
Everyone loves movies. Find the english dubbed versions of your favourite television shows, dramas or movies. For the beginners, it is an excellent idea to enjoy movies with English subtitles.
Besides entertainment, make the habit of listening to English contents or resources for professional and education purposes. For instance, you can use the internet to search for the topics you are interested in such as science, technology, sports, business, history or anything else. You can listen to international news telecasts, podcasts, youtube videos, etc,
Overlook Mistakes
It's easier to say than to do. Continue the practice of learning. Use the English language for listening, writing and speaking whenever you get the chance.
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Don't worry about mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, including native speakers! and making mistakes is the most effective learning method! There will be a time when you will easily identify the errors you have made. Thus you can develop the ability to rectify mistakes without the help of your teacher.
Speak and Record
Try to speak in English when you communicate in professional life. Even if it's difficult to know how to express something, don't translate directly, but find a way to convey what you wish to say. Make use of simple phrases. Simple sentences can make you feel more comfortable and assist you in translating what you are thinking into words.
Self-critical learners attempt to evaluate their progress. Record yourself speaking a short text or discussing the topic. You can utilise the webcam of your laptop or computer and the video camera of your phone.
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After you have made your recording, review it immediately and consider what you could do to improve the quality of your recording. Re-record it, then watch it and compare it to your original recording to see whether it's better. Continue this process regularly and save all of your old recordings. After a few months, you will begin to notice a noticeable improvement.
Vocabulary and Grammar
Refresh your knowledge of grammar and vocabulary. This will allow you to write well-formed sentences and increase your confidence when speaking English.
You can learn new vocabularies from online resources, printed books, dictionaries, etc. Besides these, the habit of reading, and listening to English contents will introduce you to many new vocabularies. For memorising vocabulary you can use diverse techniques like using vocabulary cards, writing blogs, etc.
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Grammar is very essential to write and speak English correctly. The basic Grammar includes, Parts of Speech, voice, narration, syntax, idioms, Phrases, etc. Pick a good grammar book to learn the basic to intermediate level grammar. Then advance your knowledge accordingly. You can take the help of a mentor to learn Grammar in a systematic way.
Make the habit of applying the grammar lessons in your everyday English communication including speaking and writing.
Join a discussion
Participate in English discussions about something you are interested in. You can join or create an online community. Schedule some time in your daily routine to check in and look at what other people are talking about a certain topic. Try to share your opinions too.
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While navigating social media or social networking platforms, you will see that numerous people are placing queries regarding many issues. If you have knowledge regarding any of these queries, take it as an opportunity to express your opinion. Stop scrolling and share your opinion in English. This habit will encourage you to communicate in English without hesitation.
Bottom Line
In your suitable time of the day practice reading, and writing in English. Create a flexible schedule to get you started. During leisure time, try to watch dramas in English or with subtitles. For professional purposes try to communicate in English with the right pronunciation. At home, practise English speaking by recording yourself regularly and then re-listening the recordings.
So far, we have discussed some simple but efficient habits for successful English language learning. Keep in mind that developing healthy habits requires a bit of time. It's not as simple as deciding you should do it.
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Best Free Websites to Improve English Writing Skill
Writing itself is never easy. And if you are someone who is not a native English speaker, the process becomes even more difficult. But does that mean it's not possible to get better at writing in English? Of course not. In fact, being smart and practicing hard is all that it takes to get better in English writing. And here are some of the most popular open source internet-based tools and websites to support your English writing journey.
Top 10 Free Tools, Apps, Websites for Improving Writing Skill in English
Before getting into the details, it's important to understand that these are companion tools. Meaning they will not write a piece for you. Instead, each of these tools can be used to understand the different lacking points. With effort and correction, it is easily possible to get better in a short time.
Grammarly
The first one on the list is Grammarly. Grammarly is a premium grammar-checking software that can correctly identify up to 250 types of grammatical errors in texts. The software also helps to make texts more readable and increase engagement with readers.
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The free version of the software can be used as an add-on to most word processing software. Users need to subscribe to their monthly plan to access the premium features. The premium features are a collection of advanced suggestions. It helps to make a piece more appropriate depending on its target audience and tone.
Google Translate
Google translate is probably the most comprehensive translator out there. it supports every major language including their different dialects. Google translate can be very useful for non-native writers as it effectively helps them find the perfect English word based on their own tongue.
It’s also a great source for synonyms, antonyms, and different forms of a word. Google translate is an effective tool to increase the vocabulary as well as the readability of any writing.
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Grammar Girl
Grammar is probably the most difficult thing to grasp for both native and non-native writers. While an app like Grammarly is a great way to correct grammatical mistakes, it doesn’t really provide the writers with the scope of learning the grammar rules.
That’s where Grammar Girl comes in. The website has rules and explanations about all the major grammatical items in both lessons and podcast form. For those who want to really get into the details and intricacies of English grammar, Grammar Girl can be a great starting point.
Hemingway App
Hemingway App strategically focuses on the readability of any writing. It doesn’t check for overall grammar items per se, but rather focuses on how easily a piece can be read by a non-technical person.
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While the name suggests it to be an app, Hemingway App is most commonly used as a website. Users will simply have to copy and paste their writing on the website. A left tab will open up instantly which will show several readability indicators. It will also show the optimum use of passive voice, adverbs, and complex sentences and highlight where to make changes.
VisuWords
Most traditional dictionaries, thesaurus, or even a google search will simply list out the different words. The words are listed as antonyms, synonyms, or based on their parts of speech. Needless to say, it’s a very boring approach to making someone understand how and where, which words should be used.
VisuWords aims to solve that problem. The platform is a modified form of a dictionary that comes to life in the form of visual relationships. Type in a word and the platform will show you links between different variations of the word and how to use them in a different scenario. It definitely helps to make the learning process more interesting.
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A Journal
A journal isn’t really a tool for writing. Instead, it’s a process that provides the opportunity to practice more and more. The journal can be about anything. It can focus on daily life, personal goals, experience, or even travel experiences.
Regardless of the type, the journal helps a writer to write more and more and make a consistent stride in getting better at it.
Ginger
Ginger is a similar app just like Grammarly. The main function of the app is to catch grammatical errors and make necessary corrections in the writing. But it does one thing better than Grammarly.
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Ginger can trace a pattern of mistakes the more you use the platform. Based on the common mistakes, Ginger can produce a comprehensive report made specific for each user. The platform also offers lessons to get better on certain topics.
ZenPen
Most of us use a word processor on our laptops or PCs. Being connected to the internet becomes an easy source of distraction. Sometimes one might write a few lines and take an hour-long break browsing social media or watching YouTube. While it reduces productivity, it also reduces the flow of writing. And that might hurt the overall writing quality.
ZenPen helps to block out distractions. Just fire up the word processor and start writing. Users won’t be able to exit the application before they have achieved a set word count goal.
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Expresso
Expresso is another Hemingway App alternative. Just like Hemingway, Expresso takes a deep dive into writing and checks for passive voices, complex sentences, and even word choices. It goes up a notch from Hemingway and even includes filler sentence analysis.
Users will be able to easily check the readability of their writing as well as make it more concise by curtailing the fillers.
A Dictionary
A dictionary is probably the oldest and still most useful writing tool out there. Nowadays, there are all sorts of different dictionaries available online ranging from Dictionary.com to Merriam-Webster. Combine the dictionary with a thesaurus and it becomes even better.
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Whether it's checking for meaning, finding a suitable replacement, or even application, a dictionary can do all that without being too intrusive to the writing.
Final Words
Writing is more like an acquired taste. Some are inherently good at it; some get good by practice. Either way, there needs to be a concerted effort to be consistent and concise while writing. Different people might have different styles of writing, but continuous practice can improve their skill.
So far, we have discussed some of the best free websites, apps, tools to hone your English writing skill. These resources are really useful to create correct and easily readable pieces.
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