english practice
The 4 Techniques That Will Perfect Your Reading Skills
Think about it! When you are reading a book, a summary, a paper, or an article in English, most certainly you don’t read every word and understand it in your main language, right?
This is because reading in English is no different from reading in your mother tongue. You know it is not necessary to read and understand all the words to grasp the meaning of what you are reading. The skills you require to read English are exactly the same as the ones you need to read in your native language.
There are four main techniques that will enhance your reading skills no matter the language. Use them and practice them extensively and before you know it, you will be reading in English, or any other language, like a native. Here they are:
1. Skimming
You use skimming to quickly grasp the main idea of the text. What you do is basically run your eyes down the text gathering the important information. This is a great practice when you need to rapidly understand what’s going on at a business meeting, since skimming does not require that you understand every single word that is written. Normally, skimming is a practice that is widely used while reading the newspaper, to get the news fast; magazines, to identify articles that may interest you; or brochures, to grasp the main information quickly.
2. Scanning
You scan a text to find a specific piece of information. The same as when skimming, you must run your eyes down the text to find what specifically interests you. People normally scan schedules and meeting plans, among others, to identify specific information they need. Scanning is also common when watching TV, and train or plane schedules, as well as convention handbooks. While scanning, forget about words or phrases that you don’t get; these don’t matter right away.
3. Broad reading
This aspect of reading is practiced for pleasure and general understanding of the text. You immerse yourself in the extensive reading of long texts as a leisure activity or for professional reasons. Broad reading increases your knowledge on a subject. Business people and students apply this practice when reading books related to their field, interesting novels, or specialized magazines.
4. Thorough reading
This is the concentrated aspect of reading, the one that allows you to understand something in detail. Thorough reading is used in short texts to comprehend very specific information. It requires lots of attention to be able to understand it completely. To grasp every detail, you must understand every single word, phrase, and number, like when reading reports, insurance claims or contracts.
As in any other skill, fast and effective reading is developed with practice. The more you read, the faster and more perceptive you get; words start to become familiar, phrases start to make sense, and you start to feel you are finally mastering the English language, with the help of your ESL program and your determination to make it to the top!
If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.englishlci.com as the original source).
Don’t Forget to Subscribe by RSS or Email:
Wgtjkcjf lfkldsfk hjtypraa, Got it?!
The key to learning English is to really pay attention when you speak and listen. Sometimes it is hard for ESL students to grasp everything that is being said to them, even during ESL classes, because the other person talks very fast or uses vocabulary they still don’t master. However, this is what it is all about: getting out there, talking and sharing with others, so as to practice and get used to the way people speak in English.
No one should feel ashamed about not understanding or not being clear when they are learning a language. Instead of pretending you got what the others are saying when you really didn’t understand a single word, it could be an address, a question, instructions, or a joke, simply use one of these phrases to ask the others to clarify. This is the only way in which you will really practice and eventually learn the English language:
- Pardon?
- Sorry, what’s your question?
- Can you repeat that?
- Would you mind repeating that?
- Sorry, I didn’t understand
- I missed what you said.
- I don’t get it. (means you don’t understand how to do something, for example, when someone is giving instructions)
- Sorry, I still don’t get it. (when a person has repeated himself or herself to explain)
- Could you run that by me again?
- Can you say that again?
- Could you slow down; I’m learning English.
- Can you spell that, please?
- I’m confused.
- I’m lost. (when you don’t know what someone is talking about because you lost the thread of the conversation)
- You lost me. (same as above, but in an informal setting)
- Say it again? (means repeat, but in an informal setting)
If you want to explain further why you didn’t understand something, you can add:
- I don’t speak English.
- English is my second language.
- I’m not from here.
In the same way, never presume people understood what you said. Talking to others is a great opportunity to ask for help in correcting pronunciation, so, if someone is giving you a puzzled or shocked look, it may be that you just said something that sounded weird, but they are too polite to correct you. If you think you didn’t explain yourself right or that someone didn’t get what you said, here’s the help you need:
- Did you get that?
- Was that clear?
- Did that make sense?
- Let me say it again.
- Let me clarify.
- What I mean is…
- That’s not what I meant.
- Let me put it in a different way.
- Sorry, my pronunciation may be incorrect.
Most people talk through gestures too. Someone can let you know they didn’t get a word of what you said by moving a part of their body, and so can you. These are some typical gestures:
- Shake the head from side to side.
- Lift shoulders up.
- Tip your head a little towards the speaker.
- Wrinkle your forehead.
Try using some of these expressions in your ESL class, and your teacher will be very impressed!
If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.englishlci.com as the original source).
Don’t Forget to Subscribe by RSS or Email:
Want to Practice Your English? Start an English Club
An English Club is a gathering where ESL students can practice English in a casual atmosphere. Practicing during ESL classes is vital; however, it is not real life. During class, you focus on something specific, like vocabulary or pronunciation, you have papers and books to help you and everything is fresh in your mind. In an English Club, you can practice all the skills in a real life environment. You will have to really speak clearly and listen carefully to understand others. At an English Club, you can make really good friends who will increase your confidence, and you will feel more comfortable speaking the language among people you trust.
Here we offer some tips on how to start a successful and fun English Club:
1. Post a sign-up ad at your school’s bulletin board. Give your email so that the students can contact you and offer interesting ideas. Ask them to write down phone number and email so that you can contact them about time and place for the meetings.
2. Ask for help. Every member should contribute to the club, and you can ask a native English speaker to join the meetings, maybe a teacher, who will find the experience interesting as a curriculum enhancer.
3. Plan an introductory meeting to meet each other and to talk about expectations and ideas. To make it worthy, the meetings should have around 6 to 10 students. These can be organized in many ways, maybe each participant can lead during one week, and you can plan based on topics or skills.
4. Define the rules and routines beforehand so that everyone knows what to expect and how to behave. You should have an ‘English only’ policy, decide whether food and drinks are allowed or not, and what topics and behaviors are off limits.
5. Define the schedule for the meetings. Will you be meeting once a week for about two hours, or more? Think about the best time of day; it may vary every week depending on the place and activity planned. Take breaks during holiday season and invite new people about every three months, but always maintain the club’s identity intact.
6. Define who can attend the English Club. Virtually anyone can be a part of an English Club, it depends on your preference, but if we follow the belief that variety brings richness, you should try to allow all kinds of people with all kinds of experiences in. The club must have members with varied language abilities so that everyone can learn something from each other.
7. Vary the meeting places to make the club even more dynamic and to change the atmosphere. You can meet at school one week and later plan to meet at members’ homes to make it more casual; you can play music, watch a movie and feel at ease. From time to time you can meet at a restaurant or café, to experience a new and challenging environment, or in the outdoors, where you can match your topics to nature characteristics like the weather, kinds of vegetation, types of fauna around, picnics or fun outdoor activities.
An English Club is the perfect complement to your ESL classes, a great way to not only practice your English skills, but also meet new people and hang out with your friends.
If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.englishlci.com as the original source.
Don’t Forget to Subscribe by RSS or Email:
Search
Categories
Archives
