Is improving your English among your New Year's resolutions? Here are some tips!

By: Isabel Solano. 


Last week, while I was teaching a grammar class, my students and I discussed our goals and resolutions for the New Year. Among all their different goals in their personal lives and careers, one stood out as a common one: Improving their English. 
Of course, they are students in an English school so this was to be expected; however, I admired (and always have) the motivation and thrive with which our students take on the challenge (or journey!) of studying and mastering English. 

For this reason, I thought I would put together 5 tips that can help everyone improve their English in 2020: 

1. First and foremost, BE PATIENT with yourself!  Think of this popular expression "Slow and steady wins the race". This is an American idiom which means that if you want to achieve something, it's better not to try and do too much at once but better, go step by step. Take it slow. Practicing a little every day, as little as 5 min, will take you further than sitting and studying for 4 hours straight and exhausting yourself. 

2. BUILD HABITS that involve English in any way. They say it takes 21 days to build a new habit. For the next 21 days, try to do something that includes being exposed to English: listen to a podcast, read one page of a book (even reading sections of your textbook for school), listen to the same song and sing using the lyrics. Immersing yourself in English will get your ear used to the language and will improve your memory and comprehension. Look for specific book recommendations at the end of this post!

3.  20 IS THE MAGIC NUMBER. (It is the year 2020 anyway!) If you want to improve your vocabulary, my suggestion is that you search online for the 20 most frequent words in English in all different categories. What do I mean by that? For instance: look up the 20 most frequent verbs in English, the 20 most frequent adjectives in English, and so on. Print and study them. Write examples with them. Make sure you get a good grasp of them (that you understand them well). Just remember to be patient, go slow and learn only 20 words at a time. Here are some links to help you get started: 
https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/common-adjectives-25.htm
https://www.dynamicenglish.cl/blog-feed/phrasal-verbs

4. MAKE IT A GOAL TO USE WHAT YOU LEARN: English is not like mathematics. It is not enough to just understand the rules of grammar, you need to use it! So I invite you to make it a goal to use what you learn daily. For example: if you're learning Present Perfect in class, make an effort to ask people about their experiences "Have you ever been to South America?" "Have you ever studied another language?". If you don't have anyone to talk to in English, don't worry! You have other options: Join a meetup group https://www.meetup.com/cities/us/ny/new_york/,  find a conversation partner on  Tandem: https://www.tandem.net/ or just write your own examples and read them aloud or record yourself. Just don't-stop-practicing. 

5. KEEP A (PROGRESS) JOURNAL OR DIARY: Back to making habits, it's a good idea to keep a diary or journal in English where you can write what you did that day and record your achievements!  You can start by writing two sentences a day before you go to sleep.  For example, Today was a good day. I went to school and then I learned the lyrics of my new favorite song! It doesn't need to be a long and complicated paragraph. Don't forget, slow and steady wins the race! :)

Finally, 

HAVE FUN! Learning a language should be fun! And believe me, I know it can be frustrating at times, but trust that you're learning and doing the best you can...
Have a great New Year!



Book recommendations: (Intermediate-Advanced) 

Someday, someday maybe. (Lauren Graham)
The fault in our stars (John Green)
The sun is also a star (Nicola Yoon)
It's kind of a funny story (Ned Vizzini)