Learning English is not as difficult and impossible a task as it may seem at first sight. In order to achieve the desired success, you need to properly organize the work process and try to avoid common mistakes. In this article we will look at the reasons why even the most diligent people do not achieve good results.
Too high expectations.
Unfortunately, today each of us is negatively influenced by advertising, which for the most part is quite absurd. A new “super foreign language school” has opened in your city that promises to significantly improve your level in just a couple of weeks? Do not believe such a sweet lie: in the short term you can not learn any English, German or Chinese. It takes at least 1 year of hard study to get your knowledge to a decent level from scratch.
Incorrect Goal Setting
If you learn a language just because it’s so fashionable, or “you can’t do without English”, you won’t have too strong a motivation. The real goal is to learn the language in order to get a new and more promising job, a complete change of qualifications, admission to a prestigious educational institution (for example, abroad), travel. You must be clearly aware of the benefits that new knowledge will bring you.
Concentration on grammar.
The most popular and dangerous mistake. Studies show that focusing too much on grammar alone has a negative impact on your speaking ability. Why? English grammar can be difficult to understand logically, and real-time communication is fast. It turns out that you will not have enough time to remember hundreds of memorized rules just to make your point. It is desirable that you master English grammar on a subconscious and intuitive level. The best way is by actively communicating with foreigners and listening to correct English speech.
Learning only formal English from books
Such approach to learning is justified only if you intend to pass a serious international test. But if you just need to significantly improve your own knowledge, do not forget about other methods. Native English speakers do not practically use abstruse phrases that you can find in serious textbooks. If you want to succeed, remember to study idioms, phrasal verbs and even slang.
Strive too hard to be perfect.
Both teachers and their students often get too hung up on mistakes and get frustrated with them. Alas, trying to get closer to the ideal, you forget that even native speakers make inaccuracies in their speech. Instead of dwelling on the negatives, focus on the process of communicating and learning the language itself. Your goal is to learn how to convey your own thoughts in a way that others can understand. In time, you’ll stop making the same mistakes you made before.
Hope for schools and tutors
Many people who learn English overly rely and even pass the responsibility on teachers or courses in language schools. This is completely wrong. First of all, everything depends on you. A good tutor only provides the help you need. You need to study every day, even if your teacher does not give you any homework. Only you can make yourself study seriously.
Learning individual words
Instead of learning individual vocabulary units, you should focus on memorizing ready-made phrases. Just like little children do. Remember, you didn’t memorize constructions like “do-did-done” when you were a kid, did you? That’s right, you memorized whole phrases or even sentences right away. In fact, it’s not hard at all. The best assistant is reading.
Insufficient reinforcement of what you have learned.
When studying any language, you should be guided by the rule “less but better”. If you think that the phrase you learned yesterday, you will be able to remember in a month, it is likely to be a delusion. Unused and unclaimed information is simply thrown away by our brains. It will be great if you find time to repeat the material you have learned several times at a certain interval. For example, the first repetition in a day, the next one in 3-4 days and another one in a week. Such a technique allows you to consolidate important knowledge in the long-term memory and easily “retrieve” it from there if necessary.
Disorganization
Skipping classes, the lack of a certain methodology of teaching, constant changes of tutors – at such a rate you definitely can not learn English quickly and efficiently. First of all, you need to plan your time wisely. If you decided to study on their own, then try to make sure that the lessons were held at least 3-4 times a week. Better – every day. Otherwise it will be difficult to make tangible progress. Secondly, write out a schedule with an exact indication of the time of the beginning and end of classes. Outline the short-term goals that you are going to achieve in the study of the language. Stick to the established plan and do not skip classes.
Lack of concentration on pronunciation
The fact that the pronunciation of English and Russian is very different, everyone is aware of that. You can perfectly know the grammar, have a good vocabulary and even be able to apply this knowledge in practice, but… speak with a terrible accent. There can be many reasons for this disappointing phenomenon: the choice of an incompetent tutor, not enough time to practice pronunciation, ignoring audio courses, lack of live communication in English … The main problem is that over time it becomes harder and harder to eradicate mistakes in pronunciation.
Unwillingness to read English
Yes, reading foreign newspapers, magazines and books is quite difficult. But there is no need for you to understand literally every written word. What’s important is to understand the overall meaning of the text and learn to determine the meaning of vocabulary units from the context. Reading regularly will not only help you expand your own vocabulary, but also help you learn how to form your own words. Without even noticing it, you will learn more than a dozen rules of English grammar. Don’t turn down a cheap (or even free) option for practice.
Popular mistakes that beginners make
Finally, we will elaborate on the most common flaws. We will highlight the main mistakes made by many who want to master the English language.
Pronunciation
Confusion in the pronunciation of short and long vowel sounds.
Pronunciation problems with diphthongs (e.g. replacing them with regular vowel sounds).
Pronunciation of the combination of “th”. It is often pronounced as a Russian “z” or “s”, which leads to an ugly accent. Surprisingly, some learners of English find it uncomfortable to pronounce the letter combination correctly.
Muffled consonants at the end of words (as in Russian).
Incorrect positioning of the accent. This problem often occurs with polysyllabic words. It is also worth bearing in mind that with the same spelling a word can belong to different parts of speech. Its pronunciation can therefore change significantly (as in the words progress, protest, export, etc.).
Problems with the correct intonation. This is especially reflected in tag-questions.
Thus, the problems with the correct pronunciation of the English language is largely due to the fact that the student is guided by his native language.
Learning English is not as difficult and impossible a task as it may seem at first sight. In order to achieve the desired success, you need to properly organize the work process and try to avoid common mistakes. In this article we will look at the reasons why even the most diligent people do not achieve good results.
Too high expectations.
Unfortunately, today each of us is negatively influenced by advertising, which for the most part is quite absurd. A new “super foreign language school” has opened in your city that promises to significantly improve your level in just a couple of weeks? Do not believe such a sweet lie: in the short term you can not learn any English, German or Chinese. It takes at least 1 year of hard study to get your knowledge to a decent level from scratch.
Incorrect Goal Setting
If you learn a language just because it’s so fashionable, or “you can’t do without English”, you won’t have too strong a motivation. The real goal is to learn the language in order to get a new and more promising job, a complete change of qualifications, admission to a prestigious educational institution (for example, abroad), travel. You must be clearly aware of the benefits that new knowledge will bring you.
Concentration on grammar.
The most popular and dangerous mistake. Studies show that focusing too much on grammar alone has a negative impact on your speaking ability. Why? English grammar can be difficult to understand logically, and real-time communication is fast. It turns out that you will not have enough time to remember hundreds of memorized rules just to make your point. It is desirable that you master English grammar on a subconscious and intuitive level. The best way is by actively communicating with foreigners and listening to correct English speech.
Learning only formal English from books
Such approach to learning is justified only if you intend to pass a serious international test. But if you just need to significantly improve your own knowledge, do not forget about other methods. Native English speakers do not practically use abstruse phrases that you can find in serious textbooks. If you want to succeed, remember to study idioms, phrasal verbs and even slang.
Strive too hard to be perfect.
Both teachers and their students often get too hung up on mistakes and get frustrated with them. Alas, trying to get closer to the ideal, you forget that even native speakers make inaccuracies in their speech. Instead of dwelling on the negatives, focus on the process of communicating and learning the language itself. Your goal is to learn how to convey your own thoughts in a way that others can understand. In time, you’ll stop making the same mistakes you made before.
Hope for schools and tutors
Many people who learn English overly rely and even pass the responsibility on teachers or courses in language schools. This is completely wrong. First of all, everything depends on you. A good tutor only provides the help you need. You need to study every day, even if your teacher does not give you any homework. Only you can make yourself study seriously.
Learning individual words
Instead of learning individual vocabulary units, you should focus on memorizing ready-made phrases. Just like little children do. Remember, you didn’t memorize constructions like “do-did-done” when you were a kid, did you? That’s right, you memorized whole phrases or even sentences right away. In fact, it’s not hard at all. The best assistant is reading.
Insufficient reinforcement of what you have learned.
When studying any language, you should be guided by the rule “less but better”. If you think that the phrase you learned yesterday, you will be able to remember in a month, it is likely to be a delusion. Unused and unclaimed information is simply thrown away by our brains. It will be great if you find time to repeat the material you have learned several times at a certain interval. For example, the first repetition in a day, the next one in 3-4 days and another one in a week. Such a technique allows you to consolidate important knowledge in the long-term memory and easily “retrieve” it from there if necessary.
Disorganization
Skipping classes, the lack of a certain methodology of teaching, constant changes of tutors – at such a rate you definitely can not learn English quickly and efficiently. First of all, you need to plan your time wisely. If you decided to study on their own, then try to make sure that the lessons were held at least 3-4 times a week. Better – every day. Otherwise it will be difficult to make tangible progress. Secondly, write out a schedule with an exact indication of the time of the beginning and end of classes. Outline the short-term goals that you are going to achieve in the study of the language. Stick to the established plan and do not skip classes.
Lack of concentration on pronunciation
The fact that the pronunciation of English and Russian is very different, everyone is aware of that. You can perfectly know the grammar, have a good vocabulary and even be able to apply this knowledge in practice, but… speak with a terrible accent. There can be many reasons for this disappointing phenomenon: the choice of an incompetent tutor, not enough time to practice pronunciation, ignoring audio courses, lack of live communication in English … The main problem is that over time it becomes harder and harder to eradicate mistakes in pronunciation.
Unwillingness to read English
Yes, reading foreign newspapers, magazines and books is quite difficult. But there is no need for you to understand literally every written word. What’s important is to understand the overall meaning of the text and learn to determine the meaning of vocabulary units from the context. Reading regularly will not only help you expand your own vocabulary, but also help you learn how to form your own words. Without even noticing it, you will learn more than a dozen rules of English grammar. Don’t turn down a cheap (or even free) option for practice.
Popular mistakes that beginners make
Finally, we will elaborate on the most common flaws. We will highlight the main mistakes made by many who want to master the English language.
Pronunciation
Confusion in the pronunciation of short and long vowel sounds.
Pronunciation problems with diphthongs (e.g. replacing them with regular vowel sounds).
Pronunciation of the combination of “th”. It is often pronounced as a Russian “z” or “s”, which leads to an ugly accent. Surprisingly, some learners of English find it uncomfortable to pronounce the letter combination correctly.
Muffled consonants at the end of words (as in Russian).
Incorrect positioning of the accent. This problem often occurs with polysyllabic words. It is also worth bearing in mind that with the same spelling a word can belong to different parts of speech. Its pronunciation can therefore change significantly (as in the words progress, protest, export, etc.).
Problems with the correct intonation. This is especially reflected in tag-questions.
Thus, the problems with the correct pronunciation of the English language is largely due to the fact that the student is guided by his native language.