Find the way of learning that suits you better - First step

In order to find your best way to learn English, it is important that you know yourself well enough to choose what is better for you.

First of all, you should ask yourself a few questions: Do I really want to learn a second language? How much time I want to spend doing it? What is the purpose of learning?

I would recommend you to grab a pen and a piece of paper and start planning your English Learning so that you can think about the goals you want to achieve based on your needs.

Here are a few steps to creating a great Self Learning Plan:

1. Make sure you have plenty of time to prepare and plan
2. Focus and refine your goals
3. Outline why you want to learn English and how you would like to do it
4. Customized to your needs (time available, personal preferences, weaknesses…)

Believe you can do it

The success for your English learning is to believe that you can do it. This is the most important thing when you are planning to learn something new.

Learning English could seem very difficult at the beginning, but you have to remember that your mind is very powerful, and you can manage to achieve your goals if you work hard on it. 

don't be afraid of failing! recognise your abilities! train your abilities and get ready to learn new things

Find below a video that I found very inspirational and that I hope it motivates you to start learning the language!

Find Your Learning Style

What kind of learner are you?

There are different type of learners, and it is important you recognise what type you are.

Some people learn best by seeing information and visualizing idea (Visual learners) others prefer to hear info rather than reading or seeing it (Auditory learners), there are others that learn better reading or writing the contents (Reading/Writing Learners) and there are other people who prefer learning by doing (Kinesthetic Learners). Now it is the time to decide what type you are and how you want to start practising the language!

Here you can find a link published by Education Planner.org where you can answer a quiz to have an idea about your learning style: http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles-quiz.shtml

See the post Learning ideas to find different ideas depending your learning style.

Learning ideas

This post shows you different ideas you can use to Learn English. Remember that there are many different ways to learn a new language and that you should find the one that best suits your needs.

Some ideas to learn English:

Listening

There are many ways for you to improve your listening skills.
Watching movies is one of them! Try to watch a movie that you like in English setting the subtititles according to your needs!

Music is a wonderful English learning tool too! In this post you can try another type of activity to improve your listening.
Listen to the song and fill in the words in the gaps. Listening to music is another way to improve your listening skills!

Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L91ybmPl8Hw

Sunrise

Norah Jones

Sunrise, sunrise
Looks like mornin' in your                  
But the clock's held 9:15 for hours
Sunrise, sunrise
Couldn't tempt us if it tried
'Cause the afternoon's already come and gone

And I said
Hoo, ooh, ooh, ooh
Hoo, ooh, ooh, ooh
Hoo, ooh, ooh, ooh
To you

              , surprise

Couldn't find it in your eyes
But I'm sure it's written all over my face
Surprise, surprise
                something I could hide
When I see we made it through another day

And I said
Hoo, ooh, ooh, ooh
Hoo, ooh, ooh, ooh
Hoo, ooh, ooh, ooh
To you

Now the                     
Will throw its cover down
On me again
Ooh, and if I'm right
It's the only way
To                  me back

Hoo, ooh, ooh, ooh
Hoo, ooh, ooh, ooh
Hoo, ooh, ooh, ooh
To you
Hoo, ooh, yeah
Hoo, ooh, ooh, ooh
Hoo, ooh, ooh, ooh
To you

Reading and comprehension

Practise and improve your reading skills by reading things that you are interested in. It is important that you find what type of materials are interesting for you in order to read things that you like. 

Find below some ideas to help you to improve your reading skills:

1. Find something to read that you like.
2. Choose the right book for your level.
3. Read loud.
4. Re-read sections when you don't understand what you are reading.
5. Look words up in the dictionary and write them down.

Writing

Become a writer! Don't be afraid of making mistakes and write things down. You can start writing easy beautiful sentences or writing a diary in English!

Below you can find an activity to start practicing your writing skills filling in the template:

Speaking

The best way to practice speaking is trying to find someone to speak with! That is why I would like to welcome you to the new online space I created to help you with your speaking skills, Every Tuesday at 5pm I am opening a Chat space using skype for all the students that want to chat a bit. I encourage you to participate! We will be talking about different topics each week.

Vocabulary

Create your vocabulary wall at home. Write new words in a piece of paper and stick them up somewhere at home where you can see them often. You can choose if you want to write the definition, translation or match them with a picture to make the learning easier. It's your choice how you do it but try to do it every day! This is a good way to learn new vocabulary.

Let's learn by doing

Hello students! Today I want you to try a different way of learning English. I called it "Learning by doing". The main idea is that you practice the language by doing things that could help you with the language in real situations. Whe we put ourselves in a situation where we must use the language is when we learn the language in the most effective way! Today the activity is related with cooking skills!

Please find below the challenge for today! 

You will have to cook a cheesecake, make sure you buy the right ingredients at the shopping centre and that you follow the instructions correctly!

Challenge "Learning by doing": Cook the following recipe:

https://www.grandecheese.com/recipe/pdf/classic-cheesecake