free

muffin madrid

rainbow cake

madrid cake

a cup of cofee

taekwondo cake

milk

quote

Improving our motivation for learning English

Improving our motivation 

for learning English

© Tomasz P. Szynalski, Antimoon.com

In this article, we share our techniques for improving our motivation for learning English as a foreign language. We used them all the time when we were learning English and we still use them when we need to boost our motivation in areas other than English.

Imagine yourself in the future

Imagine you can talk to native speakers just like you talk in your first language. Imagine other people wanting to speak English as well as you do. Imagine the possibility of writing e-mail to people from all over the world.

It is helpful to read an article about the advantages of knowing English well. There are two such articles on Antimoon: Why learn English and English makes you feel good.

You should know that it is possible to learn English really well. Just look at other people who have done it.

Remember that you are already good

You already know some English (you’re reading an article in English right now). That’s a big success! Now it’s time for more successes. Time to start using powerful methods of effective learning. Time to gain an impressive knowledge of English.

Remember there is a lot that you don’t know

You are good, but your English probably isn’t perfect. You probably can’t understand English-language TV, read books in English, talk to native speakers easily, write letters without mistakes.

You should never think your English is perfect. Even if you are the best student in your class, always try to find your weak areas and work on them. When you’ve learned to speak English well, your problems will be quite small: punctuation, rarely used grammar structures, rare words, understanding “street language”. Right now, your problems are probably more basic: mistakes in pronunciation, small vocabulary, grammar problems with the present perfect tense and conditional structures.

Use English whenever you can

Probably the most important way to improve your motivation is to use English.

Using English is fun. It is simply very enjoyable to use your English to read a good book, understand a song, watch an interesting movie, get an answer to a computer problem, exchange e-mails with a native speaker, etc. The more you use English, the more you will want to use it.

This is great, because using English is learning English. When you’re reading an interesting article or watching an exciting movie, you are using your English, but you are also learning new words and phrases. When you’re writing a message on an English-language discussion forum, you are using your English, but you are also practicing your writing.

But using English can also improve your general attitude to English and increase your motivation to study English in other ways. For example, if you see that your knowledge of English pronunciation helps you understand a movie or speak more clearly, you will be motivated to study pronunciation even more. If you see that checking your sentences in a search engine lets you write error-free e-mail messages, you will want to keep doing that. If you memorize some words with SuperMemo and later you come across them in a movie or an article, you will want to add even more things to SuperMemo.

Talk to people about English

This is a very simple method, but it is very effective. Here’s how it works:

You usually talk about things which interest you. But the opposite is true, too. If you start talking about a boring subject, you will begin to get interested in it.

Imagine you are studying a subject that you hate. You are bored and tired, but you have to pass the test tomorrow. If there are people near you, you have two options: you can tell everybody how much you are suffering or you can tell those people about the things you’ve learned. If you choose the first option, you will only feel worse.

If you choose the second option, and start a conversation on the “boring” subject, you will begin to look at it in a totally different way. Suddenly it will become a subject worth talking about — therefore, an interesting subject.

How can you begin such a conversation? If you’re studying English, you can surprise another person by talking to him/her in English. Say (in English): Hi, I’m studying English and I hate it. Or you can say (in your first language): Hey, I’ve learned 50 English words today. Do you know what’s the English word for ...? If there are no people near you, you can telephone or send an e-mail message to your friend.

What will your friends say? Probably they won’t be very interested, but it doesn’t matter! The important thing is this: After talking about English, you will study it with more passion. Try it.

Find a friend who is learning English

If you can find a friend who is learning English and is on a similar level of skill, you will be in an excellent situation:

• you will have someone to talk about English with. These conversations will increase your interest in English, as explained in the previous section.
• learning English will be easier, because you will be able to discuss your problems with your friend.
• you will study English more, because you will want to be better than your friend. :-)

You should meet your friend regularly. Ideally, he/she should live near you, or go to the same school as you. If you absolutely can’t find anybody willing to learn English with you, you can try to find somebody by e-mail. This is a worse solution: your conversations will probably be less frequent, and it is difficult to compete with someone who you don’t know well.

Spend some money on learning English

If you spend your money on something, you will want to use it. For example, if you buy an expensive tennis racket, you will probably go out and play tennis every day.

This rule is also true for learning English. If you want to increase your desire to learn English, buy a new dictionary, an interesting English-language book, English-language cable TV, etc. The idea is simple: You paid for it, so you will want to use it, and you will improve your English.

There is a problem with this method. It only works for a short time. You usually lose your desire to learn English after a few days. To keep learning, you would have to buy something every week!

However, this method is helpful, because it gives you an impulse to start learning. For example, if you buy a dictionary of phrasal verbs, you will probably learn some words from it. Then you should try to use them. For example, write an e-mail message with these words. This will increase your motivation (as explained before), and you will learn more.

Read Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins

Anthony Robbins’ book Unlimited Power: The New Science of Personal Achievement gives excellent advice on how to achieve any kind of goal. This book has changed the lives of many people, so you might want to take a look at it.

Remember that learning English requires action

We have said this many times. One small action is more powerful than reading hundreds of articles. Yes, we know it is very hard to do things, even if they are good for us. We humans are lazy creatures. That is why not many people speak English well.

Still, we hope you can do the things we talk about in our English learning method — not only read about them. You will be successful only if you change something about your life.

motivation

English is Fun

There are so many exciting ways to learn English 
and make the learning process fun!

• ·         Motivated our self: this is very important cause if we are not motivated to learn English we’ll become frustrated & give up.

• ·         Reading: Keep reading something English (book, newspaper or magazine) all day and every day.

• ·         Listening: If we are too tired to actively practice just relax and listen to an English pop song or talk radio station. It is often use as a way to improving comprehension.

• ·         Watch an English film, news and television program: By watching English film, we can expand our vocabulary and here the flow of speech from the actors.

• ·         Talk to our self: Self talk can help us to become more fluent. We can do it anywhere: in the bath, in the car, etc. Try to put a regular time aside every day when we can talk to our self in English.

• ·         Singing: Singing English songs can be easier for us to be able to more easily master the English language

• ·         Learning with Images: Learning English using pictures of objects or cartoon, effectively can easily memorize it in English

• ·         Taking an English course: If the desire to master English quickly is very strong.  It can make us so good at English

• ·         Practice

Luke: Hi John, can you advise me on some good ways to practice English? Will you help me?
John: Sure, Luke! I have a list of things you can do to improve your speaking skills! Let's begin!
 1. Speak, Speak, Speak
Be confident and speak as often as possible to as many people as you possibly can! Do not be shy to make mistakes! The more you practice the better and more confident you will become in your pronunciation and vocabulary.
2. Use Google Translate
when you are unsure of a word or a pronunciation of a word, ask Google. It's easy to use! Enter the word in Google Translate and listen to the correct pronunciation by clicking on the audio button.
3. Listen
Listen to news bulletins and songs in English to listen to the pronunciation of words. You can also learn new words and expressions this way. The more you listen, the more you learn!
4. Read Out Loud
Read the newspaper/magazine out to yourself. Hearing yourself read will help u spot your mistakes better.
5. Learn a New Word Everyday
Choose a word you would like to work on and use practice it in different sentences. Use the word until you have learn it and keep using it regularly.
6. Watch Films: Watch movies in English and pay attention to new vocabulary and pronunciation

7. Make Friends
Make friends with English speakers or others learning to speak English and compare notes. Talk about things that you have learn and exchange ideas.
8. Do Interesting Activities in English
Take a cooking course in English or join a book club! Anything you enjoy doing, make sure you do it and communicate it in English.
9. Have a Debate
Debate all the topics that interest you with friends in English. Try to use as much vocabulary as you can to get your point across.
10. Use a Dictionary
The dictionary has millions of words to choose from! Look up different words and their synonyms and alternate how and when you use them in sentences.

On Facebook: Add as a friend the people from other countries as much as we want (read their status, knock them on a chat, send them a massage, comment on their status)

Facebook to Learn English

Using Facebook to Learn English

Posted September 19th, 2010 | Education, Lifestyle, Politics, Social | Tags: Facebook, Learning English

Nowadays, Facebook becomes a popular social network sites around the world. According to some news, it has more than 320 million users around the world. Facebook, has a lot of members around the world.

In Facebook, people could share what’s on their mind. When a person is happy or sad, the world will know it if that person share it on Facebook. Just open Facebook, then write at your wall and click share; everybody whom are connected to you will know you’re feeling. In Facebook, you could tell your story.

The development of technology sounds like two sides of coins. In one side, it is a useful media to communicate with others. You may find your old friends who are separated by seas, contact your parents in different cities, and or discussing new discovery using chatting feature.

In different sites, Facebook makes addiction for the users. One of internet rental’s keepers in Malang says to me that Facebook users could spend hourly in their computer just opening Facebook.

He says that there are more than 60 percent visitors at his Internet rental, based on his observation; spend more than 3 hours just for Facebook. For him Facebook makes people dependence in his Internet rental. For my Professor, Prof, Yudi Cahyono, that phenomenon is helpful to improve English language skill for Facebook users.

Prof Yudi, stated that Facebook is useful media to learn English especially learning writing. In his paper, USING FACEBOOK TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’ SKILL IN ESSAY WRITING, he argues that Facebook is useful media to learn English especially in writing.

Based on my point of view, his method in using Facebook to learn writing is simple and easy to follow. He makes Facebook accounts then asks his students to publish their writing at their Facebook accounts. After that, Prof Yudi and his students gives feedback to that students writing.

I think his method is fun, everybody; off course Facebook users love it. By using Facebook, students will learn happily and full of joy. The students learn using their hobby, Facebooking and updating. So, Facebook is a useful media to learn English, especially writing in English.