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Learn English on your own
An individual can enroll in online English language learning courses, which focus on determining the methodology that suits the learner after assessing his educational level. In order for the learner to acquire the new language on his own, the following methods can be followed:
Listening to recordings and audiobooks
This is done by listening to audio recordings of English speakers, some of which contain short pauses that allow the learner to answer or speak, and some of which remain continuous without pauses, so that the learner can speak simultaneously with the recording. These recordings are issued on websites or CDs. It is worth noting that there are some audiobooks that contain dialogues related to various life topics, such as dialogues that take place while traveling, in addition to various topics related to grammar, sentence structure, and translation as well.
Learning via the Internet
There are many websites specialized in teaching English, which provide many advantages to the learner, such as providing educational activities with a focus on using the language’s vocabulary, translating vocabulary from the mother tongue to English, with the ability to hear the pronunciation of the word, in addition to other features that can be summarized as follows:
Watching various videos
You can watch a wide range of programs, interviews, dialogues, or favorite movies, or follow topics that interest the learner via the Internet, as listening well to the content is a means of developing conversation skills and communicating with others. Movies and TV shows help understand the English language, especially for those seeking to learn the spoken language and improve their communication skills. It is recommended to initially watch these programs in conjunction with reading the translation, but after increasing the linguistic stock and understanding the vocabulary, it is possible to try listening without looking at the translation.
Participate in grammar tests
The possibility of making grammatical errors increases when using the self-paced method of learning English, and these errors can be avoided by participating in English grammar tests using specialized programs, through which the learner can identify his mistakes and avoid them, and produce a correct grammatical sentence.
Conversations with friends
There are many websites and applications that provide the opportunity to have conversations with friends, which helps motivate the learner to speak freely, and makes him able to correct his mistakes immediately, and chat platforms on social networking sites are an example of this.
Reading books, magazines and articles
Reading enhances the skill of thinking in English, as the language learner needs more time to understand what he hears, because he does not have enough vocabulary, or sufficient knowledge of the grammatical structure of sentences. Therefore, intensive reading increases the linguistic yield, and the ability to understand the rules of the language, in addition to increasing the learner’s ability to understand what the speaker is saying without having to take a long time to interpret what he hears.
Listening to songs
Listening to songs is a fun way to learn vocabulary, expressions, and linguistic structures, and this is done by getting to know the vocabulary of the song and understanding its meanings, taking into account at the beginning the need to stay away from those songs in which the words are pronounced quickly; because it is difficult to understand their meanings.
Methodological methods for learning English
It cannot be said that there is an ideal method for teaching a second language, despite the multiplicity of modern curricula and methods that the teacher can follow during teaching. In addition, the teacher should not rely on a single teaching method throughout the education stage, due to the difference in environments, age groups, and language learning goals from one learner to another.
This requires the teacher to be able to combine methods and choose the most appropriate ones that suit the learners’ goals. The most common learning methods are the following:
Grammar and translation
This method was used in teaching Latin and Greek in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and was later used in teaching modern languages. This method focuses on teaching the grammatical rules of the language to be learned using the mother tongue by reading the educational content, which is often classical texts, in addition to grammatical analysis of the texts without focusing on conversation or listening skills, and memorizing vocabulary separately.
The advantages of this method are that the teacher does not need to speak fluently, as he only relies on the school curriculum. The student also does not need to make a great effort to learn the English language, and he can learn without having to conduct conversations with English speakers. However, the disadvantages of this method are that it is limited to translating words and memorizing grammatical rules instead of understanding them, with the lack of the ability to comprehend texts, in addition to relying mainly on the teacher, so that the student’s role during the learning process is limited to receiving only.
Direct Method
The direct method relies on teaching the educational content using the English language, and the learner is not allowed to use his mother tongue. This method focuses on studying grammar rules using the inductive method, where the learner deduces the rule by presenting sufficient grammatical patterns in the English language. The advantages of this method include highlighting the skills of conversation and listening, and its interest in explaining new vocabulary through the use of educational tools such as demonstrations and providing appropriate explanations. However, the weakness of this method is that learning the second language is done using the same means and methods available for learning the mother tongue, noting that the system of both languages is completely different from each other.
The audio method
The audio method focuses on learning English through conversations between the teacher and the student, where the teacher uses patterns of grammatical sentences, and the student repeats them to consolidate them, and uses them in new contexts automatically, which makes them fixed exercises that the student repeats, memorizes, and applies, and the learner will be able to build different patterns and use them in their appropriate life contexts, and to achieve the desired results from this method, the teacher must use different reinforcement methods, which is positively reflected in the learner’s performance.
The silent method
It is a teaching method developed by mathematician Caleb Gattegno in the seventies. This method focuses on the teacher being a facilitator and a precursor to learning, not a teacher of the educational material, in order to achieve the student’s independence in the learning process. When following this method, the teacher should remain silent and listen and not speak unless necessary.
It is important to note that the teacher should use physical means such as using colored sticks to represent some topics such as prepositions or numbers, and also using phonetic diagrams to teach pronunciation. The teacher also seeks to help the student learn and increase his ability to solve problems he faces in the learning process, in addition to helping him learn through inference instead of the process of remembering.
The deductive method
It is a method founded by the Bulgarian psychologist Georgi Lozanov in the seventies. This method is concerned with presenting the language in a comfortable environment in an atmosphere of calm music, using a variety of methods, such as: relying on inference and discussing activities through dialogues, which helps the learner to obtain psychological comfort and encourages him to interact and discuss with the teacher.
Community Method
The community method is defined as a teaching method that focuses on the learner to a large extent, as it uses the communication skill to learn the English language, and its use depends on five steps:
Thinking: This method should have a recording device, and a circle should be formed that includes learners to think about what they want to share with their peers, while the teacher is outside the circle.
Recorded conversation: The teacher records the dialogue created by the student using his mother tongue into English, and the student is allowed to speak in English if he is ready to do so.
Discussion: Students’ ideas are discussed or talk about what they felt while recording the conversation.
Listening and recording the conversation: Students listen to the recorded material, then record the conversation, so it can be said that the teacher’s role is limited to the first stages.
Language Analysis: At this stage, the use of some rules such as tenses is explained, and the reason for choosing some vocabulary instead of others. This method is characterized by the student’s independence in analyzing the conversation, and it provides the opportunity to work within one team, and encourages the learner to improve his language, but in return, the learning process will be limited to the conversation conducted by the student, in addition to the fact that the student may find it difficult to conduct the conversation, or may face difficulty in speaking spontaneously, in addition to the fact that the teacher does not give the student enough freedom to speak, and will lack guidance for the students.
Communicative Language Teaching
This method revolves around the student, as it depends on the extent of his ability to use his communication skills, and his linguistic abilities, in addition to his ability to use the four skills, which are: writing, conversation, listening, and reading in studying the content, and his ability to understand, as the efficiency of this method depends on the effective use of language, and the student’s ability to express himself appropriately.
This method provides a set of communicative activities that provide opportunities for students to interact with each other by exchanging the roles of characters. These activities are implemented independently of the teacher, whose role is limited to guidance and ensuring that all students are involved in the interactive roles. The teacher can also involve them in groups and divide the roles among them, which will help students learn from each other.
Physical Response Method
It is a strategy developed by American psychologist James Asher in the 1970s, based on the principle of using body language with verbal communication in learning English, as body language is linked to what the teacher says verbally, which plays an effective role in language acquisition and enhancing the learning process.
This method is important in teaching children a second language, and what distinguishes it is that it provides a comfortable atmosphere among students, so that the student does not speak unless he is ready to do so, and focuses on the teacher in using motor activity to convey ideas, and relying on the inductive approach in teaching grammar rules.
Other Methodological Methods for Learning English
There are some methods that can be used to learn English, namely:
Content-Based Learning
It is a study method based on teaching educational content using the language to be learned, meaning that the new language becomes the method through which new materials are learned. When the student focuses on understanding the content in English, he will use new skills and abilities in thinking to reach new information, and thus this method enhances the learner’s intrinsic motivation to reach the information.
Task-Based Language Learning
This method focuses on the student more than the teacher, and it is a technique used in teaching educational materials by applying what has been learned in the classroom, and is based on the idea of using language to explain a specific activity.
Participatory approach
The participatory approach is based on the principle of involving students and their cooperation in studying the same content, i.e. by studying topics or daily problems that students may face using the English language, relying on group discussions of the topics presented, noting that this method enhances the student’s ability to take appropriate solutions, and helps to understand topics from social or cultural aspects, and increases communication skills between students, but in return it requires more time, and requires the teacher to be patient with all students.
Cognitive method
The cognitive method is based on the student’s mental processes such as the process of learning, understanding, remembering, thinking, and using them in learning a second language, and the learner’s role in it is active, as he seeks to understand, analyze the content, grammatical structure, store it and retrieve previous information by applying it in new situations, in addition to addressing and solving problems related to thinking skills such as understanding, analysis and application.
One of the principles of the cognitive method is that it focuses on mental activities more than listening and memorization. Classroom lessons involve deductive processes and designing classroom activities that help students deduce the rule through the inductive approach.
Comprehension and Perception Method
The comprehension and perception method in teaching a new language depends on listening activities, which in turn focus on understanding the meanings of vocabulary and sentences in the new language instead of focusing on conversation. This is done by the student focusing on listening and trying to absorb the different meanings of the vocabulary that makes up the new language, and on how to pronounce words, which develops his ability and skill in understanding and comprehension.
Learning Language Skills
There are 4 general language skills that a second language learner should be familiar with, which are:
Listening Skill
The learner may face many challenges during the process of learning the English language, which may be represented by his inability to understand the conversation in the new language, and the reason for this is due to his lack of linguistic stock, his inability to understand the topics raised, or the speaker speaking quickly so that it is difficult for the learner to understand, but there is a set of skills through which the learner can follow to help him understand the conversation:
Predicting the content
This is done by anticipating the topic that the speaker may delve into, and this helps to retrieve all the vocabulary related to the topic, for example when going to the grocery store, and exchanging dialogue, and the learner should retrieve the appropriate vocabulary expected to be used, and should focus on the keywords that relate to a specific idea in the listener’s mind.
Examples of this include: When the learner wants to know information related to age only, he must pay attention to the vocabulary related to the topic, such as the date or year of birth, which is represented by (old, young, years, date of birth).
Listening to the main topic
This is represented by the general idea of the conversation, as the learner tries to listen to the entire conversation, whether he understands the meaning of the sentence and the vocabulary or not, trying during this to pick up the basic words to guess the meaning and reach the main idea of the topic, for example, when listening to a conversation containing the following words: (fun, food, frind, park, sunnyday,) this indicates that the other party is speaking in the context of outings.
Revealing signs
is listening to expressions that link ideas together, which help to understand the topic that the speaker is narrating, and these expressions emphasize several things, whether they refer to the main ideas, or repeat information, or follow up information, which in turn helps to understand the main idea.
Examples of this include: “in other words” and “to put it another way” indicate that the speaker intends to rephrase the idea in another phrase or meaning, and “first of all” and “moving on to” indicate the speaker’s intention to move on to a new topic.
Inferring meaning
It is the ability to infer meaning from a conversation through prior knowledge, implication, or using context clues to understand the meaning. For example, hearing words that indicate “home work” and “exam” indicates that a dialogue is taking place between a teacher and a student.
Reading skill
The effectiveness of reading skill is evident in consolidating vocabulary in the learner’s mind, recognizing the grammatical forms of a sentence or word, and possessing the ability to use vocabulary correctly, especially if the content is read repeatedly until the meaning of the new word is understood, with a focus on doing so without referring to the dictionary.
Although it is important in learning English vocabulary, relying on it heavily makes it difficult to consolidate the meaning. It is recommended when starting to learn the reading skill to start with a short and easy novel that can be read to predict the meanings of the vocabulary through the context.
Writing skill
The skill of learning to write is not limited to memorizing vocabulary and grammar only, but the learner must be familiar with the grammatical and structural method of words, in addition to the correct use of punctuation marks because of their effect on the meaning, which is evidence of mastery of this skill. To increase the linguistic stock and improve the ability to analyze grammatical structures, texts in English should be read. This can be applied by writing short sentences and building grammatical sentences that help consolidate what has been learned.
It is worth noting that practicing writing on a daily basis and referring to people who are familiar with the English language helps improve the writing skill. To improve the writing skill, there are some methods that can be followed, which are:
- Write a letter to a friend.
- Convert a text written in the mother tongue to the target language.
- Write a summary about a movie or a book that was recently read.
- Correct some writing mistakes that were made previously. Social media lovers can also participate with posts or statuses in English.
Conversation skill
Conversation skill is closely related to writing skill, as those who can speak with others in a language are able to write what they say, and to master this skill, conversations can be held with friends who are able to speak English or with those who want to learn the language. It is noted at the beginning that feelings of shyness can control the language learner, especially those who cannot speak fluently, which requires them to try to control those feelings that may hinder the learning process.
These feelings can be controlled by continuing to conduct different conversations, and there are many situations through which the learner can practice conversation and engage with others, for example while the learner is in the supermarket, and in waiting areas, whether in banks or in doctors’ centers.
English language learning according to age groups
Learning a second language for children
There is a difference of opinion about the appropriate stage for teaching children English, as some encouraged teaching it in the early age groups, i.e. before the school stage, and others focused on teaching it during the school stage, using language immersion programs, which are programs that seek to teach children English – or any other language – through two methods, namely:
- Integrating English-speaking students with students who speak the other language in groups in or outside classrooms, so that each group learns the other’s language, and helps them get to know the cultures of other societies.
- The second method focuses on teaching English by presenting educational content and curricula using English, whether in explanation or during classroom discussions.
Some other methods can also be followed to teach children a second language, such as using educational tools through which the child can acquire and master the language, such as following the repetition method, practicing language games, or presenting the language in the form of a specific song or tune.
Learning a second language for adults
Some people believe that adults do not have the ability to learn a second language, and that the ideal learning stage is limited to childhood, because children have the ability to memorize and apply, but on the other hand, adults have many advantages that make them qualified to learn the language, which are as follows:
- The ability to process thought processes more deeply compared to children. Having a stock of vocabulary.
- The ability to choose the best phrases in terms of structure or grammar.
- The existence of reasons that require the desire to learn the English language, which are represented by keeping up with the developments of the era, and obtaining a better professional life.
Tips for learning the English language quickly
There are many tips that are recommended to be followed by people who want to learn the English language, including the following:
- Practice speaking English with the help of a friend; This is to improve and develop communication skills in the English language.
- Listen as much as possible to conversations in the English language, as this helps develop conversation skills, and learn new vocabulary.
- Use free audio blogs that help learn English, knowing that they are widely available on the Internet.
- Read English books, especially children’s books and picture books, as these books help link terms and vocabulary to pictures.
- Make sure to write down all new vocabulary in a special notebook, adding their meanings and some examples of them, as this helps enrich the learner’s vocabulary dictionary continuously, in addition to developing his writing skills.
Applications that help learn English
There are many applications that can help learn English easily, including the following:
Duolingo application:
This application is characterized by its use of various activities to teach English, and in a fun way, as it can be used to learn all sections of the English language represented by: conversation, listening, and grammar, in addition to learning new vocabulary, and it is noteworthy that it is available for free on Android and Apple systems.
(Busuu) application:
This application is especially useful for beginners, as it allows them to communicate effectively with a large number of English speakers, which helps improve and develop conversation, reading, and writing skills. It is noteworthy that it is available on Android and Apple systems.
(Memrise) application:
This application allows you to learn the basics of the English language, including vocabulary and grammar, in an easy and simple way, and through short educational courses. It is noteworthy that it is available on Android and Apple systems.
You can learn English on your own by listening to conversations in English, reading English books and magazines, or using some websites that help you learn it. You can also download some applications on Android and Apple systems that provide fun and easy ways to learn and practice the English language. You should also practice speaking and practicing English as much as possible.