Noticias

It’s time to make sure that you make the most of your course.

Learning English can be a difficult task at times, so here are five goodhabits that are easy to get into and will ensure a successful and productive year of learning.

• Expose yourself to the language!

The good thing about learning English is that it is so easy to find opportunities to learn outside of the classroom - and they can be fun, too! If you watch any television series made in Britain, Australia or the USA, make sure you watch them in their original language. The benefits are enormous: not only will you learn more colloquial language than you might from a textbook, but the exposure will have positive effects on your pronunciation, too. Prepositions are something students often have problems with, and just exposing yourself to English whenever you can - to films and series, books, newspapers and songs - is invaluable in this respect. (Check out our website for offers, discounts, reviews and the chance to win free tickets for the Cineclub de l'Associació Cultural in Granollers and the Esbarjo Verdi in Cardedeu.)

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• Let technology be your friend

Keep a note in your phone for any new words or interesting expressions you come across, and ask your teacher to clarify their meaning during class. Each time you open the note, check you can remember the previous entries. Remember...

• Revise, repeat; repeat, revise

Okay, it might sound both a) obvious and b) boring, but revision and repetition are fundamental parts of learning anything new. To truly commit new vocabulary to memory, there is a theory that suggests you must use a word or expression - in the correct context - at least six times. Once you have done this, you will have “learned” it, and it won’t go away. How can you achieve this? Boring as it may seem,by taking notes in class and going over them later on - and by doing your homework and trying them out in class. Get into the habit early and the results will be noticeable by the time you reach the first monthly test of the year.

• Speak, speak, speak!

Another one that may seem obvious, but to be able to communicate well in English you need to practise speaking the language as much as possible. Enter the classroom with the mentality that, for the next hour and a half (or maybe three!), you have the opportunity to immerse yourself in the language; it is your “English time.” When the course has finished you’ll notice a huge difference in your level.

• Stay Positive

Make mistakes, get things wrong, pronounce things terribly. Do all of these things, and try to learn from them. Stay positive, even if you’re finding the course difficult - it’s likely that you’re improving without even realising it.

Good luck from all of us at Cambridge School!