How to learn english on your own

10 Super Useful Tips to Teach Yourself English

You don’t have to have formal English lessons to improve and fine-tune (perfect) your English skills.

In fact, you can become your own teacher!

Here are some strategies and tips to help you teach yourself English.

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10 Tips to Teach Yourself English

1. Use Children’s Books, Movies, and TV Shows

It may sound a little stupid, but using resources for children is the perfect way to begin learning English.

Why? Children’s books, movies, and TV shows are basic.

When an English-speaking child learns for the first time, they’re going through the same steps as you are now. It all begins with basic vocabulary and sounds.

When you use children’s books and movies together with your other self-study textbooks and language learning materials, you’ll understand more.

There will be very few things you don’t understand and this will boost your confidence.

2. Listen to Everything and Anything

Surround yourself with English. Have the radio playing in English in the background. Learn with native English podcasts. Watch English TV shows.

If you live in an English-speaking area, just listen to their conversations. Soon, without even realizing it, you’ll be having conversations in English too.

Why? When children learn their mother tongue for the first time, they don’t learn by reading or writing. They pick up (get) words from people around them.

At first, they understand little or nothing. But as time passes, they acquire (get) more vocabulary. This vocabulary slowly turns into phrases, and these phrases are then placed into full sentences.

3. Learn with Music by Looking Up Lyrics and Singing Along

Look up the lyrics and try and get a feel for what they’re singing. Choose your favorite phrases and write them down in your notebook and don’t forget to practice using them with every opportunity. Listen and sing along with the words.

Why? The best thing about learning from songs you love is that they’re catchy (they’ll stick in your head) and furthermore, the language is everyday English so you’re learning how the average person speaks.

4. Use the News to Learn English

If you don’t have enough English to understand the news completely, try reading or listening to it in your native language first, and then listening to it or reading it again in English. Or you can try getting your news from TIME For Kids.

Here’s a video on other news resources for learning English:

5. Watch Movies to Learn English

English movies are engaging and will help you learn culture at the same time.

For intensive learning, you can even focus on specific movie scenes and then break down what each phrase means. If you’re aiming to learn conversational English and slang, then movies are some of the best resources for that.

You can turn on subtitles so that you can more easily understand what’s going on. While you’re watching, you should keep notes on the English words you hear. See how much you can understand without having to use a dictionary.

It can be hard to start learning with movies right away because a lot of things are going on. Also, the characters might be talking too quickly or using specific English vocabulary for the situation. You can practice with shorter videos so that it’s easier to follow along.

Once you’re comfortable with short English videos, you can then start watching full movie scenes. This is a fun way to learn a lot of English vocabulary that you can use in real life. It’s also great because you can more easily remember the words and phrases when they’re in connection to a picture and scene!

6. Learn English from YouTube

Like cooking? Exercise? Philosophy? Whatever your interest, you’ll be able to find a channel that you can learn English with.

There are also many YouTube channels specifically made for ESL learners. Here are some really great YouTube channels for learning English.

7. DIY Flashcards

DIY (do-it-yourself) flashcards are a great way to practice words and phrases.

Just write the words on index cards, with the English on one side and your translation on the back. Whenever you have a free moment, flick through (quickly look) the cards and see how much you remember.

It’s a great way of testing yourself. Start with the English side showing first and try to remember the translation in your native language. Once you’ve mastered all of the cards that way, then flip them over and try to recall the English when looking at the translation – it’s a bit harder. If you don’t want to carry around a deck of flashcards, think about using the FluentU app.

8. English Club

Do you have a group of friends who are in the same position as you? If the answer is “yes,” then you need to make the most of this.

Organize a group of friends who will meet every week, either at home or in a local café.

Ban (don’t allow) everyone from using their own language when the club meets. Only English may be spoken. Nominate (choose) one person each week to bring something interesting (maybe some information about new English websites they’ve found, a cool magazine article or recommendations for easy-to-understand movies).

Why? You’ll be able to communicate naturally and stay in touch with friends (while having fun).

9. Join Online Language Forums

Another awesome way to practice your written English and communication skills is to join a number of online forums where people discuss matters that interest them.

Reddit is a widely-used site that covers a vast range of topics (called “subreddits”), so that’s one place to start. Reply to other users and try to get conversations going, or post some useful information that people will want to respond to.

10. Take It Slowly

If you’ve made the decision to learn English without the help of a teacher, you need to take things slowly.

Don’t expect to read some English, go to bed and wake up fluent.

Set realistic goals and dedicate a set amount of time to learning English every day. Thirty minutes is good, but if you can do more that’s even better.

Learning English alone means you can choose the time, the place and method; however, it’s really easy to say I’m too tired or I’ll do it tomorrow! No one ever learned a language well with this attitude, so you really need to want it… you can do it!

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16 Ways to Learn English At Home (+ 1-Week Study Plan)

Nowadays it is possible to learn English at home and at this difficult time, it is a good idea to use your time to learn English and make a study plan and stick to it.

The first thing you need to do is to think about your own level of English and your strengths and weaknesses. Maybe you are good at grammar but your speaking skills are not very good. Then you need to make a personalized study plan so that you practice your speaking skills more. Your English level depends on how much study and practice YOU do.

Just to help you here is a plan to help you get started. Take this plan as a guide and use it to study.

Reading

Read and answer the questions on British Council

Write down new words in a notebook

Listening

Listen to one of the BBC 6 minute English lessons

Write down new words.

Writing

Chose a writing lesson from British Council and do it.

Try to find a teacher or friend to correct your writing to get feedback. Learn from your mistakes.

Speaking

Take a free 15 minute class with Cambly.

Sign up for classes every week or if you have no money find a language partner.

Grammar + Vocabulary

Choose a grammar topic from Exam English and study it.

Review the new words from the week and check that you can use them

16 ways to learn English at home

There are so many things you can do to learn English at home. Here is my list of things you can do to improve your English.

Take an online English class

Online English classes are a great way to practice your speaking and listening skills. Cambly and Italki are the best websites to take a class in English. You can have a call with a native English teacher and schedule an hour to have a conversation. This is a great way to practice real English conversations at home. If you don’t understand some grammar topic or new vocabulary, then you can ask your teacher to explain it to you.

Read an English book

Reading in English is a great way to increase your vocabulary and improve your comprehension in English. You should always choose a short book to keep your interest and motivation because it is difficult to read a long book. If you have a high level of English, then you can read the classics in English for free here.

Watch T.V/Movies

Watching T.V is a popular way to improve your listening and even to improve your vocabulary. Watching T.V can be useful for learning in 2 ways. The first way is to use it as part of your study. That means you take a video and watch it slowly and try to understand every single word with the subtitles and write down the new vocabulary. The second way (and most common probably!) is to watch T.V passively. This is not as effective but is still good to do if you are too tired to study. If you have Netflix, then look at my article about the best tv shows to learn English on Netflix.

Watch English lessons on Youtube

Youtube is a great resource to learn English on Youtube. I post One Minute English videos on Youtube and teach grammar too. But the best youtube channel to learn English, in my opinion, is EngVID. They have so many great English videos from around 15 different English teachers.

Listen to the radio

Nowadays with the internet, you can listen to radio stations from all around the world. I use the app TuneInRadio to listen to Irish radio because I am from Ireland. You can find radio stations from all around the world and about whatever topic you are interested in. This is great if you are traveling to a city and you want to practice listening to the accent.

Listen to a podcast

Listen to a podcast is a great way to improve your listening skills and also learn new grammar and vocabulary. They are a great way to take a break from studying on a computer and you can just lie on your bed and practice English. I wrote an article about the best podcasts to learn English on Spotify.

Listen to music with Lyrics training

Music is a great way to practice learning English. There is so much great music in English and you can use lyricstraining.com to listen to music and improve your English at the same time. This is a listening for detail exercise which is great practice for the students who can understand about 70% of English and want to understand everything.

Study grammar

Oh yes, of course! Study grammar. I actually find studying grammar to be very interesting and being at home is the best place to study grammar. You can find a grammar book (I recommend “English Grammar in Use”) or find resources online.

My advice for studying grammar at home

Step 1 Find your level

Step 2 Use the list of grammar topics for your level on Exam English

Step 3 Chose one topic per day and use ExamEnglish and MyEnglishPages for more practice.

Use apps to learn more vocabulary

Duolingo, Babbel, Memrise, and Busuu are all free apps that you can use to learn English. These apps are good to learn vocabulary and Busuu is my personal favourite because they have a nice variety of lessons.

Take an online English course

Online English courses are a great way to learn English in a structured way. Espresso English courses are some of the best courses online and you can study these courses at your own pace.

Write a diary in English

Writing a diary is a great way to practice English and to improve your writing skills in English. It is easy. Just write down your thoughts every morning in English. This will help you to think in English and improve your fluency in English. Don’t worry about making mistakes. If you want someone to check your writing, you can signup to Italki and write in the “Notebooks” section. Writing your thoughts down on paper is also great for your mental health.

Write in a Forum

Forums are a great place to go if you have questions about learning English. My favorite forums to learn English are Reddit and Word Reference. Reddit is great if you have a grammar question or a question about learning English in general. Word reference is excellent if you are not sure how to use a specific word.

Play video games in English

Video games are a great way to learn English and it is easier than ever to join a game and play over the internet. You can start watching some games on Twitch Tv and see what games you like. Many games include a way to communicate with your opponent. This is such a great way to speak natural English and have fun at the same time.

Learn something through English (musical instrument, new skills)

This is my favorite way to practice foreign languages. I have learned songs from Brazil and Mexico and France to improve my guitar and singing ability and also my language skills. It is great fun. If you don’t like music you can try and find a traditional recipe and follow the instructions in English and cook the meal yourself(try “boxty” from Ireland!). You can also try doing a workout in English or learning how to code.

Find a language partner

A language partner is a great way to learn about the culture that you are interested in and also practice English and teach and share your own culture. Take a look at my post about the best ways to practice speaking English online and I give many options to find a language partner online.

Name things around your house

This is a way that you can improve your vocabulary. Get a packet of sticky notes and write the names of all the objects in your house and stick a sticky note on them with their names in English.

How to Learn English By Yourself: Try Out These 10 Useful Tips

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«Can I learn English by myself?»

«Can I improve my language skills on my own?»

«How can I learn English easily?»

Any of these questions ring a bell? If you’ve come across this article, you must be interested to know how to learn English by yourself. Still, you probably feel afraid a bit because there are so many new things to learn.

We’ll be honest: learning English on your own can be challenging but not impossible.

There are many ways you can improve your English language skills. You have to be determined and disciplined enough to study grammar, build your vocabulary, improve reading, writing, and listening skills.

That’s why we will help you out by sharing 10 useful tips to learn English on your own.

10 Useful Tips to Help You Teach Yourself English

Set Your Goals

If you’ve decided to learn English, take it slowly at first. For a start, set your goals. Make your daily schedule to study English. Thirty minutes a day is acceptable, and everything beyond that is even better.

When you’ve organized your daily schedule, stick to it but be realistic. You can’t expect to study 30 minutes a day and become fluent in a week. That’s not how things work.

If you want to learn English quickly, you have to spend much more time studying it.

Practice Your Listening Skills

The good thing about English is that it’s quite commonly used. That gives you a chance to stay connected with the language.

Just like babies and kids learn their mother tongues, the same way you should approach learning English. They don’t learn to read or write first, but they listen to their parents and people around them. That’s how they are developing their listening skills.

So, to improve your English listening skills, listen closely. Listen to the radio or different English podcasts. Even watching English tv shows can help you with your listening skills.

Mix It Up With Movies

Everyone loves watching movies. It is also a great way to learn the language and have fun. But, before you rush to make popcorn and sit on a sofa, find a movie that isn’t so hard to understand, especially if you are a fresh English learner.

Watch movies that you’re already familiar with at the beginning. It can help you with some unfamiliar words, and you can easily follow the story because you’ve already watched the movie.

You can also turn on the subtitles so, besides boosting your vocabulary and practicing listening skills, you can practice your reading skills as well and concentrate on pronunciation.

Prepare a notebook to write down some unknown words and phrases. Later, try using them in different contexts.

Read Everything You Can Get Your Hands-On

Reading can be useful for many reasons. Besides improving your reading skills, you can be exposed to the words and phrases you already know. With reading, you are up-to-date with the latest news and events. Therefore you have many different topics to discuss with other people in English, of course.

Furthermore, building up your knowledge about the latest news and talking to others about it is the perfect way to practice and improve your conversational skills.

So, newspapers, books, social media feeds, blogs, paperbacks, emails: read everything you can get your hands-on.

Learn English With YouTube

On YouTube, you can find literally anything you want! To make learning more fun, search for English channels, subscribe to receive notifications whenever a new video is released, and enjoy.

Do you like humor or cooking? Or you prefer fashion and make-up? Vlogging perhaps? It’s no problem at all. Search for that topic on YouTube, choose the ideal video and listen/watch closely.

People tend to be more familiar with the topics they are interested in, so understanding foreign videos might be easier than you expect.

Join Forum Discussions

Most of the internet forums are in English, so whichever topic you are interested in, search for it, and you’ll get results. Today, there are online forums for practically anything.

Forums like Reddit, cover a variety of topics. If you want to discuss how to enhance your pronunciation, what are the best series to watch at the moment, or how positive thinking impacts your life, then go for it!

It is one of the best ways to improve your written English. For this method to be productive, you have to post comments or give your insight about familiar topics.

However, don’t expect to improve your English with forums overnight. It takes a lot of time and effort to become fluent. But, eventually, you’ll see positive results.

Use Flashcards

Even though it seems childish a bit, learning English with flashcards is actually quite useful. They are a fun way to practice words and phrases you’ve learned.

Make your own flashcards. Write words and phrases on one side of the card and the translation on the other. Or even better, instead of a translation, write down the definition or explanation of the phrase.

Steal at least 5 minutes from your daily schedule and run through the flashcards. This way, you test yourself and your memory. Use the same flashcards until you learn the last letter from them.

Listen to Music

As much as you try, there will be days when you simply can’t focus enough to study. Don’t be disappointed. In the learning process, it is one of the typical phases. We all are human beings, not machines, and sometimes, as much as we want to, we can’t concentrate on one single thing.

But, we have a solution for that, too.

Listen to music!

Most of the songs nowadays are in English. So, whether you prefer heavy metal, reggae, or pop, find several songs and press play.

After listening to them a couple of times, you can also find lyrics and follow along.

Rhymes and lyrics are usually easy to understand because songs mostly talk about everyday life, so you may hear how people speak in real life.

Take Notes All the Time

Taking notes is a must. In any learning process, it is essential.

When learning the language, writing down a word or a phrase you’ve heard for the first time is a life-saver. You might think that you will remember it, and there is no way you can forget it, but our brain doesn’t work like that. Our brain likes repeating. Therefore, if you write down anything you find helpful, you save yourself a lot of time.

Write down a word or an expression, its definition or explanation, the context it is used in, or a sentence as an example of how and when to use it.

Remember How it Was When You Were a Kid

Do you remember how it was when you were a kid? Playing with friends, watching cartoons, reading books about princesses and beautiful adventures.

Would you like to get back to that period? Yes, you would. And now you can.

As an English student, you are a toddler or a kid. As silly as it may sound, playing games and watching cartoons can be useful methods to learn English.

Cartoons and kids’ movies are easy to follow; sentences the characters use are simple. Therefore, you’ll understand everything better. When you come into some unfamiliar phrase, you don’t need to rush to look in the dictionary, but you can figure it out on your own from the context.

Besides, reading books and watching cartoons is the most entertaining way to learn English quickly.

Final Thoughts

Learning English at home, and on your own has never been easier. But it takes a lot of time, effort, and dedication.

Combine the tips from above to get the best out of your learning.

If you feel you’re not progressing or simply need a real person to practice with, English tutors are always available.

How can I learn English by myself?

If you’ve decided to learn English, take it slowly at first. For a start, set your goals. Make your daily schedule when you are going to study English. Thirty minutes a day is acceptable, and everything beyond that is even better. The good thing about English is that, wherever you turn, it is available. It gives you the possibility to stay connected with the language. Just like babies and kids learn their mother tongues, the same way you should approach learning English. Everyone loves watching movies. It is also a great way to learn the language and have fun. But, before you rush making popcorn and sit on a sofa, find a movie that isn’t so hard to understand, especially if you are a fresh English learner. Watch movies that you’re already familiar with at the beginning. It can help you with some words you don’t know, and you can easily follow the story because you’ve already watched the movie.

Can I learn English on YouTube?

On YouTube, you can find literally anything that comes to your mind. To make learning more fun, search for English channels, subscribe to receive notifications whenever a new video is released, and enjoy. Do you like humor or cooking? Or you prefer fashion and make-up? Vlogging perhaps? It’s no problem at all. Search for the video, choose the one you find ideal and watch and listen. People are usually familiar with the topics they are searching for, so understanding videos will be easier. If you specifically want to learn the language, on YouTube, you can also find many channels for learning English. Whether you are a beginner or fluent in English, you can find whatever you want. Besides learning to write, read, new words or grammar rules, many channels offer fun facts about culture, differences between British and American English, or learning the language with games.

How to learn English for free?

Watch YouTube, read the news, listen to podcasts, download free apps and games.

How to Learn English by Speaking at Home: 10 Fun and Easy Ideas

Not quite ready to meet with a native speaker face to face?

I have just the solution for you.

You can learn to speak English at home—in your PJs if you want—with these 10 easy ideas.

Contents

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Why Learn English from Home?

One way to start fun learning is to do it right in the comfort of your own home. Your own home is a peaceful place where you can learn the way you want to.

Further, there are five other reasons why learning to speak English from home is much more fun:

As you can see, fun learning is indeed possible. And now, you can start feeling better knowing that you can learn through your own efforts.

So are you excited to get speaking in English? Here we go:

10 Fun and Easy Ways to Learn English by Speaking at Home

1. Sing Karaoke

Singing karaoke is when you sing along to a song that doesn’t have the vocal track, only the background music—so you’re the only one singing. It’s really fun, but sometimes if you’re with other people you can feel nervous and shy.

But at home, you can just relax and sing your favorite songs as loudly as you want! It doesn’t matter if you prefer Frank Sinatra, Lady Gaga or One Direction—as long as you sing in English, you’ll improve your speaking skills while having a good time.

Before you can sing karaoke, though, you will need to learn the lyrics and practice. Break down the song and learn the lyrics in an exciting way with FluentU.

FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Click here to check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.

Try FluentU for FREE!

Then, quiz yourself with the game Lyrics Training, where you fill in the missing words from the lyrics as the song plays. Next, sing along with the singer several times, and then finally you’re ready for the ultimate test (and perhaps the most fun part): singing karaoke!

Luckily, you don’t need an expensive karaoke machine to sing karaoke. You can easily find karaoke songs on YouTube. Simply type the name of the song and artist, plus the word “karaoke” into the search field. For example, if you want to sing the classic song “One Way or Another” by Blondie, just type “One way or another blondie karaoke” into the YouTube search bar, and you’ll successfully find this video as the top result.

Try Adele’s “Someone Like You,” Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” and “Summer Nights” from the musical “Grease” for some popular karaoke songs to start with.

2. Read Out Loud

Reading silently can help train your mind in the English language. However, reading out loud will train your tongue to speak English properly. You can pick any book, poem or short story you want and start reading the words out loud.

In the process of practicing to speak English, you should also know if you’re saying the words correctly. At home, you can check if your pronunciation is correct by simply downloading apps from Google’s Play Store.

You can try English Pronunciation by Kepham. Once the app is installed, type in the word you want to hear pronounced.

You can also try Sounds: Pronunciation App, where you can check the words in both British and American English pronunciation. Plus, this app has a practice and quiz tester too. Both of these apps are free to download.

3. Exercise with Workout Videos

How can that help you, you ask? If you choose to exercise, use English workout videos instead. It will be best if you have DVDs or Blu-Ray discs because these videos always have subtitles. When you work out, try and read those subtitles.

Among the best exercise videos are those from exercise expert Shaun T. You can try his classic “Hip Hop Abs” or “Insanity.” Buy these videos on DVD or rent them from the library so you can use the subtitles.

Once the video starts, copy his movements and his words. So if he’s counting, count along with him! Not only will your body get a good workout, your tongue will experience great English exercise too.

4. Host an English Night Dinner

Get your friends to join your English-speaking journey by hosting an English Night dinner. Well, it could also be a breakfast or lunch, as long as the whole point is for everyone to speak English the entire time.

Be sure to plan some games in addition to the meal. What are some of the games you can try?

First, play Continue the Story. To play the game, someone should start a story by saying “Once upon a time.” Then, the next person will continue the story, perhaps saying, “There lived a princess and a prince.”

To make the game more exciting, you can add a specific number of words per answer. If a friend picks five, he or she should only say five words. If he or she uses the wrong number, the player is out of the game.

Another game you can try is Question and Answer. Have all your friends, including yourself, write a question on an index card. After all the questions are written, put them in a box or bowl and mix them up. Then just take turns picking a question and answering it.

5. Play Monopoly in English

Another fun thing you can do is to play games that require you to read or speak in English. A good example is Monopoly. The board and cards are all written in English, so read them out loud when you’re playing.

Monopoly is easily available in all toy stores. This board game will let you move around the board, buying, selling and renting out properties. The game concept is easy, but for non-English speakers, reading the text on the cards can be a challenge. So if you’re playing, reading the text out loud should prove to be helpful.

Just for added fun, read the text with some emotion. If you are the landlord, express a dominating tone when speaking. Maybe you’re a very nice banker, or perhaps the banker is mean. You decide!

6. Chat with Friends Online

What better way to learn to speak in English than learning with friends? Instead of chatting with them through your keyboard, why not just do a voice or video call instead? This way, you can practice speaking in English in a conversational way. This will be good practice for you both.

One of the most useful video and voice chat apps is Skype. After downloading the free software, sign up for an account and start adding your friends to your contacts.

Another app you can use is Viber. Install the application, and then you can start talking to your friends in your phonebook.

Both apps can be used on desktop and mobile. You call a friend like how you usually make a call on your mobile phone.

7. Call a Customer Support Hotline

You don’t need to have a real question or complaint in order to call customer service. But for the sake of learning to speak in English, pretend you have one. Most big, international companies will have English-speaking representatives. Think of it as a free English lesson.

One way to do this is to ask questions about their products. If you’re calling a beauty product manufacturer, try Avon’s Hotline at 1-800-FOR-AVON. Pretend that you bought a product, and tell them your problem with it. You might say:

Hi, I recently bought your anti-aging skin cream. I like it, but I find it too oily for my skin, would you recommend anything else?

Later, you can continue asking about the other products they have, and you can continue to share what products you are looking for.

For men, you can try calling Nordstrom’s Hotline at 1-888-282-6060. If you don’t feel like asking about products, you can always ask about their refund or return policy. In that case, you might start with:

I recently bought a shirt, but it doesn’t fit right. What’s your return policy?

From there, you have already started a conversation with the customer support representative.

8. Record Yourself

Recording yourself will help you know your pronunciation mistakes. To record yourself, you can use your smartphone, tablet or even your laptop.

Simply start by finding a piece that you’d like to read, and then open up your device’s Audio Recorder and start recording yourself.

Now, recording your own voice is just the first step. The more important step is to check if you’ve pronounced the words correctly. Use the apps mentioned in #2 to check if you are pronouncing the words correctly.

Keep recording your English speaking sessions at home until you perfect the piece you are reading. After that, you can move on to a different piece and also challenge yourself with more advanced vocabulary.

9. Memorize Your Favorite Movie Lines

You probably have a couple of favorite movies that you like to watch over and over again. This time around, you can enjoy them better by speaking like you’re a part of the movie too. Speak alongside the actors and don’t forget to talk with emotion.

We suggest these classic American movies that you can watch later on if you have nothing else in mind. Also, if you’re having a hard time identifying the words they are saying, you can always Google a movie’s transcript.

A transcript is the entire script of a movie, so you can follow the dialogues from there. For example, if you want to say Tom Cruise’s lines in “A Few Good Men,” simply type “A Few Good Men transcript” into Google’s search box.

10. Make an Audio Blog

An audioblog is kind of like a blog of podcasts, where you record yourself for other people to hear. You can talk about whatever you want: movie reviews, share stories, give your opinion, etc. After you record them, you can upload it to your blog and let other people hear what you have to say.

If you have native English speaking friends, ask them for constructive feedback. This means they’ll give you pronunciation tips, praise and ways to improve.

To make an audioblog, start by making a free blog (Try Blogger or Tumblr). Then, use any Audio Recorder you have and record files of yourself speaking. Upload them to your blog and publish the post. Ta-da!

Any combination of these 10 ideas will guarantee an entertaining time with results. But there’s one final tool that you will need to be successful.

A Positive Mind Will Help You Learn to Speak English at Home

If you want to speak English well, physical action alone is not enough.

You should have your eyes on the goal and stay positive when learning.

If you start feeling doubtful or feel like you won’t be able to do it, chances are, that is exactly what will happen. So be positive and believe in yourself. Tell yourself encouraging things: You can do it! You’re getting better! Great job!

In addition to being positive, you need to be persistent, dedicated and most of all, committed. These characteristics will bring you many learning successes.

As you can see, to be able to speak English, you’ll need the physical, mental and emotional aspects. You need to practice with your tongue, but also keep the right mindset.

And most of all, you need to have fun. If you can do all of these things, you will surely be an awesome and fluent English speaker sooner than you thought!

Azalea Pena is a lover of the English language. She has taught non-native English speakers to learn written and verbal English. She enjoys using the language through her writing and hopes to be able to help out more people who have the same interest and love for the language as she does.

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How to learn English at home: 35 tips for faster results

Want to improve your English at home? Making slow progress with your solo studies? In this home study guide, we will share with you 35 effective strategies to help you get faster results by using the best ESL resources and websites. Ready? Let’s take a look!

What you will learn:

Why learn English at home?

If you want to improve your English quickly, you need to make time to study regularly and have more contact with the language. For most learners, this is a problem because work, family and social commitments often get in the way. Missed classes or study sessions lead to slower progress, which then affects your motivation and progress. Choosing to learn English at home can help create extra space for your skills to develop naturally.

3 good reasons to learn English at home:

TIME – You can save time because you do not need to travel 30-60 minutes to and from a school. This time can then be used to improve your English.

ACCESS – Everything you need is at your finger tips! You can create your own “English library” of online and paper-based study resources to use whenever you have 30-60 minutes free. This helps you make the best use of your time. If you would like a teacher, you can easily find one online.

CONVENIENCE – You can relax in the comfort of your own home and use more passive methods of learning, such as listening to English music or watching television. Using English at home is proven to help you gain fluency faster.

Make a plan for your sofa-based studies!

One of the main advantages of self-studying at home is that you have full control over how you learn English. You do not need to compromise or consider the needs of other learners. This freedom gives you the chance to study using materials and methods that are of most interest and relevance to you. Follow these tips to create the perfect English study zone at home:

Learn real English with films and videos

How many hours a week do you spend watching TV at home? Could some of this time be used to watch programmes, films or video clips in English? This can be a great way of increasing your contact time with the language and can also help you understand more about British or American culture.

If you do not have cable TV in English, then you can still watch a wide variety of films, videos and live programmes for free via the internet. All you have to do is search! Try these tips to improve how you learn English through films and video resources:

Check out this example of an American vlog about a guy’s “colourful life” in New York. He has around 8 million subscribers on YouTube, which shows how popular vlogging has now become! Bonus tip: Click the CC button to watch with English subtitles.

Improve your listening skills with audio

Fluency in English often comes first through being a good listener. Developing your listening skills helps your understand others, build vocabulary and learn grammatical constructions. In many situations, you will learn more by listening than you will by speaking! Here are some tips to help you improve your listening skills at home:

Hit the books!

Having a personal library of English books at home is a big advantage. However, you should be selective with the books you include in your collection. Boring textbooks, literature and magazines can really hurt your motivation to study. Remember, this is YOUR library and nothing gets in unless you say so!

Learn vocabulary in your pyjamas

When do you feel most comfortable and relaxed? At home in your pyjamas, right? Make yourself a nice cup of tea, find your favourite spot on the sofa and use a bit of downtime to improve your vocabulary skills. A few minutes a day is enough to make good progress over time!

Improve your spoken English at home

One problem with self-study is that it can limit your opportunities to speak English regularly with others. If you want to improve your spoken fluency, you need to interact in the language as much as possible. Read the following tips to find out how you can get all the speaking practice you need without leaving the house!

Enhance your writing skills

Many ESL learners focus more attention on speaking, listening and reading than they do on writing. However, you should not ignore the importance of this skill. A lot of communication in English is still done in writing – emails, formal letters, reports, SMS, instant messaging, etc. Here are a few tips to help you develop your written English at home:

Stay motivated with your English

Motivation can be a problem when you are learning English at home. That is why it is important to follow a clear plan, involve others in your studies (tutor, friends, family), and measure your progress. The following tips and ideas will help you stay motivated for longer: