Category: Writing in English

Consider this a public service announcement for anyone who is feeling negatively about their language learning experience. Here we want to provide you with 3 simple methods for getting your mind out of a rut about your abilities.

3 Essential Confidence Boosters:

1. Create an environment

The first step is to create an environment that does not encourage negative feelings about your learning. If people are embarrassing you for making mistakes when learning something new, then you have the wrong kind of people in your life! Never tolerate a teacher, a pupil, or a colleague that will belittle you for trying to improve yourself! The first step towards feeling more confident, in this case, is to surround yourself with an understanding group of people, like fellow learners and English teachers, who will see your mistakes as steps towards becoming a masterful user of the English language. Give yourself the space to make mistakes, mistakes are steps towards improvement.

2. Look silly before looking Professional

The second step is to accept the fact that you have to look silly before you can look professional! It is absolutely essential to remember that no one starts as a professional. Everyone starts as being bad at something before they can become good at something. Feeling embarrassed is perfectly normal. You, and every single adult learner, will feel silly or ashamed for not knowing something. And that is perfectly okay. You have to feel silly before you can feel good! The silly and embarrassing feelings will pass, and we are here to help you through it! Keep persisting, persevere, and know that you are building yourself up towards competency. It just takes time!

3. Tangible forms of evidence of Progressing

The last step is to give yourself tangible forms of evidence that you are progressing and improving your English language abilities. In a classroom, if you have a good teacher, they will make sure that all their learners are aware of how much progress they are making. You will receive marks, praise, and feedback from a teacher who will keep track of what you are doing. If you are an independent learner, you can produce marks for yourself! Find activities that you will do on a regular basis. Just like in a classroom, and make sure you keep a record of the fact that you did those activities.

Sometimes the way you feel about your progress contradicts the reality: you might feel like you are making no progress at all, when in fact, you are steadily learning. A physical mark or tangible record of this fact will help your mind see the reality of your progress and make you a more confident speaker of English.

By Thomas Marais

Thomas is a native English speaker from South Africa, who graduated cum laude and uses his honors bachelor’s degree in the Humanities to provide professional English tutoring to children and adults. He is a TEFL certified teacher and teaches teach both children and adults at any language level.

When learning a new craft, naturally we tend to take all the advice we can get. Learning English is no exception. But could it be that somewhere along your English learning journey, you might’ve run with some not so true ideas? While having as many resources available at your disposal, to finally get that fluency and pronunciation you so desire, is great. It is possible that you might be entertaining ideas about learning English that are myths. Let’s discuss three myths about learning English that could be holding you back from reaching your full potential.

Myth #1 – High English level= Effective communication

It’s easy to believe that the higher the English level, the easier it should be to get a clear message across. However, this often proves untrue because of one key factor; attitude. For a lot of high-level English learners, the fear of being judged causes them to hyper focus on the correctness of what they’re trying to communicate instead of the clarity of their message. This being the reason why lower-level English learners who are not afraid to embrace mistakes, can communicate their message with more clarity and effectiveness.

Tip

• Instead of focusing on yourself and how you sound, focus on the person with whom you wish to communicate and the message you wish to make clear.

Myth #2 -It’s necessary to move to an English-speaking country

 Undoubtedly, moving abroad to immerse oneself in the language and culture of an English country could be an awesome resource. Needless to say, it is not an option that every English learner can actively explore; for various reasons, such as having responsibilities where they currently reside, not wanting to leave family and friends behind or simply not having the budget for it. I’m sure you’ll find relief in knowing it’s also NOT necessary. You can make English learning a lifestyle without going to live abroad.

Tip

• Use the resources you do have available, such as English learning communities with like minded people who also wish to sharpen their skills.

Myth#3 – Grammar is not important

No, Grammar is not the key to learning English and communicating effectively. It’s no secret that grammar is not the most fun part of it either. It can seem boring and tedious to have to go over rules that admittedly sometimes seem to not make sense. However, combined with the other areas of English Learning, grammar is an excellent tool to achieve fluency and effective communication. So, don’t be so quick to kick grammar to the curb!

             

Tip

• Grammar is another resource. It will help you in achieving your goals of Learning and communicating in English like a champ.

So, there you have it, three English learning myths debunked. Surely everyone’s experience is different, but that’s the beauty of it. This is the key to do what’s best for you with the resources you have available and you will be on your way to success!

Faellis Wollard

It is exceedingly important to continuously introduce yourself to new conditionals or rules and vocabulary when learning a new language or when trying to improve your skills in an existing one. You might not realize it, but you can easily become bored or frustrated with yourself if you start feeling like you are not making any progress.

So here we want to introduce conditionals to you, and perhaps expand your knowledge on them if you are already familiar. This grammatical rule is a multi-layered one that will keep you engaged for a long time, as it also incorporates many other language rules that will encourage you to get creative with your knowledge on how to apply the rules of English.

‘If’ Clauses

Conditionals are known as ‘if’ clauses. They are present in every language. In English, they express the result of something that has happened. Also something that might happen, or did not happen. It relies on conjugations of verb tenses, and so will expand your speaking abilities.

There are four conditional rules, as well as their uses and meaning. Keep in mind that these rules are attempting to talk about situations and events that may or may not happen:

Conditionals:

The Zero Conditional refers to what is now/always real/possible. Use them to make truthful statements, so ‘if this happens, then that happens’. For example: “If you press the flick the light switch, the light will turn on”.

The First Conditional is used to talk about future events. It describes possibilities. So ‘if this happens, then this might happen/this won’t happen’. For example: “If the sun shines, then I will take my dog for a walk”.

The Second Conditional has two uses. We can use it to talk about future events that will probably not happen, and we can use it to refer to something in the present that is impossible. In the first use, we might say something like: “She would go to college if she ever made an effort”. In the second use we might say something like: “If I had gone to MIT, I would be an astronaut”. The second conditional is used for unlikely or impossible events.

The Third Conditional speaks about the past, particularly a situation that did not happen. So ‘if this had happened, this would have happened’. For example: “If I had eaten more, I wouldn’t have been hungry”.

Keep Learning

All of these deserve their own section, since there is also a mixed conditional clause, and they come with a specific set of rules. Now that you are more aware of them though, feel free to click on the above links and learn more about these essential clauses and how to apply them. You will see that learning a rule will allow you to keep introducing yourself to new kinds of vocabulary and even more rules, which will give you a tangible way of proving to yourself that you are making progress and improving your language abilities.

By Thomas Marais

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Thomas Marais is a native English speaker from South Africa. He graduated cum laude and uses his honors bachelor’s degree in the Humanities to provide professional English tutoring to children and adults. He is a TEFL certified teacher and teaches teach both children and adults at any language level.