Study skills tips

Read the study skills tips to practise and improve your reading skills. You'll learn some great study tips at the same time!

Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and do the exercises.

Preparation

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Reading text

Many studies about language learning ask the question: What makes a good language learner? There are some things that good language learners do and some things they don't do. Here are some of the most useful suggestions from studies.

Don't be afraid of making mistakes. People often get things wrong. Good language learners notice their mistakes and learn from them.
Do group activities. People use language to communicate with other people. A good language learner always looks for opportunities to talk with other students.
Make notes during every class. Notes help you to remember new language. Look at your notes when you do your homework.
Use a dictionary. Good language learners often use dictionaries to check the meaning of words they don't know. They also make their own vocabulary lists.
Think in the language you're learning outside the classroom. When you're shopping or walking down the street, remember useful words and phrases. Sometimes, when you're at home, say new words to practise your pronunciation.
Do extra practice. Test and improve your language, reading and listening skills with self-study material. You can find a lot of this online.
Imagine yourself speaking in the language. Many good language learners can see and hear themselves speaking in the language. This helps their motivation.
Enjoy the process. Good language learners have fun with the language. Watch a TV series or film, listen to songs, play video games or read a book. It's never too late to become a good language learner.

Task 1

Exercise

Task 2

Exercise

Discussion

What other tips do you have for learning a new language?

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Language level

A2 Pre-intermediate

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I've been learning English for many years so I get enough experience to have some tips. First of all, you need a goal. You can't learn English in general, you have to do it on purpose: study, work or something. I suggest setting an ambitious goal - be ready for IELTS or TOEFL exam. Maybe you want to take this exam or maybe you don't but it's a quite challenging goal which claims huge effort to achieve. If you prepare yourself for the exam, I mean being confident in all four skills - speaking, reading, listening, and writing - you will be ready to face any task at work or at study.

I think other tips for learning a new language is to use that language in everyday life. But it is very difficult. I think we don't use other language because all people speak Japanese. Therefor we think difficult. So, if you have a time to other country, it is big chance to learn language. But many people don't have a chance to go this country. So, I recommend listening to CD and read around. If you have a movie spoken other language, it is good. Movie have a seen to everyday life. If you see movie many times, you can learn language.

I think watching foreign movies and listening to music is good. I think most of people don't like study. But if your favorite singer is a foreigner, you naturally want to understand the meaning of lyrics, don't you? So we can study happily while listening to songs. The reason I decided to study foreign languages is because my favorite artist is foreigner. I think I want to understand them, so I can study hard.

Hello. what I need to learn a new language is listening to foreign songs and watching movies. those are very English lessons. I also think speaking with people from overseas will help improve your English ability. I think the tips for learning a new language from these are listening to foreign songs, watching movies and talking to foreigners.

When I became a college student, I started learning a new language. At first it was very difficult and I couldn't do anything. When I checked it on the internet, I found a application. It's free and anyone can use it. In addition, it's like a game. I don't feel like studying, it's very fun. The application can study words and grammar. We can review the wrong problem. I was surprised that we could practice pronunciation. I thought I couldn't practice pronunciation by myself, so I was very happy. I'll continue to use it from now on. I want everyone to try it.

My tip is to PRACTICE. Every day, practice a lot, practice reading, writing, speaking or listening, everything is valid.

Hello, I am from Argentina and I would like to give you my recommendations. First of all I think this advide could be helpful for anyone who want to be fluent in english. A good advice is do anything with the language that you want to learn such as: read a book, listen to music and understand the context. My thought are concern about the process to transform our brain in order to get a good level of english/spanish or whatever language you want to learn. Also it is important to be aware about the consequence to translate every single word in your mother language. If you do that, you wIll be struggling to make progress. Sorry about my mistakes I only started learing english recently.

using stickers with new words every day improves our vocabulary.

I usually do what this sentence. I like foreign music and sometimes listen to it. I think listening to foreign music is useful for learning language. I study English so now I mostly listen to English music. But I'm also studying Chinese and Malay. So if I have time, I want to listen to music in these two languages. Watching foreign dramas may also help us learn language. One of my friends is watching foreign dramas without subtitles. I've never done this, but I'll try it next time. It may be difficult to see without subtitles, so I would like to add subtitles at first.

Hello! I'm stuck in a rut with my learning English recently, so that I've just started dohing and imitating Red Kiwi. What is Red Kiwi? It is an app to learn languages. By using it, We can have English lessons anywhere, anytime. Of course it's free. I like this way of studying because this is like playing a game. Speaking is one thing. Readig and writing is another. Practice, practice, practice!