7 Ways to Fail at Learning English
7 Ways to Fail at Learning English
From the last 5 minutes of coaching people in English, I have noticed 7 bad habits of clients. If they were to change these habits, then their English would change.
1. Only doing boring exercises
I’ve heard many times, how students had non-native teachers and that they did not learn a lot in high school. They had to sit through boring classes, textbooks, and exercises. Now, there are times when you have to do things that you don’t like in order to grow your English.
But…
It is necessary to do fun things to.
2. Only doing fun exercises
This brings me to my other type of student. I have students who only want to do things that fun. They usually like to speak and try new things. They don’t really care about grammar or vocabulary. Unfortunately, you will be stuck at the same level, if you are not constantly learning new words or improving vocabulary.
3. Only watching videos, music, films
This is connected to point #2. Only watching films or videos, will increase your listening. Unfortunately these are passive ways to learn unless you make them active learning.
You can improve your English by listening, but there is a much faster way to do it.
4. Not doing fluency exercises.
This is a must for all of my students. The majority of my clients do not have someone that they can practice with. It is a necessity for them to practice speaking everyday. Most learners focus on reading and writing, but they don’t know that they can also improve their listening and speaking without a partner also.
5. Studying for 2 or 3 hours in 1 day, then quitting instead of practicing everyday for 5-15 minutes
This is called “cramming” in English. It’s similar to studying for an exam at the last minute. Many learners practice or study English for 1-4 hours and then they stop for 2 weeks. This stop + start method DOES NOT WORK! You will waste a lot of time because your brain needs to repeat words and phrases often for long-term memory
6. Not speaking and listening as much as possible
This is the fastest way to learn. This is the best thing you can do for your memory. Do not worry about making mistakes just go
7. Focusing only on fluency or only on proficiency, instead of doing both.
Many people confuse these 2 concepts. They think if they reach a certain proficiency level that their fluency will increase or vice versa, but his is not true. I have students at the A1 level that can speak better than my B2 students.
Fluency has little to do with how many words you know, but with how many words you can use and understand.
It is better to know a few words well than a lot of words without being able to use them.