1.- FORM GOALS TO LEARN ENGLISH SUCCESSFULLY
A common practice in business development is to set SMART goals, or goals that are:
Smart
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-bound
Getting in the habit of setting SMART goals is critical for language learners. Learning English will take a long time, so setting specific landmarks along the way will give you direction and motivation.
“To be fluent” is vague and hardly measurable. More specific, attainable goals would be:
To study vocabulary every morning at 10 a.m. for 30 minutes, until I can have an everyday conversation with a native speaker.
To read one English newspaper article every evening, and look up unfamiliar words until I can comprehend the entire story.
To spend 30 minutes on every lunch break studying a survival phrase book until I can survive for one week in a country that
speaks English.
Get in the habit of setting a series of short-term goals so you always have a specific task to work on. Achieving a series of small goals will lead you to the ultimate goal of fluency.
2.- ASSIGN A PLACE FOR STUDYING
It may help you to associate a certain room or place with your English. Assign an area or room in your house as the “English only” area, and go there only to study. Surround yourself with learning materials and sources of motivation for your language studies.
You don’t have to limit yourself to your house, of course! Pick any place that you find conducive to studying that does not offer major distractions.
Search for a cozy coffee shop and bring your backpack full of resources.
Find a park bench or shady tree and sprawl out with a good English book every weekend.
Flop down on a chair in a study nook in the local library and take advantage of the language resources libraries offer!
Make it a comfortable space that you look forward to visiting each week to study.
3.- MAKE USE OF DEAD TIME
There may be days when you don’t have 30 minutes to sit down and study. Get in the habit of using dead time to study, even in brief intervals.
Dead time is any period where you can multi-task well enough to absorb the language: commuting, waiting in line at the store, cooking, etc.
Work studying into your dead time on a daily basis:
Listen to radio stations or podcasts in English during your commute.
Turn on some of your favorite music in English and dance around as you cook, clean, and do chores.
Turn on a TV channel or watch a YouTube video in English, during the commercials of your favorite TV show.
Flip through vocabulary flash cards on a mobile app while standing in that eternal line at the grocery store.
This habit will keep you engaged with English even on days when you don’t have the time for in-depth study. Before you know it, this practice will be ingrained into your mind and become a regular part of your language-learning routine.
4.- TAKE A 30-DAY CHALLENGE
Commit to building a small, positive habit when learning English and do it every day for 30 days. After the month is up, stick with it and/or move on to another habit. Why is this a good idea?
Watch Matt Cutts’ short and funny TED Talk about his 30-day challenges for an explanation and some motivation.
Make your goal as fun or as challenging as you wish, but commit to something you’ll actually stick with. Some ideas for language-related 30-day challenges:
Read the English news, rather than your native language.
Listen to English music at the gym. (This one will even get you
going to the gym more often!)
Listen to English podcasts during your commute every day.
Write a letter to a friend, family member, pen pal, or even to
yourself in English.
Spend 20 minutes a day using your online English-learning
program, and then refresh each morning.
Remember, you can stick with anything for 30 days!
5.- TAKE THE EDGE OFF
This might not be a good life habit, but it works great for practicing your conversational speaking skills. The biggest obstacle in most peoples’ way of learning a language is working up the courage to sound like an idiot.
Nobody likes to revert back to a toddler’s vocabulary and grammatical prowess, but you have no choice. It doesn’t matter how much you study at home, you’ll never speak like a native unless you get in the habit of speaking and screwing up, a lot, in public.
A little advice for adult English learners: have a beer or two first. You won’t screw up less, but you won’t worry so much about it. (Drink responsibly, of course; go too far and you’ll sound like a toddler in an language!)
Don’t drink? Underage? Alcohol clearly isn’t an option for you, but you can still find a ritual that takes the edge off. Wear your favorite lucky underwear, or extra-strength deodorant—whatever you need to do to give yourself the confidence to bounce back after completely mucking up a perfectly good sentence.
Get in the habit of performing whatever your confidence-building ritual may be, and eventually you’ll find you don’t even need it anymore!