Improvisational English Conversation

One of the best ways to help an English language student stay motivated about learning English is making sure the student has a chance to practice the English they are learning. When a student actually uses English in a conversation, it is the natural way to practice and also a good way to help a student understand where they are strong in their English language skills. Speaking English in a conversation can also help a student understand where they may need more study and practice to improve their English language ability. Best of all, a student can actually start to see their progress and this will motivate more progress through further study and practice.

One way to practice English conversation is through certain activities that are commonly used in acting classes. Such activities can help students to use their English in new ways and adapt to a variety of English language situations. Improvisational acting is one of the most fun ways of practicing the English language. The practice can truly allow students to be creative in using the English that they already know in a conversation with other students. Here are some fun ideas to get you started. 

English Speaking Activities

There are many ways for students studying the English language to improve their language skills. One of the best ways is simply by speaking as much English as possible. The activity of actually speaking English is much more similar to how a child learns to speak the English language natively. The ability to read and write English are both obviously important skills, although a child usually speaks English before learning how to read English. Since speaking a language is actually a more natural way for a human to learn, here are some recommended English speaking activities a student may appreciate and enjoy.

 

Speak Everything That Is Done

One fun way for an English language student to really benefit from and also enjoy is the practice of speaking everything that is done throughout the day. When waking up in the morning, a student can say aloud: “I am waking up!” When getting out of bed, a student can say: “I am getting out of bed.” When brushing their teeth, a student can say: “I am brushing my teeth.”

How to Talk to Non-Native English Speaker

“Hey! How’s it going? What time did you get in last night?”

A non-native English speaker wouldn’t understand a word of that previous sentence. One would think the words, generally speaking, are simple, right? However, when put together, these words form complicated, idiomatic expressions that are incomprehensible to a non-native English speaker. Depending on the level of the non-native English speaker (NNES for short), he/she may not even understand “hey”. One must take into account a few guidelines when speaking to a person whose primary language is not English.

1. Speak slowly, not loudly.

Though it may seem needless to say, it’s not. When a person feels misunderstood, he/she tends to raise the volume of his/her voice to achieve comprehension. This method will not work on an NNES. Keep in mind, there is a language barrier, not an audio barrier. Consider the speed of your speech. Separate each word with a brief pause without subtracting from the overall message. “Do you need to use the restroom?” A native English speaker may say, “Duyu nee tuse therestroom?” Take that sentence and separate each word to have an individual meaning. Apply this method in a regular conversation, and it will improve an NNES’s understanding.

Some Low Cost Ways to Learn English

Even though there are numerous methods for translating items in English into your native language, you may feel it is necessary to learn English. Among other things, you may find that search engine, or Babel based translations result in confusing translations, or ones that make no sense. At the same time, you may be finding it difficult to fit English lessons into your budget. Fortunately, there are a number of resources available to help you.

Local Schools

Each year, schools stop using thousands of perfectly good textbooks. If you know that English is being taught at a local school, you may want to visit the headmaster and ask if he/she will allow you to borrow a few books. Or, you may want to ask if you can purchase books that are due to be discarded at the end of the year. That said, if you have access to the internet, there are many other options for you to consider.

Some Fun Ways to Practice Reading English

Even if you do not live in a country where English is a primary language, you can take advantage of many opportunities to practice reading in English. As you progress with your studies, you will come to appreciate the richness and variety of styles that individuals will use to express themselves. As with your own language, you are likely to find that you will prefer the way one author writes over others. By taking advantage of a wide variety of sources, you will also gain some insight into the boundaries that define expression of thoughts and concepts.

Reading Classic Books Online

If you have never had a chance to read the works of Dickens, Poe, or other classical English writers, you can find some of their works for free online. Among other things, you can download entire novels from Project Gutenberg. You may also want to browse the internet and look for critical reviews of classical materials. This will help give you some insight into the materials you have just read, and also provide an opportunity to see if others interpret the materials in the same way.

Easy Ways to Practice Time Frames in English

Unlike many other languages, there is not always an exact pattern to the way English is spoken and written. As an example, in Spanish, and many other languages, the suffixes added to verbs routinely denote tense and who is being discussed or addressed. When it comes to English, these indicators are not standard, and can be attached to almost any word in a sentence. There are still a number of things you can do to improve and speed up your comprehension of the English language.

Break Big Words Into Syllables

In many cases, if you break a word down into syllables, you can quickly unmask any prefixes and suffixes. As an example, the word “predetermine” breaks down into “pre” “de” “ter” “mine”. As you can see, “pre” is immediately isolated. From there, if you put the remaining three syllables back together, you have “determine”.

Some Ways You Can Practice Writing in English

Once you have reached a certain level of proficiency writing in English, you will want to see if you can communicate effectively with others. Unfortunately, if you live in an area where few people are able to read in English, you may not get much feedback on where you need to improve. That said, there are many ways to develop your English writing skills.

Using a Dry Erase Board or Chalk Board

There will always be times when you want to practice your writing, but not necessarily preserve what you wrote. If you write on a dry erase board or chalk board, you will have an opportunity to write as much as you want, and also conserve paper. This is also an ideal way to help you develop your penmanship. You may also find that keeping one of these tools on hand is a good way to jot down quick notes or ideas before you write a more formal composition.

Using a Thesaurus to Learn English

As you may be aware, a thesaurus is a tool that provides lists of words that have similar meanings. For example, an entry for the word “happy” might have listings for synonyms like “joyful,” “giddy,” or “gleeful.” Even though many people trying to learn English purchase a thesaurus, they rarely use it to its full potential. Unfortunately, doing so denies you a number of opportunities to improve your English language skills and vocabulary. Read on for more tips about improving your English with a thesaurus:

Improve your vocabulary

Becoming a natural sounding English speaker means using more than simple words in conversation. On the other hand, using large or complicated-sounding words that aren’t used in conversational language by native English speakers won’t help you either. A thesaurus can help you find the right words for every occasion. In addition, if you take note of the words that native speakers use regularly, you may be able to form a pattern of varying synonyms that makes your vocabulary seem more natural.

Five Ways to Improve Your English Reading Comprehension

Improving your ability to read English quickly and accurately takes a great deal of practice. However, you don’t have to read boring materials that or ones that contain words and concepts you aren’t interested in. Once you know the basic elements of the English language, you can select from a wide variety of reading materials, including different methods of presentation. Here are a few fun ways to improve your reading comprehension.

Play word games

Today, crossword puzzles and other types of word game puzzles entertain native and non-native English speakers of all ages. If you’re looking for a way to improve your vocabulary and have fun at the same time, these types of puzzles can be of immense help to you. If this is something that interests you, you might also consider Scrabble, word searches and other similar games.

Take a speed reading course

The Advantages of Learning with Phonics

Even if you know some of the basics of English, you might find it helpful to review some materials on phonics. Basically, phonics is a method that teaches reading based on taking the audible building blocks of words and assigning meaning to them – similar to working with syllables. However, when you’re learning with phonics, there’s more of an emphasis on verbally sounding out each segment of a word. As you learn to recognize meanings associated certain groups of letters, you’ll have an easier time comprehending sentences – as well as speaking and writing them.

Correlating sounds to written letters

Using Word Game to Improve Recognition Skills

If you’re learning English as a second language, it won’t always be easy to recognize unfamiliar words. In particular, if your primary language has an alphabet similar to English, it might be easy to get confused between the two languages. Fortunately, there are a number of fun games you can play to improve your word recognition skills.

Word Scrambles

Word scramble puzzles are very popular amongst primary and secondary students learning English. In these puzzles, you’re given a series of letters, from which you try to construct a word. As you learn how to unscramble words, you’ll learn a number of things about common word structure patterns in English. With practice, you may be able to pick out certain letters to form common prefixes and suffixes and then work on the remaining letters to determine what word they make up.

As a variation of word scrambles, you may also want to try isolating words from those that you’ve already formed. The word “stop” can be made into several other words when the letters are rearranged. If you’re also interested in expanding your vocabulary, you may also want to think about what each new word means and write out its definition. While these new words may have no relationship whatsoever to the original word, you’ll expand your vocabulary and gain appreciation for the flexibility of the English alphabet.

Choosing an English as a Second Language (ESL) Program

Learning English as a second language can be difficult, but it’s extremely important to do if you want to have access to the best job, educational and cultural opportunities.  For this reason, many new immigrants to the United States choose to take part in an ESL program, whether as part of a class or by studying with an individual teacher.  However, these programs can be expensive – consider the following tips on choosing an ESL program before spending your hard-earned money:

Check the teacher’s qualifications

If you see an ESL program being advertised, it’s important to find out more information about who’s teaching the program and what his or her qualifications are.  Is the program led by a volunteer, or by someone who’s received a certificate in teaching English as a second language?  ESL certificate holders have gone through specific training that ensures they’re familiar with all the challenges new English-speakers face.  Of course, there’s no reason that a volunteer couldn’t do a great job teaching the ESL program, but finding one taught by a certified ESL teacher increases your chances of having a good class experience.

Using Computer Games to Help Learn English

Learning a second language can be a difficult task, but it’s well worth the challenge.  Unlike learning to speak as a child, when you start learning English as an adult, you may have preconceived ideas and perceptions that influence how you pick up new words.  As an adult, your mind will interpret certain words or symbols, like letters, in a set way.  But it’s not only a matter of learning new words or enunciations – grammar also plays a big role in the differences between languages.  Fortunately, if you’re feeling frustrated, there’s a whole new way to learn English.

In recent years, many software companies have developed a great new way to learn – computer games.  These programs are great for learning many different languages, including English, since the games are a fun and interactive way to learn all aspects of the language.  With these new advances, reading language books and listening to boring tapes is no longer the only way to learn English.

How to Learn English as an Adult

It can be difficult to learn English as an adult – unless you have the right teacher or course.  Most times, adults who want to learn English want to learn it very quickly.  In order to help you do this, read on for some tips on learning English quickly and easily as possible.

Choose the Right Vocabulary

One of the most important things to keep in mind when you’re learning the English language is to focus your attention on understanding a good variety of English vocabulary words.  The better your vocabulary, the better you’ll be at using conversational English when speaking.  You’ll also sound much more fluent when your vocabulary is strong.  You don’t always need to use words that mean exactly what you want to say – understanding what you need to say is much more important.

Learning English the Natural Way

If you’re feeling frustrated by all the complex rules of the English language or the mountains of vocabulary words you think you’re supposed to understand, don’t worry.  The truth is that most native English speakers couldn’t explain all those rules to you if they tried, and most of the advanced grammar they learned went out the window after finishing the SAT, ACT or other high school exam.  When you’re trying to learn English, stop worrying so much about the rules and focus on learning the natural way.

What do I mean by the natural way?  Well, think about the way that a small child learns a language.  They don’t sit down with an English language dictionary and start memorizing flash cards as soon as they’re able to speak – instead, they learn naturally through the process of immersion.  The process of immersion involves surrounding yourself completely with the new language until you start to pick up the bits and pieces that will eventually form your comprehension of the language.

Literary Choices for Students of English as a Second Language

Once you’ve achieved a basic mastery of the English language and have a good understanding of English vocabulary, the world of books and literature will open up to you.  There are many good choices in the realm of English literature for you as a newly-minted speaker.

One of the best places to start is with the works of Ernest Hemingway.  He is not only noted for his use of simple words, but his mastery of the English language is one of the best of all time.  It would be hard to make a bad choice among his collected works, but a favorite of many new English students is The Old Man and the Sea.

In this book the characters are portrayed simply, and the language becomes a tool for that portrayal.  The levels of characterization are complex, but that is never reflected in complex grammatical structures.  Hemingway’s mastery is in the way that his simple terms and simple sentence structure become complex images.  For example, to describe a fish as it is pulled from the sea, Hemingway wrote, “The fish came out of the water endlessly.”  Immediately the reader knows, and knows deeply, that this is a big fish. But the word choices are uncomplicated and easy for a reader to grasp while retaining the great beauty of his prose.

English From Television Shows

There are many ways for intermediate and advanced learners of the English language to better improve their conversational speaking skills. Learning many spoken languages the way they are often taught in formal schools today is not necessarily going to guarantee language skills necessary in an actual situation with a native speaker. There are certain cultures where English is taught as part of a normal school curriculum, but the students are taught mainly grammar and other mechanical English concepts. Many people believe that spoken language is best learned in the way that children learn to speak a language normally. This is generally in an immersive and natural situation where there is no other language available to speak. Let’s look at some of the ways a student of the English language can improve their natural conversational English ability.

One of the best ways is something that many people will likely be happy to hear. It involves watching television shows in English. Some people suggest that it is even better if there are no subtitles. This makes a student rely more on memory and listening to the English language instead of reading a more familiar language. There are many visual hints speakers of English may give each other in an English conversation.

English Language Immersion

One way to learn a language is by a student surrounding themselves with the language they are learning. This is a wonderful way to learn the English language also. One of the main reasons that people occasionally may not be fluent in a second language is a result of relying on their first language. Surrounding yourself with English will make it so that you have to rely on your English ability.
The English word for this learning concept is “immersion.” Immersing yourself in an English language environment is like being underwater in an ocean of only English. One of the ways to accomplish this is by choosing a room in your house or apartment and making it an “English Language Area.” Only allow yourself to bring English media into that room. The idea is to essentially pretend that the room is a native English speaker’s room in a native English speaking area of the world. Any books and magazines in that room should be only in English. If there is a television, make sure it only plays English language broadcasts and movies with no subtitles. If someone is watching English movies or television with subtitles in their first language, it can actually make them rely on their first language too much. Additionally, if there is a computer in the room, change the operating system (Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.) to display English as the primary language.
You are allowed to use a paper or electronic dictionary to translate to your first language when you need to. Try to do as much as possible without using the dictionary at all. Dictionaries usually require enough of an effort to use that people try not to use them unless they really want to look up a word. This can be a really good way of using human laziness against itself. The natural way to learn a language is by seeing an object, situation, or activity, and associating words to it.

Learning English Vocabulary Through Song

One of the fun ways to learn the common vocabulary of any language is through the use of music to help a student remember the words easily. This is also true of the English language. Children are some of the most receptive to this style of studying, yet adults are also happy to have some fun while studying. Let’s look at some of the fun ways to use songs to remember English language vocabulary words.

One of the most basic songs a person can use for remembering vocabulary is simply repeating some words in a row. The words can be associated with a kind of dance to help a student remember certain vocabulary. It is good to maintain a simple rhythm while saying or singing the song. Here is a basic example: “Up, down, left, right.” When saying “Up”, look up. When saying “Down”, look down. This is an easy way to associate a motion with a direction and a word. Start by reading the chosen words a few times, until you are comfortable practicing without reading the words.

English Language Games for Studying

There are many ways an English language student can have fun while practicing English language skills. One of the best ways is to practice with other English students by playing English language games. There are many English language games that can be really fun for an English student. Here is a list of some recommended guidelines and also some English language games.

Guidelines for Good Language Practice

Gather a group of English language students together for an hour or more and choose a game to play. The main guideline for students to follow for a good session of English language practice is to use only English while playing a game. If a word is necessary to look up, then it is good practice to have a dictionary available to translate such words. Only speak in English while playing the game, so make sure to look up a word quietly in a dictionary rather than asking aloud in another language. It is also good to only look up a word when it is really necessary, rather than relying on the use of a dictionary.