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How to learn English

1. Motivation: Become a person who likes to learn English.
2. Dictionary: Get a good English dictionary.
3. No mistakes: Avoid mistakes. Try to use correct English from the beginning.
4. Pronunciation: Learn to pronounce English sounds. Learn to understand phonetic transcription and the phonetic alphabet.
5. Input: Get English into your head by reading and listening to lots of English sentences.
   • Reading
   • Movies
   • Adventure games
6. SuperMemo is a computer program that you can use to learn English. We have used it for 8 years and it has helped us a lot.

What is necessary to learn English well?

Learning English requires action. You may know all the learning tips, but if you don't start doing things, you will achieve nothing. The fact is, if you want to learn to speak English well, you must change your life. Here are some examples of things you will have to do:

• read a book in English for an hour every day, analyzing the grammar in sentences and looking up words in an English dictionary
• listen to an audiobook or other recording in English, stopping it frequently, trying to understand what is being said, and trying to imitate the speaker's pronunciation
• spend your afternoon practicing the pronunciation of the English "r" sound
• carefully write an e-mail message in English, using a dictionary or a Web search every 20 seconds to make sure every word is correct, and taking 5 minutes to write one sentence
• think about an English sentence you've read, wondering if it could say "a" instead of "the" in the sentence, and trying to find similar sentences on the Web to find out the answer
• walk down the street and build simple English sentences in your head (talking to yourself in English about the things you see around you)

What kind of person would do all these crazy things? Only one kind. The kind of person who enjoys doing them. If you want to learn to speak English well, you're going to have to become that person. You cannot hate doing these things. Have you ever heard of a person who became successful by doing something he hated?

The problem with learning and teaching English as a foreign language is that all English learners want to speak English well; however, most learners don't want to spend time on learning English on their own. (Which is probably why they sign up for English classes and hope their teacher will force knowledge into their heads.)

This lack of motivation means that learners basically don't spend their own time on learning English, and if they do, they don't do it regularly. For example, a typical learner might study English phrasal verbs for 12 hours before an English exam. However, he will not read a book in English for 30 minutes every day. He just doesn't feel that learning English is pleasant enough, so he will only do it if he has to. The problem is that a huge one-time effort gives you nothing, while small, everyday activities will give you a lot.

If you are one of those learners and don't feel like practicing the pronunciation of the "r" sound or thinking about English sentences every day, we have news for you: You're going to have to make yourself want to do these things. In other words, you'll have to work on your motivation. Fortunately, there are proven techniques to help you with that.

Typical learner vs. motivated learner

Paula is a typical learner of English with a generally low level of motivation. She has occasional moments of high motivation — like the day before her English test or that time when she couldn't communicate with a foreign customer who called her at work. These kind of situations make her think "I've got to do something about my English!". However, they happen very rarely — less than once a month. So even if she studies quite intensively (e.g. for two whole days before an exam), the results are poor, because she forgets 90% of the things she learned within a month. This is no surprise: The way human memory works, you need to review things all the time; otherwise you just forget them.

Now let's look at a different English learner: Judy. Judy reads a special novel for English learners (written in simplified English) almost every day for 30 minutes. She bought an English-English dictionary and uses it to look up English words whenever she doesn't understand a sentence in her book. It was hard to study regularly at the beginning: Reading books and using a dictionary were not "normal activities" for her. And every English sentence was a challenge.

But now, after only two weeks, she can read much faster. While reading, she often sees words that she has learned in the past two weeks. When she recognizes such a word, she doesn't have to look it up in a dictionary and she knows she has made good progress. Judy feels she has learned a lot of English recently, and she is eager to learn more. Every day, she looks forward to reading her book. The book gives her the chance to use what she has learned (enjoy her progress) and to learn even more. Because she reads regularly, she forgets little and her vocabulary keeps growing.

Judy is on the right track. She will soon be able to read English-language newspapers and other resources written for native speakers.

Enjoyment leads to better memory

If you enjoy learning English, you will spend more time on it, and you will do it regularly. A high level of motivation will also give you another advantage. It will be easier for you to memorize new words and grammar structures. The reason is that the brain easily remembers information on a subject that you like. (For example, some people like history and know everything about World War II. If you told a "normal person" to memorize all these facts, they could never do it.) So enjoyment of learning gives you double benefits.

Improving your motivation for learning English

In this article, we share our techniques for improving your motivation for learning English as a foreign language. We used them all the time when we were learning English and we still use them when we need to boost our motivation in areas other than English.

Imagine yourself in the future

Imagine you can talk to native speakers just like you talk in your first language. Imagine other people wanting to speak English as well as you do. Imagine the possibility of writing e-mail to people from all over the world.

It is helpful to read an article about the advantages of knowing English well. There are two such articles on Antimoon: Why learn English and English makes you feel good.

You should know that it is possible to learn English really well. Just look at other people who have done it.

Remember that you are already good

You already know some English (you're reading an article in English right now). That's a big success! Now it's time for more successes. Time to start using powerful methods of effective learning. Time to gain an impressive knowledge of English.

Remember there is a lot that you don't know

You are good, but your English probably isn't perfect. You probably can't understand English-language TV, read books in English, talk to native speakers easily, write letters without mistakes, etc.

You should never think your English is perfect. Even if you are the best student in your class, always try to find your weak areas and work on them. When you've learned to speak English well, your problems will be quite small: punctuation, rarely used grammar structures, rare words, understanding "street language". Right now, your problems are probably more basic: mistakes in pronunciation, small vocabulary, grammar problems with the present perfect tense and conditional structures.

Use your English whenever you can

This is very, very important. The more you use English, the more you will want to learn it.

Because English is so popular, you can use it everywhere. You can use Google to find English-language websites with interesting information, you can watch American cartoons, you can play adventure games on your computer, you can read interesting books in English, or you can do other things that we write about.

If you do these things, you will not only have fun and learn English. If you see that a new English word lets you understand your favorite TV show (or communicate with people, or beat a computer game), you will want to learn more words. So you will learn English more, use it more, learn it more, use it more... If you also use effective learning methods, your English will grow faster than you can imagine.

Talk to people about English

This is a very simple method, but it is very effective. Here's how it works:

You usually talk about things which interest you. But the opposite is true, too. If you start talking about a boring subject, you will begin to get interested in it.

Imagine you are studying a subject that you hate. You are bored and tired, but you have to pass the test tomorrow. If there are people near you, you have two options: you can tell everybody how much you are suffering or you can tell those people about the things you've learned. If you choose the first option, you will only feel worse.

If you choose the second option, and start a conversation on the "boring" subject, you will begin to look at it in a totally different way. Suddenly it will become a subject worth talking about — therefore, an interesting subject.

How can you begin such a conversation? If you're studying English, you can surprise another person by talking to him/her in English. Say (in English): Hi, I'm studying English and I hate it. Or you can say (in your first language): Hey, I've learned 50 English words today. Do you know what's the English word for ...? If there are no people near you, you can telephone or send an e-mail message to your friend.

What will your friends say? Probably they won't be very interested, but it doesn't matter! The important thing is this: After talking about English, you will study it with much more passion. Try it.

Find a friend who is learning English

If you can find a friend who is learning English and is on a similar level of skill, you will be in an excellent situation:

• you will have someone to talk about English with. These conversations will increase your interest in English, as explained in the previous section.
• learning English will be easier, because you will be able to discuss your problems with your friend.
• you will study English more, because you will want to be better than your friend. :-)

You should meet your friend regularly. Ideally, he/she should live near you, or go to the same school as you. If you absolutely can't find anybody willing to learn English with you, you can try to find somebody by e-mail. This is a worse solution: your conversations will probably be less frequent, and it is difficult to compete with someone who you don't know well.

Spend some money on learning English

If you spend your money on something, you will want to use it. For example, if you buy an expensive tennis racket, you will probably go out and play tennis every day.

This rule is also true for learning English. If you want to increase your desire to learn English, buy a new dictionary, an interesting English-language book, English-language cable TV, etc. The idea is simple: You paid for it, so you will want to use it, and you will improve your English.

There is a problem with this method. It only works for a short time. You usually lose your desire to learn English after a few days. To keep learning, you would have to buy something every week!

However, this method is helpful, because it gives you an impulse to start learning. For example, if you buy a dictionary of phrasal verbs, you will probably learn some words from it. Then you should try to use them. For example, write an e-mail message with these words. This will increase your motivation (as explained before), and you will learn more.

Read Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins

Anthony Robbins' book Unlimited Power: The New Science of Personal Achievement gives excellent advice on how to achieve any kind of goal. This book has changed the lives of many people, so you might want to take a look at it.

Remember that learning English requires action

We have said this many times. One small action is more powerful than reading hundreds of articles. Yes, we know it is very hard to do things, even if they are good for us. We humans are lazy

creatures. That is why not many people speak English well.

Still, we hope you can do the things we talk about in our English learning method — not only read about them. You will be successful only if you change something about your life.

Don't put it off. Begin now.

Why you need a good English dictionary

If you get a good English dictionary, you will be better than 90% of English learners. It's unbelievable, but most people (even people who want to learn English very much) simply go to a bookstore and buy the first dictionary they see.

That is a big mistake! A bad dictionary will give you problems sooner or later — maybe in two months, maybe in one year — and you will have to buy a good one anyway! Isn't it better to buy a good dictionary the first time?

Getting a good English dictionary is important because:

• A good dictionary will be your guide to English. It will teach you new words, how to pronounce them, and how to use them. It will help you understand English texts. Successful English learners use their dictionaries all the time: when reading books, at English classes, when writing e-mail, when doing homework, when surfing the Web.
• It is an easy first step in your English-learning program — you only need to spend a little money (much less than you would pay for an English course). Once you've made the first step, it will be easier for you to do the rest.
• It requires spending money. Yes, this is a good thing. :-) Spending some of your money on learning English will give you an impulse to keep learning and work towards your goal of mastering English.

How to buy a good English dictionary

An English dictionary is the most important thing you will need when learning English. A good dictionary will help you learn hundreds of new words, improve your pronunciation and grammar. You can read more about why it is important to get a good English dictionary in another article.

English-English dictionaries

When you think of a dictionary, you usually think of a bilingual dictionary. For example, an English-German dictionary or a French-English dictionary. There is also another kind of dictionary: an English-English (monolingual) dictionary.

Such a dictionary is written only in English. English words are not translated, but they are defined or explained in English. For example, if you look up the word criticize in an English-English dictionary, you will read something like this:

to criticize = to say negative things about; to talk about the mistakes of

Why English-English dictionaries are better than bilingual dictionaries:

• English definitions are real English phrases with grammar and words. If you read them regularly, you will automatically memorize the grammar and words.
• English definitions let you learn more. You will often look up a word because it was part of the definition for another word. For example, if you look up the word naughty, you will read:

If you say that a child is naughty, you think that he or she is behaving badly or is disobedient. [Collins COBUILD English Dictionary]

If you don't know the words disobedient and behave, you will have to look them up. So instead of one word, you will have learned three words!

Don't be afraid of using an English-English dictionary. If you can understand this article, you can definitely understand the definitions in an English-English dictionary.

Dictionaries for learners and for native speakers

There are two kinds of English-English dictionaries: dictionaries for learners and dictionaries for native speakers. Dictionaries for native speakers are used by Americans, Britons, etc. to look up very difficult words, such as tintinnabulation. Dictionaries for learners are used by people who are learning English as a second language.

Dictionaries for native speakers usually have more words than dictionaries for learners, but the definitions are complicated, and there are fewer example sentences. Therefore your first dictionary should be a dictionary for learners. Later, you will need other dictionaries — for example, a dictionary of phrasal verbs and a big dictionary for native speakers.

Software dictionaries

If possible, get a software dictionary instead of a paper one. Here are some reasons why:

• Quick searching. Software dictionaries let you look up words very quickly. Typing a word on your keyboard is much, much faster than turning pages in a large, heavy book.

• Easy copying. If you're making your own SuperMemo collection for learning English, you can select whole sentences and definitions in the dictionary, and copy them to your new items.
• Recordings. In many software dictionaries, you can listen to recordings which show you how to pronounce a word. Recordings cannot replace phonetic transcriptions (see below), but they are certainly a useful feature.
• More information/clearer layout. Paper dictionaries have limited space, which is why they are printed in a small font and the layout is very crowded. A computer dictionary has more space, so it can give more information (e.g. more example sentences) or it can present the same information in a clearer way (bigger font, blank lines, etc.).

Why is quick searching so important? Because if you want to learn English well, you should look up lots of words, and a paper dictionary discourages you from that. You want to look up a word, you look at the huge book with 1500 pages, think "Ah, never mind", and you never learn that word. With a software dictionary, once you see how easy it is, you will start looking up hundreds of words every week. And your English will get a huge boost.

Note: The advice in this article applies to both book dictionaries and to software dictionaries. However, the quality of a software dictionary also depends on other features (e.g. ease-of-use, software speed), which are not discussed here.

Phonetic transcription for every word

A good dictionary must give phonetic transcription for every word. Phonetic transcription tells you how to pronounce a word. Without it, you can't say the word properly — you can only read it or write it.

The transcription should be based on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which is the main phonetic alphabet used all over the world. Here is what IPA-based phonetic transcription looks like:

[Longman Active Study Dictionary of English]

Here, the phonetic transcription is marked in yellow. It tells you that image is pronounced like this. (sound recording in .wav format)

Many dictionaries (especially ones published in the US) use their own phonetic symbols (and not IPA symbols). These are a little hard to use, and we do not recommend them to beginners. Some dictionaries give phonetic transcription only for "the most difficult words" (usually less than 5% of all words). Such dictionaries are almost useless to learners, because all English words are difficult if you are not a native speaker. We do not recommend them.

If you want to check if a dictionary uses IPA-based transcription, look at the pronunciation symbols used in the dictionary and compare them with the IPA symbols in our table of phonetic symbols.

Example sentences for every word

A good dictionary must give example sentences for every word. Example sentences are English sentences which contain the word. Some dictionaries give them after the definition of a word. Example sentences are marked in yellow in this picture:

[Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture]

Example sentences are not just helpful — they are actually more important than definitions. While a definition tells you the meaning of a word and (sometimes) gives you some grammatical information, example sentences have at least three advantages:

1. They let you check if you've understood the definition correctly. The meaning of a word can become much clearer if you read a few sentences with the word.
2. They show you how to use a word in sentences. Many words "go with" certain grammar structures (e.g. important is often used in the phrase "It is important to...") or words (e.g. weather goes with forecast and not e.g. prediction). Example sentences present this information in a clear way. You can easily imitate them to make your own natural sentences.
3. They program your brain to produce correct English sentences. If you read an English sentence, there is a good chance that it will stay in your head, and that you will be able to build a similar sentence (or part of a sentence) to express your thoughts another day. So the more English sentences you read, the more you can produce.

(Read more about why example sentences are so important)

Other things to look for

• Simple definitions. The definitions should be easy to understand. If something can be simple, it should be simple. See example of a simple dictionary definition.
• Useful definitions. If possible, the definitions should tell you how to use the word. Generally, longer definitions are better, because they give more information. See example of a useful dictionary definition.
• Both British and American English. Your dictionary should have both British and American words. Also, both British and American pronunciation should be given, because both are used in today's world.
• Phrasal verbs and idioms. There are special dictionaries for these, but every English dictionary should have the most common phrasal verbs and idioms.

• Pictures. Sometimes you can understand a picture better than a definition. See this example.

How many and how big?

It is a good idea to have at least two dictionaries: a large one (about this size) to use at home, and a small (pocket) one to carry with you. For example, you can bring your small dictionary to English classes.

It is an even better idea to have at least two large dictionaries. What for? Well, it's about example sentences. Two example sentences are better than one; four are better than two. With more examples, you have a more complete picture of how a word is used and you can express more in English yourself.

Recommended English dictionaries for learners

For your first learner's dictionary, we recommend the Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary (our review of this dictionary). It's a large dictionary with IPA-based phonetic transcriptions and great example sentences for every word. But the best thing are the definitions: they are very friendly, and they really tell you how to use a word. The CD-ROM (included with the book) allows easy and fast searching, and also includes a Wordbank with lots of additional example sentences.

You can buy the Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary at Elearnaid in hardcover ($37) and paperback ($28). Both include the software version of the dictionary on CD-ROM.

For a small dictionary that you can take everywhere you go, we recommend the Oxford Learner's Pocket Dictionary. It is very small (it will fit in your palm), but has a lot of information. You can get the dictionary from Amazon.co.uk.

Example sentences in dictionaries: More important than definitions

In an English dictionary, example sentences are even more important than definitions. A definition does one job: it tells you what a word means. Example sentences, on the other hand, perform at least three tasks:

1. They let you check if you've understood the definition correctly.
2. They show you how to use a word in sentences — how to connect it with other words and with grammar structures.
3. They program your brain to produce correct English sentences.

Understanding meanings

After reading the definition of a word, you can read the example sentences which contain the word. If you can understand them, you know you've understood the definition correctly. For example, it is nice to read that surpass means "to go beyond in amount, quality or degree", but it is even nicer to see an example:

The results surpassed all our expectations.

You'll probably agree that after seeing the sentence, the meaning of the word surpass becomes much clearer and easier to remember.

Sometimes a definition is so complicated that the example sentences are your only hope. Consider this definition from the Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's Dictionary, an otherwise fine product:

"That part or proportion consists of that thing"? Yeah, whatever. Let's see the example sentence, which makes things a lot clearer:

Grammar and usage

A definition tells you what a word means, i.e. it helps you understand the word when you see it. However, the meaning is only half of the picture. In language, there are not only meanings, but also grammar and collocations. Some words simply "go with" other words.

• For example, the verb to suffer goes with the preposition from (as in "Alice suffers from insomnia"), and not with some other preposition.
• Lethal and mortal both mean "deadly", but we only talk about a lethal injection, not a mortal one.
• The adjective major has the same meaning as important, but it must come before a noun (as in "Drug abuse is a major problem" or "Religion has played a major role in the history of mankind"), so it would be wrong to say "It is major to remember people's birthdays".
• Danger (definition: "the possibility of something bad happening") is often used with in ("Our lives are in danger"), with of ("The building is in danger of collapsing"), or with a that-clause ("There's a danger that the plan will fail").

Such information is often not found in the definition, and you need to read the example sentences to learn how to connect a word with other words to produce correct sentences.