Finding Creative Ways to Practice English

When learning languages, I find it's very important to observe and speak with natives as much as possible in an immersion environment. Think about how a baby learns the language of his or her parents. At the beginning they observe and listen to their parents. Then they begin to imitate the repeated sounds they hear. At first their sounds are awkward and difficult to understand. Eventually they become natural speakers of the language. 

Initially it can be overwhelming if you are immersed in a group of natives speaking among themselves! But it’s also fascinating because you witness the natural patterns of a language as it’s spoken. It’s exciting to recognize the sounds and patterns of questions and responses, and it’s challenging to hear unfamiliar sounds. You can pick up all sorts of valuable phrases and vocabulary this way. Be sure to write down the new words and phrases the same day that you learn them so that you can go back later to review. Otherwise it may pass through your mind like the clouds in the sky. We refer to this kind of repetition as "neuronal touches." The more the human nervous system comes in contact with an experience, the more familiar it becomes. Long-term memory is formed by repetitively exposing the nervous system to a certain stimulus over time. Becoming adept at any skill requires practice and repetition.   

Make the best of what you’ve got! If you are learning English and you have friends nearby who are native English speakers, then you’re quite fortunate to have the opportunity to interact with them. Maybe you can take some lessons with a private teacher. If it’s not possible to practice with native speakers, then you can use your imagination to come up with creative ways to speak English more.  

Here are some ideas:

Start a weekly conversation hour at a bar or coffeehouse with friends who want to practice English. Here in the USA, friends and colleagues often meet for “happy hour” after work. Sometimes Fridays are the best days of the week for happy hour because it’s the end of the work week and the start of the weekend. Of course you could arrange to meet at a cafe or anywhere else that locals would go in your area. If you’re looking for a way to let go of your inhibitions about speaking English, sometimes having a drink is conductive to that. You can write an email to some of your friends and colleagues who speak English to invite them to the English happy hour. Don’t worry about the different levels of each person. People can have the opportunity to chat with others at various levels. It’s still great practice for the people who have more advanced language skills because they have the opportunity to test their own knowledge by offering some guidance to others and leading with examples. Those at a lower level of English proficiency gain the experience of listening to a more advanced conversation, and while they may not understand everything, they will learn from example. I know it's awkward at first to speak a foreign language with people who speak your native language, but the key to this experience is to have fun! 

If you’re into TV series and movies, watch something you enjoy in English and make time each week for this listening comprehension practice. TED.com is an excellent resource for anyone interested in science, medicine, technology and related fields. You can even listen to many free Podcasts from iTunes in English about subjects that you are interested in. Nowadays there is so much available online at our fingertips. If you don’t have time to actively watch something, at least find some audio media that you can play in the background or on headphones while you are doing other tasks. For example, try it while driving, washing dishes, editing spreadsheets, playing on Facebook, cleaning the house, folding laundry and so on.  Even if your conscious mind is focused elsewhere, the sounds of the language will become more familiar to the subconscious mind, allowing you to access the knowledge of the language more effortlessly in conversation.   

You can practice your reading comprehension with online news. The USA Today, CNN and Yahoo News are less formal and more basic in vocabulary and sentence structure. The BBC and NY Times are more formal and advanced. Read the articles that most interest you. If you prefer to read books, find some books in English on topics that you enjoy and take your time reading them. In addition, you can do some online searches in English for topics you are interested in and look into some of the search results. Remember to write down new vocabulary words and idiomatic phrases as you come across them so you can look them up in the dictionary and review your lists later. Reviewing your list over and over is how you will be able to transfer the new words and phrases from your passive memory to active memory. 

You can also do some online researching to see if you can find any local groups who meet up to speak English. Social media, like Facebook and Twitter, is a great way for people to connect these days. Here in the USA we also use Craigslist.org and Meetup.com for this purpose. Livemocha.com offers a chat capability where you can meet people all over the world who want to practice English, right from your computer and the comforts of your home.  

It’s important to teach yourself how to think in English too. Practice your inner dialogue in English instead of your native language sometimes. It’s funny how speaking another language helps you learn your own better. The things that you take for granted through automatic speech in your own language are necessary to understand in order to figure out how to express the same thing in another language. It also makes you question why things are the way the are. Guaranteed you’ll learn interesting things about your native language that you never knew before!  

The classroom, both in person and online, is great for building a foundation in language skills and grammar. Yet to truly be fluent in a language, you’ve got to live it as much as possible. If you don’t have the opportunity to travel frequently or to socialize with a group of native English speakers in your area, there are other ways to gain greater fluency. The question is how to do that from where you are with the unique opportunities around you. Feel free to post any comments below regarding helpful ways you use to practice English!