S p i r a l C a t
Translations     Advice on Learning English     Book Advice     Original Art and Writing     English Tuition     Deutsche Version     Site Map      
Animated Flash Cards     English on the Move     Reading Resources     mp3 Resources     Reading Tips     English Tenses      
English Learning Advice 
A page of really good advice on learning English.
I am an English native speaker and I have been teaching English in Austria for over a year. I have collected the hints and tips that I and my students have found to really be fun and helpful. I hope that one of the bits of advice I have collected will be the one that makes a difference for you in learning English.
 
Top ten advice ideas.
 
1. English tenses are not as hard as you might think. 
 
All the many English tenses can be built up from just three basic questions. This page has the tenses and the questions
 
2. Use your phone to learn on the move.

 

Your phone can be a whole language lab in your pocket ready to use at any time for learning a language. This page shows you how.


3. A great way to listen to English and hear how it should sound is to listen to free English mp3.

 
Listening to English teaches you to think quickly in English so you can keep up with and understand even the fastest native speaker. This page has some links to pages with great spoken English that is provided free. 
 
4. Only learn about grammar if you need to.

 

Grammar is very important, but it should be learned in small doses. This page gives an introduction to grammar on this site.


5. A great way to build vocabulary is to read a little every day.

 

English has more vocabulary than any other language and one of the best ways to expose yourself to all that vocabulary is to read a little every day. This page has some ideas to keep you reading. Have fun. Read for fun. It's the language that's important. It is OK to read science fiction or crime stories and even comic books are full of very good English. This page has some ideas for what to read.


6. Think in pictures. The more strange the picture the better.
 
A strange picture in your head will help you remember the word. Your picture does not have to be logical, it only needs to help you remember. The pictures in these animated flash cards help with learning.


7. Think about the differences between words. Remembering the difference between of and from helps you remember both words.

 

It helps to learn the difference between two words so that you can see what a word isn't as well as what a word is. This page has some examples.


8. English news can be emailed to you every day as reading practice.
 
Even though you know you should be reading English every day it is often difficult to get to the book shop. This page has links to sites who will email English to you every day and then all you have to do is read it.
 

9. Set goals and do not expect to much to soon.
 
How long can someone who has never learned a language before expect learning English to take and what milestones shold they look out for on the way. This page will show you how easily and quickly a language can be learned.
 
10. If you can not remeber a word, try to think of other ways it is used.
 
It might pop into your head from this different situation.
 
My latest site and the one I am most excited about is a blog that is just me and my girlfreind talking about things here at http://spiralcattalks.blogspot.com it is a great source of English conversation to read. 



 
 
 

We are Spiral Cat Translations and we do translations, but we also give advice on learning english, books for learning english, give English tuition and write lesson plans and other original content.