Learn English with BeGlobal

www.BeGlobal.Club

Where do I start?
Why do you want to learn English?
Before you begin (or go back to) studying English, ask yourself one question. Why do I want to
study English? Is it because you want to, or because someone else wants you to? Like every decision in
life, studying English must be something you want to do.
Set goals
If you know why you want to study, setting goals is easy. For example, maybe you want to travel to
an English-speaking country. Great. Your goal might be to learn "Survival English". Perhaps you already
know many useful phrases, but you want to improve your listening skills and pronunciation. Whatever your
goals are, write them down.
Make an agenda
How long do you need to study to achieve your goals? This answer is different for every student.
The important thing is to be realistic. If you work 60 hours per week, don't plan on spending another 40
hours a week studying English. Start off slow, but study regularly. Use material that is challenging, but not
too difficult. Find out what works for you. After you have studied for a few weeks, adjust your study
schedule accordingly. Do you study best at night, or on the bus on your way to work? Do you like to study
alone in a quiet place, or with friends and background music?

A sample 4 week agenda:

Week 1
Sunday

Read an English children's story. Do exercises. Summarize story in my journal.

Monday

Write a journal entry about my weekend. Review some English spelling rules.

Tuesday

Learn How to say Hello and Goodbye in English

Wednesday

Read the useful phrases used in a telephone conversation. Write out a simple conversation I
would have with my best friend.

Thursday

Review the prepositions of place that I learned. Practice talking (out loud) about the
placement of objects in my bedroom. If there are any objects in my room that I don't know
the name for, look them up in a dictionary. Record them in my own personal dictionary.

Friday

Listen to one hour of English radio. Don't write anything down. Just listen.

Saturday

Review all of the new vocabulary I have learned this week. Write a story using as many of
the words as I can.

Week 2
Sunday

Try the practice sessions and quiz in the Telephone English section. If I have difficulty doing
them, review the telephone language I learned last week.

Monday

Watch video: Parts of Speech on Youtube

Tuesday

Rent an English movie. Choose a movie that I can get notes on. Watch the movie without
writing anything down.

Wednesday Learn Phrasal Verb with GET and GO

Learn English with BeGlobal

www.youtube.com/LearnEnglishWithBeGlobal

Learn English with BeGlobal

www.BeGlobal.Club

Thursday

Schedule a partner practice session on the telephone. Talk for at least half an hour using only
English. Keep notes in front of me and try to use the telephone phrases I've learned.

Friday

Watch the English movie again. This time stop and start the film when I don't understand
something. Look up and record at least ten English words and try to understand them in
context.

Saturday

Read Easy Stories to Improve Vocabulary Quickly

Week 3
Sunday

Review all of the vocabulary I learned last week. Write a letter to an English friend or
teacher using as many of these words as I can.

Monday

Listen to the radio for one hour.

Tuesday

Read the biography of William Blake. Look up and record any words that I don't know.
Write a biography of a famous person in my culture. Use the Internet to help with research.

Wednesday Read the exercise about English word stress. Try the word stress quiz.
Thursday

Spend an hour or two doing online listening exercises.

Friday

Begin the small talk exercise. (Read the WHO, WHAT,WHERE, WHEN, AND, WHY.) In
my notebook, summarize the points in my own words.

Saturday

Learn How To Talk About Shopping and Buying in English

Week 4
Sunday

Test myself on all of the vocabulary I have learned in the past three weeks

Monday

Watch Video: Secrets to Improve Your English Listening Skills

Tuesday

Work on some dictation exercises. Write out 20 words that I often have difficulty spelling.
Review them before bed.

Wednesday

Read a short story (out loud) such as The Chapel. Do the exercises and quiz. Record 10
difficult words.

Thursday

Listen to English music for at least one hour. Use the radio or Internet. Don't write anything
down. Just relax.

Friday

Convert my favourite recipe into English. Invite a friend over to enjoy this meal (speaking in
English only).

Saturday

Learn Most Common Phrases in English

Note: This is just an example of one student's self-study agenda for one month. You should make your
own personal agenda. Make sure to use the appropriate level of materials. It is useful to write a 7-day
agenda before you go to bed every Sunday night. Most importantly, make sure to study a balance of skills,
including listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Make a commitment
Learning English requires a lot of motivation. Nobody is going to take your attendance when you
aren't in class. If you are sure you are ready to begin studying, make a commitment.
Sign a contract with yourself:

Learn English with BeGlobal

www.youtube.com/LearnEnglishWithBeGlobal

Learn English with BeGlobal

www.BeGlobal.Club

My English Learning Contract

I, ______________________________ (your name),
promise to study English for a minimum of
__________ (your realistic number) hours per week,
from ________/________/20______
to ________/________/20______.
(no more than three months)
My #1 goal is to:
___________________________________________
(Example: improve my listening and speaking skills)
Other specific goals include:
________________________________________
(Example: learning 100 new words)
________________________________________
(Example: writing an email in English every day)
________________________________________
(Example: improving my pronunciation)
I will re-evaluate my study sessions and goals and sign a new contract at the end of this
study period.
If I keep to the above program and achieve the above goals I will REWARD myself
with:
___________________________________________
(Example: new shoes/mini vacation/new dictionary)

Signed: ________________________ (your signature)

Witness: ________________________ (signature of friend, teacher etc)
Dated: ______/______/20____
PLEASE POST ME SOMEWHERE VISIBLE!

Have fun learning English!

Learn English with BeGlobal

www.youtube.com/LearnEnglishWithBeGlobal

Learn English with BeGlobal

www.BeGlobal.Club

The things we do best in life are the things we enjoy doing. If you aren't having fun learning English,
you're not studying the right way! You can be a serious student who has fun at the same time. Make up
your own rewards program to give yourself incentives to stay on task.

Study a Balance of the 4 Key Skills (Listening,

Speaking, Reading, Writing)
Most students want to communicate better in English. If this is one of your goals, it is important to
study a balance of the four major skills. Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing are the main (macro)
skills you need to communicate in any language. Being very good at only one of these skills will not help
you to communicate. For example you need to be able to read well before you can write well. You also
need to be able to listen before you can speak. It helps to think of these communicative skills in two groups.

INput <<<
o Listening (in through your ears)
o Reading (in through your eyes)

OUTput >>>
o Speaking (out through your mouth)
o Writing (out through your hand)

It's simple. Think of it this way. First you have input. Next you have output. First you listen to
someone ask you a question. Second you speak and give them your answer. First you read a letter from
someone. After that you write back to them. These are examples of communicating.
Input and output don't necessarily go in a specific order. Sometimes you speak first and then you
listen. Sometimes you write about something you hear. During communication, the person you are
communicating with uses one of the opposite skills. Therefore, in order to understand each other, everyone
must be skillful in all four areas.

Some students want to know which skill is the most important. Since all of the skills rely on each
other, they are all important. However, to communicate we do use some skills more often than others. For
example, about 40% of the time that we spend communicating we are simply listening. We speak for about
35% of the time. Approximately 16% of communication comes from reading, and about 9% from writing.

Learn English with BeGlobal

www.youtube.com/LearnEnglishWithBeGlobal

Learn English with BeGlobal

www.BeGlobal.Club

These statistics are for an average communicator in English. Depending on someone's job or situation,
these numbers may vary.
Each of these main skills have micro skills within them. For example, pronunciation is a type of
speaking skill that must be practiced in order to improve communication. Spelling is a skill that makes
understanding the written word easier. Grammar and vocabulary are other micro skills. Micro doesn't mean
they are unimportant. Macro skills such as listening are very general, while micro skills are more specific.
For the best results, create an agenda that combines all four areas of study. Allow one type of
studying to lead into another. For example, read a story and then talk about it with a friend. Watch a movie
and then write about it. This is what teachers in an English class would have you do, right?
EnglishClub.com has lessons in all 4 key skills (and all minor skills), as well as many outside links to help
you study further.

1. How to learn LISTENING

Listen to the radio

Don't always have a pen in hand. Sometimes it helps to just listen.

Watch English TV
Children's programming is very useful for ESL learners.
Choose programs that you would enjoy in your own language.
Remember that much of what you hear on TV is slang.

Call Automated Answering Machine recordings

You can find these numbers at the front of telephone books in many English-speaking countries.
Before you dial, make sure that you are calling the free numbers.

Watch movies
Choose ones with subtitles,

Use Internet listening resources

Every day there are more and more places to listen to English online.

Useful Listening links:

o https://youtu.be/1hdkoFnvbKQ
o http://beglobal.club/Effortless-English

2. How to learn SPEAKING and PRONUNCIATION

Talk to yourself
Talk about anything and everything. Do it in the privacy of your own home. If you can't do this at
first, try reading out loud until you feel comfortable hearing your own voice in English.

Record your own voice

This might feel very uncomfortable, but it will help you find your weak pronunciation points.
Listen to yourself a few days later. Which sounds do you have difficulty hearing?

Use the telephone.

Participate in class

Learn common idioms

Understand the sounds that your language doesn't have

For example, many languages don't have the "r" sound. These sounds require extra practice.

Learn English with BeGlobal

www.youtube.com/LearnEnglishWithBeGlobal

Learn English with BeGlobal

www.BeGlobal.Club

Recognize that teachers are trained to understand you

When you get out into the real world, average people will have a more difficult time understanding
you unless you practice speaking slowly and with proper pronunciation.

Practice minimal pairs

Study word and sentence stress

Practice tongue twisters

Useful Speaking links:

o http://beglobal.club/American-Accent
o http://beglobal.club/Effortless-English
o http://beglobal.club/Pefect-English

3. How to learn READING and vocabulary

Read something every day

Children's books, simplified readers (Penguin), newspapers, magazines, Internet sites, novels, and
much much more...

Read what interests you.

Remember that you learn better when you are having fun.

Read at the appropriate level

You want to learn new vocabulary, but you also want to understand what you are reading. If you
are looking up every word, the reading is too difficult.

Review Who, What, Where, When, Why for each story you read
You can do this for almost any type of reading. Who is it about? What happened? Why did it
happen? Where did it take place? When did it take place? This is very useful when you have no
comprehension questions to answer. You can write or speak your answers.

Always have an English-English dictionary nearby

It is a bad habit to always rely on a translation dictionary or electronic dictionary.
Think of your English-English dictionary as your life line.
Use online dictionaries when you are using the Internet (keyword online dictionary).

Record vocabulary in a personal dictionary

o Keep this notebook separate from other work
o Record vocabulary in alphabetical order (an English address book works well because it
has letters of the alphabet)
o Record the part of speech (sometimes there is more than one)
o Write a sample sentence for yourself (don't use the one from the dictionary)
o Review your personal dictionary (especially new entries) every night before bed

Useful Reading links:

o

http://beglobal.club/really-learn-english

4. How to learn WRITING and spelling

Keep a diary/journal
Don't always pay attention to grammar. Free-writing can be very useful. It can show you that
writing is fun. Have fun with the language.

Learn English with BeGlobal

www.youtube.com/LearnEnglishWithBeGlobal

Learn English with BeGlobal

www.BeGlobal.Club

Write emails in English

Stay in contact with teachers or other students.

Rewrite your local news in English

This is another exercise that can be done on a daily basis. Remember that regular activities are the
best ones.

Learn important spelling rules

Remember, you won't always have a dictionary or a spell-checker handy, especially when you are
writing a test. Even native English speakers need to review the spelling rules from time to time.

Useful Writing links:

o

https://youtu.be/axHcf4SXr1I

Improve your homework skills

Stay organized. Keep separate notebooks for exercises, writing, and vocabulary.
Use a pen that you love.
Study in short, regular periods.
Allow a short amount of time for review.
Study in a place where you feel happy and comfortable.
Don't allow distractions. Consider email, TV, and the telephone (unless in English) off limits while
you are studying.
Have a drink and snack handy so that you don't have to get up.
If you study in pairs or groups, make an English-only rule.

Visit an English-Speaking Country

Take a language holiday.

Stay with a homestay family.
Learn from native English teachers.
Gain access to English culture.
Get a part-time job.
Volunteer.
Make native English friends.
Make friends with people from other countries.
Become more confident.
Hire a tutor.
Offer language lessons/swap in your own native tongue.

Don't be afraid of grammar

Grammar is for communication

Sometimes students get obsessed with grammar. This is especially true for students who grew up
with strict grammar schooling. Remember that you only study grammar in order to communicate.
Practise with a few exercises, then write an essay or have a conversation and try to use your new
tools.

Isolate your weak points

Don't waste time on grammar exercises that you already understand just because they are easier for
you. Concentrate on grammar that is difficult for you. If you are unsure of where your problems
are, write a few short essays or paragraphs and ask a teacher to circle repeated errors. Then you can
look up your problem and practise it.

Teach grammar points to a friend

Learn English with BeGlobal

www.youtube.com/LearnEnglishWithBeGlobal

Learn English with BeGlobal

www.BeGlobal.Club

Find a friend who studies at a lower level than you. Teaching will force you to remember the rules and
to understand them properly. Try preparing a worksheet for your friend.

Useful Grammar links:

o

https://youtu.be/316x8DO3V7Y

Prepare for a standardized test such as TOEIC or TOEFL

Qualify for a better job in your country (TOEIC).

Get accepted to an American college or university (TOEFL).
Use guided-study text books.
Study a broad range of whole language.
Track your improvement easily (test scores).
Learn idiomatic language.
Learn business English (TOEIC).
Improve your vocabulary quickly.
Take classes and get access to many listening exercises.
Challenge yourself to improve your score.
Learn and practise proper essay format (TWE/NEW TOEFL).
Become a grammar expert.
Improve your general knowledge.

Fun with English Ideas

Have an English-only evening once a week. Cook in English (rewrite your recipe in English) or
watch English movies.
Write an English love letter. (If your loved one doesn't understand English that's even better!)
Write English limericks. (These are excellent and simple for writing, pronunciation and rhythm
practice.)
Rewrite fairytales, jokes or instructions in English.
Go out and pretend you don't understand your native language (try to get by in only English).
Go online and find the lyrics to your favourite English songs and sing along to them (use a search
engine).
Learn the words to English national anthems. Sing along when you hear them on TV (sporting
events).
Invent an English character for yourself (with job, family, etc). Write this person's biography.
Buy an English board game (like Monopoly or Scrabble).
Play cards in English.

Learn English with BeGlobal

www.youtube.com/LearnEnglishWithBeGlobal

Learn English with BeGlobal

www.BeGlobal.Club

Start up or join an English reading or conversation club.

Talk to yourself in English while you clean or do the dishes.
Go around the house and try to name everything in English (furniture, clothes etc). Look up words
you don't know.

More TIPS for learning English Faster

1. You are like a new baby
Babies learn their language slowly.
First they learn to listen.
Then they learn to speak.
Finally, they can read and write.
2. Listen to English every day
Listen to English radio.
Watch English TV.
Go to English movies.
Use online lessons.
3. Make an English/ESL friend
Make up conversations.
Practice dialogues.
Use beginner textbooks.
4. Read English stories
Start with children's storybooks.
Try ESL readers.
Read advertisements, signs and labels.
Try EnglishClub.com for Young Learners.
5. Write down new words
Start a vocabulary (new word) notebook.
Write words in alphabetical order (A...B...C...).
Make example sentences.
Always use an English-English dictionary first.
6. Keep an English diary
Start with one sentence.
How do you feel?
How is the weather?
What did you do today?
Write another sentence tomorrow.
7. Visit an English speaking country
Learn English more quickly.
Stay with an English family.
Hear native speakers talk.
Have a fun experience.

Learn English with BeGlobal

www.youtube.com/LearnEnglishWithBeGlobal

Learn English with BeGlobal

www.BeGlobal.Club

Useful Mobile Apps for Learning English:

App Learn English for Android:

http://beglobal.club/English-Videos-Android
http://beglobal.club/VOA-English-Androi

http://beglobal.club/FunnyJokes

App Learn English for IOS:

http://beglobal.club/English-Videos-IOS

http://beglobal.club/VOA-English-IOS

Learn English with BeGlobal

www.youtube.com/LearnEnglishWithBeGlobal