grammar

Why Am I Not Improving English?

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Woman Writing in Daily Planner

Avoid translating

  1. You are translating from your native language into English. That’s a big “no-no.” Avoid translating from your first language into English. You can speed up your progress in English if you simply focus on listening to English and catch the words you understand. Use the context to guess understanding. For instance, if someone says, “There will be a big shin dig this Friday night.” Imagine you don’t know the word shin dig. Don’t translate it. Just imagine what those words could mean in terms of happening on Friday night: a feast, a reception, a get together, a dance, or a dinner party.

 

  1. You are not practicing enough English speaking with a native. Dedicate enough study time to make advancements. Don’t expect to study English only a half hour per week and improve rapidly. Intensive language learning of a few set hours every weekday can expand your progress. When you do have a set study session in-person with a native speaker, don’t forget to speak. Sometimes, when you are conversing with someone in another language, it’s easy to just listen, but you won’t learn English faster if you don’t practice participating more in the conversation. So, the more you converse, the more you will learn to communicate better in English. If you spoke English just one time today, next time or tomorrow, try to speak two times. Of course, the more often you practice speaking, you can improve your confidence and your fluency in the language.

 

  1. You lack confidence in your English abilities. How can you improve in the language if you do not believe in yourself? Be confident that you are learning, and you will acquire more language skills day by day. Avoid saying, “Sorry,” if you don’t feel confident using English fluently yet with a native speaker. If you come across a new word/phrase/express, you can always ask a native speaker, “What does (~phrase) mean?” Just because you may not be familiar with idiomatic expressions or advanced vocabulary, you don’t need to apologize if you are not at the highest level. Remember that you are trying. Give yourself a break because you are learning a language. Keep trying your best, be confident that you will learn more and more. No doubt, you will learn more vocabulary as you progress to a higher level.

 

  1. You are not listening to a sufficient amount of English daily. Perhaps you do not understand enough of what you listen to. Let’s say that you comprehend only about 65%. This is particularly a concern if you live in a foreign country (a non-English speaking place) and do not have access to listening to speakers of English face-to-face. Solution: get a native trainer online or in-person, or listen to English on the web. Practice listening to English every day to train your ears to focus on words you already know in English and listen for word chunks, phrases, which you may be familiar with to comprehend the context. Avoid listening just for grammar. You won’t be able to attain fluency by picking apart a conversation through grammar points. Stop trying to catch single words. Neither will you be capable of advanced fluency if you are concentrating only on individual words in a dialogue. You need to listen for how phrases are grouped together in a pattern. You can listen to music, television, or movies to gain more fluency and understanding. Tell your ears they must listen to English phrases, understand English in context, and capture the bigger picture, the overall meaning.

 

  1. You forgot what you already studied in previous lessons. If you are not remembering your intake, then taking notes on what you learned during your study sessions will help you review and keep the knowledge fresh. For example, keep an English notebook for acquiring more information. In your journal (digital or paper,) you can take note of phrases that are new that you can learn. Then, try to use these new groups of words if you think of it in context. If you write down only the vocabulary word, you may not understand in the future how to use it in context, so try to catch an entire phrase. Later, when you review your notebook, the whole phrase will serve as a reminder of the meaning in context. Consequently, it will be much easier to recall. Furthermore, it will be a base for you to move up to the next level.

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Tips for each TOEFL section

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Reading

For the reading questions, focus on the areas that the questions relate to. The questions come in the order they appear. You should be ready for the kind of questions you will be asked. Many of the readings have a main idea question and at least two vocabulary questions are in each reading in addition to some detailed questions and inference questions. Skim the reading, go through the questions, then read for detail. You won’t have time to reread the entire passage. In the speaking and writing sections, you have to show that you have a good grammar ability, so be familiar with key academic vocabulary, but in the reading section, you do not have to know every single word in a passage to get the right answer to the questions. Practice reading with no dictionary.

Listening

On the real test, you will only hear everything one time, so you will need to simulate this and train your ears to listen fully the first and only time. When you are practicing for the listening sections, only play the listening ONCE. On the exam day, the clock will not start until you start the answers. Do NOT look at a listening question after you have decided on an answer since you cannot change it. Listen for main idea at the start, compare/contrast points, key points to support the main purpose and details such as when, where, how, and why.

Speaking

You can pause for a second when you respond. Try to fill as much of the time as possible with your speaking response. If you have a few extra seconds you can make a few second summary to conclude. You will have a lower score for poor pronunciation, so AVOID advanced words that you cannot pronounce correctly. Improper vocabulary and idioms also bring a lower score so be sure you know how to use an expression properly BEFORE you use it on the exam.

Writing

The first task in the writing section, you will need to integrate ideas from the reading and lecture and show their relationship, so study former practice tests and model essays, so you can know how to relate contrasting viewpoints on the same topic from different authors or a writer and a lecturer.

Keep your writing simple and clear! There is no spell check, so type accurately to avoid many typing errors. Do not use big vocabulary and advanced punctuation that you are not sure of.

Plan your essay before you write it. Your plan will save time so you have a well-organized writing. When you practice essays, find a format that you are comfortable writing. Use the same format/structure each time. For example, your thesis might always be in the third sentence of your introduction. You might always end your conclusion with a question. Make sure to use lots of examples to support your essay. Transitional words and phrases will make your writing easier to read. Memorize a list of transitions and know how to type them with no errors. At the end, leave a little time to revise what you wrote.