Никогда не зубри, не заучивай ничего по отдельности, в отрыве от контекста

Seven secrets for those who learn English.

Learn about Word Stress.

Word Stress is golden key number one for speaking and understanding English. Word Stress is very important. You can try to learn about Word Stress. This is one of the best ways for you to understand spoken English - especially English spoken fast.

What is Word Stress?

Take 3 words: photograph, photographer and photographic, for example. Do they sound the same when spoken? No! They sound different, because one syllable in each word is "stressed" (stronger than the others).

PHOtograph
phoTOgrapher
photoGRAPHic

This happens in ALL words with 2 or more syllables: TEACHer, JaPAN, CHINa, aBOVE, converSAtion, INteresting, imPORtant, deMAND, etCETera, etCETera, etCETera.

The syllables that are not stressed are 'weak' or 'small' or 'quiet'. Native speakers of English listen for the stressed syllables, not the weak syllables. If you use Word Stress in your speech, you will instantly and automatically improve your pronunciation and your comprehension.

If you have an English teacher, ask her to help you understand Word Stress. Try to hear the stress in words each time you listen to English - on the radio, or in films for example. Your first step is to hear and recognise it. After that, you can use it!

More about Word Stress (with audio files): http://www.englishclub.net/pronunciation

Sentence Stress

Sentence Stress is golden key number two for speaking and understanding English. With Sentence Stress, some words in a sentence are "stressed" (loud) and other words are weak (quiet). Look at the following sentence:

We want to go.

Do we say every word with the same stress or force? No! We make the important words big and the unimportant words small. What are the important words in this sentence? Yes, you're right: WANT and GO.

We WANT to GO.
We WANT to GO to WORK.
We DON'T WANT to GO to WORK.
We DON'T WANT to GO to WORK at NIGHT.

It's impossible to explain everything about Sentence Stress right now. The important thing for you is that you know it exists and try to learn about it. Sentence Stress is very important!

More about Sentence Stress (with audio files): http://www.englishclub.net/pronunciation

3. Listen! Listen! Listen!

Students sometimes say: 'I don't listen to the BBC news on the radio because it's too fast for me and I can't understand it.' That's a pity! When it's too fast for you, when you can't understand it, that is exactly when you NEED to listen to it!!!

How can you improve if you don't listen and practise?

When you were a baby, did you understand your own language? When you were 3 weeks old, or 2 months, or 1 year, did you understand everything? Of course not! But you learned to understand by listening. Think about it. You learned to understand your own language by listening, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. After that, you learned to speak. Then you learned to read. And then you learned to write. But listening came first!

More about listening: http://www.englishclub.net/newsletter/a/2000/01-1.shtml

Do you know the difference between the verbs TO LISTEN and TO HEAR? TO LISTEN is active. TO HEAR is passive. Sometimes you can LISTEN too hard. Sometimes you can TRY too hard. Sometimes it is better only to HEAR. Let the radio play. Let the cassette play. But DON'T listen. Just HEAR. Your subconscious will listen for you. And you will still learn. If you listen and try to understand, you may block on one word and get frustrated. Don't worry! Just HEAR! Believe me, you will still be learning. The important thing is to let the radio or cassette or television or record PLAY. Let it play. And you - you do nothing. Your brain will HEAR, your subconscious will LISTEN and you will LEARN!

More about not listening: http://www.englishclub.net/newsletter/a/2000/01-1.shtml

Improve Your Vocabulary with 5 Words a Day

Vocabulary is easy! How many days in a year are there? 365, normally (on Earth).

In fact, 30 minutes of English study once a day is better than 5 hours once a week! Study regularly. Study often.

LITTLE + OFTEN is better than LOT + SOMETIMES.

7. Revise! Revise! Revise!

If you revise, you'll improve your learning by 100%.

What does "to revise" mean? It means "to look again". You should be systematic about this. When you learn something, you should note it. Then you should look at it again, 3 times:
- after 1 day
- after 1 week
- after 1 month

Как развить в себе мотивацию?

1. Занимайся языком ежедневно. Если уж совсем нет времени, то хотя бы десять минут. Особенно хорошо заниматься по утрам.

2. Если желание заниматься слишком быстро ослабевает, не "форсируй", но и не бросай учебу. Придумай какую-нибудь иную форму: отложи книгу и послушай радио, оставь упражнения учебника и полистай словарь и т.д.

Никогда не зубри, не заучивай ничего по отдельности, в отрыве от контекста.

4. Выписывай вне очереди и заучивай все "готовые фразы", которые можно использовать в максимально возможном количестве случаев.

5. Старайся мысленно переводить все, что возможно: промелькнувшее рекламное табло, надпись на афише, обрывки случайно услышанных разговоров. Это всегда отдых, даже для уставшей головы.

6. Выучивать прочно стоит только то, что исправлено преподавателем. Не перечитывай собственных неисправленных упражнений: при многократном чтении текст запоминается невольно со всеми возможными ошибками. Если занимаешься один, то выучивай только заведомо правильное.

7. Готовые фразы, идиоматические выражения выписывай и запоминай в первом лице, единственного числа. Например: "I am only pulling your leg" (Я тебя только дразню).

8. Иностранный язык - крепость, которую необходимо штурмовать со всех сторон одновременно: чтением газет, слушанием радио, просмотром недублированных фильмов, посещением лекций на иностранном языке, проработкой учебника, перепиской, встречами и беседами с друзьями - носителями языка.

9. Не бойся говорить, не бойся возможных ошибок, а проси, чтобы их исправляли. И главное, не расстраивайся и не обижайся, если тебя действительно начнут поправлять.