The most efficient ways to

learn English

What is the difference between effective and efficient? Let's say you had to travel from
Rome to Paris; what means of transportation would you use? You could walk, run, ride a
bike, drive a car, use a motorcycle, take a train, or fly (by plane). All of these methods of
transportation are effective, they work; you will get there. But, which methods require the
least amount of energy and accomplish the job in the shortest period of time? These
methods are the most efficient. I am sure you would agree that traveling by plane is more
efficient than riding a bike although Lance Armstrong might not agree.

Learning English can be broken down into two areas: input and output. Input consists of
reading and listening while output consists of writing and speaking. Clearly, in order to
have good quality output, you must have a lot of good quality input. Think of how long a
child listens before beginning to speak. As adults, we are not going to wait two years
before attempting to speak, but the more input we get, the more output we can produce.
The same applies for reading and writing. The more you read, the better you write. I can
even say that the more you read, write and listen, the better you speak.

My advice to all serious English learners is to approach your goal with a sense of urgency.
That means you need to work effectively, but more importantly, you need to work
efficiently. Based on my years of teaching and studying foreign languages, I have put
together what I consider to be the most effective and efficient ways to develop each area of
language.

Input

Reading
Learn at least five new vocabulary words every day. My suggestion is to use index cards
with the word on one side and the definition on the other. Keep the cards in a box and
review them frequently by saying the word and trying to give the definition. Keep the
definitions as short and concise as possible. Five to seven words is best. If you learn five
words a day, that’s 1,825 words per year. Considering that the average high school student
probably has a vocabulary of 5,000 to 6,000 words, in a few years your vocabulary should
be sufficient enough to understand nearly everything written in English.
Time commitment: 30 minutes.

Listening
Listen to talk radio. The objective of listening to English is to hear as many words as
possible in as short a period as possible. The more times you hear a word, the better you
will be able to use that word. There is no more efficient way to do this than talk radio. The
vocabulary is very diverse and there are no periods of silence because unlike television,
visuals cannot be used to keep an audiences attention. The key is to listen as often as
possible. Maximize your time by listening to talk radio when doing other activities such as
driving, walking, cooking, eating, getting dressed. If you can, try keeping the radio on
while you go to sleep so it's the last thing you hear while falling asleep and the first thing
you hear as you wake up.
Time commitment: 0.

Output

Writing
Keep a journal and write at least 500 words per day. By writing every day you will be
reinforcing everything you have learned. It will also force you to question the accuracy of
what you are writing. This process of intense concentration will help organize the vast array
of information you have in your subconscious mind. Write about whatever you want, but be
sure to challenge yourself with new vocabulary and various grammar structures.
Time commitment: 30 minutes.

Speaking
Read aloud. Reading aloud allows you to practice perfectly. Remember that it is perfect
practice that makes perfect. By reading aloud you are speaking grammatically perfect
English. If you have a typical conversation, errors will be made. Not just for English
learners, but for native speakers as well. If errors are repeated continually, it becomes
increasingly more difficult to correct those errors. Also, you will be using vocabulary words
that you would not normally use. In a typical one hour conversation, you might speak for
30 minutes with a number of errors, but if you read aloud, you can speak for one hour
without any grammar mistakes using new vocabulary words.
Time commitment: 1-2 hours minimum.

Do these four things each day for one month and I promise you that you will be amazed at
your improvement. There are no secrets to language acquisition, just a lot of hard work to
accomplish something that will enhance your life forever.

Successful people do the things that unsuccessful people are unwilling to do!

I wish you all the best on your journey!

If you want to get fluent in English, you’re in luck. It’s the second most
spoken language in the world. So you won’t have to look very hard to
find lots of English resources and lots of chances to practise both
spoken and written English.

What if you want to learn English fast? Then there are some steps you
should follow so that you don’t waste any of your precious study time
or lose interest in studying.

Let’s get to it! Here are my 9 steps for how to learn English fast.

Step 1: Find a Good GREAT Reason to

Learn English
Are you surprised that the first step isn’t about how to learn English
words or grammar? Don’t be! Finding your Big Why is much more
important than knowing which words to learn (“the what”) or the best
study methods for English (“the how”).

Before “the what” or “the how”, start with “the why”. Get a pen right
now, or open a text document on your computer, and write
down why you want to be fluent in English.

Don’t write a reason just because it sounds cool. Really think about
why learning English is important to you. You don’t have to show it to
anyone. Just make sure that your reason is great enough to motivate
you throughout your English mission. The more motivated you are to
study English, the easier English will be to learn.

During the remaining eight steps in this article, if you ever find that
you’re losing interest in studying English, come back to this step and
remind yourself why learning English is a great idea.
 Step 2: Decide Exactly What You Want to
Do in English — And When You Want to
Do It
I’ve studied a lot of languages in the past 15 years. I’ve learned that I
make much faster progress when I have a clear goal in mind than I do
when I’m just studying aimlessly.

In this step, take the same sheet of paper you used in step one. Write
down exactly whatyou want to achieve, and when. If you’re reading this
article, then you probably want to learn English fast. In that case, your
goal should be ambitious. Even if you’re not in a big hurry to get fluent,
make your goal clear and specific. Here are some examples of bad
(unclear) and good (clear and specific) goals:

Bad Goals
 I want to speak English fluently
 I want to go to university in another country
 Get a girlfriend/boyfriend who speaks English
Good Goals
 Within 8 months, I want to be able to read and understand any article
in the New York Times.
 Within 6 months, I want to score at least 6.0 on the IELTS English
exam so I can apply and be accepted to an exchange program at
Swansea University.
 Within 3 months, I want to be able to talk with English speakers in
social situations about everyday topics such as sports, music, films,
travel and food.
Notice how the bad goals have no time limit. When do you want to
complete your goal? This is important. If you have a time limit, then
you can evaluate your progress during your studies and figure out if
you need to change your routine to meet your goal. Each of the good
goals has a very clear deadline.

The bad goals also don’t include a clear measure of success. What do
you mean by “fluently”? Which university do you want to attend and
what are the English requirements there? If you want English friends or
romantic partners, what do you want to talk to them about?
Before you move on to step 3, write down a clear, well-defined goal
that you want to achieve in English.

Step 3: Find English Resources that are

Just a Little Bit Challenging
If you want to learn English fast, this step is key.

If your English is still basic or lower intermediate (for example, if you

find this article a little bit difficult to read), then don’t try to read the New
York Times yet! It will only discourage you. Instead, look at resources
such as VOA Special English News where you can listen to news
stories in clear, slow English.

Make sure your study resources aren’t too easy, either. If you’re an
intermediate English speaker, reading children’s
storybooks or Wikipedia in Simple English might make you feel
confident if you understand every word. But in fact, you’re just wasting
your time. Are you really learning English if you’re only seeing words
you already know?

The perfect English resources will be just easy enough that you can
understand the basic ideas without looking up any words in the
dictionary, but difficult enough that you have to look up several words if
you want to understand everything in detail.

Try out as many different English resources as you can. Discard the
ones that are too easy or too hard, and keep using the ones that are
just right for your level.

Step 4: Find English Resources that

Match Your Goal
Make sure everything you do in your English studies brings you closer
to your goal.

If your goal is to talk with native English speakers about films,

then watch English films. If you want to pass an English exam so you
can study abroad, get a tutor who’s qualified to prepare you for that
exam. If you just want to learn how to have casual conversations in
English, then go to meetups and language exchanges where you can
chat about everyday topics.

This is why it’s so important to have a good, clear goal. If you aren’t
sure where you want to be in three months, six months or next year,
then you won’t know where to start looking for good practice material.

Step 5: Learn New English Words — Lots

of Them!
I’ve met too many English learners who put all their effort into
perfecting their accent and grammar. They’re already trying to sound
like a Wall St. stock trader or a BBC Brit, before they know enough
vocabulary to talk about these subjects.

This is a mistake. Your English will take you much farther if you have a
wide vocabulary than it will if you speak with a perfect accent but don’t
know very many words. Most English speakers in the world speak
English as a second language. Nearly all of them speak it with a
foreign accent. So we native English speakers are used to hearing
foreign accents, and we don’t mind it at all.

Perfect grammar also isn’t as important as vocabulary at first. Lots of

native English speakers haven’t mastered English grammar, and they
get by just fine. You can still be fluent in English and make some
grammar mistakes. But you can’t be fluent if you only know a few
words.

What you can say makes a bigger impact than how perfectly you say it.
Even the president of the EU speaks English with a foreign accent! So
don’t worry about it. You can still go very far in life even if you don’t
sound like a native English speaker.

6. Speak! Speak! Speak! Speak English!

No amount of listening, reading or writing practice will make you a
good English speaker. If you want to speak English, you need to
practise speaking it.

The easiest way to do this is to take English lessons at home on

Skype. Start by searching for tutors on italki. If you don’t have money
for tutors, you can search for conversation partners to do a
free language exchange. A language exchange is a conversation that
you have with a native English speaker who wants to learn your native
language. You take turns talking in English and your native language.

There is no substitute for speaking practice. Do it as often as you can.

7. Practise Your English Every Day

Daily practice is important for a few reasons.

It keeps you motivated

If you do something every day, it will become a habit. Once you create
a habit, you’ll be motivated to continue it.

It saves time
When you only study once or twice a week, you forget a lot of the new
things you learned in your previous study session. So you have to
waste a lot of your valuable study time reviewing things you’ve already
learned. If you study every day, material that you learned the day
before will be fresh in your mind, which means you’ll spend less time in
review.

You can skip a day without big consequences

If you decide to study for a little while each day, then it’s not a big deal
if you have to miss a day of studying for some reason. But if you study
for a long time once or twice a week, then missing a day means losing
a lot more study time.

Try to practise all four skills every day: reading, listening, speaking and
writing. If you don’t have time to do all four, then I recommend at least
speaking and listening.

8. Make Time to Actively Study English

Reading online in English, watching English TV, and having English
conversations will all help you use what you’ve learned. But you still
need to set aside active studying time each day. This is time where
you do flashcard drills, quizzes, lessons with a teacher or other
structured study. This way, you’ll be sure that you’re really learning
new material instead of only reusing things you already know.
9. Make Mistakes! Fail Fast and Fail Often
Failure is an essential part of language learning. Mistakes are actually
a really easy way to improve your English.

If you’re like me, you were probably taught that mistakes are bad. That
might be true if you’re an engineer, but not if you’re an English learner.
You’ll never speak English fluently if you’re too afraid to make mistakes
while you learn. The more mistakes you make, the sooner you’ll be
corrected, and so you’ll learn faster.

Don’t be worried about looking foolish when you talk to native English
speakers. Most English speakers don’t speak any other languages. So
we’re very impressed when foreigners communicate with us in English,
even if they make mistakes. If you make a genuine attempt, English
speakers will be more than happy to help and encourage you. Try it
and see!

Above All, Don’t Give Up

I know you can learn English fluently. How do I know? Because
millions and millions of people all over the world have proven that it
can be done. The more you practise, make mistakes, and speak, the
faster you’ll get fluent in English. So why not start today?