Learning English by yourself can be a challenge but it is possible. There are ways you can improve your reading, writing, listening and speaking skills — even though there is no-one physically around you to help you practise.
Virginia Lang, an Australian English teacher, shares her tips on improving your English by yourself:
1. Place labels around your home
Whether it be grammar or vocabulary, memorisation is a part of learning English. Memorisation can also be hard and boring, so Virginia Lang has a number of creative solutions for students.
English has a number of grammar rules, which students often find difficult to remember. "You can put them in a place where you’re going to spend a lot of time — possibly the bathroom or your bedroom — where you can remind yourself of those rules," says Virginia.
Starting an online blog or journal can be a simple (and free) way to develop you writing skills.
Once you have become comfortable with small writing tasks, such as captions, you can then move onto sentences and then hopefully paragraphs. Virginia also suggests that you find ways to proofread or edit your writing: "You can use spellcheck, you can check it yourself, you can get another English speaker to help you."
Reading is an important skill and it also helps your writing skills as well. In order to sustain your learning, Virginia recommends connecting reading with your passions.
When you read, do it actively and consider the tools that you can use while reading.
"Highlighters are great for highlighting new words that you don’t know. Have a good online dictionary or have a good paper dictionary as you’re reading, so you can check the definition and put it to memory as well," suggests Virginia.
Listening to podcasts and watching videos and television in English are all useful ways to improve your English by yourself. Virginia recommends extending your learning by either writing down or saying aloud summaries of what you have heard or watched.
