The main thing in learning English is regular practice and maximum immersion in the language. The Promova app can help you do just that.
- Make English-speaking friends
There is no point in learning a language and not practicing it as often as possible. An hour of conversation with a native speaker can easily be equal to several online lessons and 5 hours of an audio course. Foreign friends will help you better practice listening comprehension, diversify your vocabulary with useful phrases, and most importantly: use the language for its direct purpose – to communicate.
The easiest way to make an English-speaking friend is to find someone who is learning your native language and establish a language exchange with them. You can use resources like Italki and Tandem to do this. Here are a few rules on how to make meetings with your language partner productive:
Meet regularly. Ideally 2-3 times a week for at least 30 minutes. Agree in advance on the format of your conversations: how much time you will practice English, and how much time you will practice Russian.
Decide on the topics of your meetings. At the beginning you can practice the materials of your lessons: role-play dialogues from the textbook, practice grammar and vocabulary. Later, you can choose one or more topics that interest you and discuss them throughout the meeting.
When it is your turn to practice language with your partner, try to speak in English most of the time and not switch to Russian.
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Your main goal is to keep the conversation going, not to focus on your gaps in English, since you’re not in class. If you get stumped, use the phrase “How do you say…” (“How do you say?”) + the word you need to translate.
- Develop yourself professionally in English
Identify a prospective area of expertise and train in it in English. Working as a psychologist? Read professional literature in the original language, take courses from the best universities in the world on Coursera.org, and attend events with expert speakers. Want to learn a new profession? Study with foreign professors, and then use your knowledge in your work.
- During the day you can correspond with a foreign friend on a convenient messenger (WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram). By the way, change the layout of your smartphone to English beforehand. And in the evening you can call him and chat about how the day went.
- On your lunch break, read a chapter from your favorite book or an article from a magazine. The most important thing is that the material should be interesting and you don’t have to force yourself. Choose non-adapted literature and American or British online publications (The Economist, Atlantic, New York Times, The Guardian). If you don’t have time to read, take easy and entertaining quizzes in English, like BuzzFeed Quizzes or Zimbio.
- In the evening you can practice your writing skills: talk on various topics on Reddit, publish a mini-post on Instagram, or comment on someone’s video on TikTok. If you feel you have potential, you can start your own English-language blog and post there regularly.