Study skills tips

Read the study skills tips to practise and improve your reading skills. You'll learn some great study tips at the same time!

Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and do the exercises.

Preparation

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Reading text

Many studies about language learning ask the question: What makes a good language learner? There are some things that good language learners do and some things they don't do. Here are some of the most useful suggestions from studies.

Don't be afraid of making mistakes. People often get things wrong. Good language learners notice their mistakes and learn from them.
Do group activities. People use language to communicate with other people. A good language learner always looks for opportunities to talk with other students.
Make notes during every class. Notes help you to remember new language. Look at your notes when you do your homework.
Use a dictionary. Good language learners often use dictionaries to check the meaning of words they don't know. They also make their own vocabulary lists.
Think in the language you're learning outside the classroom. When you're shopping or walking down the street, remember useful words and phrases. Sometimes, when you're at home, say new words to practise your pronunciation.
Do extra practice. Test and improve your language, reading and listening skills with self-study material. You can find a lot of this online.
Imagine yourself speaking in the language. Many good language learners can see and hear themselves speaking in the language. This helps their motivation.
Enjoy the process. Good language learners have fun with the language. Watch a TV series or film, listen to songs, play video games or read a book. It's never too late to become a good language learner.

Task 1

Exercise

Task 2

Exercise

Discussion

What other tips do you have for learning a new language?

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Language level

A2 - Pre-intermediate

I think watching TV. Some Japanese say that watching TV abroad has made them good at English since they ware little. So I think watching TV is effective.

I think reading foreign books is one way to learn a new language. Reading a book will broaden your worldview and knowledge. It's very difficult to read a literary book suddenly, so it's a good idea to read a picture book. We can find illustration and words unique to that country. In addition, I think that you can learn more about the language by writing sentences and checking the meaning of words. In the case, I thunk it is best to rent it at the library.

I think that the effective study to learn a second language is to review the contents once done. This is because various information such as words, grammars and phrases are combined in the language, and it is important to learn the same content repeatedly to remember that information. However, this study method is very boring. Therefore, in order to reduce boredom as much as possible, it is effective to use things such as novels, movies, and other materials as teaching materials. It allows us to enjoy the content of study because the story is full of charm that we can’t discover just seeing it once.

To improve my English skill, I often watch English movies with English subtitles. I think it's good way. I always try to understand what the characters say in the movies. But I cant understand it perfectly because native speaker speak so fast. If I watch the movie with English subtitles, I can notice that the characters use easier English than I thought it would be. So I can understand more. It's so fun for me. I think it's the best way to improve English skill.

I think watching overseas anime, dramas and movies is one way to learn a new language. If you're still starting to learn a new language, I recommend watching anime because it uses simple words, and when you get used to it, I think it's good to see overseas movies. The above learning method is recommended because it is important to have fun learning the language.

I think the tips for learning a new language are watching foreign movies and listening to foreign music. I think these are good ways to have fun learning a language. There are two improvements in doing these things. The first is to improve ability to hear the language. Words are often used in songs and videos. Therefore, I think I will get used to listening to words naturally. The second is to improve vocabulary. Words that I don't understand often appear in foreign works. I can increase my vocabulary by looking up words in a dictionary. It feels difficult at first, but I think it's good.

I think listen a lot is a good way to study a foreign language. In detail, it is like watching movies or listen to music in the language we want to learn. Also, this method helped me a lot when I had difficulty to solve listening tests. But this way of learning could be tricky sometimes because if we do not enjoy that method it would not make sense. So, what I want to say is that if you want to learn a foreign language you also have to enjoy the process.

I have two tips for learning new language. First, watching foreign movies and dramas or listening foreign music. You can enjoy learning a new language through them. In the beginning, you may be not able to catch them, but your ears will be used to a new language. Second, increasing your vocabulary every day. It's important to keep it until the meaning come to you as soon as you see the word. I could pass EIKEN Grade Pre-1 thanks to the practice.

I've been learning English for many years so I get enough experience to have some tips. First of all, you need a goal. You can't learn English in general, you have to do it on purpose: study, work or something. I suggest setting an ambitious goal - be ready for IELTS or TOEFL exam. Maybe you want to take this exam or maybe you don't but it's a quite challenging goal which claims huge effort to achieve. If you prepare yourself for the exam, I mean being confident in all four skills - speaking, reading, listening, and writing - you will be ready to face any task at work or at study.

I think other tips for learning a new language is to use that language in everyday life. But it is very difficult. I think we don't use other language because all people speak Japanese. Therefor we think difficult. So, if you have a time to other country, it is big chance to learn language. But many people don't have a chance to go this country. So, I recommend listening to CD and read around. If you have a movie spoken other language, it is good. Movie have a seen to everyday life. If you see movie many times, you can learn language.