Self-Study

English self-study | Mike McDonald | September 21st, 2004

A question I am often asked is, "How can I improve my English?" It's such an obvious question that I should really have an answer off pat, but I always feel that my replies are somehow lacking. It's not too difficult to make suggestions for improving reading, writing, and listening.   I mention graded readers, Internet sites, newspapers, magazines, diaries, chat rooms, key-pal sites, blogs, TV and radio programmes for English learners, films with subtitles, study CDs, songs, Internet listening sites, and so on.

But when it comes to speaking, I'm a bit stumped. How can my students improve their speaking ability if they don't have people to practice with?

All I can come up with so far is the following:

Come and talk to me sometimes. (But I may be busy.) Find other Japanese people who wants to improve, and speak English with them. (But they may not find anyone, and it's hard to keep up.) Join an English-speaking club at the university. (But there isn't one on our campus.)

Join a speech-making club such as Tokyo Toastmasters. (But this is quite expensive and formal.)

Make an audio diary, recording your reflections onto a tape or MD every day. (But there is no feedback.)

When one of my students really wants to improve, I feel it is such a wonderful opportunity that I shouldn't let it go to waste. One of my current students has just come back from 6 months in the USA, and wants to keep up his English. Does anyone have any other ideas?

Mike McDonald

Re: English self-study | Tisa | September 21st, 2004

Hi Mike,

Funny, I always get asked that question...

Basically there are no miracles in such situations, but here's another suggestion.   Joining (or starting for that matter) a book club could be fun.   This would allow the person in question to practice all sorts of skills, most of all speaking.

Talking to yourself is a good one.   I do it with French, for instance, when I find I'm slipping.   I just articulate what's going on in my head every so often (I try to do this in private...).   I also test my vocab this way.   Whenever I can, I ask myself how I'd say the thing in French (the last word was 'larch').   If I don't know, it becomes a little vocab-building activity.

I know all this is all easier said than done, but anything is better than nothing.

Any other suggestions?

Bye for now,

Tisa
Lausanne, Switzerland

Re: English self-study | Paul Raper | September 21st, 2004

Some thing I have done is to start a club myself. It is also a great way to collect data about learning and learner styles etc for your work. If anyone is interested in the concept, please let me know privately.

Paul

Speaking practice | Francesca Michalski | September 21st, 2004

Mike and Tisa,

The idea of students talking to themselves as a why to practice their spoken English on their own is discussed in the October 2003 edition (issue 29 page 12) of English Teaching Professional if you can get a hand on a copy in an article by Marc Helgessen.

He lists 12 activities students can do alone talking in their heads. I discovered that students of mine already do this ( and I did too when I was a beginner in Portuguese ) The ideas might make a good focus for class discussion and subsequent experimentation with group feedback as part of a klearner training element to your course.

Have a nice week fellow CPs.

Francesca

Re: English self-study | Jerry Talandis Jr. | September 22nd, 2004

Hi everyone,

"How can I improve my English?"

Interesting conversation. I actually never get asked this directly, but the question hovers unsaid in the background. My "pat" answer is that if you want to speak English, you've got to speak English. I don't say this facetiously- just to make a simple point: the more you do the thing you want to be able to do, the sooner you'll be able to do it. I also use the "playing piano" analogy- If you want to play piano, you have to practice playing a lot, not only study about music theory and history.

I find here in Japan that people will go to great lengths to beat around the bush when it comes to improving fluency, getting close, but never actually doing it. Lack of opportunities to use English is a valid concern, but I also see that as an excuse for avoidance. "Where there's a will, there's a way." I often see this will lacking. Student's in class sit in the back, never speak up, and use mucho L1 in pair activities. What's keeping them from chatting with each other in L2 outside class? Also, lots of teachers also use L1 with their students in an effort to establish rapport. This ends up enabling them, and keeps them from facing the fear of communicating. Adult students are notorious avoiders as well: some will spend an arm and a leg on a course or method, then not go to class or drop out quickly. People also get real hung up on pronunciation, thinking that you have to speak perfectly before you can be understood. Of course, "perfect" = American English, and this is just to bad (I've long thought that Brits and Scots have the coolest sounding English!). EFL situations are just tough in general, especially in a place like Japan where there is no significant extrinsic motivation to use the language. For me, the basic problems are fear, lack of self-esteem, and weak, unclear motivation. How can you provide activities that can counteract all this negativity?

Speaking a new language is an emotional activity that requires courage, so anything you can do to help build confidence can work. I agree with all the ideas suggested so far. No pain, no gain! Students need to be confronted with their language production so they can learn from their good and bad points. Along these lines, I've had success with getting students to record a short conversation, transcribing it, then using that transcription in various ways to improve fluency and accuracy (I did my MET on this approach). They can find & study their grammar mistakes, learn new words and ways of saying things, and incorporate new conversation strategies (such as various backchanneling moves) to sound "more like a native speaker." The act of listening to oneself has some transformative power, I've found. They feel all shy and yucky at first, but after a while, they show improvement. They can do this on their own, or with your help. You can also video tape conversations. Then you can focus on non-verbal communication. After a while, a student can build up a journal, of sorts, of their progress. The transcripts also have many uses. Check out Duane Kindt's site for more info on recording student's conversations. I also have other resources about this if anyone is interested.

Good luck!

When one of my students really wants to improve, I feel it is such a wonderful opportunity that I shouldn't let it go to waste.

I know how you feel! Those types of students are like rare gems. I wouldn't worry, however; with that kind of motivation, they will find a way to get what they want. You just have to present a wide variety of options and (s)he will run with something.

Jerry

Re: English self-study | Mike McDonald | September 22nd, 2004

Thanks for your ideas, Jerry. You seem to have an inexhaustible supply!

Thanks also to Tisa and Francesca for their contributions. I have put together a very skeletal list of self-study ideas, which is attached to this message. If anybody can suggest any more, please let me know.

Cheers,

Mike McDonald

Ideas for English Self-Study

Reading

Read easy graded readers

Visit Internet sites for reading

Read English newspapers (there are several for Japanese students, such as the Asahi Weekly and the Student Times)

Read English magazines

Listening

Listen to TV and radio programmes for English learners

Watch films with subtitles

Listen to study CDs

Listen to songs in English (with the lyrics)

Visit Internet listening sites

Writing

Keep an English diary

Exchange e-mail in English with a Japanese friend
Visit English chat rooms online

Join a key-pal site

Start your own blog (blog = weblog)

Speaking

Talk to non-Japanese teachers and students

Talk to yourself in English (many people recommend this!)

Talk to Japanese students who also want to improve their English
Join an English-speaking club

Join a speech-making club such as Tokyo Toastmasters

Make an audio diary, recording your reflections onto a tape or MD every day.

Vocabulary

Start a vocabulary notebook. Choose a subject such as "birds" or "religion", write down all the related words and phrases you know in English, with the Japanese translations, then think of some you don't know in English. Look them up in a dictionary and write them down with their translations. Type several into a web search engine such as Google, then read the articles you find. When you have filled a page or two, choose another subject.

Use online concordancers such as this one to find many examples of how a word or phrase is used.

Grammar

There are many websites with grammar quizzes, such as this one.

There are also various vocabulary-building study books, such as the "American Vocabulary Program" series by John Flower (published by Thomson Heinle) and the "English Vocabulary in Use" series by Michael McCarthy and others (published by Cambridge University Press).

Re: English self-study | Tisa | September 22nd, 2004

Hi Mike and others,

Thanks a lot for the list.   I just had another idea, again a personal (read: not academic) suggestion.   Some time ago, a Swiss French student mentioned that one way he had found to practice English on a daily and natural basis was to programme his mobile phone settings into English.   This same student asks for his mobile phone and Visa bills/mailings in English, too.   Would this be an option in Japan?

Bye,

Tisa

Re: English self-study | Mike McDonald | September 23rd, 2004

Hey! That's a great idea! I'll definitely add that to my list. Not sure about the Visa bills (not many of my students have credit cards), but they all have mobile phones.

Thanks, Tisa.

Mike

Re: English self-study | Paul Raper | September 23rd, 2004

Tisa,

That is a great idea, and come to think of it, it's a little bit like the way I started to learn German: learning by doing.

Some thing I have done is to start a club myself. It is also a great way to collect data about learning and learner styles etc for your work. I started it and then handed over the whole administration and running of it to the participants, who are mostly students or ex students of mine. The idea is currently spreading and I am about to start the next one off. It's hard work, but exceedingly rewarding.

If anyone is interested in the concept, please let me know privately.

Paul

Study Skills | Martin Lovatt | September 23rd, 2004

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your list, it's very useful.

I usually try to avoid prescriptive advice and reply by asking them for a short list of things (other than English) that they are good at. i.e I have them identify their strengths. I then ask them to analyze how they got to be good at those things. Usually things like practice, find a good teacher, study with friends, enter competitions, set goals, and so on, come up. I then ask them to be more specific in practical terms as to exactly what they did on a regular basis to improve their skills and ask them to write a list. With a little time and thought they can usually identify their own study strengths, strategies and preferences. I then ask them which of those skills they can adapt and apply to their English studies. That is their own best way to study (so to speak).

I also recognize the problem that most of my students have in finding places to actually speak English. As we all know, if you don't use it you lose it. I'm still working on that one as Fukuoka is very limited in that respect. As I run my own small school, I have been toying with the idea of running courses of other subjects in English rather than actually studying English per se. It's a pipe dream at the moment, but certainly something I'd like to look at doing in the near future.

Anyway, just thought I'd offer an opinion to prove that rumours of my recent demise (and that I'm not guilty of 'lurking'!) are untrue.

All the best,

Martin

PS: Good one, Tisa, I'm gonna use that one, too!

Re: English self-study | Jerry Talandis Jr. | September 23rd, 2004

Thanks for your ideas, Jerry. You seem to have an inexhaustible supply!

You're welcome! What do you expect from an English teaching machine? :-)

Jerry

 

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