Tanya Young www.listenreadwritespeak.

com
tanya.young.2014@gmail.com
How to Improve in English
1. Read. Read. Read.
Extensive research shows that reading is the best way to improve your vocabulary, spelling,
ideas and writing fluency.
Read the classics to build your social capital and ability to make inter-textual references
(google top 50 classic English literature texts and choose a few to read)
Read one newspaper article per week and summarise it. It can be an online article and it can
be about something youre interested in. Reading this type of writing will help you write
more formally.

2. Play grammar and vocabulary games on your phone instead of looking at FB

I personally love Vocab Junkie and Grammar Up
Listen to The Moth podcast which are amazing and true short stories

3. English study does require you to have a strong understanding of yourself your values, beliefs and
personality. This is because when you reflect on issues or characters, your reflection is necessarily
based on your own understandings of yourself and the world around you. To build your emotional
intelligence, I suggest the following resources:
VIA Character Strengths Survey (https://www.viacharacter.org/Survey/Account/Register)
Myer Briggs Personality Types (http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-
type/mbti-basics/)
TED Talk on personality
(https://www.ted.com/talks/brian_little_who_are_you_really_the_puzzle_of_personality?lan
guage=en)
Do some of your own research online about this (I personally like the advice given here:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/communication-success/201410/how-increase-
your-emotional-intelligence-6-essentials but there is a lot)

4. Really want to challenge yourself? There are a number of exciting university level MOOCs which
can help you learn more about a whole range of subjects. These are FREE!!! Dont forget, these are
aimed at university level learners so dont be dismayed if you do not understand the content just
take what you can or jump to another course.
Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/)
i. Search for courses about writing to get a list of wonderful learning opportunities
in creative writing, business writing, resume writing, academic writing, song writing
and many more!
ii. I personally LOVE the Learning how to Learn course fundamental stuff for all
teachers and students!
iii. There many, many others about almost all topics! Psychology ones are interesting
too.

Ed X (https://www.edx.org/)
i. Check out English Grammar and Essay Writing or English Grammar and Style
and How to Write an Essay
ii. Again, there are loads of options through this course provider.

5. Remember that the three most important things you can do for your brains health are: (1) get
sufficient sleep, (2) eat well and (3) do regular and moderate exercise. These three practices have
been found to be crucial for your brains optimum operation which is fundamental to you learning
effectively!

***