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We want to help people improve the way they learn to:

Speak English

Write English

Can you recommend any good English books?

Can you give us some good effective English grammar tips Grammar here

English courses in Valls –  2018-19

en català >>>

Native English speakers help you improve your spoken English

More than 30 years of experience helping the people from Valls improve their communication in English

• prepare your English for work
• prepare your English for holidays/travel
• Prepare your English for university
• Prepare your English for Erasmus or study year in USA

Contact us here >>>

– Don’t complicate your learning

– Keep it simple

– Regular, daily, contact with English

– Find good models of English

It’s very important to remember how we learnt our native language(s). If you want to  learn the English language well you need to have exposure to that language on a regular basis.

Young kids are exposed to their maternal language(s) for up to 3 years before they utter a clear sentence in that/those language(s). Their brains are accumulating language information so that they can process it into usable phrases.

It all comes from having repeated access to an ever-increasing language input (from Mum, Dad, big sister/brother, grandparents, neighbours etc etc)

I picked up, with very little study, both Spanish and Catalan after the age of 30 by having regular exposure to the two languages.

You must find good examples of the spoken language, break it up into small manageable sections (10-30 minutes) and listen to the same section at least twice a day. You can get material from the BBC, or search for podcasts on internet. If you record 1 or 2 minutes of classical music (without words) at the beginning it also helps to open up both hemispheres of your brain You do not need to listen attentively: listen while you are driving, cooking, running, biking, walking etc

My younger students listen to between 10 and 20 minutes twice a day, older students listen to longer sections. You might like this fun article to put things in context:     English learning is child’s play

Put an English habit in your life. You should!!!

Babies learn English …..

and any other language or languages they hear.

– Our brains are “pre-programmed” to be able to slowly make sense of all the strange sounds and language stimuli that they receive.

– Our brains then start to see the patterns of how their language or languages  are formed.

– It is normally only after thirty months or so that children begin to talk in any kind of understandable way.

– It can still take a few more years  before a child completely masters their language or languages.

It is absolutely essential to remember this basic reminder of how languages are learned. Knowing this and understanding it will help us all to make the right decisions when starting, or re-starting, to learn another language that is not our own mother tongue.

–          To be able to learn, understand and use a language it is necessary to have regular contact with the language.

–          It is also important to have a good language model, if possible.

–          Children do not spend one year learning the present then go on to the past

–          Remember the purpose of language is to allow communication with others.

So, why don’t you test yourself?

• – How many hours contact do you have with the English language every day, every week, every year?
• – What do you do?
• – Is it enough?

Is English a HABIT in your life? It should be!!

See more English grammar lessons >>>>

Ask us your English Grammar questions and doubts >>>>

How many hours of contact do you have with English every year?

We almost take it for granted that we will find English speakers in airports, hotels and tourist information offices. But in many countries it is more difficult to find English speakers at bus stations, as taxi drivers, in small shops, in small restaurants and in the street.

Not so in Sweden, Holland and Denmark.

So what is so fantastic about these three countries that have so many good English speakers?

Well they have good teachers with an excellent level of English,  ……. but that is not the real explanation.

It is true that these countries have, for many years, adopted a positive encouraging attitude to language learning which has enabled them to develop their commercial and political links with the rest of the world.

But probably the most influential matter that has led to the high level of English language acquisition and acceptance in these countries is television. TV programmes and films that are produced in English are not dubbed into Dutch, Swedish or Danish but are shown in their original English version with subtitles in the local language. These means that from their infancy Dutch, Swedish and Danish children are usually exposed to the English language on a regular basis and both they and their parents treat the English language as a normal part of life.

– The attitude to learning English is very positive.

– They are exposed to the English language many hours of every week. This is extremely important for people to assimilate correctly how English is used.

So, if you don’t live in countries like Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, things are probably a bit more difficult. But do not despair!

You can adopt a similar attitude to English language learning in your house and family. To become a fluent speaker of  the English language you have to be a fluent listener of the English language. If you are also an avid reader it helps as well.

• Find every opportunity possible to be in contact with English

• Find English language TV stations. At first it might be a little difficult to follow, but please don’t give up! Remember babies spend 2 – 3 years listening to their mother tongue before they start speaking.

• Download podcasts from the BBC and other sites. Listen to the same section of dialogue two or three times a day for at least a week.

• If  you go to classes and have a textbook, find the CD for all the dialogues in the book. If the student’s book doesn’t include them all, ask your local bookshop to get you the Teacher’s CD. Listen to the unit you are doing, the one before and the one after, two or three times a day. It’s not necessary to listen very hard, you can just have it playing in the background whilst you are driving or eating

• Find English blogs, messenger etc where the communication is in English

and

the most important thing to remember is:

Only you can learn a new language for you. Nobody can do it for you

Languagewell will be updating a number of times a week, so that we can give you more information and tips to help you improve your language acquisition.

Do you want to be an English teacher for non-natives? >>> here

How we learn Languages is possibly the most difficult and complete task that our brain has to deal with in our lives. If you think for a moment about how we learnt our mother tongue (or tongues) without studying grammar rules or lists of vocabulary, you can’t help but be amazed.

A child’s brain has the capacity to learn any language and any number of languages from birth. It (our brain) can work out the grammar rules for itself. We can see this process working when a child makes a mistake such as:

• Yesterday I doed my bed without help from Mummy.

The child has noticed that with verbs such as: like, live, love, climb etc we make the past form by adding “ed” or “d”. Later, as they become exposed to more language inputs they start to see that some verbs are “irregular”

P.M.Lightbown and N.Spada in their book “How Languages are Learned” have examined much of the available research into language acquisition.

The developmental psychologist Ellen Bialystok in her studies published in 1991 and 2001, and others, have found that there is clear evidence that bilingualism can have positive effects on academic abilities. There is also a study which took place in Quebec in Canada that demonstrates that senile dementia starts at an older age in bilingual people than in monolingual people.

So, stimulate your brain …. Put another language in your life!

Start by reading regularly.

15 to 30 minutes every day is going to help you have daily contact with correctly formed English

Put an English habit in your life

1. Does the school look user friendly? Expand the article
2. Do they make you feel welcome, or just another customer?
3. Are the classes conducted in English?Expand the article
4. If the teachers are native speakers, do they have experience teaching?
5. If the teachers are not native, do you think that they can give a good model of English?
   
6.  Are there very big class groups ? Expand the article
7. Do all the students have the same first language?
8. Does the school teach English or teach English examinations? Expand the article
9. Look for a school that encourages you to dedicate time out of class doing things in English.
10. You want a school that shows you how to learn English effectively and well. 

After 12 months:

–          he couldn’t read English

–          he couldn’t write in English

–          and he couldn’t speak English

Incredible, you might think, as he was in contact with native English speakers for:

at least 10 hours

7 days a week

That is over 3,000 hours a year!!!!

 

 The explanation for this?     Read the rest of the article to find the answer

So do you think that with only 2 or 3 hours a week you can realistically learn English?

Three effective ways to learn to speak English well:

 You do not need to keep trying different methods of learning English

Every year do you try something different? But you still haven’t found the best way for you to learn English.

You started with a non-native English teacher who explained everything clearly in your native language.

Have you tried English home study courses?

Have you tried English courses online?

Have you done in company classes?

Maybe it would be better to try another English language school

Maybe you have attempted to find a native English teacher

Then maybe you bought audio classes or podcast courses

Next summer perhaps you should go away and do an English course abroad

This list could go on and on

Let’s make things very clear:

Everybody can learn a language, we all learn at least one when we are babies.

Everybody can learn two or three or more languages and do it without studying or effort. Yes, language learning without effort

So………. What is the best way to learn English? To learn to understand English and to speak English is not a lottery. Every year thousands of people do it and do it well.

There are only three effective ways to learn the English language well.

• 1.Grow up in an English speaking country and go to a school with the teaching in English

• 2. Grow up in a non-English speaking country with native English parents or go to an international school where all the classes are in English

Ooooh! Ooooooh? So if it’s too late for you to be able to do either number one or number two …………. Do not despair, there is another solution.

• 3. Try and copy as many of the daily activities of the people (children) in situation 1 and 2. Only by regular contact with the English language, every week and all year can anyone realistically hope to attain an adequate level that allows communication in English.

If you REALLY want to:

Speak English well

Read English well

Understand English well

Write English well

Learn English well

//

You have to remember to do some English every day, if you want to run a marathon you need to train regularly, to learn English or any language it is the same. Children do hours and hours every day to learn their mother tongue, you have to do the same.

Use the Rule of 5 to improve your English effectively