Friday, November 4, 2011

4 Ways to Focus Your English Study

One fantastic way to improve your English learning is to focus your efforts. Don't to be fluent; try to be effective. You can be effective by carefully selecting what you will study. Doing so will increase the benefit of every study hour. At an academy, people with different goals learn the same material. That is not effective. A student, a lawyer, a vocalist, and a CEO have different reasons to study. Their approaches should be different, too.

Here are some focusing tips to make your study time more valuable:

1. Identify your goal. Why are you trying to learn English? Are you going to move to California? Do you need to give presentations to foreign executives? Are you an actor or singer with a few lines of English to record? Decide what your specific need is. Tailor your program accordingly.

2. Practice only what you need. If you are going to act in a scene with a few English lines, spend your time perfecting pronunciation for those lines. If you are going to do a Power Point presentation, focus on the most important words and phrases. Don't waste time learning how to order food or to buy train tickets.

3. Find materials that match your goal. If you're a defense attorney, watch American TV shows that focus on trials and negotiations. If you're a business man, watch YouTube videos about public speaking. If you're a actor with an English-speaking scene, find similar scenes from American TV shows or movies.

4. Keep it short. Focus on getting your point across in the fewest words possible. Get rid of any unnecessary words and sentences so that you don't have to waste time practicing them. This is considered a valuable skill even for native speakers.

By focusing your efforts, you will improve your communication and your image. Even if your goal is fluency, you still have to start somewhere. Start with the most useful things, and do them well. Be effective.

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