How to improve your speaking

1. Practice! Practice! Practice: Language is a skill, not an academic subject like Math or History. As a skill, it needs to be practiced as much as possible. Like learning to play the piano or football, skills only come through practice.

 

2. Learn English Directly: Do not rely on translation. Even if you don ́t understand everything at the moment, it is better to sacrifice short-term understanding in the interest of long-term learning. If you need to filter everything from English to Arabic and then back again to English, you ́ll never be fluent. Also, you will often not understand correctly because English and Arabic words very often do not have a “one-for-one” relationship and the grammar of Arabic is completely different from that of English.

 

3. Participate Actively in Class: Class time is your best chance to practice in a structured setting with a trained teacher to guide you. Quiet, shy students learn languages much more slowly than active students.

 

4. Don´t Be Afraid to Make Mistakes: We learn languages best by actively experimenting with new language that has been introduced and we learn from the mistakes we make. Don´t laugh at others when they make mistakes and don´t worry if others make fun of your mistakes. you are the one who benefits most by making a mistake. 

​

​

​

​

​

How to improve your listening

1. Don’t Panic: One of the most common challenges in language learning is listening. It is a challenging skill because students spend more time reading in English than listening to English. Second, English words are pronounced in a way and are written in a different way. For example, the word high has two silent letters. Also, when native speakers speak they tend to blend sounds and link words. So, never hesitate to ask for clarification if you feel lost listening to someone. You can say, “Sorry. Could you please say it again?”
 
2. Listen Listen Listen: Develop the habit of listening to English for a minimum of 15 minutes a day. Even if you are busy, you can always do listening while working, driving, or exercising.
 

3. Listen to What Grabs Your Interest: If you like news then listen to VOA Special English, CNN, and BBC. BBC Six-Minute English is very helpful. Always make sure to focus on your favorite topics. If you like sports, there a lot of sports TV channels and radio stations in English. There are a lot of Islamic websites, lectures, and channels like Huda TV, if you are interested in listening to Islamic cultural topics. Some movies can be a rich and authentic source for listening. Viewing videos and movies with English subtitles is essential to practice listening.

​

 4. Do It Right: If you try to understand every word you will end up with an unclear message. Listen for three times. Listen the first time for general meaning, one for more details, and the last time for individual words and phrases.

​

​

​

​

​

How to improve your writing

1. Expand your vocabulary

To express yourself clearly, you need a good active vocabulary. That’s not just being able to recognise lots of words – it means actually being able to use them correctly. Do this by learning new words with example sentences, not just word lists.

​

2. Master English spelling

You must know how to spell those words correctly. Incorrect spelling changes the meaning of your sentence. For example: ‘bare’ and ‘bear’ sound the same but ‘bare’ means naked and ‘bear’ is a large animal. Additionally, incorrect spelling makes it difficult for the reader to understand what you’ve written.

3. Read regularly

People often say that we learn to write best by reading. Reading in English is useful in many ways. It is a great way to get an idea of the different styles of writing and see how to use words appropriately.

​

4. Improve your grammar

Grammar is very important because it improves the quality of your writing. Always use the appropriate tense and remember to use punctuation. Punctuation is a great way to make your writing clear and fluent.

​

5. Just do it!

Writing can be daunting. However, the best way to improve is get a pen and paper or sit in front of your computer and actually write. Be prepared to write several versions of each text because even for professional writers, the first draft is never perfect. Remember, practice makes perfect, so now is the best time to sit down and get started with our free English quizzes!