Tips for becoming Fluent in English

1. Continue to work on wordstress. Pay attention to the way in which two, three and four or more words are stressed. (e.g. communiCAtion)

2. Continue to work on sentence stress and intonation. English is a language of peaks and valleys. You have to listen for and understand the flow of the language. There are certain words within a sentence that need to be stressed and it is necessary to slightly pause at times. Intonation can also change the meaning of a sentence.

(e.g. I didn't ASK for your help!)

3. Do not get stuck on every minor nuance of grammar. Understanding 80 or 85% of English grammar is enough. You need to understand that there are hundreds of exceptions in English grammar and even a well-educated, native English speaker does not know every minor detail of grammar. Often students who obsess over grammar have poor speaking skills.

4. Think about vocabulary word choice. Be careful when translating words from your language into English and vice versa because the meaning may change in some instances. More importantly, certain words that may be used in a particular situation in your language may not be used the same way in English.

5.  Spend 20 to 30 minutes per day doing pronunciation drills. There are tons of resources online for English pronunciation practice. You need to train the muscles in your mouth and throat to function in a way conducive with English.

6. This last one might be the most important. Do not attempt to learn everything at one time. Instead, use what you already know and build on that. You need to be patient when it comes to learning a language.

7. Learn phrasal verbs! These are not slang. Phrasal verbs are an important component of the English language and are used in formal and in informal situations. Do not ignore these! (e.g. pick up, calm down, drop off)

If you would like some videos on wordstress, sentence intonation. phrasal verbs and so on, check out my videos on youtube at James Soller.  Click on the link and you should be able to find my youtube channel. You can also find  videos on my facebook page or website at jimmyesl or www.jimmyesl.com