Here are some tips that could potentially help you in your English classes or simply just during the process of learning a second language:
- Don't worry about your pronunciation or your accent; English is spoken everywhere on this wonderful planet and with hundreds or different accents, when learning a second language, what is
really important is sure not the accent but rather to actually produce, SPEAK. The rest will come with time, be patient !
- When is it that I can call myself "bilingual" ? That's a 100-dollar question... It depends on each person, but usually the more you learn, the more you want to learn because you never
seem to be able to satisfy yourself. That being said, the MELS (http://www.mels.gouv.qc.ca/) considers that a secondary 5 student should be able to
manage in everyday situations in English. In other words, you are expected to be able to do more than just order "a number 3 please" at McDonald's but you are not expected to explain the
way a NASA rocket is sent to space using the aeronautical technical vocabulary.
- When you are assigned grammar exercises or reading to do at home, try not to postpone what you have to do to later all the time because you will quickly be late compared to the rest of the
class. What really works when learning a second language is every single action you do but over a long time and on a very regular basis. In other words, you'd rather study/practice 20 minutes a
day everyday than 4 hours in a row the night before an exam or a test. The first option will really give results, I promise !
- Use your favourite "tunes" to learn English ! One easy option is to do what you probably already do regularly: listen to music. But try reading the lyrics of the song at the same time.
Logically, if you really like that song, you might become curious enough to grab a dictionary and look for the words that you don't understand. Some people even challenge themselves and translate
the lyrics of their favourite song... you are free to do it if you will but keep in mind that translating is one of the most difficult exercise when learning a second language. Translation
is the topic of my next tip... read on !
- When learning a second language, some students are tempted to translating everything to their first language (French for most of us) in order to understand. Warning ! Translating is a
very difficult exercise and it is usually more appropriate for very advanced students. Also, if translating because your only way of understanding something that's being said or written in
English (or any other second language), it is not appropriate. In fact, it would be practically impossible to translate (in your head or else where) everything you hear/read in the second
language, it would take ages ! So, my best suggestion is to avoid translation as much as possible if you are still a beginner or an intermediate student of English.
