How to Start Learning English

Photo and essay by Atheer Jumaah

Many scientists, researchers, and visionaries report that the English language is the key of sciences nowadays. People can access millions of novels, publications, and books in almost all subjects and specialties written in the English language. As a result, a lot of people start their education by learning English. Some people acknowledge that learning English is arduous enough to form barriers between them and their goals, whereas, others try to achieve their goals even though they face some obstacles while they are learning English. Perhaps, they travel to English speaking countries to practice English by communicating with native speakers; it is the most successful way to learn English. However, to make this goal easy to achieve, there are some important details that should be considered by English learners which are discussed below.

First of all, preparing for studying English should be done by learners themselves depending on their own efforts. To illustrate, learners should improve their listening skills before leaving to their destinations (English speaking countries) by listening to English speech using a variety of resources: the news, dialogs, and learning websites. These help the learners recognize English speech and capture its meaning quickly. Thus, by doing that, learners will be able to start English learning by using the English language itself. Otherwise, learners will lose too much time while being in an English speaking country tackling these problems, added to the psychological impacts that result from case learners feeling unable to communicate with people everywhere because of language barriers.

Secondly, learners should try employing simple grammatical tenses when they are speaking and writing. Having sufficient experiences using simple tenses of English language helps them express their ideas easily. Learners will notice, while being in English speaking countries, that the majority of grammatical tenses which are used by native speakers are: simple past tense, simple present tense, and simple future tense. In the beginning, learners do not need to spend a lot of time to learn complicated tenses because this issue may affect learners' speeds of learning adversely. For these reasons, learners should have a clear knowledge of how to use simple grammatical tenses before going on to complicated tenses.

Thirdly, learning vocabulary words, with their ideal uses, is a major part of learning English. Some linguists, on one hand, emphasize memorizing words in expressions without translating to learners' mother languages. Others, on the other hand, believe that learners have to get complete understanding for each vocabulary word in learners' native languages; that is to make sure about getting its certain meaning. For example, learners might use the vocabulary word 'guilt' instead of 'regret' by mistake, or they might use the wrong prepositions in their sentences. Because of that, leaners have to have balance between understanding words in their native languages, on the one hand, and practicing them in expressions to master their using, on the other hand.

Ultimately, learning the English language by depending on an academic manner may be an effective way somewhat, yet learners should try to keep communicating with native speakers. Every learner has an ideal way to achieve that. Some learners prefer to rely on social communication websites; Facebook draws an obvious picture for this case; thousands of people around the world exchange their culture and learn languages by using Facebook. Others prefer to live with native speakers while they are studying in English speaking countries and keep communicating with their roommates. These may help abolish language barriers step by step.

To recapitulate briefly, English learners should organize their plans of study. Many steps should be considered. Firstly, get ready before leaving to English speaking countries and practice the most usable grammatical tenses before looking deeply at the complicated tenses. Then try memorizing English words in complete sentences. Lastly, invest all available chances as much as possible to communicate with English native speakers. Hence, learners will be ready to learn intermediate and advanced levels of English language. Many troubles may hinder learners as they are learning. Nevertheless, they should have persistence to achieve this big goal, and troubles do not keep eager learners away from it.