EC eBook - Study Skills

Study Skills

Index

Manage your own time

Tip 1: Be realistic

Tip 2: Use your dead time

Tip 3: Schedule your study time

Tip 4: Be kind to yourself

Practice your reading

Tip 1: Read for enjoyment

Tip 2: Choose your level carefully

Tip 3: Little and often

Tip 4: Read what you know

Tip 5: Find words you want to use

Tip 6: Talk about it

Tip 7: Notice, and ask why

Recording vocabulary

Tip 1: If it lives in your bag, it is no use to you

Tip 2: Include the important information

Tip 3: Focus on collocations

Tip 4: Make notes by topic

Tip 5: Word families

Spidergrams & Drawing pictures

Revising language

Tip 1: Use your phone

Tip 2: Plan your conversations

Tip 3: Try it out

Tip 4: Try it out when messaging

Writing

Tip 1: Remember that you write all the time

Tip 2: Make plans before you write

Tip 3: Walk away from it before editing

Intro

What makes an effective English-language learner? Is it studying for hours every night? Is it listening to the teacher and writing down everything they say? Is it speaking English as often as possible?

Unfortunately, it is not as simple as that. Studying English is important but if you spend all of your time doing grammar exercises but not actually using the language in your speaking, then it is not effective. If you write down everything your teacher says but then you close your notebook, put it in your bag and never look at it again, it is not effective. If you speak English as often as possible but never try to use new vocabulary and grammar, then it is not effective.

By developing your study skills, you can learn to be a more effective language learner. In this book, we will examine some of the key study skills and give you tips and ideas on how to apply them to your life.

If you want to learn English effectively, read on!

Manage Your Own Time

One of the most common reasons why people don’t spend time studying and revising English is because they “don’t have enough time!”. This is completely understandable.

We all have jobs, families, school, and social lives. We have to clean our homes, complete assignments, meet colleagues, friends and classmates. We have a lot to do. How can we also fit in English study?

Follow our tips and fit English into your busy lives.

Be realistic

You probably don’t have three hours every day to study English. And that is OK. Even if you did have three hours one day, you won’t have it the next. And even if you did have three hours every day, you would soon become exhausted from studying and you would stop.

The trick to effective language study is being realistic. Choose an amount of time that you will be able to commit to every day or every week. It is OK to only do a few minutes each day, over time it all adds up.

TIP 2

Use your dead time

We all have those moments in our daily lives when we are not doing anything useful. Maybe we are on a bus or train; maybe we are going for walking to the shops; maybe we are waiting in a queue. Whatever it is, it is dead time but it doesn’t have to be.

Schedule your study time

It is very easy for English study to be replaced with meetings, classes, housework or just life in general. Try to schedule in some study time each day and let people know. Tell your family that this is your English study time or block the time out on your work calendar. A B C

Be kind to yourself

It is OK if you miss a study session. Don’t let it be the end of your studies. Just start again the next day or the next week. We all fall behind sometimes, be kind to yourself.

Practice Your Reading

Reading is one of the best things you can do to develop your English. Research has shown that reading regularly not only helps your reading speed and ability but also your range of vocabulary and even your writing skills.

Read for enjoyment

Very often when people think about reading in English, they think they should be doing comprehension checking questions and answering vocabulary questions based on what they read. But it’s ok to read for enjoyment. The more you read, the better you will get, so choose things you like to read in your language. Choose things you find interesting. If you like cars, read about cars. If you like Lego, read about Lego. Follow your heart.

Choose your level carefully

Whether you’re reading for enjoyment or because you want to learn new vocabulary, it is important to choose your level carefully. If you are at an elementary level but trying to read a newspaper, you will probably struggle and this will probably lead to frustration and maybe giving up. Very often people try to read children’s books as they feel it will be of a lower level. Again, choose carefully as children’s books aren’t necessarily written at a lower language level.

Instead, consider graded readers. There are countless graded readers written at every level so you can choose the best ones for you. If you’re just reading for enjoyment, try your level or one below. If you want a challenge, try your level or one level higher. Don’t be frustrated if you’re struggling, just stop and try a level below.

Little and often

Reading in a second language can be quite tiring. Try reading a little bit every day, even just ten to fifteen minutes every day will make a huge difference over time.

4 TIP 5

Read what you know Find words you want to use

When you’re a more confident reader, try reading books in English that you have already read in your language. This way you are practising your English, but your knowledge of the story will help your comprehension.

Sometimes when we read, we think we need to write lists of all the vocabulary we don’t understand. It is great to learn vocabulary when we read but try to find the ones that excite you. Find words and phrases that you would like to use in your speaking and then think about how you can use them.

Talk about it

What do we do when we read in our own language? We tell people about it. If we’ve read a book or a comic that we enjoyed, we recommend it to someone. If we read something that we didn’t enjoy, we tell people why we didn’t enjoy it. If we read an interesting article, we tell people about it.

While you’re reading, make notes of any key words you would need to talk about it. Then plan who you’re going to tell and what you’ll say.

Notice, and ask why

You’re constantly learning grammar structures and phrases in your English lessons. Reading is the perfect way to see it all being used in context. If you’ve learnt conditional structures, look out for them in your reading and ask yourself if they’re being used in the same way that you learnt or if it’s different.

We can learn so much about language just by asking the question “why did this writer/speaker use this piece of language in this situation?”. You don’t need to know everything about the grammar, you just need to understand the context.

Recording vocabulary

There are many ways to record your vocabulary, the most important thing is that you are recording it in a way that works for you and that you use your lists to revise and try out new language. Try out the tips below and decide which methods work best for you.

TIP 1

If it lives in your bag, it is no use to you

Writing a word down doesn’t mean it has been learnt. It is important that you regularly return to your vocabulary notes. Check out the section on revising vocabulary for more ideas on how to make the most of your notes.

TIP 2

Include the important information

Writing a word and what it means in your notes is important but it’s just the start. Why do we write words down? We write them down so we can use them again. When you put them in your notes, try to include some or all of the following:

To include

For example

The word or phrase

To be into Its meaning

To be interested in

Its meaning in your language

Words or structures that go before/after it

To be into + noun

An example

I am really into politics

Focus on collocations

We don’t learn to speak fluently by speaking one word at a time. English is made up of pieces of language. In the example above, we don’t just write down “into” because this won’t help us to use this piece of language again. We write “to be into + noun”, which helps us to produce this piece of language again.

We can go even further by writing down common collocations. Collocations are words that you often find with a piece of English. Below we show some common collocations for “to be into”.

Piece of language

Common collocations

To be into + sports country music reading

this series right now. at the moment. these days.

Make notes by topic

Divide your notebook up by common topics (e.g. hobbies & activities, work, study, global issues) and leave a few pages for each one. When you encounter new words or phrases related to this topic, add it to the appropriate section. This makes it easier to revise or to access the information when you want to discuss this topic.

Word families

When you learn a new word, think about all of the other versions of this word and store them together. That way you can learn a noun, a verb, and an adjective, or maybe the positive and negative of the word. With the example of “comfortable” below, we can see that it’s not just one word, it’s access to many more. Comfortable

Negative adjective Uncomfortable

-ing adjective

-ed adjective

Comforting

Comforted

Noun Comfort

Negative noun

Adverb

Negative adverb

Discomfort

Comfortably

Uncomfortably

Spidergrams

Spidergrams are helpful ways of storing vocabulary related to a particular topic, language area or type of conversation.

Drawing pictures

You don’t have to be a professional artist to draw a picture that will remind you forever of the word or phrase that you’re trying to learn. Very basic drawings can help you recall the meaning at a glance.

Revising language

It is important that you take notes in class and write down new language but if you don’t go back and revise it, then why take the notes in the first place? Revising doesn’t have to take a long time, it can fit in with your life. Little and often is the key to revising language.

Use your phone

Our phone is always with us but our vocabulary notebook isn’t. You can take notes on your phone or share an app between your phone and your computer. Or, take photos of pages you want to revise.

When you find yourself with five minutes, take out your phone and go over the language you’ve noted down. Think about how you could use it in conversation.

Plan your conversations

When we speak, we usually use the same language over and over. It’s our safe language. We do it in our own language too. Have you ever heard someone use a word or phrase in your language and thought, “oh that’s a good word” and then found yourself using it in conversation the next day. It’s exactly the same when learning a second language but you have to work a little harder.

Think about language you’d like to use in conversation. Then think about how you could use it in conversation. Then go out and try to use it.

Try it out

When children are learning their first language, they hear a word, try it out and get feedback from the people around them. Then they try it in a different situation. They keep trying it out and gradually learn to use the word effectively.

It’s exactly the same when learning a second language. If you don’t try it out, you’ll never get feedback and learn to use it effectively. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. That’s how we learn.

Try it out when messaging

The beauty of messaging is that you have more thinking time. You can plan and check your messages before you send them. Also, messages are spoken English. They are just written down. This means messages are the perfect opportunity to try out all of your new language. If you use it in a few messages, it’ll be on your mind so the next time you speak, you’ll be able to use it more fluently.

Writing

Writing is an excellent study tool but one that is often avoided. Writing doesn’t have to be stressful or boring. It can be a great way to revise and practise language. Below are some tips for using writing as an effective study tool.

Remember that you write all the time

These days we are constantly writing, whether it is a text message, a social media post, a comment on a video, an email, or an online review. It doesn’t have to be written with pen and paper to be considered studying or practising.

Whatever you write in your language, try doing it in English as well. If you like posting to Twitter, try doing it in English. If you like chatting with your friends, try doing it in English.

Make plans before you write

Effective writers plan their writing before they start, even in our own language. You don’t have to write a full plan but spend some time thinking about what you want to say, how you want to say it and what language you want to use.

It’s a good idea to make a couple of notes before you start.

Walk away from it before editing

Even in our first language, it can be hard to see our mistakes immediately after we’ve written something. Give yourself a little bit of time before re-reading anything you’ve written. Use the notes you made when planning to assess your work and decide what needs changing.