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Speaking strategies

Speaking is, for most of us, the most difficult exercise to do when we learn a language. There's only one way to solve this problem: talking. Here, as the last entries, I'll explain some strategies to improve our speaking skills.

• The first thing that we should do is to do lots of listening. This way, we'll learn how we have to speak and, also, we'll learn some vocabulary and expressions. We can also sing and listen to songs, they will help us with our pronunciation and our speed speaking.
• It would be great if we could travel to another country in order to practise this language. If not, we can pretend to have a conversation with an imaginary friend. It may seem a little bit creepy, but it's a great exercise.
• You can also practice the language in classes or with friends: join the debates, make oral expositions...
• Don't be afraid of making mistakes, they're a normal thing when we're learning and they can make us improve our skills. 
• Remember that in a writing you can retake your steps and correct what you've said, but you sometimes cannot do that in a speaking, so think before talking.
• Don't be afraid of speaking in public.
• And the most important thing: don't be shy and talk!

Writing strategies

When we read a text or a novel we may think that writing is a very difficult thing, but it's not at all. We only need a little bit of effort and follow these strategies that I'm going to give you.

• It is good to read a lot. Reading can improve our writing skills.

• Learning expressions, such as idioms, can be very useful to improve our writing. It is also necessary to use everything that we know in our compositions (grammar, expressions, vocabulary...)

• Write a little bit everyday. You can write whatever you like, because what you write it is not important, but it is how you do it. Keeping a diary can be a very useful exercise.

• Re-read what you have writen and look for mistakes. Self-correction is a very good method to know your errors and learn them. Maybe if you read your text just after you've writen it, you will not find any mistake. Leave it and read it some time after, you will see more things.

• Follow the structure of the composition (letter, opinion essay...).

• Have a nice, silent and comfortable space to write.

But don't be afraid and write! Maybe you have a Shakespeare in you and you don't know it!

Listening strategies

Listening and speaking are the skills that people more when they're learning a language and when they already know it. Listening, and so does speaking, allows us to be able to communicate between us. So, in this entry I'm going to give you some strategies to improve your listening skills.

• The first strategy is to practise a lot. With practicing your skills will be improved considerably. Try just not to listen to what your teacher tells you, but radio programmes, films and sitcoms. They can be a good exercice and you may also have a great time!

• It's important that you don't try to undertand everything, you just have to look for key words that help you to get the whole idea.

• There are many resources on the web, like radio webpages, stories and videos on youtube that can help you to practise a little bit more.

• If you want to be sure that you understand the listening, it's good to take notes while you're doing the exercice and then make a summary about it.

As you can see, this skill shares lots of strategies with reading, so you could take a look at it and get more ideas to practise.

Reading strategies

Reading is a very interesting exercise because it also helps to learn grammar, to improve our writing, our spelling and even our speaking. But reading isn't easy for everyone, some people have understanding problems or speed problems. In this entry I will give you some strategies to improve your reading skills.

• The fist strategy is the most obvious one: read a lot!!! But, what should we read? Newspapers, books, comics, webpages? Well, read everything you want, but read at your level, if you don't do that, you aren't going to make any improvement.

• Another strategy could be to read for leisure and not as an obligation.

• If you're doing a reading exercise, it's good to think about what you know about the topic of the text.

• Try not to read with your finger under the text, if you do that, your reading speed will be lower and your understanding too.

• When we read aloud we're more concentrated in pronouncing the words well and not of the understanding.

• It is good to have a paper next to you in case you need to write some information and read the text twice for better understanding.

• Always read in a calm place, so the noise cannot disturb you.

• Don't look up in a dictionary every word that you don't know.

• If you don't understand something, don't worry! There are also some strategies to use, like skim the text to look for the main topic and scan to get the main ideas, make notes about the text and make a summary with the information you got.

Grammar strategies

We all know that learning grammar is, sometimes, bored and difficult, but this doesn't have to fear us, we can use some strategies in order to learn grammar in a quick, efficient and funny way. Grammar is a very important thing because it can help us with listenings, readings writings and even speaking.

• The first thing that we should do if we're grammar learners is to buy a good grammar book. It contains very good explanations and examples of each case. But we have to be cautious and buy a suitable grammar book for our level, because if we use a higher-level book, we'll learn nothing, and so if we use a lower-level book. This book must also have practice exercices and examples in order to practice what we've learnt, shouldn't also be very expensive and it should be clearly organized.

• Althought every language is different from the others, and so it is grammar, they have one thing in common: they all follow patterns, that means that the structures of the sentences don't change inside one language. If we look for this patterns, we'll find learning easier.

• Reading books is also a good exercice for learning grammar, because, while we're reading we memorize the structure of the sentences and we learn without knowing it.

Powerpoint: Kinestetic learners

Kinesthetic learning type

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