What are the major improvements in your English you think benefit you most and how did you achieve them?

Answer 1

Hello!

The thing that really benefited me the most in regards to my English was understanding how words are built. What do I mean? A language is not a series of random sounds that communicate ideas only to those that memorized the meanings. A language is a system, a pattern. Therefore, if you can understand the system or pattern, you do not need to know every word to understand every word. For example, let's say you did not know the word arachnophobia. But you do know that phobia means a fear of something. So you know that arachnophobia must be a fear of arachnos. SO, all you really need to figure out is, what are arachnos. They are spiders by the way. So, you can puzzle together the word to mean a fear of spiders. This has been tremendously helpful to me on tests, while speaking to educated people, while reading, and even while I was learning Spanish. I gained this skill from reading and reading and reading. It is truly the best way to notice patterns in language and to even get an understanding of grammar without sitting there and memorizing all the rules. It can be difficult in the beginning because you will not know every word. I recommend using the 5 word test. When you pick up a book, open it up to any page and try to read it, if there are five words on the page you do not know then that book is too difficult for you right now. But if it has 4 or less, go ahead and read it. This book is at your level and will help you build up your understanding of the English language and it's systems.

I hope this helps and feel free to reach out with any more questions.

All the best

Aliza A.