Because of the desire to improve foreign language skills, many have worked hard to learn English with countless methods, documents or even registered extra classes at several centers. However, the results are still stagnant. In today’s article, GOGA will share with you some of the common reasons why you cannot learn English effectively even though a lot of time and effort have been meticulously spent.
Learning by inspiration, without clear goals
A fairly common mistake when people learn English is learning on inspiration without a clear goal. Have you ever found yourself at the end of the year setting a goal to study English for at least 30 minutes every day to achieve 800 TOEIC and then keeping busy this day, sleepy tomorrow and then closing the book and going to bed?
Learning English as well as learning any other language requires continuity and maintenance so that the language does not fade away over time. Interrupted learning English is like an up and down stream of inspiration from time to time. Therefore, that is the reason why your English has not yet reached a level sufficient to communicate completely independently after many years.
Focusing on learning grammar, not skills
Vocabulary and grammar are the foundation of any language. However, some people only focus on doing grammar exercises. They hold the assumption that if they do not know English grammar well enough, they cannot use English in speaking and writing. These people often face the situation of constantly encountering grammatical structures or sentence patterns that they do not know, or even learn but… have forgotten. They lamented to themselves that “See, I’ve studied grammar so much and still read sentences that I don’t know the structure, and new grammatical phenomena are still abounding out there…”. They continue convincing themselves to study grammar first because they assume that they cannot understand English if they do not know grammar.
As a result, these people will continue to work hard on the grammar structures like an “English researcher” and then… from time to time, they will forget some structures they have learned. The more they learn, the more they find English grammar confusing and complex, irregular. Then, one day these “researchers” come to a conclusion: “English grammar is too complicated and English is such an extremely difficult language to learn” and cannot figure out why they have not mastered English even though a host of effort has been made.
To learn grammar effectively, you need to combine theory and practical application to imprint knowledge into the brain. For example, when you learn a new grammar structure, you should write down an example sentence that uses the structure to practice the Writing skill, then you can also practice Speaking by reading the sentence you just wrote aloud. Grammar is only really useful to learners when it is utilized in real life.
Learn vocabulary in a “discrete”, “outdated” style
Have you ever written down a list full of vocabulary with meanings and word types? If you practice in this way, you are about to easily forget what you have learned.
People using this way of learning vocabulary often copy the words on paper by individual words and do not look up the family words derived from the new words they have found. While inherently English vocabulary often has a family of derivative words; a word that is a verb can be added with a tail to become a noun, or an adjective… and vice versa, a word that is an adjective can be added with a tail or reversed to become a verb or noun… and new word creation in that way is called derivation, and even less bothers to write down phrases with new words that they look up in a particular context.
Writing it all down as stated in the dictionary is very easy for learners to get lost in the matrix of new words. Some people will have several thick sheets of paper with lots of vocabulary on them, and maybe they’ll stick these vocabulary sticky notes around the room to help them memorize the words faster. However, as a result, they always find vocabulary difficult to remember, learn first and forget later, and they will doubt their memory or even their intellectual ability.
Whenever taking the test, these people are still helpless with the problem that they always have too many new words. Also, when reading or listening to English, they always find new words a big problem. And even if there are no new words in the reading or listening passages, understanding what the written or spoken material is about is still a huge challenge that takes a long time to understand or even deduce the meaning of the sentence. In that case, they are also not sure of their semantic inference.
The way to learn English vocabulary actually is not that tough if you know how to apply it in practice. Learning vocabulary through songs, movies or playing games is also a passive but effective way of learning and popular to many people as well.
Further reference: Top 4 Cách Học Từ Vựng Tiếng Anh Hiệu Quả Nhất Hiện Nay (goga.ai)
Bear a fear of speaking English
Although many English learners have acquired a basic knowledge of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, they are still afraid of making mistakes and speaking English. They bear a fear that they will be laughed at because they speak bad English. Gradually, they become less confident and cannot communicate in English fluently.
Further reference: Mách bạn bí quyết phát âm tiếng Anh chuẩn với IPA – GOGA
If a child learning to speak is also afraid of being wrong and dare not speak, he will probably never talk like a normal person when he grows up. So, speak English confidently, accept your mistakes so that you can correct your mistakes and then, you will feel the rapid progress.
Consider English as a boring subject instead of just a game
English has truly become a global language, so learning English is gradually becoming more popular to everyone. Many of you work hard day and night to pass the exams, achieve this level of score and tons of degrees. They are treating English as a subject with tests and grading scales and thus putting a lot of pressure on themselves to study. When the pressure is heavy, many people will give birth to a psychology of boredom and form the mindset that English is a difficult subject and…. I was actually not born to learn English!
However, in fact, English, like many other languages, was born with the main purpose of communication. When you speak and your listener understands, you have succeeded in communicating in English already. English in real life today emphasizes efficiency rather than academic factors. Therefore, if you can consider English as a game in which you acquire certain vocabulary and grammar and use them as tools to communicate with others. Thanks to that thought, learning English will become lighter, much more receptive.
Let’s look at the statistics. Some studies have shown that, of the English conversations taking place today, up to 96% are conversations between people from non-English speaking countries. (non-native speakers) and only about 4% of conversations were attended by native speakers. English in the current era of global integration is really a tool for communication instead of a science for scholars to study or a subject to challenge students. So, think of learning English as completing a game will be psychologically more comfortable and more accessible.
Currently, there are many English learning applications designed under the game interface to create excitement for learners such as GOGA, Duolingo, Scrabble, …. With smooth graphics, an eye-catching interface, and game-based learning method, learners can completely simplify their learning to approach English more effectively.
Hopefully, the above article can help you to be aware of the common reasons why you are still not fluent in English so that you can fix them soon and become an English master.
Reference: https://vnexpress.net/x3english-ra-mat-ung-dung-hoc-tieng-anh-goga-4428111.html