The beginning of the year is the time to plan the most important things. And if there has long been a goal to study of English language, then right now comes the most best time in order to engage in its implementation. In our country, there are usually two peaks in the field of education, in business and affairs - in early autumn and early January. After long vacations or holidays, there is a desire to load your brain to the fullest, especially since the holiday season is still very far away. This means that the most favorable time is coming to make your dreams come true.

You can start from Monday, with the receipt of the next salary, from the new year. And the last option will be the most correct, because by planning your training by months, at the end of the year it will be possible to take stock and understand how successful the progress was in this matter.

Set the bar

Everyone knows the fact that without a clear goal there will be no result. This also applies to learning foreign languages. For those who are just starting to learn English, you can set yourself the goal of achieving elementary level. Moreover, the simplest level of language proficiency can be mastered on your own. But at the same time, you need to understand that theoretical English. But in order to learn practical English, you still cannot do without a teacher.

Testing

There are a million tests on the Internet that will allow you to check your starting level of English. But when passing such tests, it is worth paying attention not only to whether they take into account not only knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, but also the ability to read, understand and listen. Usually good tests have a large number of questions of different formats, sometimes there may even be interactive questions that offer to listen to an audio track, watch a video, or tell the hero the correct solution to the situation. Those who seriously decided to start learning English should still spend their time on such a serious test. After all, this is like a “before” photo for those who are just starting to lose weight. At the same time, it cannot be said that express tests show incorrect results. Rather, these results will not give the student a complete picture of knowledge and gaps in it.

Check list

In order to check yourself daily, you can make a checklist for 31 days. A regular sheet of paper with lined margins will do, where you can write down the date, the topic of the lesson (type of activity), for example, Present Simple or watching a series in English, and then indicate the amount of time spent on this lesson in the appropriate column. The pillars should be: Grammar, Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, Vocabulary. Such a checklist helps to keep track of how much and what time is spent on, and also with the help of such a table at the end of the month it will be possible to quickly restore all the topics of the lessons in memory and see what the most time was spent on.

Making a plan is of great importance for both beginners to learn English and advanced learners. Therefore, in order not to go astray, you can plan lessons in advance.
1-2 months- this is the most important period, because at the very start the habit of learning English is only being developed, the foundation and foundations are being laid. During this period, it is very important to serve yourself in English: listen to music, chat with friends, watch movies, etc. A prerequisite at this stage is the expansion of vocabulary, because further study of the language will be difficult without a sufficient amount of vocabulary.
3-4 months is a stage of progress and development of skills in all areas of the language. By this time, the student already knows about 1000 words and can keep up a conversation on an everyday topic. It is time to decide whether to continue independent learning and then, or seek help from a teacher, since further stages require high self-organization and a great desire to learn.
5-6 months- time for practice. By this time, students usually already speak English quite well, so it's time to break down language barriers. Friends from other countries, TV shows, interest blogs and books can help with this. Just don’t worry, because speech from a TV is much more difficult to perceive than a live interlocutor, so if everything seems incomprehensible at once, then you should add Russian subtitles.
6-12 months- the time for self-improvement is coming, because by this time “blank spots” in knowledge have accumulated, which should be eliminated. In addition, it is necessary to in-depth study language. For perfect knowledge of the language, it is worth giving lessons at least 2 hours a day.

Of course, each student may encounter the most popular Russian mistakes in learning English, but do not give up and despair. If self-study is beyond your power, motivation and desire to study disappear, then it is better to turn to professionals who will help revive interest in learning and craving for knowledge!

If you speak to a person in a language he understands, you are speaking to his mind. If you speak his native language, you speak to his heart.

Nelson Mandela

About the benefits of studying the second, third or we have written more than once. This is an excellent exercise for the brain, improves cognitive abilities, allows you to better concentrate on tasks and protect yourself from external stimuli, is the prevention of Alzheimer's disease.

But we are all busy people and the standard terms of learning a foreign language (4-5 years) do not suit us. The pace of life has accelerated, and everything else has accelerated. And a huge number of methods have appeared that allow you to cope with this task in 3 months.

In a guest post on Zen Habits, Maneesh Sethi of Hack The System blog shares his methodology. For four years he studied foreign languages and now speaks English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and German. It took Manish 3 months to learn Italian, 2 months to learn Spanish, and about 3 weeks to learn Portuguese.

Manish Seti believes that in order to successfully and quickly learn a foreign language, first of all, you need to change your approach - to become an active student who does not just allow himself to be taught, but takes part in the process and constantly asks questions.

The only "but" in this system: in order to learn a new language in 90 days, you must spend at least 3-4 hours every day on learning and study with a teacher for at least the first month. If you do not have such an opportunity, then the terms are stretched, but at the same time there are still much less than the standard terms for learning the language.

Learning Strategies

1. Find the right resources. Grammar textbooks, movies, books and programs for memorizing words.
2. Hire a tutor. At least for one month. Exercising 4 hours a day is recommended, but not required.
3. Try to speak and think in the language you are learning. Practice vocabulary every day.
4. Find friends who speak this language. Ideally, if they are native speakers of the language being studied.

90 Day Study Plan

First month

This is a period of intensive language learning and work with a tutor. According to Manish, group lessons relax and allow you to be lazy. One-on-one sessions with a teacher boost language learning and keep you constantly on your toes. Every day you have to learn 30 new words.

Why exactly 30? Because in 90 days you will know the language by about 80% and your vocabulary (a little less than 3,000 words) will be enough for free communication.

Second month

After the first intensive month of study, you are already quite able to communicate with native speakers. After all, it is communication, and not the completion of tasks from the textbook, that allows us to memorize new words and phrases well.

It would be ideal to visit the country whose language you are learning. But I think that, if this is not possible, visiting conversation clubs will suffice.

third month

By the third month, your estimated level of language proficiency should be enough to watch movies and read books. At the same time, you must learn 30 new words every day throughout the entire period.

Manish also believes that if you do not have a partner, it would be very cool to find a partner who is a native speaker. Once he met a man (an American) who was fluent in Russian. Manish asked how long it took him to study this complex language. To which he replied: "Two wives."

Useful Resources

And now the most important thing: the resources and applications that will allow you to cope with the task.

Programs

To memorize words, you can use special applications. If you prefer Apple devices, then the Genius app might come in handy. The application selects questions or words carefully using the spaced repetition method. The more often you make mistakes, the more often the program will ask you questions. Manish recommends having the program suggest a word in your native language that needs to be translated into a foreign language. Then it will be better remembered, because translating from mother tongue in a foreign language is always more difficult. And we are not looking for easy ways.

Dictionaries

In addition to the familiar Google Translate, WordReference.com (for working with most Romance languages) and dict.cc (for learning German) may be useful to you.

Conversation Resources

For speaking practice, you can look at The Mixxer - a resource that allows you to find interlocutors for speaking practice on Skype.

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I would like to add a few words of my own. I understand perfectly well that such a forced way of learning a foreign language is not available to many. Still, 4 hours of classes every day for a month for many is a much more expensive pleasure than the monthly cost of classes with a tutor.

Unfortunately, we cannot download a software package with languages ​​​​straight into the brain. But if you study with a teacher at least two or three times a week, replenish your vocabulary 30 new words every day, read books, watch movies and try to think in the language you are learning, then you should definitely succeed. And of course, talk, talk and talk wherever possible.

This article will focus on the plans and steps that foreign language learners need to take.

Of course, if you are studying in, teachers will take on a lot by testing you and preparing a detailed study of a foreign language.

But if you decide to study independently or additionally, then you will need an accurate plan, with which the most difficult goal can be presented as a sequence of doable tasks. The experience of polyglots shows that with each new language, the learning process becomes more interesting and understandable, so start planning right now.

Have you ever thought about where you will use a new language, how it differs from other languages ​​and what its culture is like? For example, what associations causes you? Are you thinking of a trip to Rome, are you heading to sunny Venice, or are you traveling through magnificent Puglia? Perhaps you love croissants for breakfast with a cup of cappuccino, you love pasta with seafood and you love different sauces? What do you imagine when you speak Italian? Do you remember Marcello Mastroianni or Hugo Tognazzi? Perhaps Raoul Bova is the sexiest actor for you? Once you find your emotions associated with the language, it becomes easier to start learning it.

The next step is to set goals. Answer the questions posed:

• Why are you learning a language?
• Are you going to put your knowledge into practice?
• Do you want to work abroad
• Strive to communicate common topics?
• Would you like to master?

To accomplish each goal, you will need certain actions: to communicate on general topics, you will need grammar and basic vocabulary, to master business vocabulary, you need a standard one, after which you can go to and learn how to use them correctly in speech and in correspondence. This path can be quite difficult to go on your own, so do not hesitate to ask the teacher for advice.

Remember that to develop all skills, you need to pay attention to all aspects of the language: grammar, writing, speaking, understanding, vocabulary, reading and pronunciation.

It is important to understand that the learning process may be different if you started a language from scratch or continued to study it. If you want to consolidate your knowledge and remember the material, you can practice vocabulary on special sites and study with a teacher for regular speaking practice. Learning a language from scratch requires much more serious tasks: mastering phonetics and reading rules, understanding grammar and compiling sentences, working on pronunciation and constantly replenishing vocabulary.

Determine the order in which you will study. Do you want to go on a trip? Then your topics will be the airport, cafes and restaurants, taxis, ATMs, shopping, etc.

Do not forget about active work: it is better to practice every day for 10-15 minutes than once a week for 1.5 hours.

Do not be afraid to dream and make plans, but do not forget to put everything into practice as soon as possible so as not to “burn out”. Do not live in illusions, learn languages ​​today!

“Each new language expands the consciousness of a person and his world. It's like one more eye and one more ear," says Daniel Stein, the hero of Ludmila Ulitskaya's book. Would you like to expand your picture of the world and find mutual language with over a billion people? For those who answered yes, we will tell you how to start learning English. We hope that our guide will help beginners take their first steps and show the right path for those who continue to learn the language.

To get started, we invite you to watch a recording of a two-hour webinar with Victoria Kodak(a teacher and methodologist of our online school), in which she answers the question of how to start learning English in the most detailed way:

1. Introduction: When and how best to start learning English

Some adults believe that only children can start learning English from scratch. Someone thinks that it is a shame for an adult to start from the basics and learn elementary rules and words, someone believes that only children can successfully learn foreign languages, because they have an excellent memory and learning abilities. Both the first and second opinions are wrong. There is nothing shameful in the fact that you start learning a language as an adult, on the contrary: the desire for knowledge always commands respect. According to the statistics of our school, people begin to learn the language from the first stage and at 20, and at 50 and even at 80 (!) years old. Moreover, they do not just start, but successfully study and reach high levels of English proficiency. So no matter how old you are, what matters is your desire to learn and your willingness to improve your knowledge.

Many people ask themselves: “What is the best way to start learning English?”. First you need to choose the way of learning that suits you: in a group, individually with a teacher or on one's own. You can read about the pros and cons of each of them in the article "".

The best option for those who are going to learn the language "from scratch" is classes with a teacher. You need a mentor to explain how the language "works" and help you build a solid foundation for your knowledge. The teacher is your interlocutor who:

• help you start speaking English;
• explain grammar in simple words;
• teach to read texts in English;
• It will also help you develop the skill of understanding English speech aurally.

For some reason, you do not have the desire or opportunity to study with a teacher? Then check out our step by step guide about self-study of English for beginners.

To begin with, we want to give you some tips on how to better organize your classes so that your efforts are not in vain. We recommend:

• Exercise at least 2-3 times a week for 1 hour. Ideally, you need to practice English every day for at least 20-30 minutes. However, if you want to arrange a weekend for yourself, do it every other day, but in double volume - 40-60 minutes.
• Work on speaking skills. Write short texts, read simple articles and news, listen to podcasts for beginners, and try to find someone to talk to to train your speaking skills.
• Immediately put into practice what you have learned. use orally and writing learned words and grammatical structures. Simple cramming will not give the desired effect: knowledge will fly out of your head if you do not use it. Learned a dozen words - compose short story using all these words, say it out loud. We studied the Past Simple time - write a short text in which all sentences will be in this tense.
• Don't "Spray". The main mistake of beginners is trying to take as many materials as possible and work with them all at the same time. As a result, the study turns out to be unsystematic, you get confused in the abundance of information and do not see progress.
• repeat the past. Don't forget to review what you've learned. Even if it seems to you that you know the words on the topic “Weather” by heart, return to them in a month and check yourself: do you remember everything, if there were any difficulties. Repetition of the past is never superfluous. In our blog, we already wrote about. Familiarize yourself with the techniques and try to put them into practice.

3. Guide: How to start learning English from scratch on your own

Since English is still terra incognita for you, we have tried to select only the most necessary materials for you. It turned out to be a rather voluminous list, from which you will learn where to start learning English and how to do it correctly. Let's just say that the work ahead is not easy, but interesting. Let's get started.

1. Learn the rules of reading English

Theater begins with a hanger, and English begins with reading rules. This is a basic piece of knowledge, thanks to which you can learn to read English and pronounce sounds and words correctly. We recommend that you use a simple table from the Internet and learn the rules by heart, as well as get acquainted with the transcription of the English language. This can be done, for example, on the Translate.ru website.

2. Check how words are pronounced

Even if you know the rules of reading by heart, when learning new words, check how they are pronounced correctly. cunning English words do not want to read the way they are written. And some of them even refuse to obey any rules of reading. Therefore, we advise you to check the pronunciation of each new word in an online dictionary, for example, Lingvo.ru or on a special site Howjsay.com. Listen to the word a few times and try to pronounce it exactly the same way. At the same time, practice the correct pronunciation.

3. Start building vocabulary

Take visual dictionaries into service, for example, use the Studyfun.ru website. Bright pictures voiced by native speakers and translation into Russian will make it easier for you to learn and memorize new vocabulary.

What words to start learning English? We recommend beginners to focus on the list of words on the site Englishspeak.com. Start with simple words of a general theme, remember which words you use most often in your speech in Russian. In addition, we advise you to devote more time to studying English verbs. It is the verb that makes speech dynamic and natural.

4. Learn grammar

If you imagine speech as a beautiful necklace, then grammar is a thread on which you place word beads in order to end up with a beautiful decoration. Violation of the "rules of the game" of English grammar is punishable by misunderstanding of the interlocutor. And learning these rules is not so difficult, it is enough to study a good textbook. We recommend that you take the first book in the Grammarway series of manuals translated into Russian. We wrote about this book in detail in our review. In addition, we recommend that you read our article "", from it you will find out what books you will need for initial stage learning English.

Do you find textbooks boring? It doesn't matter, pay attention to our series of articles "". In it, we state the rules in simple words, give many examples and tests to test knowledge. In addition, our teachers have compiled a simple and high-quality online English grammar tutorial for you. We also recommend reading the article "", in it you will find 8 good reasons to take up manuals, and also find out when you can do without textbooks in learning a language.

5. Listen to podcasts at your level

As soon as you started taking the first steps, you immediately need to accustom yourself to the sound of a foreign speech. Start with simple podcasts ranging from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. You can find simple audio recordings with translation into Russian on the Teachpro.ru website. And to get the most out of listening, check out our article "".

Once you've built your basic English vocabulary, it's time to start watching the news. We recommend the Newsinlevels.com resource. News texts for the first level are simple. There is an audio recording for each news, so be sure to listen to how new words sound for you, try to repeat them after the announcer.

7. Read simple texts

While reading, you activate visual memory: New words and phrases will be easy to remember. And if you want to not only read, but also learn new words, improve pronunciation, listen to texts voiced by native speakers, and then read them. You can find simple short texts in textbooks at your level, such as New English File Elementary, or on the Internet at this site.

8. Install helpful apps

How to start learning English from scratch on your own if you have a smartphone or tablet at hand? English learning apps are mini tutorials that you will always have in your pocket. The well-known Lingualeo app is ideal for learning new words: thanks to the spaced repetition technique, new vocabulary will not disappear from your memory after a month. And to study the structure, the principle of "work" of the language, we recommend installing Duolingo. In addition to learning new words, this application will allow you to practice grammar and learn how to build sentences in English, as well as help you develop good pronunciation. Also, check out ours and choose from there the programs that interest you the most.

9. Study online

If you ask Google how to start learning English on your own, a caring search engine will immediately throw you a couple of hundred sites with various lessons, online exercises, articles about learning the language. An inexperienced student is immediately tempted to bookmark 83 “well, very necessary sites on which I will study every day.” We want to warn you against this: in the abundance of bookmarks, you will quickly get confused, and you need to study systematically, without jumping from one topic to another. Bookmark 2-3 really good resource on which you will work. This is more than enough. We recommend performing online exercises on the Correctenglish.ru website. Also check out our article "", you will find even more useful resources in it. And after you master the basics of English, check out the article "", where you can download a file with a list of useful materials and sites for learning the language.

4. Summing up

The list turned out to be rather big, and we tried to collect for you only the most necessary components of a successful study of the English language. However, we failed to use the most important skill - speaking. It is almost impossible to train him alone with himself. The most you can do is try to find a friend who is learning English. However, a friend with more high level knowledge is unlikely to want to deal with a beginner, and a beginner like you cannot be an assistant. Moreover, when you work with a non-professional, there is a risk of "catching" his mistakes.

At self-study language has another fat minus - lack of control: you will not notice your mistakes and correct them. Therefore, we recommend that you think about classes with a teacher at least at the beginning of your journey. The teacher will give you the necessary push, help you choose the right direction of movement - exactly what a beginner needs.

Now you know how to learn English on your own from scratch. We admit that the path ahead is not easy, but if you have already set yourself a goal and are ready to work, positive results will not keep you waiting. We wish you patience and perseverance on the way to the intended goal!

And for those who want to achieve their goal faster, we offer with a teacher at our school.

As E. Reznikova said, "First - a plan, then an answer, whether the business was successful or not." A very correct aphorism. After all, timely planning eliminates many problems in any business. Therefore, everyone needs to form own plan learn English and develop some rules for effective language acquisition.

It should be noted that those who undertake to study a foreign language on their own are much more difficult than studying with tutors and professional educators. You will need diligence, perseverance, willpower, self-discipline. In specialized courses, you are just a passive learner, while in independent learning, your goal is to become an active learner.

Before we go directly to the study of the rules and plan, we need to determine the necessary set of tools that will help any beginner to learn the language:

Dictionary

Tutorial

grammar guide

Phrasebook

Mobile programs

Audio or regular book for beginners

Any of these tools is up to you.

Foreign language study plan

• Choice of methodology. Settle on the method you like. For example, the Dragunkin course, the Pimsleur method, the Polyglot system. Practice this technique until you pass the first level, then evaluate the results.

• Choice teaching aids- dictionaries, video courses, tutorials, audio books and phrasebooks, as well as websites. Follow the recommendations of one or two sources and follow them, evaluating their effectiveness after three to four weeks

• Choose for yourself the ideal time to start classes and the duration of the lesson. For example, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday from 8:30 to 9:30. Study for at least 1 hour a day, but no more than two

• Tutor lessons. A professional will explain obscure rules and other phenomena of English speech to you two or three times a month, work on your pronunciation

• Create a detailed plan. Distribute when and what you intend to master, but do not overdo it. Be reasonable, don't take on too much. Choose the rhythm and pace of learning that suits you best. Do not try to immediately master a huge section. It is much better to break it into a couple of separate lectures.

• Create comfortable conditions. Remove everything that will interfere with and distract you from your studies - turn off the radio and TV, speakers at the computer, if they are not useful for classes, close unnecessary tabs and windows in the browser. Sit comfortably, prepare a pen and workbook

• Hearing. Learn to recognize fluent colloquial speech British and Americans

• Reading. Study English-language books, magazines, articles, newspapers, children's fiction, posts online as often as possible and more. Use texts different types difficulty, based on their own level of knowledge of English

• Replenishment of vocabulary. Every day increase your vocabulary by 15-20 words. To simplify the process, learn thematic vocabulary - colors, top 100 phrases, numbers, animals, furniture, situational expressions, wardrobe items, etc.

• Talk. Oral practice is the key to successful mastering of English speech, so communicate with Americans and British people on the Web, join communities of interest, act out dialogues

• Letter. Write down all new material, perform various practical exercises, take notes, which contributes to the formation of motor memory

• Grammar. Enrich vocabulary with set expressions, but the nature of their occurrence, thanks to the laws of grammar.

Follow this plan, get motivated, and you will quickly master English.

Based on materials from the site http://englishfull.ru/