I'm reviewing old articles - a task long overdue! It’s been a long time since I wrote the last article. On italki [ https://www.italki.com/article/1369/The-Four-Elements-Of-English ] we managed to track up over 42,000 views and 450 thumbs-ups. The article dealt with improving your English language through the targeted improvement of the four elements.  Reading (input) Writing (output) Listening (input) Speaking (output) The general idea was that you need to work on four aspects simultaneously. It’s not that hard.  This is just a brief note to let readers that I’ll be reviewing my past articles posted on www.speakproperenglish.com So basically, I'm reviewing old articles - a task long overdue! The focus, especially in the early days was a rant and rave about English language fail points. It has since evolved. It’s now a mission to work with clients around the world on how to improve their performance using the English language.  Accordingly, I’ll be looking back at the articles and republishing the content with the angle being to point out how the writing could have improved. Full disclosure: the critique (ok, criticism) was always aimed at native speakers of the language. Their use of the language affects others reading the work. In the teaching profession, we often rely on “realia” to help students. Imagine the damage if menus and signage suggested as an appropriate source of English language turned out to be misleading. What a shame.  Anyway, look out for revisions on www.speakproperenglish.com over the coming weeks.

My italki article address. https://www.italki.com/article/1369/The-Four-Elements-Of-English

Listen & Repeat . This is a snippet from my full article available on italki. The elements of this technique cover: Listening Speaking Many people who are trying to advance their English share the same difficulty: they do not enjoy speaking aloud. If you struggle to speak the language, you will have difficulty communicating. The trick is to start speaking aloud as soon as possible, without any delay. This simple method gets learners listening and speaking the English language with minimal effort, and it all begins with watching movies and TV.

Just a quick thought Mix up a few different techniques to help develop a balanced practice routine. It’s likely you may find yourself moving towards a method of listening and repeating for its entertainment value but remember: there's a reason you need to be working on all four elements of the language. Force yourself to add in some other practice techniques as well.

Learning Article: The Four Elements Of English

Thinking in individual words I couldn't claim ownership of the below ideas though I can vouch for their efficacy :) It's a hack used to immerse yourself in the language to speed up the acquisition. Make a note of everything you encounter in English. For example, when you wake up in the morning, think of words like: bed, toothbrush, bathroom, eat, banana, coffee, clothes, shoes Then when you go to work, think of words like: car, job, company, desk, computer, paper, pencil, colleague, boss During the day, continue to think of the individual English words for everything you see, hear, and do. Try this exercise – look around you right now and think of all the English words you can. I’d imagine you can think of at least 10 words! Now for this entire week, find 11 words, each day, every day. Email me the ten words. Each day. This exercise appears pointless at first. As you note more and more words, you'll start encounter things you cannot identify using English words. This is when the magic happens. You'll look them up thus obtaining meaning, pronunciation (from the dictionary and online references) and spelling. Once you have a few of these, start building stories around them, apply the words to sentences, play around with alternative meanings etc... next thing you know, your language has improved.

What tricks do you use to remember new vocabulary? The vast majority of what we learn is lost, we forget it because we never internalised it in the first place. It is claimed that some 95% of what we learn in a lecture can be lost in a short time, say days… with reading the information sticks a bit longer but we still forget most of it in a short time. Do you know of practical hacks and tricks to optimise the process of vocabulary retention?

How do I remember vocabulary better? The vast majority of what we learn is lost, we forget it because we never internalised it in the first place. It is claimed that some 95% of what we learn in a lecture can be lost in a short time, say days… with reading, the information sticks a bit longer but we still forget most of it in a short time. The trick with any new material - including vocabulary - is to use it. Take the new vocabulary, apply it in as many instances and situations as you can. use it in different sentences, use it to convey variations of the same meaning. This will help you internalise the new words. But, in the end, you are still likely to forget your new vocabulary because once you’ve been exposed to it, once you’ve practised saying it, once you’ve applied it in various situations. You’ll leave your lesson and not use it again. There is a better way, teach it. See your new information and share it with the next person. In doing so you are going to be forcing yourself to dig up the information you obtained and retrieve it for the purpose of explaining it to somebody else. In doing so you will be using it yourself and teaching yourself thus anchoring your new found knowledge. Other activities to achieve the same objective include: Simply talking to your husband, wife, significant other about it, Speak to your colleagues about the ideas and concepts using the new vocabulary. Blog about it, use italki for example, they offer a notebook feature where you can practise your writing skills, use the italki notebook.