First step " Choose your Goal" for learning English as a Second Language
Goals are your motivation. Goals can remind you of purpose and direction. Why do you need English as a second or third language. What do you wish to accomplish with English as a second language? Studying ESL requires thousands of hours of real effort - you need motivation and endurance to be able to study or work using the English language with native speakers.
Top 15 Goals for studying English as a second language
- Immigrate into an English speaking country
- Get hired at a first job
- Be hired at a better company
- Be promoted in your company
- Sell and market your products to English speaking countries
- Be able to operate a business completely in English.
- Publish an authoritative business, scientific journal article in English
- Be admitted and study in a North American university.
- Be admitted and study in a North American university graduate program.
- Travel independently in English speaking countries.
- As an Artist, perform for English speaking audiences
- Enjoy entertainment produced by English speaking artists
- Use English instructions for computer applications. Surf the net in English
- Score 950 on the Toeic test or 280 on the new Toefl exam
- Study English Literature in the original text
Second step: "Select the best Learning Methods" - how you learn most efficiently
Examples of questions to determine "how you learn best"
- What English can you learn the most while studying alone?
- What English can you learn the most by studying in a group?
- Can you listen once and remember the pronunciation and vocabulary?
- Does it help to see pictures of nouns or action verbs demonstrated?
- Do you have to write and repeat words to memorize vocabulary?
- How many times and ways must you use a word to "know" its proper context?
- How often do you have to repeat lessons?
- Can you create and use mnemonics to remember lists
- Can you benefit using accelerated English language learning methods
- Does music or games help you to relax, making learning easier?