No one ever said learning English would be easy, and it isn’t. Making mistakes is natural. It will take time, patience, and a lot of practice. But learning English isn’t all about grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. You can still make mistakes with these, but they can be fixed with study and practice. In this guide, we will look at the bigger picture and the errors that our teachers have noticed most often during their vast experience teaching English. As well as how to go about finding a solution to these problems.
Being Afraid of Making Mistakes
Everyone makes mistakes. Mistakes are normal when learning everything. When you start driving a car, you don’t immediately know how to parallel park, no one does. The car won’t be straight, or you don’t line up the car correctly. This is exactly the same for learning a language. Your pronunciation won’t always be right, or your new vocabulary word might be misused. This is nothing to be afraid of, it is normal for all of us.
You have to become comfortable making mistakes regularly. You have to understand your mistakes and try to not make the same mistake over and over because then it becomes a habit. I have taught so many students who make the same mistakes repeatedly because their mistake wasn’t corrected early enough. Changing a habit is incredibly more difficult than correcting a mistake. Understand and fix your mistakes as soon as possible.
Focusing Too Much on Grammar
Grammar is great. We need grammar for our sentences to make sense and be perfect. English grammar has different levels, simple grammar, like at the beginning of your studies. Like anything grammar becomes more and more difficult. Focusing too much on grammar alone can take you down a path that will confuse you even more. It could be discouraging to a new learner.
Acquire grammar, don’t search too hard for it. Read books, listen to podcasts, and watch sitcoms. Use real-world practice to acquire new grammar skills instead of reading them in a textbook. If you come across something that you haven’t seen before, or that stumps you, then definitely try to find the rule behind it. However, remember to not be afraid of making mistakes don’t allow the grammar rules to scare you into not using your English in a practical setting.
Unachievable Goals
First of all, setting no goals for your language learning is a mistake, secondly, setting unachievable goals is the second mistake. If you don’t have goals, then you have nothing to aim for. This can deter you, or make you misunderstand your progress to date. If your goals are unachievable, this can have the same effect.
Firstly, set yourself goals. Secondly, set yourself achievable goals. Easy right? You want to set goals that you know can be met, then the sense of achieving those small goals will spur you on to do more and more. You don’t want to be setting your sights on an IELTS Band 7 score when you are still a beginner. Of course it is good to dream, but with your language goals, you should focus on smaller and more achievable targets
Making No Time
Making no time to study is definitely making a mistake. I have had students, who had incredible potential, but it is largely wasted because they don’t have the time to study. Learning a language without having a regular time for classes can make progress incredibly slow. Or the student is so busy that they end up missing classes because of work or other engagements. Having class should be fun and something you’re looking forward to each week. If it becomes a chore, then it will be infinitely more difficult to want to set a time to study.
Set a time every week or every day, however much you can. Put it in your calendar. Set a reminder. It should be part of your schedule, a part of your weekly calendar. If you make time for it, it will make a difference. One piece of advice I give to my students is, that even if it is 10 minutes, it still makes a difference. When you’re on your lunch break, on the bus, or brushing your teeth in the morning. Make time and read an English article on BBC News, anything, every little helps.
Include Your Interests
Learning English at a language school or with school textbooks can be incredible. But sometimes their materials can only be beneficial for the lesson itself. Or for you to learn a new skill, which is great a lot of the time. But not always. It’s important for you to include your interests and passions in your learning. Like when you’re listening to music, you’re not going to listen to death metal, unless that is your thing. It can be the same with learning a language.
Listen to the music you like to listen to, it will make learning more fun, and enjoyable and could even help to improve your language skills faster. If you love movies, watch English movies. If you love reading crime novels, read them in English. If you love playing on TikTok in your native language, try watching TikTok videos in English. It can be so beneficial for your listening, comprehension as well as vocabulary, to do the things you enjoy using English.
Last but definitely not least, never compare yourself. Don’t judge your progress by the progress of another student. Every student is different. Everyone learns in different ways. You are not the same. Maybe something they are doing is working for them and what you’re doing isn’t having the same effect. So why not try something new, or change tactics. But don’t compare yourself to them and their language ability.
