Independent learning of English at home. Where to start learning English? Language learning methods and lesson formats

IN modern world The importance of knowing English is undeniable, so an increasing number of people are striving to master this language. At the same time, many beginners who have never studied English before are confused by the variety of methods and textbooks. In this article we will tell you which English textbook to choose, how to maintain motivation and organize the learning process, what to pay attention to Special attention so that knowledge is confident and skills are brought to automaticity.

There is no such thing as zero!

It is not entirely legitimate to talk about zero knowledge of English, because the Russian language has countless borrowings and related words, understandable to everyone. For example, the words “information”, “radio”, “music”, “sister”, “bank” and others will be intuitively familiar to you. This means that a certain amount of foreign vocabulary will be given to you without the slightest effort. Not so scary anymore, right?

How to stay motivated?

Mastering a foreign language from scratch is not an easy task. After a couple of lessons, you may feel like this iceberg of rules and exceptions will never give in to you. Think about those who started out just like you and have reached an advanced level. You can do this too, believe in yourself! Passion for the subject is your key to success. Some people need English for work, others for travel, and others for self-improvement. Everyone has their own incentives, but it’s best if there are several of them at once.

Who to study with?

Nowadays, learning English from scratch is possible in many options:

• individual lessons with a teacher;
• group classes;
• training via Skype;
• independent study.

Lessons with a teacher will be the most effective. Individually or with a group (5-7 people), you will go through the necessary material at an optimal pace. It is important to find a qualified teacher with whom you can enjoy learning. Believe me, the teacher’s enthusiasm and love for English will certainly inspire you to conquer the peak called “English”.

If you choose group training, make sure the group is not too large. Otherwise, the teacher simply will not be able to pay sufficient attention to each “student”. English classes in groups have one important advantage - a person is, as they say, among his own people, the same beginners as himself. Making progress in a friendly atmosphere is much easier, especially since an experienced teacher will support the slightly playful direction of the lessons.

Self-learning English from scratch

Those who, for one reason or another, have chosen the path of self-education will have a more difficult time. You constantly need to stimulate interest, not give up and not be lazy. And the hardest thing is to start...

Where to start preparing?

1. Selection of methodology:

Nowadays, there are many methods for learning English from scratch. Choose the one that suits you and with which you will be pleased to work.

2. Selection of teaching aids:

Level zero will not allow you to immediately take up foreign textbooks, so acquire publications by proven domestic authors. For example, Golitsinsky or Bonk will do. Later, it is worth turning to well-known British publications: Headway, Hotline, True to Life, Language in Use, Blueprint.

A good manual boasts a sufficient amount of theory and practical exercises, equally developing reading, writing and speaking skills. When buying a textbook, make sure that its structure meets your requirements: vocabulary, grammar, topics. The rules should be presented clearly and informatively, with colorful illustrations, additional tables, etc. give important advantage in front of boring black and white publications.

3. Choosing the time for classes and their duration:

It is best to study English at the same time: if you are a morning person, devote morning hours to studying; Owls learn better in the evening.

To effectively learn a foreign language, you must study every day - you can afford no more than one day off per week! The optimal duration of one “lesson” is 60-90 minutes, and you can rest for 5-10 minutes in the middle of the lesson.

4. Comfortable conditions for classes:

Provide yourself with maximum comfort during classes: a cozy environment, a pleasant background, and the absence of external irritants. All this will help you abstract from reality and completely immerse yourself in the world of language.

5. Don't overdo it!

Once you have found the optimal pace for mastering new topics, stick to it and do not try to cover several complex sections at once. Over time you will achieve more intensive study, but at initial stage It is not advisable to rush.

6. Constantly review the material covered:

Regular repetition is the key to consolidating knowledge and improving skills. Even if you have studied very little so far, practice your knowledge every free minute - in transport, during morning exercises, at lunch break, before bed, etc. Try to talk to yourself, pronouncing words, constructions, sentences out loud or silently. If possible, do not hesitate to talk with someone who speaks English. Once you have mastered the basics, find a pen pal who is a native speaker.

How to learn English on your own?

The English language has a clearly consistent structure, and you should start learning this system from the basics. The first thing you need to learn is the alphabet and pronunciation. Without knowing the alphabet, you won’t be able to write or read, and distorted pronunciation can completely change the meaning of a statement. Don't neglect your workout oral speech, because to become fluent in spoken English you need to practice as often as possible.

Reading

Undoubtedly, first you will have to read a lot: rules, examples and simple texts. Reading grammatically correct sentences gives excellent results - vocabulary and grammatical structures are memorized. Visual perception is the main source new information, and regular reading of English texts is necessary at any stage of language learning.

Listening

When learning English from scratch, understanding text through listening may seem impossible. It's actually a great reading aid. Sound accompaniment to tasks will help you find out how to pronounce a particular sound or word. By following the text with your eyes and at the same time perceiving it by ear, you can kill two birds with one stone. Gradually expanding the boundaries of your knowledge, try closing the textbook and listening to the text again. At first you will understand only some words, and then sentences. This is the only way to learn listening, which will still play a significant role in learning.

Listening to English-language songs and watching films, including those with subtitles, keep a beginner in good shape and increase motivation, unobtrusively immersing a person in an authentic atmosphere. It will be very useful to watch your favorite film in the original, which you know almost by heart in Russian. A familiar plot will make it easier for you to understand the characters’ lines in English, and you will also be able to see a lively and modern, rather than purely bookish language.

Letter

Any new material must be done in writing! With all the convenience of modern computer programs that offer to insert a suitable word instead of a blank, they are not suitable for those who have just started learning English from scratch. The method of writing in a regular notebook is more effective: performing written exercises allows you to hone your knowledge, bringing it to automatism. First, you will learn to correctly express thoughts on paper and only after that you will be able to confidently use them in speech.

Speaking

Oral practice is an integral part of learning a foreign language. The ability to read and translate does not mean being able to speak English fluently. Beautiful and fluent speech is the dream of any beginner, but in order to fulfill it, you need to practice constantly. If you don’t have an “experimental” interlocutor, train on yourself! For example, talk to yourself in front of the mirror, try to tell in as much detail as possible how your day went. When going through a new topic, invent a new name, profession and past for yourself - create a fictional character. This kind of gameplay will provide you with the variety you need for oral topics.

You can achieve even greater success by combining reading or listening with speaking. After you read the text or listen to the audio recording, try to retell the content out loud (or, alternatively, in writing). Such a presentation will help train memory and thinking, teach you to retell in your own words, and therefore speak English fluently.

Vocabulary

Learning foreign vocabulary begins with the simplest and most frequently used words:

• nouns (e.g. a house, a man, an apple);
• adjectives (eg big, great, good);
• verbs (e.g. to do, to be, to get);
• pronouns (eg, I, he, her);
• numerals (e.g. one, ten, the fifth).

Mindless cramming is not suitable for those who really want to know English. Undoubtedly, international words are remembered most quickly, and the rest are best combined with already familiar lexical units. For example, "a big dog", "an interesting film". It is better to remember stable expressions in their entirety, for example, “to make a mistake”, “to do one’s best”.

When memorizing lexical units, you need to pay special attention not only to their meaning, but also to their pronunciation. That is why, at the initial stage of learning English, it is important to learn how to correctly interpret the transcription of a word and firmly grasp the rules of pronunciation of certain letter combinations, for example, “th”, “ng”. Also, dedicate a separate lesson to studying the features of open and closed syllables, and you will save a lot of time constantly looking at dictionary transcriptions.

Grammar

Knowledge of the set of grammatical rules of the English language is perhaps even a little more essential than a wealth of vocabulary. If you can easily get away with not knowing a certain word, then the inability to use tenses and constructions will instantly make you look like a layman.

You need to start studying English grammar with the order of words in a sentence, because the correctness and meaning of the statement depends on it. Then you can move on to mastering the tenses of the Simple/Indefinite group (Present, Past, Future). The next sections will be Continuous/Progressive and Perfect tenses. Important elements of your knowledge will be the constructions “to be going to” and numerous modal verbs(for example, "must", "have to", "can").

English from scratch For some it comes faster and easier, for others a little slower and with more effort. However, with motivation and quality teaching aids, anyone can master English. At the initial stage, it is especially important to pay attention to all aspects of the language as a whole. An integrated approach is the key successful study and acquiring sound knowledge and skills.

Self-studying English is a rather labor-intensive but inexpensive way to master the language, which has its pros and cons. The main source of information in in this case you choose - it can be the Internet, educational games, an English language tutorial, a phrasebook, books (adapted or in the original), songs. There are many online services for beginners and intermediates.

Perhaps, but this type of training has its own characteristics that must be taken into account. Language acquisition includes 4 components: reading, writing, speaking (speaking) and listening (listening).

Reading

Reading- one of the types speech activity, a complex process of symbol decoding aimed at understanding text. One of the forms of linguistic communication between people using printed and handwritten texts. Reading can also be considered as a wonderful tool for mastering a language, because in texts there are many unfamiliar words and words already familiar to us. Some words are ambiguous and their meaning is easier to remember in context. All this allows not only to increase lexicon, but also to repeat previously learned grammatical structures. In order to ensure that working on the text does not turn into an impossible task, it is very important to select the text in accordance with your language level.

Letter

Letter- this is one of the types of speech activity, symbolic fixation of speech using special symbols (letters, hieroglyphs, drawings). Mastery of written language occurs gradually. For practice in writing you can use the following forms of work:

• Rewriting text;
• Training dictations;
• Writing letters, essays.

Reading and writing are interconnected types of speech activity. Writing is a kind of encoding of information using symbols, and reading is the decoding of these symbols.

Oral speech

To master oral speech, you must have skills in voicing expressions, skills in using lexical units, and grammatical skills to correctly formulate sentences. In other words, in order to say something, you need to know the words required by a given situation, be able to pronounce them correctly and construct a sentence in accordance with the rules of the language. In addition to words, there are speech patterns, stable expressions that are often used in oral speech. Therefore, to master oral speech, you need not only to remember a certain number of individual words and expressions, but also to bring their use to automatism.

Listening to speech (listening)

Listening is the process of listening and understanding spoken expressions. The mechanism of this process includes:

• Perception of streams of sounds and recognition of words, sentences, paragraphs, etc. in them.
• Understanding the meaning of words, sentences, paragraphs. If you already have a certain speech experience, then this process is enhanced by predicting the content of what was said.

For understanding English speech you need to listen by ear as often as possible! You can communicate with other people in English (preferably with foreigners), talk on the phone, listen to music, watch videos, TV series.

Learning a foreign language not only develops memory and thinking, but also increases IQ level.

Where to start learning a language on your own?

When learning a foreign language on your own, your success will directly depend on the correctness of the chosen approach to learning.
It is necessary to adhere to the correct sequence of studying the material - from simple to complex. It is recommended to study topics in the following order:

• English alphabet (sounds and letters of the alphabet).
• Transcription.
• Reading rules.
• Vocabulary by topic (accumulation of vocabulary).
• Grammar.

Each of these components is important, so you cannot miss anything, because all these points are closely interrelated. Remember that without correct pronunciation it will be difficult to understand you. Even after learning the entire dictionary, you will not speak, because sentences are built according to certain rules, and to construct them correctly, you need at least basic knowledge of grammar, because speech is not just a set of words.

When studying on your own, it is very important to check the correctness of your pronunciation. This can be done using online dictionaries. Click on the "horn" to hear how the word is pronounced. For example, you can use the sites Lingvo.ru or Howjsay.com. If you are working on a text, then use Google translator to listen to the entire text.

In learning vocabulary (replenishing your vocabulary), you should also adhere to a certain order. Start learning vocabulary with simple and more commonly used words and expressions on a specific topic. To do this, you can use the Englishspeak.com service (100 lessons with vocabulary by topic and the opportunity to listen to it), the Studyfun.ru service (vocabulary by topic and the opportunity to listen to it), a phrasebook (be careful - transliteration (English words in Russian letters) does not reveal the features English pronunciation!), self-instruction books (their advantage is that in one lesson there are exercises on pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary for the lesson, texts for reading, conversational phrases by topic). News lovers can use the news portal Newsinlevels.com, where the presentation of information depends on your level of English. It is important that each news is accompanied by an audio recording.

Knowledge of grammar is no less important than vocabulary. If you really want to, you can learn any rule, but in order for working on the rule not to seem overwhelmingly difficult, your task is not to learn (memorize) the rule, but to understand it. If this rule is related to the use of tenses, passive voice, conditional sentences etc., understand the rule in your “native” language. For example, change the same sentence so that it matches temporary forms English, but make a sentence in Russian (you can make changes). Then in English:

• In the summer we love to sunbathe on the beach (in general we love it - the present simple tense).
• Now we are sunbathing on the beach - (present continuous tense).
• - You look like boiled crayfish! - Of course, I was on the beach all day! (looks like a crayfish now because I was on the beach – simple perfect tense).
• We have been sunbathing on the beach since three o'clock (we have been sunbathing for 3 hours and are still going on - present perfect continuous tense).
• When we were little, we loved sunbathing on the beach (past simple tense).
• Yesterday we sunbathed all day (past continuous tense).
• When he came to us, we were already on the beach (two actions in the past, one of which happened earlier - past perfect tense).
• We sunbathed on the beach all day until he came! (the action lasted until a certain point in the past).
• Tomorrow we'll go to the beach! (future simple tense).
• And tomorrow at the same time we will already be sunbathing! (action in the future that will take some time - future continuous tense).
• In a week I will definitely finish writing my essay about summer! (the essay will be written at a certain moment in the future - future perfect tense).
• I will play volleyball on the beach until my parents follow me! (an action that will last in the future until a certain moment - future perfect continuous tense).

A good start doesn't always guarantee happy end, therefore, you need to approach the organization of independent classes responsibly. Remember that you need this first of all, and all control over the progress of the enterprise and its results rests with you!

1. Exercise regularly.
2. Depending on the results you want to achieve and the time frame for achieving them, set for yourself a mandatory duration of classes (for example, at least an hour and at least 3 times a week).
3. Everyone’s work speed is different, so you set the ideal learning rhythm for yourself (for example, 30 minutes a day).
4. Choose tasks of your level to avoid disappointment in yourself and your abilities. If you already have some knowledge, you can rewrite short texts, translate texts or articles, find someone to talk to (on the Internet or real life) to practice speaking (or writing, e.g. pen pal) skills.
5. All acquired knowledge should be immediately applied in practice, while trying to use all words and grammatical structures in oral and written speech.
6. Learning a foreign language is mostly cramming, which is hated by many, but you can’t do without it (for example, learning vocabulary)! But even in cramming you can find logic - for example, some words are international, so memorizing them based on the similarity of their sounds in your native language will facilitate the process of memorizing them.
7. Repetitio est mater studiorum (Repetition is the mother of learning). Be sure to take the time to review the material you’ve covered until it’s stuck in your head... forever. You will not be able to achieve the desired result by saving time on repetition. After all, repetition is one of the main conditions for memorizing and mastering material. Repetition specifically affects long-term memory, helping to assimilate information. long term. Correct repetition of learned material improves its retention and facilitates its subsequent reproduction.

What can interfere with independent language learning?

« False" motivation, or lack of proper motivation. Ask yourself the question “Why am I learning a language?” If the answer is for yourself, it’s fashionable, to get a job, then you are unlikely to achieve significant results. Why? Because you may (and most likely) won’t need it for yourself, and learning a language is a labor-intensive process; it’s fashionable – fashion changes, and so do languages. To get a job, the employer needs a qualified worker now, and not necessarily in you, when you learn the language.

Formulate a specific goal, preferably of a practical nature, even if a trip abroad is not in the cards in the near future. For example: learning a language develops my intellectual abilities, by learning a language I develop my personal and communication skills, I can expand access to the information I need, because there is more of it in English; I want to watch movies and TV series in English, I want to communicate with foreigners, etc.

Typical beginner mistakes are:

Kato Lomb (8 February 1909 – 9 June 2003)- a famous Hungarian translator and writer who has worked as a simultaneous interpreter since the 1950s.

She spoke, read and wrote fluently in Hungarian, Russian, English, French, and German. She could express herself and understand Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, and Polish. With a dictionary I read in Bulgarian, Danish, Romanian, Slovak, Ukrainian, Latin, Polish languages. She is a physicist and chemist by education, but already in her youth she was interested in languages, which she studied on her own.

Kato Lomb outlined her method of learning foreign languages ​​in the book "How I learn languages".

Kato Lomb summarized her approach to learning languages ​​in the 10 Commandments:

1. 1. Practice your language daily. At least 10 minutes, even if there is no time at all. It is especially good to exercise in the morning.
   2. If the desire to study weakens too quickly, do not “force” it, but do not give up studying either. Come up with some other form: put down the book and listen to the radio, leave the textbook exercises and look through the dictionary, etc.
   3. Never cram, never memorize anything in isolation from context.
   4. Write out of turn and memorize all the “ready-made phrases” that can be used in maximum quantity cases.
   5. Try to mentally translate everything that is possible: a flashing advertising sign, an inscription on a poster, snatches of accidentally overheard conversations. This good exercise, allowing you to keep linguistic thinking in constant tone.
   6. It is worth learning firmly only what is absolutely correct. Do not re-read your own uncorrected exercises: when reading repeatedly, the text is involuntarily remembered with all possible errors. If you study alone, then learn only the ones you know are correct.
   7. Write down and remember ready-made phrases and idiomatic expressions in the first person, singular. For example: “I am only pulling your leg” (I’m just teasing you).
   8. A foreign language is a fortress that needs to be stormed from all sides at the same time: by reading newspapers, listening to the radio, watching undubbed films, attending lectures in a foreign language, working through a textbook, correspondence, meetings and conversations with friends who are native speakers.
   9. Don’t be afraid to speak, don’t be afraid of possible mistakes, but ask them to be corrected. And most importantly, don’t be upset or offended if they really start correcting you.
   10. Be firmly confident that you will achieve your goal no matter what, that you have an unbending will and extraordinary abilities to languages. And if you have already lost faith in the existence of such things - (and rightly so!) - then think that you are simply enough clever man to master such a small thing as a foreign language. And if the material still resists and your mood drops, then scold the textbooks - and rightly so, because there are no perfect textbooks! - dictionaries - and this is true, because comprehensive dictionaries do not exist - at worst, the language itself, because all languages ​​are difficult, and the most difficult of all is your native one. And things will work out.

U self-study There are many advantages to learning English from scratch. Firstly, it is convenient from the point of view of time planning, and secondly, it is cheap or even completely free - most educational materials for beginners can be found in the public domain. And thirdly, it's fun - you can easily skip boring topics and focus only on what you like. In this article we will give several useful tips where to start learning English language for beginners and, in fact, how to learn English from scratch to an acceptable level.

How to learn English from scratch on your own

Reading rules

When you decide to learn English on your own, first of all figure out how to read in this language. The first stage includes:

1. learning the alphabet;


2. learning the basics of pronunciation - pay attention to sounds that are missing in the Russian language: [ŋ], [r], [ʤ], [ɜ:], [θ], [ð], [ʊ].

Also check out the cases where several letters in the transcription make one sound. For example:

enough [ɪˈnʌf]- enough
although [ɔlˈðoʊ]- Although

Work on your pronunciation

Even when you just start learning English, gradually get rid of your accent. Some online dictionaries have a voice-over feature. Use it when you are unsure about your pronunciation.

Continue to practice correct pronunciation of sounds [ŋ], [r], [ʤ], [ɜ:], [θ], [ð], [ʊ], since they are difficult for beginners. Special tongue twisters for each sound of the English language will help you with this.

Increase your vocabulary

When, while studying English on your own at home, you understand the basics of reading and pronunciation, start replenishing your vocabulary. Beginners should start with simple vocabulary on topics.

Standard topics for those who want to learn English from scratch:

• family;
• sport;
• rest;
• animals.

These topics are standard, but if they make you sad, replace them with something that interests you. For example, field hockey, medieval literature, mid-twentieth century music, electric cars, etc.

Free lesson on the topic:

Irregular Verbs English: table, rules and examples

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In addition to nouns, learn and simple verbs: take, give, walk, eat, talk, speak, ask, thank, play, run, sleep ) etc. Don’t forget the basic adjectives: big-small, fast-slow, pleasant-unpleasant, good-bad, etc.

Try to speak already at this stage, making simple sentences from the learned words.

Learn grammar

When, through self-study of English, you have become familiar with reading and writing words and have learned basic vocabulary, it is time for grammar. But you shouldn’t plunge headlong into this topic right away. All we need now is to learn how to correctly construct simple sentences.

For beginners in English at home, it is enough to master:

• conjugation of the construction “to be”;
• 3 tenses (present simple, past simple, simple future);
• word formation.

As you study tenses, you will find that some verbs form the past tense differently than others. These verbs are called irregular verbs, and each form of them must be learned by heart.

Listen to the speech

Finally, we have come to the most interesting stage of self-learning English. When the foundation is laid, feel free to start practicing, and already in the process, brick by brick, add new knowledge to it.

Practice is speaking and listening, inextricably linked. For beginners at this stage, it is important to remember the following tips:

• To speed up the process of learning English, you can watch video lectures, video blogs, TV shows, news broadcasts, listen to radio and podcasts.
• Language learning will go faster if you decide to meet in in social networks with a foreigner and start communicating in writing and/or via Skype.
• Your best help in learning English is to try to speak it. Pester your family and friends with the question How are you? (How are you?), or better yet, tell them everything yourself: what you are doing, what you are thinking about, what you want, etc. If shyness gets in the way, talk to yourself, the main thing is to practice speaking.

By this time, with independent learning, the vocabulary of the English language will no longer be enough for a beginner to understand colloquial speech. Therefore, learn to memorize not individual words, but phrases and set phrases at once.

Read more

Learning to read English well is not easy, especially for a beginner who has chosen the path of self-study. If during a conversation the context and facial expressions of the speaker tell you the meaning of the phrases, then when reading in English you see only dispassionate letters on a white background.

Helpful advice:

For beginners, Ilya Frank’s method, designed for those who decide to learn a language from scratch, will be useful: read special books in which sentences in English are alternated with translations into Russian. This allows you not to be distracted every time searching for the right word in the dictionary, but to remember it immediately in context.

With this method, after 2-3 months, even with self-study, you will pay less and less attention to the translation, and eventually you will stop noticing it completely.

Use apps and websites

Bab.la

A useful dictionary, both for beginners learning English and for advanced students, in which words and phrases are presented immediately in the context of their use, thanks to which you can trace the variations in their meaning in different situations.

Multitran

The Multitran dictionary is useful both for beginners and for translators. There are dozens of meanings for each word. Multitran also boasts phraseological units and set phrases in English.

Duolingo

Duolingo is a platform for comprehensive language learning. An excellent option for beginners to learn English on their own. On the website or through the application, students sequentially go through lessons consisting of theory, tests, practical exercises and game tasks. As you progress, the complexity of the topics and tasks increases.

Busuu

Another site that uses an integrated approach to teaching English from scratch: Busuu has materials for learning vocabulary, grammar, and speaking, listening and writing.

Learn English by British Council

Learn English by British Council is an educational resource focused on British English. In addition to standard theoretical rules, hundreds of exercises and tests are collected here. Learn English also has videos, podcasts, songs and games that will be understandable for beginners.

Disadvantages of learning English on your own

With all its obvious advantages, the self-learning method also has one significant drawback is that it requires strict discipline from beginners. To achieve noticeable results, you need to exercise regularly and systematically, but not everyone can achieve effective program and force yourself to follow it. Another difficulty for beginners in learning English may arise with error checking. English lessons for beginners are generally clear, but they do not provide feedback, and this is very important. If vocabulary and grammar can be checked in online exercises, then listening and speaking are difficult for beginners to train without a teacher.

Useful video on the topic:

There is so much information about English that it is easy to get confused!

Dear readers! I know from my own experience how difficult English is for beginners. And the point is not a lack of textbooks or information, but rather an excess of them, information noise that is impossible to understand.

In this article, I have collected and systematized materials from the site that will be useful for beginners, those who are learning English from scratch. In these articles, I share my opinion on where to start learning a language, what online resources and books are best to use, where to find good video lessons, how to choose courses and where to find an online tutor.

Where to start learning English?

If you decide to learn English “from scratch,” then you need to go from simple to complex, from the most necessary to the rarer. First of all, try to lay the foundation for future knowledge and skills and learn the basics of the language. The most basic knowledge includes:

Having laid the foundation, you need to practice a lot and in a variety of ways in all types of speech activities: reading, listening, writing and speaking in English.

Actually, that's all. You've just taken a short course in language learning! The rest is details and particulars.

You can find the necessary materials both on this site (links above) and in textbooks and online training courses for beginners. I recommend that at the initial stage you study using a textbook for independent study (self-instruction manual). In my opinion, the most convenient way to learn the basics of a language is from a textbook, using interactive materials, such as vocabulary cards, as auxiliary materials.

What websites are there for English language beginners?

The main advantage of the textbook is that the material is presented in a methodically correct order, in convenient portions. You don’t have the feeling that you are wandering in the dark; the textbook literally leads you by the hand, giving extremely specific instructions. But in addition to textbooks, you can also study using educational programs - they contain a lot of audiovisual materials, and the learning process is built in a game form. The following sites are suitable for beginners:

“Teacher Method” – a step-by-step course for children and adults

“Teacher Method” is an interactive course for different levels, starting from almost zero. It includes courses of three difficulty levels for adults and children, as well as a separate children's course for the little ones.

In the course for beginners, learning begins with the alphabet, all explanations are made in the form of short videos in Russian with explanations from teachers, and tasks are given in the form of interactive exercises. The material is chewed down to the smallest detail. The service is paid, but is available free of charge in a limited form.

Lingvaleo is a service for self-learning English using:

The lesson plan is created automatically and looks like a list of “Today's tasks”, but it is not necessary to follow it. The site has a lot of audio, video and text materials of different levels of complexity - from simple to original materials of foreign TV, so it is suitable not only for lesson-based language learning, but also for practice in reading and listening. Most of the features are free, but for an additional fee you can purchase interactive courses (for example, grammar or English for children) and unlock some word learning modes.

Duolingo

A free interactive course, in which, like in the “Teacher Method”, you need to go from lesson to lesson. But there are almost no explanations here; training is built on a different principle. You need to complete tasks, studying the practical side of grammar and applying the vocabulary learned at the beginning of the lesson in practice: constructing and translating phrases. It is not advisable to take this course as a basis for learning English, but it is suitable as an auxiliary educational game.

English for beginners: free video lessons

Useful Internet resources are not limited to just educational sites. Fortunately, there are now a lot of useful, interesting and free video lessons. Lessons are available in both Russian and English.

For beginners, it is better to start with lessons in Russian. For example:

I believe that it is better for beginners to study with Russian-speaking teachers, and here’s why:

• He better understands the peculiarities of teaching Russian-speaking students.
• At the initial stage, it is better to explain tasks and rules in Russian.
• It will be too difficult for you to understand a teacher who does not speak Russian.

The principles of language learning are very simple and have been known for a long time.

1. Set specific and achievable goals

It is much more convenient to move towards a goal when it is marked than when it is an unclear fog over the horizon. Why did you decide to learn the language in the first place? To get a job as a chief engineer at New Development Engineering? To move in with your aunt in Sydney? Your goals will largely determine how you go about achieving them. For example, if you want to study at a foreign university, you will need to be able to write correctly, which is not so important for a trip to the USA under the Work and Travel program.

It is advisable to set short-term goals in addition to long-term ones. For example, complete lessons 1 – 6 in two weeks, learn 100 words in a week, read the first chapter of Harry Potter in a month, etc. No need to set unrealistic goals. It's better to take small steps, but without stopping.

2. Try to exercise regularly, preferably every day!

Ideally, you need to practice every day for 1-2 hours. In practice, not everyone will be able to do this, but if you really want to, you can set aside at least half an hour a day. The main thing is not to deceive yourself by coming up with excuses about lack of time and crazy busyness. It's okay if you watch half an hour less TV or get things done half an hour earlier.

Even if you are a businessman/supermodel/pizza delivery guy, finding at least 15 minutes a day in your crazy schedule is exactly 15 minutes better than 0 minutes. And don’t forget that you can listen to audio lessons in the player while you are dying of boredom in a traffic jam.

There is no need to organize crazy marathons once a month either. It is better to exercise for 30 minutes 7 times a week than 210 minutes once a week. What's the point of running a 3-4 hour marathon a day if everything is forgotten within a week?

3. Practice makes perfect

You don't need any great intelligence or talent to learn a language. You just need to practice regularly - that’s all. Pay attention to all aspects of the language: vocabulary, grammar, practice in reading, listening, speaking and writing - and everything will be ok. Don't get hung up on theory and try to practice more.

Language is a means of communication, transmission and perception of information, knowledge, and expression of emotions. They need to be used. Learning a language but not using it is like learning swimming from books without diving into the water. Read and listen more, don’t hesitate to communicate!

It is important to be able to start any business correctly. Many desires and aspirations for perfection remain unfulfilled due to an incorrectly taken first step or even postponing the “start” until next Monday. Have you decided to learn a foreign language, but don’t know how to start studying? Today’s material is just for you, because it will tell you in detail how and where to start learning English on your own. In the article we will consider all the stages of competent organization of the educational process: motivation, lesson format and the correct approach to the various components of teaching English. Let's get to work!

Why are some people able to communicate fluently in several languages, while others cannot connect even three words in one foreign language? No, it's not about giftedness, talent or learning ability. It's a matter of interest. When we are passionate, we learn with dedication: we enjoy the process of learning, rejoice at new skills, and rush to try out the acquired knowledge in practice. Thus, if you want to successfully study English, try to get carried away by it, feel how cool it is, and be able to understand foreigners.

To awaken a burning desire to learn English, you need to find individual motivating factors. These could be some global goals, for example:

• Moving for permanent residence to England or America;
• Doing business with foreign companies;
• Studying abroad;
• Making new acquaintances and finding friends among foreigners;
• Travel abroad, etc.

Simple things successfully motivate you to start serious training. For example, interest in English films. You probably want to watch the latest movies and TV series without the agonizing wait for the Russian translation, which is released a week or even a month late? So, with knowledge of English, film premieres will be available to you immediately after release. In addition, this way you will recognize the real voices of the actors and make sure that the Russian translation does not always accurately convey the dialogue of the characters.

In general, in order to effectively learn English, you need to understand your goal and enjoy the difficult path to it. However, motivation plays an important role only in the first lessons. Subsequently, students see their progress and the very realization that they have learned to speak a little English becomes a motivating factor to continue their studies.

Language learning methods and lesson formats

Naturally, after setting a goal, beginners are still tormented by the question of where to start learning English. Now that we have the mindset to study and confidence in our abilities, we need to choose the right methodology and format for conducting classes. To do this, do a little self-analysis:

1. Do you want to study with a teacher or learn English on your own?
2. If you need a mentor, are you ready to study in a group or individually?
3. How much time are you willing to devote to English lessons?
4. What type of perception is most typical for you: auditory (perceives by hearing), visual (visual memory), kinetic (sensations)?
5. When do you plan to complete your studies?

Depending on your answers, you need to decide how to learn English.

If you plan to study with a teacher, then everything is simple. You look for an experienced teacher and choose a course for beginners. If there is nowhere to rush, then standard group lessons are suitable, but if you need to learn to speak English urgently, then you should sign up for individual lessons. The teacher will select manuals, methods, optimal duration and frequency of classes for you.

But to study English on your own, you need to carefully consider the organization of the educational process.

1. Decide on timenumber of lessons. You will study every day, or 3 times a week, 2 hours per lesson or only 30 minutes, etc. The best option is 3-4 times a week for 1.5-2 hours of classes. But, if you need to master a language in short term, then it’s better to practice daily. The main thing is the regularity of lessons. Never allow yourself to miss classes.
2. Select study materials. Here it is important not only to focus on an accessible explanation of the rules and high-quality design of texts, dictionaries and exercises. You also need to take into account your own type of perception. If you are a visual learner, then video lessons are more suitable, and if you are an auditory learner, then it makes sense to actively use audio lectures.
3. Check out techniques for beginners . Thoughtful for beginners special courses, which contain the necessary minimum of grammatical and lexical information in English. Read our material about methods of learning a foreign language, and perhaps you will choose an already beaten path to mastering English.
4. Set aside a place for classes. It is very important to have your own desktop where all notebooks and teaching aids. Availability of a workplace psychological factor, because indirectly it strengthens a responsible attitude towards lessons.
5. Make a thematic plan. First, think about the format of the first 3 lessons. For example, the first lesson is learning the alphabet and working with vocabulary. The second lesson will begin with a review of vocabulary, then a review of the alphabet and the study of personal pronouns. The third lesson will be devoted to repeating all the studied elements and listening to audio recordings with new vocabulary. After the first lessons, make up new plan for a week, etc. It is imperative to set goals for each lesson so that they motivate you to work with full dedication.

And only after completing these points can you purposefully begin to learn English. The most questions, of course, will arise regarding thematic planning of lessons. It is difficult for a beginner to understand where it is better to start learning English on his own, and which topics to choose first. Therefore, in the next section we will discuss this point in detail and explain how to develop foreign speech skills.

Where to start learning English on your own - detailed instructions

There are many people studying English, and those who speak the language make up about 10% of this mass. Why is that? Because 90% do not use their knowledge. We learned one topic, sort of repeated it a few days later, and that was it. The next topic is put off for a few more days, and by that time the first one is already forgotten. To avoid falling into this vicious circle, remember main principle how to learn English correctly:

Use the information you learn more often in your speech. Speak the material out loud as you study, make up your own sentences to review the topic, and create dialogues using a variety of vocabulary and grammatical structures.

Only in this way will you master foreign speech, and soon you will begin to think in English, without even using Russian translation.

Thus, a beginner does not have a goal to learn 1000 words or remember everything English Times. For a beginner, the primary question is how you can quickly learn to speak English. In fact, this is not so difficult, because you don’t have to make ornate sentences; you can talk even with the simplest constructions. And now we will look at the first 5 steps to learning spoken English.

Alphabet, phonetics, transcription

Letters and sounds are the most important elements of language, and they are also the simplest norms of speech. Therefore, you won’t have to think long about where to start learning. Our goal is spoken English, but how can we speak without knowing any sounds or letters? Therefore, it is logical that the first stage of learning English is familiarization with the alphabet and phonetic structure of the language.

The English alphabet contains 26 letters. There will be no problems with studying them if you work with voiced and structured material. We recommend the following study scheme: first carefully read the alphabet table, carefully work on the spelling and pronunciation of the letters. Then move on to learning the material by heart. By the way, it’s not necessarily boring to cram letter by letter. Use songs and rhymes to memorize English alphabet. This will make things more fun, and the result will not be long in coming. At the same time, you will also get acquainted with additional vocabulary.

As for phonetics, here you have to work on 44 sounds. This number is formed thanks to numerous letter combinations, which you will still have time to thoroughly study in reading lessons. Now your task is to practice the pronunciation of sounds and remember the transcription signs. In the English language, where a word is often written completely differently from how it is pronounced and read, transcription plays a huge role. In the future, you will more than once check the correctness of your own pronunciation of English words using transcription.

It will take about 3 thorough lessons to master the first section. During breaks between lessons, also don’t be lazy, take 10 minutes to review English letters and sounds.

Reading rules

The most important and, perhaps, most accessible process of learning a language for beginners is reading. Beginners read a lot, because without reading there is no way to pronounce an unfamiliar word, and, therefore, not to start talking.

When reading, it is important to practice each rule well. Correct pronunciation of letter combinations is very important, because... There are many words in English that sound similar, but different meaning. If from the very beginning you understand the difference in long and short sounds, as well as open and closed words, in the future it will be much easier for you to learn new English vocabulary, understand speech by ear and, finally, speak English on your own.

It is recommended to spend up to 4 lessons on practicing reading rules. Divide all the material into parts and practice several combinations per lesson, combining them with learning new vocabulary. And devote the final lesson to repeating all the reading rules using a small adapted text.

Vocabulary

Often when asked by beginners how best to start learning English, many recommend memorizing as much vocabulary as possible. On the one hand, this is the right approach: each conversation contains hundreds and thousands of words. Knowing the translation of frequently used expressions, you can easily understand foreign speech. But we are interested in how to start speaking English on our own, and not just understand others. And here a small discrepancy arises.

If you look at it from a different angle, knowing even 100 English words, without basic grammar you will never link them into a sentence, much less into a text. Thus, writing and speech will effectively be inaccessible. Unpractised pronunciation will also distort the meaning of memorized vocabulary, and as a result, not a single foreigner will understand you, even if you pronounce the most common word in the language. Therefore, you cannot focus only on learning vocabulary. Vocabulary acquisition should go in parallel with the development of other language skills. Dedicate 20-30 minutes from each lesson to studying or repeating vocabulary.

AND important point concerns the content of vocabulary lessons. The following tips can be given here:

• Learn the most common words;
• Use thematic collections;
• Always check correct pronunciation words;
• Work more with expressions and contexts;
• To make memorization easier, use special techniques.

Also, be sure to work through the material in different sequences: translation - English word; English word - translation.

Regarding the subject matter of the materials, we recommend studying the very basics. Dating, food and drink, common verbs, household items, lifestyle, popular adjectives, etc. To repeat what you have learned, link words into sentences and dialogues, modeling typical speech situations.

Grammar

Above, answering the question of how to learn to speak English, we already mentioned the importance of grammar. Without this connecting link, your knowledge will never turn into “living” English speech.

So, how to start mastering English grammar? Start with the most basic topics. For example, a plan for the first month of school might look like this:

1. The connective to be and personal pronouns.
2. Questions and negatives with to be.
3. Articles.
4. Possessive pronouns.
5. Plural of nouns.
6. Interrogative pronouns.
7. Sustainable constructions this is/there are.

Having mastered this minimum, you will be able to compose simple expressions or come up with a mini-dialogue in English.

• What is it? –WhatThis?
• It is a pen –Thispen.
• Is it your pen? –Thisyourspen?
• No, it is her pen –No,Thisherpen.

You can come up with a lot of similar conversations even with minimal knowledge of grammar, especially if you actively replenish your vocabulary with new words and expressions. Of course, educational dialogues are not exactly like exciting friendly conversations, but you need to start small. The stronger the foundation of knowledge you lay, the easier it will be for you to master complex grammatical points in the future. Therefore, do not strive for pie in the sky ahead of time, but gradually master the basic elements.

We recommend including grammar materials as well as vocabulary in every English lesson. This can be either studying a new topic or simply repeating the information learned. The main thing is to regularly practice and practice the information learned in theory. Then you yourself will notice how the quality of your knowledge and practical skills improves every day.