Secret #1: LEARN ABOUT WORD STRESS

Word Stress is golden key number one for speaking and

understanding English. Word Stress is *very important*.

You can try to learn about Word Stress. This is one of

the *best* ways for you to understand spoken English –

especially English spoken fast.

What is Word Stress?

Take 3 words: photograph, photographer and photographic,

for example. Do they sound the same when spoken? No!

They sound different, because *one* syllable in each

word is “stressed” (stronger than the others).

PHOtograph

phoTOgrapher

photoGRAPHic

This happens in ALL words with 2 or more syllables:

TEACHer, JaPAN, CHINa, aBOVE, converSAtion, INteresting,

imPORtant, deMAND, etCETera, etCETera, etCETera

The syllables that are not stressed are ‘weak’ or

‘small’ or ‘quiet’. Native speakers of English listen

for the stressed syllables, not the weak syllables. If

you use Word Stress in your speech, you will instantly

and automatically improve your pronunciation and

your comprehension.

If you have an English teacher, ask her to help you

understand Word Stress. Try to hear the stress in words

each time you listen to English – on the radio, or in

films for example. Your first step is to *hear* and

recognise it. After that, you can *use* it!

Secret #2: SENTENCE STRESS

Sentence Stress is golden key number two for speaking

and understanding English. With Sentence Stress, some

*words* in a sentence are “stressed” (loud) and other

words are weak (quiet). Look at the following sentence:

We want to go.

Do we say every word with the same stress or force? No!

We make the important words *big* and the unimportant

words small. What are the important words in this

sentence? Yes, you’re right: WANT and GO.

We WANT to GO.

We WANT to GO to WORK.

We DON’T WANT to GO to WORK.

We DON’T WANT to GO to WORK at NIGHT.

It’s impossible to explain everything about Sentence

Stress in this email. The important thing for you is

that you know it exists and try to learn about it.

Sentence Stress is *very important*!

Secret #3: LISTEN! LISTEN! LISTEN!

Students sometimes say: ‘I don’t listen to the BBC news

on the radio because it’s too fast for me and I can’t

understand it.’ That’s a pity! When it’s too fast for

you, when you can’t understand it, that is exactly when

you NEED to listen to it!!!

How can you improve if you don’t listen and practise?

When you were a baby, did you understand your own

language? When you were 3 weeks old, or 2 months, or 1

year, did you understand everything? Of course not! But

you *learned* to understand by *listening*. Think about

it. You learned to understand your own language by

listening, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. After that,

you learned to speak. Then you learned to read. And then

you learned to write. *But listening came first!*

Secret #4: DON’T LISTEN!

In Secret #3 I said LISTEN! LISTEN! LISTEN! Now I say

DON’T LISTEN! What do I mean?

Do you know the difference between the verbs TO LISTEN

and TO HEAR? TO LISTEN is active. TO HEAR is passive.

Sometimes you can LISTEN too hard. Sometimes you can TRY

too hard. Sometimes it is better only to HEAR. Let the

radio play. Let the cassette play. But DON’T listen.

Just HEAR. Your subconscious will listen for you. And

you will still learn. If you listen and try to

understand, you may block on one word and get

frustrated. Don’t worry! Just HEAR! Believe me, you will

still be learning. The important thing is to let the

radio or cassette or television or record PLAY. Let it

play. And you – you do nothing. Your brain will HEAR,

your subconscious will LISTEN and you will LEARN!

Secret #5: IMPROVE YOUR VOCABULARY WITH 5 WORDS A DAY

Vocabulary is easy! How many days in a year are there?

365, normally (on Earth).

If you learn only 5 new words a day, you will learn 5 x

365 = 1,825 new words in a year. ONE THOUSAND, EIGHT

HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE WORDS. That is a lot of new

words. And we are not counting all the other words you

will learn in other ways – reading, conversation etc.

Buy a notebook and write in 5 new words EACH day, EVERY

day. Learn them! You will soon have an excellent

vocabulary.

Secret #6: 30 MINUTES A DAY BETTER THAN 3.5 HOURS A WEEK

In fact, 30 minutes of English study once a day is

better than 5 *hours* once a week! Study regularly.

Study often.

LITTLE + OFTEN is better than LOT + SOMETIMES.

It’s easier, too. You can easily find 30 minutes each

day. How? You can get up 30 minutes earlier. Or have a

shorter lunch break. Fix a particular time every day –

and keep it!

Secret #7: REVISE! REVISE! REVISE!

If you revise, you’ll improve your learning by 100%.

What does “to revise” mean? It means “to look again”.

You should be systematic about this. When you learn

something, you should note it. Then you should *look at

it again*, 3 times:

– after 1 day

– after 1 week

– after 1 month

Each time you revise, test yourself.

Learn, revise, test.

Revise, test.

Revise, test.

NOTE:

revise (BrE): read again to improve one’s knowledge

revise (BrE & AmE): read and correct; update