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Ask for help > what shall i do in order not to lose my language fluency???
what shall i do in order not to lose my language fluency???
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saszka2
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what shall i do in order not to lose my language fluency???
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Scince I left university and started to teach kids I have had this feeling that my English has been getting worse. I wonder whether you feel the same? I teach children most of the time and the language I use with them is very simple, so I don �t have many opportunities to pratice my engilsh. Then when I have to deal with more advanced level of english I start realizing that I forget more sophisticated words and I lose fluency. What do you do to overcome this problem?
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27 Mar 2010
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DanielaCZ
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Watching films in English can help too, but sometimes the spoken language is difficult to follow so I also set subtitles on to hear it and read it at the same time. Also some conversation lessons with a native speaker might be useful not to loose fluency in English. |
27 Mar 2010
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portugueseteacher
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I think the best way to overcome the problem is to do a teacher �s refresher course in UK.
Hope it might help! |
27 Mar 2010
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ELOJOLIE274
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I try to listen to as much as English as I can: I watch my favourite TV shows in English, I listen to American or British radios, same goes for movies, i even "converted" my boyfriend to this way of life... and as eternalmoonlight suggested i read English novels regularly.
but of course the best way is to speak English regularly. check if there are native speakers in your town, they might be glad to meet new people and you could establish a parternship such as "i help you settle down in my country, we speak in English once a week"
i �m lucky enough to have a native speaker in my school, so i can talk English quite often. But if you �re not that lucky why don �t you ask your fellow English teachers to have a once-a-week "English only" lunch/dinner... they might be glad to have that opportunity to speak English outside the classroom!!!
take care!!
Elodie
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27 Mar 2010
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class centre
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I try to speak only English to my big students, even to my intermediate ones. And watching films in English and Euronews also.
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27 Mar 2010
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izulia
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I would suggest that you retell some stories or other reading texts and record them on your computer. Sometimes it surprises me how difficult it is to retell even a simple children �s story when you record yourself.
Also try to learn some rhymes, poems and songs and keep singing/reciting them in your head.
Maybe keeping a diary may help too.
Hugs and good luck :) |
27 Mar 2010
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renko6
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Dear Saszka2,
That �s true. You should read books or magazines, watch movies or interesting shows and listen to the radio. The best way to learn more is watching video films with Polish subtitles because (in my opinion) it �s the easiest way to learn new words and to hear spoken English.
Have a nice Sunday !
Renia
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27 Mar 2010
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ELOJOLIE274
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I �m sorry but I don �t agree with the people who said you should put subtitles when you watch a video! that �s what I used to do, but I relied too much on the subtitles and i started to realize that i read the subtitles rather than listening to the soundtrack.
i stopped watching videos with subtitles when I spent a year in England, and since then I never went back, even if sometimes it �s hard for me to understand! for example, a friend of mine told me to watch the TV series true blood because of the Lousiana accents. At first i had to listen 3 or 4 times to every scenes to understand everything because of the accents/pronunciation. and then i got used to it!
i watched the TV series House, or Grey �s Anatomy, and trust me, it �s hard sometimes to get all the medical terms, and yet i understand most of the episode, if there �s a word i don �t understand, i play it again and again, and then i type in the word as i think it is spelled on google and try to find out what it means! i �m getting pretty good at it by now!!!
so trust me, forget the subtitles, to be fluent means understanding what other people say, and even though you can ask them to repeat what they �ve just said, there won �t be subtitles!!!
if you really want to put subtitles, watch the video first without them, and then play it again the subtitles - IN ENGLISH - , i �m sure you �ll be surprised at how much you understood!!!
take care
Elodie
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27 Mar 2010
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saszka2
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Thank you all for your suggestions. They are very useful:)
How can I get English tv series in Poland though? I have satelite TV, but all English channels are blocked (apart from news which I find extremly boring) and downloading from the internet takes so much time:(
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27 Mar 2010
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priorita
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I don �t know about the downloading time, it depends on the speed. And if you need this, you may wait, as I do.
As for the ways of practice, all the suggestions are useful, but you will never be fluent and perfect in speaking foreign language without speaking foreign language. And you definitely should (I would even write have to) either go to English speaking country, or find a native speaker or a foreigner with great English. If anybody agrees to communicate with you over Skype, it also might help.
hugs |
27 Mar 2010
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