How to motivate yourself to study English

08.03.2016

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How to motivate yourself to study English

Do you remember the feeling that you had when you just started studying English? It used to be so interesting to attend classes, do the homework, you wanted to have English all around you and learn to speak it as fast as possible. However, a few months later (the period may vary) you realized that learning a foreign language is a really time-consuming activity. More than that – there are articles, tenses, a lot of rules and even more exceptions. You lost the interest. Now you have to do it although you don’t want to, which can’t be good for the language. How to become interested in the language again? How to feel the passion for studying again?

1. Set intermediary goals and reach them.
It’s always nice to reach the goal you had set, although it isn’t huge. Here, at Tree words, the course is split into a few stages (usually 4). Every time a student finishes a stage, he or she can compare their progress with the knowledge they used to have at the previous stage thanks to progress charts on different skills (reading, writing, speaking and so on). It’s vital to understand that the goals you set must be reachable. For instance, don’t expect to speak like a native in the London suburbs just after a month of studies.
2. Don't miss your classes.
The most obvious reason not to do it is making slower progress than your classmates make. When a teacher asks you something and you are not able to understand, you'll be the one feeling awkward. Naturally, a good teacher will find a way out of this situation, but you won't forget the feeling. Another reason why you should attend all classes – is a habit. When the weather is bad it is very hard to get up and leave home. But you have to. English should be something you can't possibly skip. Regular practice is essential.
3. Don't forget about rest.
Working too hard is also bad. Being tired affects motivation in the worst way possible. It is thought that using a cell phone during a lesson is a bad thing. Well, not quite. The thing is that our attention has its ups and downs. Normally, it gets really difficult to concentrate on something more than 15 minutes. An average person needs an at least a minute-long lesson. People who often speak in public and their speechwriters are aware of this. Every 15 minutes there should be something that can wake the audience up in the speech. A joke, for example. Surely, if you spent the entire lesson reading your news feed, the lesson won't much use, though it's OK to take a moment to reply to a message.
4. Don't try to understand everything at once.
Unlike kids, adults always try to find a logical way to explain everything. Unfortunately, the language is not always logical. You'll be really surprised when you get to learn the contrast between Present Perfect and Past Simple. Technically, both tenses express a past action but how come that I have seen a movie today but I saw a movie yesterday? Well… It just should be like that. By the way a French-speaking person won't be confused with this, because French has some similar grammar stuff. Don't try to understand this, just suck it up. Any language is tricky in its own way.
5. Give you language a try.
The feeling that you have when you understand a phrase from a song, a movie or a book for the first time is invaluable. It’s the moment when you realize why you spend so much studying English. But be careful not to choose something too tough. Don’t take a Shakespeare play and whine that you understand nothing (not every native can read it).
Learing a language is a difficult process, the results are not always visible and it's hard to evaluate them. But soon you will see that you are making progress and you shouldn't give up. I'm going to go out on a limp here and say that there is no way to learn a language completely. You are getting better at you native language every day. Just be patient and keep going!

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