The ESL/Training Life

Advice for Students: All Levels

Now that the semester is over, many of you are thinking of anything except ESL. And who can blame you, after months and months of stress and effort? For sure, summer is a time to relax, and pursue other goals. But it’s not the time to forget what you have worked so hard to learn. So often in the fall, I find that the first thing I have to do is help students regain the level of ability they had at the end of the spring semester. Let this not be you. Instead, take a few easy steps known to safeguard your learning investment.

1. Manage Your Time

Find ten or fifteen minutes a day. If you have kids, this can be tough; here are some possibilities:

- When waiting for meat at the delicatessen
- When sitting on a bus

• - When watching your kids play at the park or at the beach
  - When you would normally be watching soap operas
  - When you are stuck in traffic
  - When you are folding clothes
  - When you are waiting for a service rep on the phone
  - When you are standing in line to register at a doctor, dentist, or college registrar
  - When accompanying your kids to watch the buzziest kids movie
  - When you would normally be watching TV or surfing the Net at night
  - Get up fifteen minutes early
  
  I used to do this ages ago when teaching myself Nepali. I reviewed vocabulary while shopping, and when speaking to shopkeepers would translate my sentences into Nepali. It works!
  
  2. Set Your Goals Realistically
  
  You studied for four months or so. Don’t try to re-master everything in a week or two. Here are some detailed tips for various ESL subject areas:
  
  Granmar/Conversation. For grammar classes, work through your textbook/workbook a few pages at a time. Re-do the exercises. Hand-copy dialogues. Review them or memorize them. If you have tapes/CDs, listen to them regularly. This will all help you retain what you have learned and prevent memory decay. Review all the little things that are so hard to master, like prepositions, articles, and irregular verbs.
  
  Reading. Review your texts again. If you had a reader, read through the essays again to make sure you continue to understand their grammar and vocabulary. If you read a novel, read through it again, to make certain that you do not lose what you worked so hard to gain. Just fifteen minutes a day!
  
  Writing. Writing is the hardest language skill to acquire. Don’t make it worse by forgetting what you learned this semester! Preserve your writing skills in three ways:
  
• Re-write old essays, including comments and corrections from your teacher. Consistently doing this will help you overcome bad habits and build new ones.
• Keep a journal, and write about anything you like for fifteen minutes a day. It’s a liberating feeling, and gives you excellent practice. Don’t just keep a diary, where you only write about the day’s events. Keep a journal where you write about anything on your mind. You will enjoy this more. I did this in college when studying Russian, and found it tremendously helpful.
• Copy writing that you like and that seems useful for your goals. Focus on professionally useful writing, not literature. This is immensely helpful. And of course this is also a great way to improve your reading and vocabulary.
  
  Writing will never improve without serious practice. The summer is an excellent time for this.
  
  3. Be realistic
  
  There will be days when life gets in the way. But work consistently at review, using small units of time, and you will find yourself better prepared for the fall. And, most satisfying, you will not lose what you worked so hard (and spent so much) to gain!
  
  See you in September…