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Here’s the second part in our series on how to improve your English. Have fun with these ideas.

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Level: Intermediate

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Here’s the second part in our series on how to improve your english. Have fun with these ideas.

• Chat with other language learners (or native speakers) in online forums.

• Next time you need to look something up online, go to the English-language version of Wikipedia (or any other online encyclopaedia) and read it in English.

• Get a monolingual English dictionary and use this to look up words. Reading the definitions in English will really improve your English.

• Learn the phonetic script and use this to find out how words are pronounced in English.

• Set the language on your digital TV set to English and watch an English-language TV series for half an hour a day.

• E-mail your friends in English once a week. Insist that they reply in English.

• Download some information on a hobby of yours and read about it in English.

• Put the radio on in the background while you’re working at home or in the office.

• Get the box set of your favourite English-language TV series and watch it in English. As you’ve already seen it in your own language, you’ll be able to follow it much more easily.

• Read an article in English and find 10 words or expressions that you like. Then, write them out onto vocabulary cards. Remember to include the words in example sentences as they’ll be easier to learn like this. Then, carry them around with you and try to memorise them. The following day, write out 10 more.

• If you’re feeling tired, just lie down on the sofa and put on an English-language CD or MP3. The language will just soak into your brain and you’ll be learning without making an effort!

• Get the script for one of your favourite English-language films or TV series. Find a monologue or dialogue that you like and see if you can learn it. Later, play the DVD and try to speak along with the actors.

• Watch children’s cartoons or programmes. The language tends to be a bit easier to follow. Also, read children’s books. The pictures make it easier to read.

• Read an article in English in an online newspaper site such as the Guardian, the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, the Independent, etc. Then, post a comment in the “comments section” (which usually appears at the end of the article). Read over other people’s comments, too. Sometimes, they’re more interesting than the actual article!

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