Hi all! I’m from Argentina, and I’d like to improve my english skills. Nowadays I can have a fluent conversation (better writing than speaking) but the vocabulary I handle is so limited and also is my pronunciation. What would you recommend me to do?
Thanks!!
I think basically anything you do will help you, so long as you do it in English. Since you seem to be fine with speaking and writing, maybe those are not the issues to concentrate on. For vocabulary, the best thing to do is to read as much stuff in English as you can. Preferrably interesting stuff. I find reading with the LingQ reading interface is particularly good for my vocabulary. You can, for example, import any text you find on the internet into LingQ and read it. You can even import entire books. For pronounciation, it is really good to listen to as much audio in English as you can.
Watch English language films and TV.
Find some English speakers who are learning Spanish - offer to do a conversation exchange with them (over Skype maybe?)
Sigue el método Lingq, lee y escucha mucho. Necesitas, ante todo, mejorar el vocabulario, tanto leído como oral. Aparte de eso, mira algunos vídeos buenos sobre pronunciación, por ejemplo te recomiendo el canal de Youtube “Rachel’s English”.
Sobre pronunciación. Quizás los dos aspectos más importantes son estos:
a) Sentence stress. En inglés se pronuncian claramente solo las palabras “más importantes” en las sílabas acentuadas [las palabras largas suelen tener dos sílabas acentuadas], estas se pronuncian largas, claras y fuertes, todo lo demás (sílabas átonas, palabras menos importantes) se pronuncian menos claras, más rápidas e indistintas.
Explicación: Word or Sentence Stress: Lección de inglés
Un vídeo sobre el tema: English Pronunciation - Sentence Stress (by a native-speaker British English teacher) - YouTube
b) Schwa. Las sílabas no acentuadas y las palabras “menos” importantes se pronuncian básicamente todas con la misma vocal, da igual cómo se escriban [hay excepciones en algunos dialectos]. Esa vocal no existe en español y es el sonido más frecuente del inglés. Es la schwa.
Cómo pronunciarlo:
Explicación general: The Sound of Schwa | PronunciationCoach
Más detalle por Rachel: - YouTube
Más sobre schwa, con explicaciones sobre acentuación y reducción de vocales (reducción significa convertir vocales en schwa). Por desgracia, solo tiene subtítulos generados automáticamente:
Para ampliar el vocabulario creo que lo mejor es leer libros. Si te cuesta mucho entenderlos en inglés, podrías tratar primero de leerlos en español.
Para mejorar la pronunciación, yo creo que primero es importante mejorar la habilidad de escuchar y distinguir los sonidos del inglés. Para esto, recomendaría usar audiolibros.
Si sientes que te cuesta mucho, podrías recurrir a la transcripción fonética. Yo lo he hecho bastante, y he sentido que me ha ayudado.
Estos consejos los doy basándome en mi experiencia personal, y no necesariamente tienen que ser lo mejor para ti. Estoy seguro que la experiencia y consejos de otras personas podrían ser también de utilidad.
Sí, son buenos consejos, yo aprendí así, pero recuerdo que se puede leer aquí en Lingq, lo que hace que sea mucho más fácil (no hay necesidad de buscar constantemente en el diccionario, …) y también escuchar.
Sí, también es una buena opción. Hay muchas formas en las que se puede estudiar. Mis consejos los hice basándome en lo que yo haría en su lugar.
Actualmente aprendo inglés con libros clásicos. En gutenberg consigo los textos, y en librivox los audios.
Es el modo de trabajar más cómodo para mí, y esto a condicionado mi forma de responder.
Sí, los libros clásicos son un buen material. A riesgo de ser pesado, sabes que ese material lo puedes subir a Lingq ¿no? Lo digo porque hace poco que te uniste a Lingq. Así se une lo mejor de ambos mundos, leer buenos libros pero hacerlo ágilmente, sin interrumpirse constantemente para buscar palabras. Eso es bueno cuando hay muchas palabras que no se conocen. Yo hubiera querido tener esta ayuda cuando empecé. Ahora no necesito diccionario para leer francés ni inglés y muy poco para italiano y alemán, pero en ruso me viene muy bien utilizar Lingq.
A ivanbarbarosch, que está empezando, desde luego le recomiendo usar Lingq con cualquier material que tenga en formato electrónico, se ahorrará mucho tiempo y esfuerzo.
Sí, tienes razón al decir que el material puede ser subido a lingq. No lo tenía presente al dar mi respuesta.
Yo pienso que son buenos los consejos, pero el aplicar un determinado método muchas veces depende de la personalidad y gustos de la persona. Quizás el autor del tema podría decirnos con qué clase de método podría sentir más afinidad. Esto permitiría dar una respuesta más profunda.
Did you write that you were better at writing than at speaking? If I were better at writing than at speaking, I would not worry about my English pronunciation with a Japanese accent. I would just speak as I write.
I think it is not that easy. In conventional education I think most of the learners are better at reading and writing than at listening and speaking maybe because schools are focused on grammar, at least that happen in my country Mexico, and it seems to be the same for Argentina and most of latin American countries. The problem that we all have is that when we try to speak we need to do it quickly, without thinking too much or translating, and none word come to our minds. But if we are writing, we have plenty of time to think, to check what we already wrote and improve it, correct it, and so on. Therefore to speak well you need to listen a lot and obviously to try to talk as much as you can but naturally and in a relaxed environment. That is what I think. Greetings!
I suggest you watch films, for sure. Because of the amount of random idioms mean something other than they would be logically defined as. For instance, the words “for instance.” Those make it seem as if something is happening “right now” but really they mean “for example.” Watch movies, watch why and where they use these wacky idioms and try to get into the rhythm of these sentences. You don’t want to be constantly translating English into Spanish in your mind. You want to make the English words become entities in themselves.
It wasn’t until I moved to Germany and began speaking daily with my co-workers and room-mates, that I began to stop translating the German into English and simply allow the German words, in all their weirdness, become their own entity/definition. When speaking German, I often have a hard time translating back into English, and when I’m watching a German movie, I am thrown completely off if there are English subtitles. When there are no subtitles, I can feel and experience the language and understand. Because it is its own thing.
So after you get enough English vocabulary (which it sounds like you have a decent amount of) from using LingQ and translating words as best as they can be, dive into films and listen to English. Allow English words to create their own identity in your head, not translating them back to Spanish or trying to do surgery on them. Let them flow, as awkward and strange as they are. Films, films, films. But don’t use subtitles! If you can’t understand what they’re saying, come back to LingQ and learn move vocabulary.
I’m here to help you with English whenever I can. Let me know.
Do you think isn’t helpful watching movies/tv shows with subtitles? I’m saying this because I love American tv shows and movies but I always watch with subtitles.
Do not watch with subtitles in your native language. Those are translations, and you want to stop doing real-time translation in your head.
It is much better to watch with subtitles in the same language that is being spoken. I have tried this a few times, and I think it can be valuable. I saw a French girl on YouTube who said that she learned a lot of English this way.
It is possible to download subtitles from the Internet. I won’t give you a link, because I’m not sure that those sites are not violating copyrights. But search for “movie subtitles”, and you will find them.
I do not know if Windows Media Player can use downloaded subtitle files. The VLC media player can use them, and probably others.
As khardy said, don’t watch with subtitles of your own language. It can be useful to use subtitles of the target language, though.
I don’t watch with subtitles in my native language,I always watch with English subtitles, but I realize that when I watch with subtitles I’m not paying attention in the audio as much as if I watched without subtitles .Of course that with subtitles I can understand more, but I feel like I’m not practicing my listening skills as much as if I’m watching without subtitles, but as I don’t have a large vocabulary, you know, I’m not fluent yet, I think I will continue to watch with English subtitles and continue to study at LingQ, building up my vocabulary and then when I see that I have a larger vocabulary I will watch without subtitles .
Read, read and read. Did I mention reading? Do that 