How to start?

[heather]

Dear teacher,

I come from China. I learnt a lot of grammer in China. However my using English is very poor.
I am a housewife. I love living in England. But the communication is still a problem for me to make friends. I want to learn and use English. Could you help me?

Yours faithfully,

Heather

[waterluo]

do you believe your courage ?and you still close you mouth when someone speak to you ?
oral english differs from writing english ,as a normal communication ,the aim you pursue is that you could be understood .
when someday you pour out one word,next day ,two words ......then ,you can speak fluently

[Tdol]

Heather, if your background has been mostly studying grammar, then you may worry about making mistakes when talking. however, the most important thing is to get your message across- try not to worry as this will inhibit you. Who cares if you make some mistakes as long as you're understood. Try to be confident.

[nemesisage]

Hey Heather,

I had the same problems but Now I speak fluently with a good accent..I would like to few tips which helped me...

have a loon on this website of "BBC Learning"...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learning/

This might help you, watching English movies and series of some good TV Drama will also help...

Always read the newspaper or article little bit loudly that will help you to learn pronunciation of certain words as well as it will help you to improve your accent…

See, written English and spoken English, both are different from each other…You have an advantage that you are staying at UK…where people really speak in the best accent…

So you can catch up by watching movies and listening to the radio or kind of music that you like…

You can do one more thing; you can download the lyrics from the free sources and than you can listen to that particular song…That will surely help!!


~pEaCe~

[Ouisch]

Maybe there are informal adult education classes in your area where you can practice English with others in your situation? The best way to improve your spoken English is to practice.

[heather]

Thanks a lot for giving me so much great idear and advice.
As tdol said, I really cared about making mistake when I talk to someone. This is a reason I like keeping myself alone rather than talking to others.

[Tdol]

You really shouldn't worry about mistakes- focus on getting your message across. We all make mistakes in a foreign language. Anyway, England has so many people who don't speak English as a first language that most people in cities are used to communicating with non-native speakers. By the way, your English is fine.

[heather]

Thank you for your reply! I have another question like to ask.
I have two stepdaughters and one daughter. They are 10, 6 and 2. I want to help them learning. However I feel my English is so poor. I would like do learn more. Which do you think is best for me, doing GCSE English or ESL?

[Tdol]

Given that you already have a solid grounding in the basics like grammar, I would imagine that GCSE would be more useful because it will get you doing things that your children will be doing later on in school, so you will learn about what is required of children in the education system.

[heather]

Thanks, tdlo! Do you think I am able to learn Shakespeare? I read some of his novels in Chinese but not English. I just not very sure, but I realy want to try.