After being “interviewed” so many times about “How can I improve English, how should I practice my Listening and Speaking skills” from my friends ,I decided to write this journal in order to keep my IELTS learning journey saved so my friends can follow if they want to =)
This blog will also a place where I share my own experiences in how I practice my Self-development and how it affects my inner journey. So let’s get started =)
To be honest, I sleep about 6 hours per day (5h30 for a night and 30 mins for napping). I work and study almost 8-10 hours per day and exercise at least 2 hours per day (1 hour for morning and 1 hour for after). In this post, I will divide my post into 3 parts which include Morning practice – Afternoon practice and Night routine =)
I normally start my day at 5.30 am with The Miracle Morning rituals The Miracle Morning. It is really a great way to start your day. The Miracle Morning starts with 6 Letters: S.A.V.E.R.S –Silence -Affirmations-Visualization-Exercise-Scribing. You should read this book- Highly Recommend!!!
Before I start my daily work, I will create a To-Do List . First, I will estimate how many “hours” I need to do at school, meetings or working (I do teach English online and for some of my friends – quite busy T.T ) Then I will consider how many hours I have for my personal study. I try to improve my productivity while I’m studying or working because every minute does count!!! Finally, make your own To-Do-List which includes tasks that you need to do in that day. For those who are learning English or trying to improve your IELTS score, your studying time must account for 1/3 of your personal time. For example, If I have 5 hours for my Personal time in that day, I use 2-3 hours to learning 4 Skills in English which is – 3o mins for Active Listening. Active Listening is a good way to Wake up your brain and improve your concentration. Try to take note important works in the audio. You can review that note at night before you go to bed and listen to it one more time 😉
Next is Reading. If you don’t need to take the IELTS test in the short time- you can choose either do 1 Reading practice Test or read Newspapers. There are various sources you can choose, just pick whatever you’re interested. Reading newspapers can improve your Reading ability. Even you don’t fully understand that article, but I’m sure after a Month doing this continuously, your Reading skill will gradually increase.
How about Speaking and Writing?? To me, It’s the hardest part to master. It took me ages to be fluent in Speaking. There is a way I can suggest you which is use Ideas in your Listening practice and try to speak it out loud in your own way. Be creative.!!
I started to learn Writing seriously since I knew I need to improve my Writing so as to get high band score for my IELTS test. I don’t have any pieces of advice for you in this part. But there is a way which is highly recommended by most IELTS teachers is- Using note in the Reading and Listening or whatever sources that you have and try to analyze Grammar structure and Vocabulary from that articles. That’s how you can learn to write English like Native speakers
One thing that I forgot to mention here which is Vocabulary. How can I memorize new Vocabulary? There is no trick for this, just by applying New words in your daily practice. The more you do it, the better you can get.
I think that’s quite long for my first IELTS post today. I will try to keep writing daily. Hopefully, it will become my new habit!
Susie Dung