What helped you to improve your english?

Being born and living in the UK I am fortunate to have English as my first language. But where I have been fine with the spoken word I have always struggled with the written word. For years my spelling was poor and I seriously struggled with the grammatical structure of the language, such as where to use an apostrophe.

But since becoming active as a review writer my grasp of spelling and grammar has been improved thanks to the use of word processing software, in my case MS Word. When I fist started using it I would spend ages going through all the highlighted mistakes, but these days those mistakes are a lot less thanks to learning from repeatedly making corrections.

So I would say for those looking to improve their grasp on the written word then a simple way to start would be to use a word processor and learn from your repeated mistakes.

School. We have units in the English grammar included in our school's curriculum here. I am also fortunate to have been working with a team who have different races and were all speaking in English for us to understand each other.

English is one of the difficult languages to learn because of its grammatical rules and inconsistencies is spelling of words. Nevertheless, to overcome this problem, you need practise, preferably with someone who speaks English - not necessarily a native English speaker. There are thousands of non-native speakers who speak English quite flawlessly. So, exposure to the language is vital. There's no point learning it and not using it.

Besides using the Internet, it's wise to go to the bookstore and the library and get a good English book to read. It doesn't matter if it's grammar, communication, novels, or short stories. As long as it's English, read it. Though there are lots of resources on the Internet, some are not reliable.

On top of that, learn English songs, memorise some phrases from that song and use them in real life conversations. You'll be surprised to know that students learn English faster through songs.

Well, that's my lecture for today. Good luck:)

Hi just4you0,

English language is not my native language and I hardly (and most of the time, never) use it on my daily communication. During my collage, I prefer used English book as my reference compare to my mother tongue language book. I try to remember the meaning of every words I can find and I can do it easily because these word extensively used in text book.

After finish my study, I always read English newspaper and try to understand what is this reported try to say. After a while, I can read it without dictionary beside me.

Lately I involve much in English discussion forum especially here in mylot. Now I try to improve my grammar since I always do mistake on this. I always looking any software or online grammar checker. I know that computer can't defeat our own brain in term of grammar but at least it can give a little assistant.

Happy mylotting and have a nice day.

interact with others directly, it doesn't matter whether you're wrong. You'll learn step by step..

I was studying while working, and it's been proven. Interactions helped me to improve my English!:)

Being a native french speaker and since 2000 becoming an english speaker with near native proficiency, I can speak from personal experience. The key to improve english is definitely having real-time conversations with native speakers. If the native speakers are not readily available, then maybe you need to turn to the internet mostly chat rooms or skype where you will have the opportunity to discuss everything and nothing. Music is also a great tool to hear people talk without getting bored. And nowadays we have the power of hulu, a site that gives you access to thousands of movies and TV series for free and all I am sure to improve english around the world.

Hey!
Of course it's MyLot and all friendly members here!
My english before that was terrible... (now it's little bit bad too)
So THANK YOU, friends for helping! Now I feel much better and can express myself!
Have a nice day!

I also had a problems with my English. In the past, to improve my English, I use to heard and memorize a lot of lyrics with use English. Another time, I watching movies and try to not see the text that written underneath. But now, responding post at myLot, is another way to improve my English, even sometime I still use translator tools. But above of all, I think nobody will success if they do not confidence and dare to practice what they already have.

happy myLotting

I'm fond of writing my own songs and poems so I guess that's one of the components that led me to learning more about grammars, spellings, and stuff like that. We also have a regular essay writing in English back when I was still in elementary. That made me improve more on constructing acceptable sentences written in English.

practice, practice, practice! myLot would be a good practicing ground. fun, too! and of course, you have to read english books a lot, see english movies. it helps, really, as you get to know more about the language through interesting ways. i admit my grammar is still not perfect after all those years, but hey, i know i'm getting somewhere