After so many years of studying English I can say now that I’m c1 at English but this is the beginning as I would like to improve my vocabulary,more complex sentences etc…
I need a routine to improve my English as at the moment I am CAE grade C so I would like to stick to a routine to spend at least an hour on improving my English.
What do I do?
-Speak English at work on retail 20h per week
-Listening mp3 at least an hour everyday
-Reading occasionally
I can see that my speaking is quite fluent but I use the same words everyday so it looks like I am not making any more progress at all.
I read non-fiction so sometimes If I am outside the confort area I’m struggling at reading(I mean books that make lots of descriptions and mainly adjectives).
My listening is quite good but I was wondering if there is anyone who has a system to improve for people who do not need to learn the basics B2-C1.
Your activities are quite correct: speaking, listening and reading.
But speaking only at work is quite limited by topics and vocabulary.
Listening is good for your fluency, but by listening we just omit unknown words.
However, only reading and partly writing can help you to enrich your vocabulary and to ensure your advancement.
That’s why my advice - to read more and to write something.
I would suggest you to read a lot, It is by far the best way to increase vocabulary.
In the past when I needed to increase my vocabulary I would read a book every 2~3 weeks or at least one a month. Start with easy books if you are struggling and very soon you are going to be able to read almost any book.
For listening you can just keep listening to your mp3 (considering that it is not music that you are listening to) and that will do it.
I’d tell you to write more. Since I love to write creatively I usually write a lot in English and this helped me out a lot. Anothing thing I do in both English and Swedish is to write down fancy words that I like and want to use more in writing. I do this for example when I’m reading or listening to something and one word catches my eye. By doing this I put the word in my vocabulary and I’ll use it when speaking later on.
If you don’t like to write try to read more. If you’re searching the internet for something, look it up in English instead. Just integrate the English more into your life! Listen to the news in English (or read), watch a movie etc.
Thanks guys for your contribution I do agree with you without a doubt.I do like reading and now I’ve got audiobooks what I buy online as it is said to not to read without listening because it will affect your pronunciation.
I do have penguin readers but I reckon that I need to get a routine because I am not following any timetible.I have to admit that I am bad at time management and it would help a lot and I would achieve a lot as well.
I have learned today from speaking Russian with a native speaker, that my speaking is more so the best part of my abilities, but listening is something I’m not good as I think I am. This is from someone that primarily mostly reads and listens, but occasionally speaks out loud.
I digress, I think listening and reading is quite powerful. You should find a speaker that has idea what it’s like to work in retail (your related work), and get some dialogues written down and recorded. Basically, at least memorize and recognize a lot of the basic dialogues so you have some sort of base to work off of, as well as fall back on, if you don’t know what to say.
Rather than say: “How may I help you?”
Get creative:
“What are you interested in buying today?”
“You look fat in that dress.”
Okay, not the last one, but you understand my point.