5 mistakes that prevent us from learning English

Learning a foreign language is always fraught with difficulties: weak motivation, incorrect teaching methods, lack of discipline and a clear plan hinder us. In addition, as our thoughts take shape with the help of words, the linguistic nuances and peculiarities of the thinking of a nation that speaks a particular language are closely intertwined.

Learning a new language, which is as unlike our native language as possible, we learn to speak again. In adults, this is especially difficult, since the vocabulary and way of thinking are already formed.

Let's take a look at the common difficulties that prevent us from learning English.

1. Using the logic of the Russian language

Compare the phrases “I am with friends” and My friends and I: the meaning is the same, but they are constructed in completely different ways. As you can see from the example, in the English-language picture of the world, it is customary to talk about oneself in the last place. But a person who is just starting to learn English, following Russian linguistic logic, will probably say I and my friends and make a mistake.

Solution: initially follow the logic of the English language.

Typically, a foreign language student builds a phrase in their native language, then begins to literally translate it into English, and this leads to errors. To avoid them, you need to determine the meaning of your statement and immediately formulate a sentence according to the rules of English speech.

First you need to find the differences in logic. The Noticing the gap exercise will help you. Find some English sentences - from a book, textbook, movie, or TV series. Write them down on one half of the sheet, and on the other half make a normal, not literal translation of each sentence into Russian. Then concentrate only on the Russian text and translate it back into English. Note the difference between the first and third sentences. Ask yourself how they differ. By concentrating on these nuances, you can quickly understand and master the logic of the English language.

Here are some examples where literal translation prevents you from understanding a phrase. Let's say you see the sentence What are you up to? This question has nothing to do with the upward movement that the word up seems to indicate. In fact, the phrase translates as a friendly "What are your plans?" What was said during the lunch Help yourself does not mean "Help yourself", but "Help yourself." Finally, the mysterious Make up your mind encourages you not to go for a brain make-up, but simply to decide something specific on an important issue.

Simple reading also helps: the constant flow of grammatically correct speech reinforces English logical and language patterns.

It is very important to regularly read and use quality resources. Among useful sites, you should take a closer look at the following:

British Council - here you can select a section (by topic or level of language proficiency) and find both reading texts and exercises for every taste.
100 Word Story is a site for the busiest: Each article, interview or story is under 100 words.
Tiny Texts is another short text resource. Each comes with an audio version and a mini-dictionary with the used vocabulary.
Lingua is a website for English learners at levels A1 – B2. Self-test materials are attached to small texts.
ESOL Courses - the texts on this site will be useful for students who have reached the B1 level.
Tube Quizard - on the resource you can watch various videos (including famous films and TV series) with subtitles and small tests.
Blair English is a site for those who are interested in reading on business topics.

Maria Zhydalina Senior Methodist of Wordika Online School of English.

Many problems in learning English are based on the wrong approach - for example, the grammar-translation method. It involves memorizing certain topics and grammar out of context. For some reason, many teachers and students forget that this method was originally needed to learn dead languages, and continue to use it, despite its ineffectiveness.

2. Learning the translation of individual words

Of course, without this, the language cannot be learned at all. But, forgetting about the context, you run the risk of getting into a situation where all the words in a sentence are familiar, but you do not understand at all what it is about, or you cannot build a phrase for an answer. For example, knowing the words see, age, for, you, have, I (“see”, “age”, “for”, “you”, “have”, “I”), a person does not necessarily have to correctly form the sentence I haven 't seen you for ages, meaning "I haven't seen you for a hundred years."

Solution: learn words with ready-made phrases and whole blocks.

This is the lexical approach to mastering English: you memorize whole small phrases or phrases that can be used in speech immediately. Such elements are easier to remember when they are related by the same theme.

Knowledge of lexical expressions greatly facilitates the study and memorization of complex grammar rules.

Look at the sentence Are you working hard or hardly working ?, which translates as “Are you working hard or barely?”. Pay attention to the words hard / hardly, their place next to verbs, and the opposite meanings they convey. Let's say you need to talk about a working colleague. Which word to choose and where to put it? In order not to say hardly worked (and call a colleague a slacker for no reason) or worked hardly (which is generally pointless due to the wrong word order and translates roughly as "worked hard"), you need to pay attention to the fixed expressions with the word hard. And repeat them many times: worked hard, tried hard, fought hard, found it hard, prayed hard "). This way you will not make a mistake, because you will remember the correct ready-made phrase.

New tokens and ready-made phrases in context can be learned from Memrise, Language Drops, and Clozemaster.

3. Targeting "familiar" words

It seemed to you that you perfectly know this word, because in the Russian language there is exactly the same? Such tokens are called false friends of the translator: although they look familiar, their meaning may differ from the meaning in your native language.

Here are some examples: accurate - "exact", cabinet - "closet", Caucasian - "a man of the Caucasian race", realize - "to realize", scholar - "scientist", silicon - "silicon", resin - "resin".

Solution:disassemble and memorize the translator's false friends by memorizing in pairs.

The principle is almost the same as with paronyms in Russian lessons (like "effectively" - "effectively"), just a translation is added to the English words. For example: "Clay is clay, but glue is glue."

And most importantly: if, while reading the text, for the first time you see a word in the translation of which you seem to be sure, stop and check its meaning in the dictionary.

4. "School" categoricality

Let's say you were offered to take a banana (Would you like a banana?). Traditional "school" answers to the question (Yes, please / No, thanks) do not allow working out useful vocabulary. Therefore, it is better if something more than "Yes / no" is sounded in a real conversation. For example:

No, thanks. I'm not hungry. - "No thanks. I'm not hungry".
I'm fine for the moment. “I don’t want to now.”
I don’t really like bananas - I don’t really like bananas.

Karina Khalikova Methodist of the Wordika online school of English.

When we studied English, the teachers only accepted one correct answer with no other options. As a result, we are not ready for alternative versions of the "correct" phrases and immediately enter a stupor when faced with unfamiliar expressions in a conversation or text.

Solution: expand your lexical and grammatical horizons.

Good old reading helps again: read as much English literature as possible. Take a closer look at the world classics, but do not immediately try to grab a huge tome with very complex vocabulary. For more active practice, you can use adapted books from the Cambridge Readers, Penguin Readers, Macmillan Readers, Oxford Bookworms series, which group texts by language level and may include reading comprehension tests.

The English language, like Russian, is diverse - there are thousands of ways to express the same idea in different words.

5. Learning vocabulary from standard literature

Classics and adapted texts from textbooks are very useful, but you also need to keep in mind the language spoken today. You don't have to learn English by reading complex philosophical or socio-political tracts if you like car reviews.

Solution:reading modern and interesting texts for you.

To replenish your vocabulary with up-to-date vocabulary, read the news: English-language media will help here: The Guardian, BBC, The Times and others. If the news in the original is still difficult, you can go to the News in Levels website: this resource selects materials for your level after a short vocabulary test.

Among the interesting thematic resources:

ScreenRant - for fans of movies, TV shows, games and comics;
Decanter - for wine connoisseurs;
The Accountant - for those who follow the world of finance;
Apartment Therapy - for those who are passionate about interior design;
Herding Code - for IT professionals and those interested in this area;
Urban Dictionary - for those who are interested in the freshest English neologisms.

Don't look at someone else's experience: You don't have to speak like an English queen to read books, travel and work. It is important to rely on your own feelings and perceptions. Of course, classes in groups are also necessary for harmonious learning of the language, but it is better to practice an individual approach. And if you find it uncomfortable to travel somewhere several times a week, then you can always study online: the curriculum on the Web today allows you to learn English no worse than at a desk in the classroom.

And remember: independent work is very good, but you also need to regularly check how correctly you understood and memorized new vocabulary. Therefore, in the early stages, the help of the teacher is especially important: it is he who will make sure that you have learned everything correctly, and will give exercises that will allow you to better understand the logic of the English language and finally speak it without annoying mistakes.