文/ 陈枫珍(Shirley )
Shirley 拥有中国地质大学外语经贸英语和武汉大学
法学院经济法双学士学位，同时拥有英语专业八级和高
级商务英语证书。IBS英语教研部主任

As an English teacher, I am often asked by my students some questions about how to learn English well. I always encourage them to study carefully in class and to practice English after class as often as they can, as language is a very strange thing. If you leave it alone for one day, you will feel something uneasy when you pick it up another day, so let’s practice as much as we can!

As we know, learning English is definitely not an easy job to do, because we need to learn it well in all areas including listening, speaking, reading and writing. 

First, one of the best ways in regard to how to learn English well is to speak. Speak as much as you can in English with those who share the same interest or major, such as your friends around you if possible, even though you may be uncomfortable at first. You can listen to sample dialogues from everyday situations and get every chance to practice them. Also, you can talk with native speakers like your foreign teachers or visit English Corner as frequently as possible. Please don’t worry about being embarrassed or losing face, because your English-speaking friends will understand that you are doing your best to speak their language.

Second, listening is also very important in your English practice and your final success. If you hope to understand others, you must listen. Try to keep a habit of listening to English materials such as conversations categorized from easy to difficult or TV or radio programs for a certain time each day without condition and excuse. Keep it and you will find wonders in your ears.

Third, reading is one area that you can learn on your own quite effectively, outside of the classroom or even around other people. Keep a dictionary with you so that you can look up unfamiliar words in the newspapers, magazines or books you read. Then, you can write these words down in a notebook and use them in a conversation so that when you try to use them again, they will come to you much more easily.

And when you write, you can practice your English as effectively as you do when you read, only more so. This is because you reinforce your understanding of the language by writing it, which is a physical movement. For best practice, write something every day in English, even if it's a letter to a friend, or a simple message. You can also keep a diary, and use your English skills to write down what happened to you during your day. Start with simple sentences and as you get better, make sentences longer and more complicated.
As my teacher ever said to us, you can only improve your speaking by speaking, improve your listening by listening, improve your reading by reading and writing by writing, so let us practice English together and make our English perfect!