How to Learn English A 5 Step Guide to Learning English Correctly

One question I get asked all the time is “How do I learn English?” I was surprised by how often I see this asked so I went out to YouTube to see what videos were out there to help people.  Most of the videos that came up seemed to assume that you already know English.

That’s crazy, because if you’re trying to learn English you’re not at the place where these videos tell you to start.  Odds are, right now you’ve probably translated this article into your native language so you can read it.

I’m going to tell you how to learn English in just five steps.  Most of the resources you will need to do this are free and I’ll leave some links below to get you started.  Seriously though, it only takes a few steps to get going.

1. Decide on the Type of English

The first thing you need to decide is which type of English you want to learn to speak.  This is really important to decide before you get started.  Do you want to speak American English? British English? Australian? South African? Choose the one that fits your needs.

2. Learn Phonics

Learning any language starts with learning the phonics.  With English, you must learn the phonics for the type of English you want to learn.  There are different sounds between them.  I recommend learning the phonics in this order:

• Learn the basic sounds for all the letters
• Learn the short vowel sounds
• Learn the long vowel sounds
• Learn the two consonant pairs (ch, sh, th, etc.)
• Learn the unusual vowels (ee, oo, ea, etc.)

There are a lot of videos for learning phonics.  Here is a link to 70 video lessons for American English Phonics.

3. Basic Sentence Patterns

This step is about learning basic sentence patterns, not grammar.  Don’t try to learn grammar yet, it’s a very complicated and difficult topic.  In the U.S. we don’t even start to study grammar in school until we are around ten years old.  We speak English for a long time before learning grammar.  I think it is backwards to try and learn grammar before you can speak English and it can really slow down learning.

Start with learning basic sentence patterns instead. Just like a child learning to speak, begin with “I want …” “They went …” type sentences.  These basic patterns will be what you use everyday, they will make up most of the sentences you will use throughout speaking English.

Here is a link to my free Basic Sentence Pattern Video Course.

4. Improve on What you Now Know With 5 Key Skills

After following the first three steps you should have a foundation to speak English.  You should be able to understand some English and you might even be able to read some too. Now you are ready for most of those videos I mentioned in the beginning.

Now is the time that we Improve our English by learning 5 Key Skills. Now we will learn English Reading Skills, English Writing Skills, New English Vocabulary, English Listening Skills and English Speaking Skills.
Here is my free course for this level. 5 Key Skills Video Course

5. Conversation and Speaking Practice

The final step is to practice your conversation skills. This can be a friend you do a language exchange with on the internet.  The key thing is they need to be fluent in English, a native speaker in whichever type of English you chose. If you prefer, you can hire a tutor at this point but you will probably have to pay for one.

There you have it, the five simple steps to learning English.  Follow these steps and you should be able to easily communicate.  If you are learning English for academic reasons, now is the time you can worry about grammar.  Now you can worry about nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, etc.  Really though, most native speakers don’t even know a lot of grammar skills, we don’t spend a lot of time focusing on grammar in everyday life.   

Unless you need to repair your car, you don’t really need to know how the engine works.  You just need to know how to drive and take care of the basic maintenance.  It’s the same with English, you just need to know the basics.  I really hope this has helped you on your journey and given you a good direction for learning English. You can learn everything you need for all the steps above from my free video lessons. Conversation Practice Video Course

You can also make the decision to have a tutor help you now that you are at this level as well. This would be the only time I suggest a way that isn’t free. If you would like lessons with me, you can sign up here.
http://listenandlearnenglish.com/tutoring/

The important thing is to follow all of the steps in order. You can do this. I have given you the 5 steps you need to learn English correctly and now it is your turn. Use my free video courses or find free ones in your chosen style of English. Mine are all American English. Don’t forget to have fun.