The Best English Language School

The best language schools do not have a grammar class.

The best language schools do not have levels.

The best language schools do not have tests.

The best language schools ask you what you want to learn.

The best language schools involve you in the community.

The best language schools give you lots of personal feedback.

The best language schools help you learn English fast!

The best language school in Victoria is...

www.realenglishvictoria.com

My Favourite FREE English Pronunciation Site

It is great to use the internet to help you to improve your English skills. One of the best online help sites is by a woman named Jennifer. Her Youtube channel is a great place to get help for pronunciation. But remember, learning to pronounce an individual word is not always helpful. Practice speaking in sentences.

Jennifer's fantastic Youtube channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/user/JenniferESL

Don't forget to tell Jennifer that you love her lessons and that Real English Victoria (www.realenglishvictoria.com) recommended it to you!


www.realenglishvictoria.com

But I Can't Speak English Well...

One of the most difficult things for students moving to Victoria is to find people to be friends with who also speak English. Some students feel nervous because they think that their English sounds funny, or they make mistakes.

The answer is "Yes, your English sounds funny and you make mistakes."

But...Canadians do not really care.

They want to find out more information about you and why you came all the way to Victoria. They want to know about your country, your customs, your family, and what you like to do in your spare time.

But...Canadians don't know if you can speak English. Victoria is a tourist town, so if people hear you speaking Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, or Portuguese (and any other language other than English), they will think you can't speak English.

But...if Canadians hear you speaking English with another person, they will feel more comfortable trying to speak to you. Maybe they just chat about the weather...or maybe they want to have a deeper conversation.

Now you are living in Victoria, speaking English and building friendships and making wonderful memories.

Students at REV speak English all day. They tell us that it now feels strange to speak their own language in Canada! This is great news...

SPEAK ENGLISH EVERYWHERE AND YOU WILL MEET CANADIANS IN VICTORIA!

www.realenglishvictoria.com

Daily English Plan: UPDATED for Pronunciation Practice

While you're living in Victoria, you should make a daily plan to make sure you're using your time well. Here's an example of a schedule that I recommend for students at REV:

UPDATE: I also require all students to practice Ben Franklin exercises to improve fluency in speaking, but also to improve your ability to understand natural English as spoken by native English speakers. 

Listen to these exercises as often as you can and repeat everything in the text that Rachel uses. You may have to do these exercises 4 or 5 times to get it correct!

Rachel's English: Ben Franklin Exercises

English Learning Plan

Morning & Afternoon

7:00AM-9:30AM    >>> Watch CBC News or Listen to CBC Radio
10:10AM-12:20PM >>> Attend morning classes.
12:20PM-1:00PM   >>> Eat lunch at REV
1:00PM-5:30PM     >>> Attend Classes

Evening

Watch CBC Fifth Estate and/or Listen to CBC Radio

Spend time talking with roommates, homestay family, friends (even from your home country) in English.

After a couple of weeks, you will notice that it gets easier and easier to speak without thinking too much. This means your fluency is improving, and that is why you came to Victoria!

If you tell me your situation, I will try to give you some ideas to help you improve, too!

Greg


www.realenglishvictoria.com

Are you memorizing more incorrect English sentences???

For most people trying to learn English, tests are a fact of life. TOEIC, IELTS, TOEFL, CELPIP, CAE...the list is long. Unfortunately, studying to do well on a test will probably not help you to improve your English communication skills and I am going to show you why!

Try to remember how you studied for an English test in your school. Did your teacher show you lots of incorrect sentences and ask you to change the sentence to make it correct? Did you have to look at jumbled words and try to make a sentence? How much time have you spent staring at incorrect English?

Yes.
Yes.
Way too much!

Think about the following grammar exercise.

Make a correct sentence using the following words:

fox dog over the jumped the
________________________

For most students, this is an activity they have done many times. Think about how you remember something. Usually, if it is written we read it over and over until the sentence stays in our mind. This is exactly what you do in the above grammar exercise, but the sentence you are reading over and over is not "The dog jumped over the fox." Most students read "fox dog over the jumped the" many times and only read the correct sentence one time.

Another common exercise for English learners is to try to find the mistakes in an incorrect sentence. For example:

Look for the mistake in this sentence and write the correct sentence below.
"I am go to shopping."

______________________

If you want to know why you still make basic grammar mistakes when you speak, it is probably because you have memorized more errors than corrections. You will read "I am go to shopping" many times to try to find the mistake. Your brain will remember anything that is repeated often.

So what should you do? Are you in a school where you are memorizing bad English sentences for a test? Do you have to study to prepare for a level test so you can memorize even longer incorrect sentences? Let me tell you how to improve, even if you are not a student at Real English Victoria.

Stop doing homework. Yes. STOP DOING HOMEWORK.

Wait until the teacher gives you the correct sentences in class. If the teacher asks you why you did not do your homework, tell them that you did not have time because you were spending time speaking English with friends or your homestay family. You came to Victoria to practice English with people in Victoria. So spend your valuable time after school talking with sales clerks, people at the bus stop, or friends you have made.

Don't waste time memorizing more incorrect English sentences.


www.realenglishvictoria.com