Whether you are enrolled in an English language course or attempting to pick up the language on your own, you probably spend a lot of free time at home. This time could be better spent practicing English. But how can you work on your English at home without someone to converse with?
The good news is that there are several ways in which you can practice English at home. With so many online tools (like Immigo 😉), practicing reading, writing, listening, and speaking in English can now be done without leaving your couch! All you need is the right attitude and enthusiasm to get it done.
In this article, we look at ten ways to practice English at home and improve your speaking skills!
What are the best ways to practice English at home?
10 ways to practice English at home
While there are many ways to practice English daily, we’ve found the following techniques to be the most effective in improving your English.
Keep a diary or blog
Maintaining a daily diary or blog is an excellent way to frame your thoughts in English and write them down. Such regular writing practice can be invaluable to a non-native English learner. You can jot down your thoughts at the end of each day and recount interesting moments and activities. If you want to be aware of grammatical mistakes or other language errors, you could ask a native English speaker for feedback.
Watch films with subtitles
This is an excellent way to expand your English vocabulary and improve your comprehension. Listening to and reading words at the same time is a great technique to commit new words to memory. Not only do you learn what the word sounds like, but you also pick up its spelling and usage.
Listen to podcasts
Listening to others speak English can be particularly useful in learning about accents, pronunciation, and articulation. Podcasts are readily available across different platforms and can be exciting learning tools. You get to educate yourself on the workings of the English language and expand your knowledge about a particular topic. If you prefer learning about daily news in English, you can also listen to the radio at home to improve your English listening skills.
Read books
This is an oldie but a goldie. It can be hard to learn English if you don’t read books. Reading can seem like a boring activity to some, but you have to keep at it if you want to be able to comprehend the written word. Once you get into the habit of reading daily, your reading skills will steadily improve. Reading books out loud is also a great way to practice your English speaking skills. You can start with simpler children’s books and gradually move to novels and non-fiction.
Listen to English music
It's always easier to memorize songs than to commit prose to memory. The song's tune helps you remember words you otherwise might have forgotten. This is why songs are a great tool for learning English. Pick a favorite English song, listen to it on a loop, and start singing it out loud. It will help you learn new English words and phrases and use them in conversations.
Memorize a poem, quote, or film dialogue
If there is a particular poem, movie dialogue, or monologue you like, try to learn it by heart. It will force you to look up the meanings of words and phrases you didn’t understand. Overall, learning English by rote will help you retain these words for an extended period and enable you to use them daily.
Talk to yourself in front of a mirror
It might sound silly, but talking to yourself is an excellent habit to pick up for every non-native English speaker. Watching and hearing yourself talk in English will alert you to mistakes and mispronunciations you wouldn’t have otherwise known. It can be particularly useful if you don’t have anyone to practice your English with.
Speak to your Virtual Assistant in English
If you have a smartphone, odds are that it comes equipped with virtual assistants such as Siri and Alexa. By talking to your virtual assistant in English, you can get regular practice in conversational English. Virtual assistants can also be helpful when you get stuck with a particular word and need to understand its meaning and usage.
Leave yourself voice notes
A great way to judge what you sound like when you speak in English is to leave yourself voice notes. You can then listen to the recordings to correct mispronunciations and poor sentence structures. Voice notes can also help you judge how well or poorly you enunciate English words.
Enroll in an online English language course
Finally, the easiest way to speak English like a native and practice it at home is to enroll in an online course that gives you access to resources, course materials, and fellow students who you can practice with. Online courses can be completed from home and allow you to study with other students with the same English language proficiency level as you.
Practice English with Immigo
There’s no need to talk to the walls in an attempt to improve your English. You can just sign-up with Immigo and start practicing English from the comfort of your home!
At Immigo, we know the only way to learn a new language is by getting enough practice speaking it. So, we have designed our live English speaking classes let by world class instructors to ensure you learn how to speak more naturally using phrases and idioms that native English speakers actually use.
With 95% of students improving their English fluency after using Immigo, our classes will soon turn you into confident and creative English speakers!
