What does "You need to practice more English!" really mean?

Every English language learner has heard these words at least once (or more!) in their learning journey, “Practice, practice & more practice!”.

But what does it really mean? And more importantly, what should you include in your practice?

Practice can be divided into 2 big categories:

1. Revising or reviewing material to reinforce what you learnt in the classroom
2. Applying the things you learnt in real life situations

Now, let’s look at both categories in more detail.

2 tips to practice your English:

1. Revising or reviewing material to reinforce what you learnt in the classroom.

When we learn something new, we need to review it and understand it in more detail. Let’s say for example you learnt Present Perfect today in the class.

Now, you need to explore this concept in more detail by researching more about it, doing some exercises to test your understanding and looking at various possibilities to use this concept.

This is one kind of practice that you can do to reinforce something you already learnt in the classroom. If you don’t do it, there is a strong possibility that you might forget about it.

2. Applying the things you learnt in real life situations.

This is an important one. Imagine reading a book about flying an airplane. You can know everything about flying an airplane by taking classes (theoretically speaking) from an experienced pilot teacher.

You can even do everything mentioned in the previous category. Revise/review what you learnt in the classroom to reinforce your knowledge about flying an airplane.

Now, are you confident that you are able to fly an actual airplane? I think we know the answer to that question. It is - NO!

The only way to be confident in a skill (English in this case) is by consistently APPLYING the concepts you are learning in real life situations.

I can already hear you asking the next question. Teacher, what are real life situations? This means finding opportunities to speak with others in meetups, voice chats, discussion clubs, etc. This means finding time to talk to other students on our Telegram groups (writing practice). This means Tweeting about something in English. And lastly, giving and receiving feedback in our English community by participating in Platzi English Forums.

So remember, whenever you are “practicing”, you need to be consciously applying everything that you are learning in classroom and during your revision after class.

This will give you enough confidence to take your skills to the next level. By doing this, you will also be using your time more effectively.

So now, you know exactly what it means by - “Practice, practice and more practice!”.

Never stop Learning.
Nunca pares de aprender.

Ravee.