Keeping Up Your English Ability

How can you keep up your English ability which you got at MFWI after going back to Japan? You are studying hard now because you must speak English to American teachers, RAs, and workers at MFWI, but you don’t have to speak English to Japanese teachers and friends at MWU, so you won’t study harder at MWU than at MFWI. Accordingly, your English ability will probably decrease. Therefore, there are three things which you should do to keep up your English ability.

First, it is important to learn as much vocabulary as possible. When I talked with American teachers and RA, I thought it is the most important thing about learning English. If you can't understand the words which a speaker says, you can't understand what the speaker says. One good thing is to keep a vocabulary word book and write down new words you learn when reading English books and newspapers. I have a nice word book, so I'm going to learn 70 words by heart everyday.

Second, it is also important to pronounce English correctly. If your pronunciation is wrong, you can't communicate smoothly with your speaker. If your pronunciation is correct, you can improve your listening ability because it will become be easy to understand what the speaker said. Again, you can listen to your correct English pronunciation when you speak. If your pronunciation is correct, it becomes practice listening English whenever you speak English. One good thing is watching movies in English. First, you can watch them with English subtitle. After understanding about their contents, you should watch them without English subtitle.

Third, you should apply for English examinations periodically. For example, you may apply for TOEIC or TOEFL. If you apply for them, you will study very hard! It is good to plunge yourself into studying. What's more you can be motivated by knowing your English score, and you know how you study English. One good thing is buying some TOEIC or TOEFL study books for the examinations. Therefore, you will try to study for them.

It is the most important to keep learning English in mastering English, so you should keep to act this three things. If you do them, you will keep up your English ability after going to Japan.