Homework Task 2: “My Rigorous Efforts in Improving English Listening, Writing, Reading and Speaking Skills”

English is not an easy language. Being a pre-IELTS examinee means that I really have to take improving my English seriously. After all, if "Rome was not built in a day ", then English definitely cannot be learned in a week or so. Therefore, I really should planning beforehand what rigorous efforts that has to be taken to sharpen my linguistic skills.

Note that first and foremost, I have to improve my reading skills. I must read more materials that are written in English. I will have to really make it a habit to read newspapers everyday and also read books, encyclopedias and other articles I could lay my hands upon. Surfing the internet for good juicy articles is also a source for reading materials. In addition to that, speed reading is a useful skill that I must learn and practice. Reading will help me improve my vocabulary. Expanding my word bank is important for writing, not forgetting speaking and listening.

Good listening skills is also important to master. I need to listen before I can speak well. The best way to improve listening is to...listen of course! All I have to do is to allocate at least 2 hours a week to listen to the listening modules provided online by websites such as ESL Lab, Australian Network and etc. Also, I should watch shows and movies in English more. Practice makes perfect.

Learning to write well is more difficult. To write well, I need to read a lot and I mean a lot. Reading sample essays is a good idea to improve my writing skills and I should make it a point to borrow and photocopy some notes from my friends who took SAT recently. I should also practice writing real IELTS essay questions at least once every week. I would need ideas to write so I should make a compilation of short notes and mindmaps of ideas for every essay topic I wrote or read. In addition to that, I should try to read and complete the Vision Grammar workbook by the end of this semester.

I believe that there is no better way to improve speaking but by having a casual or intelectual conversation with someone. I need to learn the pronunciation of difficult words from Merriam-Webster and practise them. Learning more about the speaking test through the internet is also important.Having a study group is a good way to improve speaking skills as we can learn from each other and get use to communicating in English.

Surprisingly, although there is no shortcut to improve English, learning English not so hard. All I have to do is to pay attention during English and IELTS class, complete whatever task my lecturers gave me and do some learning myself.

Hence, all it needs is a pinch of confidence, a sprinkle of inspiration and a lot of hardwork.