Welcome to

The Pending Subject Newsletter

Every Thursday you will receive:

• Tips to improve your English
• English language content to keep you in touch with the language
• A weekly challenge to keep you progressing
• A quote to inspire your learning

On the last Thursday of the month for the next four months, I will be writing a special edition of The Pending Subject. Each part will be dedicated to giving you tools and tricks so you can improve your English. The aim is that by the beginning of September, you will be completely ready to restart your life after the summer break and really learn English. Of course, you don't have to wait until then. You can start now!

Today's edition will be focused on small changes you can make to your environment and to your systems for learning so you can make English a part of your routine instead of just a class (making learning a routine is one of my principles).

The tips are for every level, and I will give suggestions on how you can make them easier or more difficult.

I hope you find them useful...

TIPS

1. Change your habits now: Put your phone in English. Put your computer in English. These are easily done and one time actions. They will allow you to think more in English and will make you use the language more, all great habits for improving.
2. Do not read/listen to/practise something you would not in your own language! This for me seems obvious. Another of my principles is to make it fun, so please don't consume material you wouldn't in your own language! Combine your hobbies/work with English for a much more enjoyable and productive experience.
3. Learn the 100 most frequent spoken and written words: If you are a beginner, learn them and know how to use them in their basic form. If you are a more advanced learner, use them in all their forms (if they are verbs, do you know the past forms etc?), play with them, make new structures and sentences. There is a link below containing the words...
4. Use cognates to learn more words: Cognates are words that have the same meaning in another language. You can often recognise them for their endings: 'tion' in English would be 'cion' in Spanish. e.g: presentation/presentación. I have included a link below with more examples...
5. Use mnemonics to remember vocabulary: Mnemonics are systems or a device such as a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations that assists in remembering something. For example: Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain for the colours of the spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). You can use mnemonics to remember words you find difficult to recall. Try remembering the first letter, or associate the word with something personal for you, or create an acronym like the one above. Do whatever works for you...

CONTENT

1. Learn the most common spoken and written words here.
2. This is a comprehensive list of cognates
3. Here are some examples of mnemonics: https://www.yourdictionary.com/articles/examples-mnemonics https://icaltefl.com/mnemonics-in-tefl/​

A CHALLENGE

Change your phone language to English.

Make sure you know how to use the most common spoken and written words in all of their forms.

Learn all of the cognates (true friends!)

Create a mnemonic system for remembering new or difficult to learn vocabulary.

If you can do all of this, you will be taking a huge step to upgrading your English.

You just need to start...

(A great place to start is the 5-5-5 Progress Plan).

AN INSPIRING QUOTE

“Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have a faith in people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they'll do wonderful things with them.” Steve Jobs.

I have faith in you! You have the tools, now it's time to go and do wonderful things...

If you really want to learn English, you can also read the How to (finally) learn English book:

​https://benpalmercoach.com/books/​

Out now on Amazon!

Find out more at https://benpalmercoach.com/​

Until next week,

Ben

PS: Keep learning!