Just like a movie or a song might interest one person but not the other, every little thing appeals differently to different people. In the same manner, the process of learning a language also changes from individual to individual. Today, let us focus on some fun ways to learn the English language.
It is always a quandary for new language learners to decide which method of learning would suit them best. As far as the English language is concerned, the most asked question often put forth by first-time learners is, ‘how to learn English?’ Well, other than the traditional methods of recitation, repetition and memorisation, there are methods you can follow to make your language learning process less stressful and more enjoyable.
To begin with, you would most probably learn simple words and their meanings. When you do so, make sure you learn their functions as well. To do this, you can play word games such as word building, word scramble, spelling bee, crossword puzzles and so on. You can even try playing bingo with parts of speech. Want to know how that is played? Just like you play with numbers, you can play bingo with words. For this, you will have to fill the 5×5 grid with random words. Once you are done, instead of calling out numbers to strike out, you can call out parts of speech (preposition, noun, interjection, etc.) and strike out a word belonging to that part of speech. If you do not have it, you cannot strike out anything. The rest of the process is the same.
As a next step, you can slowly move on to phrases and clauses. When you start with sentences, you can try out activities like rearranging jumbled sentences, finishing incomplete sentences, expanding hints, picture comprehension and composition, creating an interesting story with ‘roll a story’ and the like. Also, who does not love tongue twisters? ‘Betty bought some butter; the butter was bitter, so she bought some more butter to make the bitter butter better’, ‘She sells seashells on the seashore’, ‘How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?’, and ‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers’ are some common tongue twisters all of us would have come across as kids. Such tongue twisters are the best way to improve one’s fluency, pronunciation and pace of speech.
The English language is interesting and unique. There are language devices such as idioms, similes, metaphors, alliteration, consonance, onomatopoeia, pun, allegory, antithesis, euphemism, personification, metonymy and apostrophe that make the language even more intriguing. These also can be learnt using some fun methods. For example: If you want to learn idioms, you can play a ‘guess the idiom’ game. In this game, you will have to connect multiple pictures or infer from a single picture what the idiom is.
The activities available online and otherwise to learn the English language are innumerable. All you have to do is spend some time finding the activities that would help you best. This way, you will learn the language as well as have fun while doing it.
