How To Take Control Of Your English By Looking In The Mirror

Taking control of your English seems like a strange thing to do.

But think about it…

For most of your English learning life, you have:

Learnt what someone else has told you to learn.
Done activities that someone else has told you to do.
Learnt English when someone else has told you to.
Turned to a page in a textbook that someone else has told you to do.

In a sense, someone else has made all the decisions in your English learning life.

So, now it’s time for you to take back a bit of that control.

Now, I’m not saying that teachers are awful, scary monsters that need to be burnt at the stake.

But I am saying that there comes a point where you need to explore your options and try making your own decisions.

Here are some situations where you don’t always need a teacher:

Deciding what to learn (a teacher can give you useful language, but you can also choose what to learn)
Deciding how to learn (don’t like doing “listen and fill-in-the-gap” exercises? Guess what… you don’t need to do them)
Deciding when to learn (oh you don’t like learning at 9am in the morning? Don’t do it. Oh you prefer to learn at 5am in the morning? Go for it)

And here are some situations where you might need a teacher:

Correcting your errors and mistakes quickly (this is one of the big things teachers are useful for)
Giving you steps to improve (teachers can remove some of the ‘trial and error’ from learning and can fast-track the process)
Giving you language that is useful and practical (Sometimes…)
Helping you learn necessary skills that you might need (ex. essay writing or traveling)

And here are some situations which you can take complete control of:

Deciding what is working for you
Deciding on your goals and aims
Deciding on how much time you want to commit to learning English

If you want to start taking control of your English, you have a few options. One of these options is PLANNING. I’ve written an article and done a video on this subject already, so use those if you want to start planning.

Another way is through REFLECTION, and that’s the topic of today’s audio lesson.

Reflection is when you look back on what you’ve done and evaluate (decide what is good and bad).

I could go on, but I’ll let you listen to the audio lesson…

Note: This is a strategy for more advanced English learners. If you’ve been learning English for a year or less, this strategy might be a bit too advanced for you.

Audio Lesson: