Practical method to improve his level of English

 
 
Speak well English increases the chances of immigrants to find a suitable job. This is what
reveals a vast survey of Statistics Canada on the integration of immigrants, which deals with
particular employment prospects and knowledge of official languages.

An impassable obstacle
This hurdle is a reality of the labor market, which many newcomers will have to confront and
hope to exceed to improve their chances of integrating employment that meets their expectations.

Aware of this fact, several community organizations offer courses of English for all levels and, at
reasonable prices. There also courses in universities and colleges, as well as private lessons in
ads and advertising in the media. The problem with these classroom courses is that they are
adjusted to the speed of learning of the less gifted and that often their schedule does not match
your availability.
 
However, even if you are tempted to sign up for a course or the other, it is essential to
complement academic learning by immersion in an Anglophone environment. We offer you to
try a method that has been proven to be efficient. Here are some details:

Listen to the English radio stations

To improve listening skills, the purchase of a portable radio with listener is a necessity (between
$ 1 and $ 15). From wake up to getting to bad you must use every moment to listen the CBC or
other English-language stations. Prefer the bus instead of the metro transportation to be able to
move smartly while listening to the radio.

Watch TV in English
The TV will allow you to combine listening, reading, and understanding of communications in
English. Make sure to follow the English-speaking channels like CBC, CTV, Discovery etc. Stop
watching for 2-3 months any other channels in other languages. Also follow certain television
series. If your TV station permits it, display subtitles of movies in English. Ask your family to
support you in this project and for a while watch TV only in English. This is the idea of
immersion - use every opportunity to hear English, even if you listen not actively in the moment.

Watch movies in English

When you borrow films on DVD, enable subtitles in English to facilitate understanding. The
subject doesn’t matter, you can take even children movies and watch them with your children,
the important thing is to accumulate words and expressions
 
Read the free English newspapers
To enrich your vocabulary read newspapers in English but by not using a dictionary. To not lose
time, you can use a Dictionary online, like for example Collins of Reverso.com. Read articles
that fall within your areas of interest, ads, anything. If your hesitate, for one reason or another, to
buy a newspaper every day, all libraries put at your disposal free of charge several daily
newspapers, magazines, journals, novels, etc. There's also the possibility to consult the websites
of all the newspapers of the world. And finally, there are free newspapers, which inform you of
everything what happens in the city. Every minute of reading adds some new words, even the
time spent in the wash room can and has to be used to learn something.
 
Read English books
 
If you feel your English insufficient, start with books of pre-teens, but try not to use a dictionary
this can only slow down and discourage you. In each book a large part of the text are
descriptions, which contribute in presenting the atmosphere, but are not absolutely necessary to
understand the topic. Towards the middle of the book you will begin to understand the story.
After 3-4 books, you'll be amazed to hear yourself using words and phrases that you did not
know that you knew.
 
If the desired book is not available in your public library, which is often the case, look in the
Nelligan catalog in the web site of the Montreal libraries, find out where it is available and ask
the staff to forward it to your local library. This service is free and takes only a few days. Note
that with your card you can borrow and return books to any library in the city.
 
Take courses from English into DVD
 
In the library you can borrow English courses on cassettes or DVD. If the course you want is not
available in your library, ask the librarian to order it for you from another library- it's free. You
can copy the manuals for 4 ¢ page in the Copy Centre CopyData on St-Denis, near the corner
with Maisonneuve and it will cost you less than $ 10. Try different courses until you find one
that suits your level.

The key - find a language exchange partner

To unblock and start to talk, find someone with whom to talk some 30 min per day, even if his
English is not perfect. Errors or bad pronunciation are not important. What counts is the active
search for the words and the development of an active vocabulary. America is a continent of
immigrants and a large part of the population does not speak English well, especially 1era
generation immigrants. The essential is to be able to understand others and to make you
understood, even if you need to ask the others to repeat.
 
A simple idea to find a partner for discussions, which costs nothing, is to display an ad in some
of the English universities of Montréal (Concordia and McGill) or at a free ads web site. In this
announcement, say that you are looking for a person who would be willing to help you improve
your level of English and in exchange, you will help him to improve another language that you
master. With your language learning partner, establish a strategy, which is to exchange e-mails,
to communicate over the phone or Skype and meet alternately in an Anglophone environment,
and then French (or another language environment, whatever he needs).
 
Speak English with colleagues and friends
 
If you have any friends or Anglophone colleagues, ask them to speak in English, even if at the
beginning you will search for the right words and it's going to be painful for you. People are very
understanding and receptive. Yet once, remember, that North America is a continent of
immigrants and a large part do not speak very well English. You can hear all sorts of accents and
levels of mastery of English, but ultimately what matters is being able to understand and be
understood, even if need to repeat a few times the question or the answer, or help yourself with
your hands. This period will be over very soon, just start trying.
 
No one asks you a level of philologist and making mistakes is not a matter of concern. Think
what will be your reaction, if an Asian, (where the structure of the language is quite different -
the meaning of words depends on intonation, not only sounds) spoke to you in your mother
tongue. You are not going to think 'Oh, he speaks poorly' but rather ' Oh, but he speaks my
language! I can understand him!', not true?

Work part-time in an English-speaking environment

It's the ultimate command. Find the way to work part-time or to volunteer, the evenings or the
weekend, in an Anglophone environment. This experience will make you a complete immersion
necessary for you quickly improvement and help you to create a network of contacts, which can
bring you to a better job.

Summary: Combine several approaches

If you want to advance quickly, combine several of these approaches, preferably all. The idea
that works is 1) to create an immersion in the English language as if you were in an Anglophone
environment, 2) to accumulate a basic vocabulary by reading and listening messages in English
and 3) communicate in English to make this vocabulary an active vocabulary.

Good luck everybody!