If you want to improve your English – but you don’t have lots of time – check out my English learning plans.
With 20 minutes a day, you CAN move up an English level, but make sure you dedicate at least 20 minutes a day, every day. These 20 minutes need to be focussed as well. It’s not enough to just watch an English cartoon for 20 minutes, for example.
These learning plans will give you practice in the major areas of English, but you might also need to spend more time on one area.
Finally – don’t forget to review what you learn!
At Intermediate Level
This plan is for you if you want to move from B1 to B2 level, or from B2 to C1 level
Monday: Grammar focus
Make sure you know how to use tenses and conditionals. You might also need to work on articles and prepositions. This guide gives you lots of ideas for what to work on.
Tip: After you study the grammar, make sure you practice it. Then, as you read in English, see if you can find examples of that grammar.
Tuesday: Vocabulary focus
Short news stories (one to two paragraphs only) are a great place to find new words and phrases. But you can also get ‘curious’ and concentrate on particular areas. Do you know words to describe different emotions, or words to describe furniture? Look at an ad and see if you have enough words to describe it well. This page gives you lots of vocabulary ideas!
Tip: Review new words after a couple of days (and then after a week) to help you remember them better.
Wednesday: Listening focus
Listen / Watch people speaking English. Five minutes is often enough of a TV show, series or even a film / cartoon. What do the characters say? What are their replies? Listen particularly to their pronunciation and expression. Can you repeat it?
Or, listen to an English song. Choose any genre that you like, but slower songs are often more helpful. Listen for vocabulary and pronunciation. You can also do a listening exercise with the song – sites like lyricstraining.com are helpful.
Thursday: Speaking focus
Choose a few speaking or fluency phrases to concentrate on for the week. For example, phrases to introduce your opinion, phrases to agree with someone, or standard phrases to reply to someone’s opinion.
Then, try to use these phrases. Start a conversation with someone, ask for someone’s opinion. If you can’t find a conversation partner, can you have this conversation with yourself, in a sort of role-play?
Tip: Using fluency phrases helps you to make conversations easily and naturally – and they’re easy to learn! Discover them when you join the English Fluency Club.
Friday: Writing focus
What happened in your week? Write a short journal entry, choosing the most important things.
Tip: Read your old journal entries every now and again. You’ll be surprised at how much you’ve improved your English!
For Advanced Level
This plan is for you if you want to go from C1 to C2 level, or if you need to use English as part of your job.
Monday: Vocabulary development
Read a short article. Find three words / phrases / idioms / phrasal verbs that you’re unsure of. Look them up, write your own sample sentence.
Focus on widening your vocabulary so that it’s more precise and more varied. If you want more help with this, check out my advanced vocabulary course:
Advanced English Vocabulary In 30 Days
Tuesday: Skills Development
What’s your most important goal? If it’s something like making a presentation, giving a speech, negotiating a deal, this is the day you spend working on this skill in English. You could practise speaking a part of it, or learn a few phrases, or work on your pronunciation, for example.
Wednesday: Listening
At advanced level, you need to do more than just understand a conversation. You need to listen and do something else at the same time, which could be to analyse, evaluate, think of a reply… So on Wednesdays, find different types of listening to develop your skills. This could be a short TED talk, or listening to a podcast, a news report or a celebrity interview.
Thursday: Writing / Creative English
At your level you can also have fun with English. Why not stretch yourself by doing something creative in English? This could be to write a poem, a journal entry, a short story, or an article for a newspaper. Or, if you need it in your professional life, you could study and then write your own proposal, report or letter.
Friday: Speaking Development
Do you have a speaking event coming up, like a meeting or a conversation that you’re going to have with a colleague? Prepare ahead so you know what vocabulary you might need. Alternatively, there might be an English pronunciation feature that you want to master.
If you want more help with your speaking, check out my 100 bite-sized steps for advanced speaking!
Advanced English Speaking In 100 Steps
Weekend
Have some fun with English! Watch a TV series or film or comedy show. Do the crossword or another language puzzle. Read something for pleasure. English should be a fun activity for you, rather than always studying.
Make Continuous Progress In English
I believe that English should be fun, and that it should fit in to your daily schedule. This is why the English Fluency Club helps you to make progress in English! It’s a mix of short lessons that you can do any time you like AND regular group speaking lessons (which are 100% optional).
Click the button below for all the details!