English for Adults
You are not too old, you are not too late, and you did not miss your chance at school. What you do have is less time and more self-consciousness — and both can be worked with.
What is different about learning as an adult
Adults are often told they learn languages worse than children. That is only partly true, and the differences cut both ways.
Harder for adults
- Less time, and less of it uninterrupted.
- Far more self-consciousness. A child is not embarrassed by a mistake; an adult usually is.
- Fewer opportunities to be a beginner in public.
- Pronunciation habits from your first language are more settled.
Easier for adults
- You already understand how language works — grammar terms, sentence structure, the idea of tense.
- You can study deliberately instead of waiting to absorb.
- You know why you are learning, which is the strongest motivation there is.
- You have a large stock of ideas to express. A child learning English has to learn the ideas too.
A realistic weekly plan
Four to five hours a week, in pieces small enough to survive a bad week. A plan you keep to is better than a plan that impresses.
Reading: 20 minutes, six days
Something you enjoy, at a level where you meet fewer than five unknown words a page. Do not look words up. This is the foundation.
Listening: 10 minutes, six days
News, a podcast, a programme with subtitles. Once without stopping, then again if you have time.
Speaking: 10 minutes, six days
Read aloud, narrate what you are doing, or record a two-minute answer to a question. Alone is fine.
Vocabulary: 5 new words a week
Each written in a sentence about your own life, said aloud five times, and reviewed at the start of the next week.
Writing: one piece a week
A short email, a paragraph, a description of your week. One piece, checked once, is enough.
One real conversation a week
Twenty minutes with one person. This is the part most people skip, and it is worth more than all the rest together.
About the fear of speaking
If you have been laughed at for your English, or corrected in front of others, that memory is doing more damage to your learning than any gap in your grammar. It is worth naming it.
Two things help. First, choose one safe person to practise with — someone who will not correct you unless you ask. Second, notice that a listener who understood you has understood you, whatever the grammar was doing. Communication succeeded. That is the whole purpose.
Progress is not measured by how few mistakes you make. It is measured by how much you can do.
How to tell that you are improving
Progress in a language is invisible from day to day, which is why so many adults give up believing they have made none. Look for these instead.
- You hesitate less before speaking, even if the English is not better.
- You understand more of a conversation you are not part of.
- You read a page without looking anything up.
- You correct yourself while speaking, without stopping.
- You dream, count, or swear in English occasionally.
- Someone asks you a question in English and you answer without first translating it.
- Keep a note of the date on which each of these first happens. It is the only reliable record of progress you will have.
Books written for adult learners
Practical English books for adults in work, or preparing for it.
English for the WorkplaceSee it in RCF Publications
Receptionist Practice ManualSee it in RCF Publications- English for CaregiversIn preparation