You are 25, you left school 7 years ago and have not looked at English since. You are applying for a job that requires English but you struggle to remember how to form the past tense and trying to speak and understand English seems like a Herculean task. Not only have new words crept into the dictionary, like ‘flex’ (added in 2021) which can limit our understanding of spoken English, but we struggle to spit out the words that were once familiar to us.
What do we do? Do we have to restart our learning? Absolutely not! Studies have found that our brain never forgets a foreign language and it in fact remains deeply embedded in us. It just needs a bit of reminding, a ‘jolt’ and then all will come back to us in no time. Think of it like muscle memory! But how exactly do we give it this jolt? Well, we propose a four step process!
1 : Review – Although it may seem like you have forgotten basic grammar rules, you have not. Your brain has just not needed to utilise them so they are not at the forefront of your mind. To resume your English learning, firstly you need to review the basic language rules. Look over your past textbooks if necessary and all will come back to you in no time. You will not have to spend hours relearning the third column, I promise you!!
2 : Read – Once refamiliarised yourself with the language rules, you can begin the next stage – reading! Being re-confronted with words you previously knew will not only jolt your memory but further implants the words in your brain making them all the more difficult to forget! We recommend, to maximise efficacity, that you read all different types of material, from newspapers to fictional novels, as the words that you will discover amongst the different mediums will vary enormously.
3 : Listen Now you are ready to embark on the next step, listening! Start to listen to English radio, podcasts, series and films. If it seems too difficult at first, you can start by watching shows with English subtitles but try to wean yourself off as soon as possible! Listening to English provides you with a quadruple benefit, you are reminded of words you previously knew, introduced to new ones, acquire a greater understanding of sentence structures and gain confidence in your learning once you realise you can understand English with ease.
4 : Speak – Once you have mastered the above three tasks, you are ready for the final and most challenging step – speaking! Your brain has stored the words that you have read and heard, you can now understand your interlocuteur thanks to your listening work and it’s time for you to complete your relearning process by speaking. Practise as much as possible, find an anglophone expat community, a tutor online to speak with or join a language group and after this you will be more than prepared for that English speaking job!
