ART OF MAKING A LANGUAGE JOURNAL
“Knowledge of languages is the doorway to wisdom.” says Roger Bacon. Learning English opens us to various opportunities and experiences, thus making us more wise. Now a days, everyone desires to speak confidently and fluently in English. One method to enhance learning is making and maintaining a language journal. You May Also Like: How to Effectively Use Punctuation to Enhance Your English Language Skills? Having a language journal makes learning effectives and learners are able to achieve their goals. To make a language journal all you need is a book and pen, so are you ready to begin? Start by writing down your goals. Your goals need to be specific and time bound. You could have goals related to vocabulary – learn 100 new words per month, improve Grammar or speak fluently within 3 months. Next you need to divide your book into 2 parts – Vocabulary and General. Part 1 – Vocabulary Words – Oxford dictionary editors add more than 1000 words every year, isn’t that amazing? English vocabulary is like water in the ocean. We can keep on learning but it will never end. We can never say we know every word. Each time you come across a new word, jot it down in your journal. Write down the word, it’s meaning and a sentence. A person who wants to speak well must know more than 10,000 words. Along with words, you could also make a note of the different forms of words. Let us look at an example – Beauty, it is a noun, beautiful is the adjective form, beautifully is the adverb form and beautify is the verb form. Thus, by learning one word and its forms, you can learn 3-4 others words along with it. Idioms and phrases – Idioms are a group of words having a different meaning than the original meaning of the words. Using idioms helps us express our thoughts and ideas in a better way. There are many idioms like blessing in disguise, better late than never, a piece of cake, once in a blue moon, which can be used in our daily conversations. Learning these idioms and using them while speaking will make our language more colourful. Part 2 – General Common mistakes – When someone corrects your mistake, make a note of it along with the right words to be used. This will help you to avoid repeating those mistakes. With time and practice, you will definitely improve your speaking skills. Grammar rules – You needn’t note down every Grammar rule. However, you could make notes about topics that you are weak at. If you think, you make mistakes in a particular tense, you could write down the rules of that tense and practice it. You could also note down general rules that are useful in conversation. Reading notes – Reading is important to improve fluency. When you read and come across some interesting information, do make note of it in your journal. You may also write in brief about what you read. Writing brings connectivity between our thoughts and words. It also improves vocabulary. Reading helps develop fluency in speaking. The more you read, the better you can speak. Enjoy learning English with your language journal. You may decorate your journal with colourful pens and pictures. Enjoy the experience of learning and growing, as you make and maintain your language journal.