How Vietnamese High School Students Are Mastering English

I asked my students how they are getting better at English. There are a lot of great ideas here. It’s important for students to try these. They should find some that work well and make them part of their study routine. Students should be careful to use strategies that aren’t too difficult or too easy. They should be right for them.

SPEAKING

When I’m on TikTok, I will imagine I’m reacting to what I watch. I will share my opinion, my thoughts and more. I will record it and upload it to ChatGPT. I will ask ChatGPT to help me to improve it.

I will use ChatGPT voice mode. This AI assistant can evaluate how I speak. It can help me improve my speaking fluency and grammar.

I will practice shadowing. This is where I watch something in English, pause it and then repeat what I’ve heard. I can use this website to help me.

I will stand in front of the mirror and talk to myself.

I will practice speaking English for 15-30 minutes every day. I will talk with my family and friends. I can also talk with my foreign friends online (on Discord and other apps and websites). This will help me become confident and improve my pronunciation.

I will use the ELSA Speak app. It has many things to learn. Many students use it because it’s effective. It will also help me improve my grammar skills.

I will use Replika. I can create an AI friend who I can text anytime.

I will meet a lot of other students who have the same goals as me. I can speak with foreigners (teacher, travelers, etc) and my classmates to get faster at speaking and listening.

I will speak in English with my friends every day. This can help me feel more confident.

I will watch short conversations in English on TV and online. I can use the Cake app to help me.

I will join an English club or some extracurricular activities about English to help me become more interested in English and become more confident when I’m talking to native English speakers.

LISTENING

I will listen to English songs for at least 30 minutes every day. This will help me understand native speakers and learn new words. I will listen to music in English often to improve. I will use the LingoClip app to improve my listening skills. It’s a music app where I can fill in the blanks when I listen to songs.

I will watch movies with subtitles and listen to English songs through Spotify (or other websites and apps like Hype Machine).

I will listen to podcasts in English every day while I am eating breakfast. I will watch foreign movies too. It is a great way to help my listening skills.

I can develop my listening skills by listening to the news in English.

Listening to how native speakers speak English can increase my understanding about vocabulary and grammar and help me comprehend the context. It can also help me to use English words quickly and effectively.

I will watch celebrity interviews or cartoons. Sometimes I can watch English movies without subtitles to practice pronunciation. I will listen to native speakers regularly like BBC and English content creators on social media.

I will always turn on the subtitles when watching something to understand everything. I will try to understand the content rather than just translating it.

READING

I will read comics in English at BatCave. I will write the new words and make example sentences with them. I think reading English comic books before going to bed won’t make me feel bored.

It’s really important to find a comic where I’m interested in the story and the characters. It should be so interesting to me that I want to stay up past my bedtime reading it. It must also be the right level for me (not too hard and not too easy).

I will read short articles on Facebook everyday. Reading will help me improve my vocabulary and understand sentence structures.

I will read as much as I can. It will strengthen my concentration and upgrade my language skills which will help boost my reading skills.

I will read interesting English autobiographies. I will make a goal to finish a book every 2 weeks. This will increase my reading speed and my ability to understand books much more efficiently.

I will read short stories I enjoy and learn new words.

I will read some IELTS reading passages several times a week. Whenever I feel I don’t understand the words, I write them down in a notebook. I will look up their meanings and make some example sentences.

WRITING & VOCABULARY

I will write a paragraph about my day every night in my journal. It will help me practice grammar and use the past simple tense correctly. I will also use some of the new words I’m learning in my writing.

I will use Cambridge Write and Improve to help me improve my writing.

I will write some words on my phone to help me learn them by heart. This will help me increase my vocabulary.

I will write letters or send text messages to a foreign friend (imaginary or real). I can mimic their writing style while chatting with them.

I will improve my writing through studying English essays and practice writing one essay per week. This will help me produce coherent and cohesive essays.

I will write at least one IELTS Task 1 or Task 2 essay every week. After finishing, I will ask ChatGPT to check my grammar, vocabulary, and more. It can help me fix a lot of sentence structures.

I will use IELTS writing prompts to write about a topic.