Tips & Techniques for Mastering English

☞ Start with Basics:

• Alphabets: Learn the 26 letters of the English alphabet.
• Vowels and Consonants: Familiarize yourself with the 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and the 21 consonants.
• Syllables: Understand syllables, which are combinations of vowel and consonant sounds. They come in four main types:

1. Monosyllabic (1 syllable, e.g., “dog”)
2. Disyllabic (2 syllables, e.g., “table,” with “ta” and “ble”)
3. Trisyllabic (3 syllables, e.g., “custody,” with “cus,” “to,” and “dy”)
4. Polysyllabic (4 or more syllables, e.g., “hospitality,” with “hos,” “pi,” “ta,” “li,” and “ty”)

☞ Progress to Reading:

• Once you’re comfortable with alphabets, syllables, and basic words, start reading simple sentences and paragraphs.

☞ Understand Speech Sounds:

• Learn the 44 speech symbols, also known as phonetic symbols, used in phonetic transcription to help with accurate pronunciation.

• Of these, 24 are consonant sounds, and 20 are vowel sounds, including 12 vowels and 8 diphthongs (combined vowel sounds).

☞ Grammar Fundamentals:

• Parts of Speech: Get to know the 8 main parts of speech—nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. Understanding these helps you learn how to use words correctly.

• Sentence Structure: Learn how to structure sentences with components like subject, verb, object, complement, and adjunct (SVOCA). Practice various sentence patterns such as SV, SVO, SVOC, and SVOA.

☞ Types of Sentences:

• Familiarize yourself with the 4 types of sentences—assertive (declarative), interrogative, exclamatory, and imperative. Learn about simple, compound, and complex sentences.

☞ Tenses:

• Master the 3 main tenses (Present, Past, Future) and their 12 forms (Simple, Continuous, Perfect, and Perfect Continuous). Proper understanding of tenses is crucial for effective communication. (hyperlink)

☞ Advanced Grammar Topics:

• Once comfortable with basic grammar, explore Active and Passive Voice, Figures of Speech, Idioms, Phrases, and Clauses to enrich and refine your language use. You can find detailed grammar guideline here (hyperlink)

☞ Practical Application:

• As you study these grammar topics, read short stories, descriptive texts, and newspaper articles to identify and analyze the grammatical components you’ve learned. Pay attention to parts of speech, sentence patterns, tenses, and try changing tenses to see how meanings shift.