8 ways to immerse yourself in English

How to apply Immersion method in your English learning?

by Soolmaz Neishaboori | Aug 4, 2019 | Listening, Speaking, Tips, Vocabulary

One of the best approaches to language learning is immersion. It is a natural learning method that involves learning a language through that language, just like a baby. Through this method, like the way children learn their mother tongue, you will be thrown into a place where the language is spoken everywhere, every time and by every person.

In other words, you will be exposed to (read bombarded with) tons of words, structures and meanings. Through immersion, you become acquainted with the way the language is spoken in real life. It is best if you can go to a country in which your target language is spoken. If going to another country is not an option, thanks to technology, we can replicate the immersion environment right at home. Here are 8 tips for English learning through immersion.

1) Use the Internet

Read websites that are about subjects that interest you. There are websites about Technology, Science, News, Cooking, Fashion, Cars, Movies and many more. There are websites in English for just about any area of interest.

2) Read books in English

Instead of buying the translation of your favourite books, try getting your hands on the English version of them. Learn how to read story books.

3) Give audiobooks a try

Listening to a book while reading it at the same time can be a fantastic experience and can help a great deal with your pronunciation and intonation.

Searching for free, good audiobooks? Choose from more than 20,000 English audiobooks ready for download here.

4) Read dictionary examples

Make use of the example sentences in your monolingual dictionary. Next time you are looking up a word, pay a little more attention to the example sentence; they can be a great form of immersion if you check your dictionary often.

5) Radio and Podcasts

Listen to English radio stations and podcasts online. There are thousands of radio stations and podcasts that can help you learn English.

6) Play some adventure games

They are a great resource for English learning because they are based on dialogue. The Monkey Island series are some nice examples of these games.

7) Learn science through English.

There are great resources online like MIT OpenCourseWare, Coursera and Khan Academy that offer free courses to learn just about anything in English. This way you learn some technical vocabulary in addition to English!

8) Language Exchange Websites

Last but not least, make use of technologies like Skype and language exchange websites to get some speaking practice with native speakers of English and talk about topics of mutual interest.

About the Author

CEO and Co-founder of Juice Academy

Mehdi Safavi is a Cambridge certified English teacher (CELTA Grade A), IDP-trained IELTS expert, Sussex Downs College TESOL with 17+ years of teaching & teacher training experience. More about him →