Free How to Become Smarter by Charles Spender Page A

translator and encounter one unfamiliar word per sentence or fewer, this means you have mastered the most important vocabulary. Now you can proceed to the next step.
    Now you no longer need the Bing translator, and you can read digital or hard-copy texts each day, with the help of a dictionary. Choose texts that you find interesting to make the learning fun. At this point, your vocabulary will be increasing more rapidly if you start using dictionaries that provide all definitions in the language that you are studying (instead of your native language). Most dictionaries are available for free on the Internet, but if you prefer a printed dictionary, that is fine too. If you keep any daily records (e.g., a diary or lab notebook), you can try writing them in the foreign language.
    At this stage, you can start listening to the live language on a daily basis. At first, you will be stunned and disoriented by the speed of natural speech, even if you know the meaning of all words. You can improve your listening comprehension by watching movies or TV series on DVD with subtitles. You can stop and rewind as many times as you need to understand each sentence. Now learning the language is both easy and fun because you can combine it with entertainment. Once your listening comprehension improves, studying the language for several hours a day will be a pleasure rather than punishment. You can watch movies in your spare time and you can listen to live radio on the Internet (or with regular antenna reception) while doing household chores. If you use only dictionaries with foreign language definitions, your vocabulary will be increasing exponentially. Up-to-date slang dictionaries are available in a foreign language only, which should not be a problem for you at this stage.
    The next step is learning to speak the language. Even if you have an enormous vocabulary and can read faster than native speakers, if you do not learn how to speak, your speech will be halting, painful, and slow. Before I came to America in 1999, I was under the impression that my command of English was excellent, since I passed the language tests with flying colors in the previous year. It turned out that my speech was slow and unintelligible and I had to repeat myself three times before anybody could understand what I was saying. My spoken English became more or less fluent and intelligible after I spent about a year in the States. In my experience, an easy way to improve fluency and pronunciation is to read out loud for 20-30 minutes a day. This approach can make your speech fluent within 2 or 3 months. At this point, you should have a good idea how the language sounds and how each word is pronounced. Your vocabulary is large enough so that you don’t have to use a dictionary often. In addition, you can improve fluency by chatting with native speakers on the Internet and by posting on internet message boards. Both methods are easy and fun, but make sure that you choose clean and safe websites. Beware of swindlers, sexual predators, and other seedy elements on the Internet (this advice is especially relevant to minors). Even though you are not speaking while chatting or posting on internet forums, you are learning to use the language, which will improve both writing and speech. You can also socialize with native speakers in real life if you have an opportunity, but this method may not always be easy or accessible. If you live in the foreign country whose language you are studying, you can also practice the language by socializing with foreigners from countries other than your native country.
    In conclusion, the method outlined above is cheap and effective but will require daily work.
     

 
Key points:
You can expand your vocabulary by translating texts in the following manner: copy and paste sentence by sentence in an online translator.
Vocabulary will increase more rapidly if you use dictionaries that provide all definitions in the language being studied.
Listening