Doing English homework efficiently
A lot of students have English whether as their first or foreign language, but in present times it is one of the most well-spread languages and speaking it well is often important for international communication both now and in the future employment.
Time management
Setting time aside to do homework is an important part of managing your daily routine and understanding time management will help with other activities as well.
The best option is to allocate several hours in your afternoon or evening depending on the nature of the studies and your personal biorhythms. Avoid delaying it and try to do it at the same time to create a habit to improve every day at a particular time. Delaying the homework can result in you being too tired or sleepy to work efficiently and might end up either postponing the work further which will negatively affect the whole learning process or spend a lot more time on it due to being tired.
Turn off your devices or set them into “don’t disturb” mode and create a separate profile for studies on your PC if you need to use it for homework. Doing that will eliminate unnecessary disturbance and allow you to concentrate on completing your homework quickly and efficiently as well as create a working environment which will also supplement the effectiveness of the learning process at home.
Before you start your homework, create all the necessary conditions for it:
- Eat or have a snack to not be hungry;
- Drink or prepare a glass of water;
- Have a nap if you feel tired;
- Sit at your desk (do it to create a better learning environment as opposed to lying in your bed for example);
- Make sure your workplace is well lit, as bad lightning will make your eyes tired much faster and consequently decrease the efficiency of your learning or outright be harmful to your health.
Motivation
A lot of students find it hard to be consistently motivated to complete homework, especially at the start, before they make it an enjoyable daily routine. Many of them think “I don’t want to do my English homework today and can leave it for tomorrow” and keep it up every day. For such cases, there are many books on motivation and self-motivation but for a young student such vast amount of information can be overwhelming and, possibly, unnecessary, so it is possible to give a concise option with several easy to implement suggestions:
- Set goals. For every day you should have a particular amount of work you need to do, an exercise you want to complete or read an article or book you couldn’t read before. There are a lot of options but they are united by the single idea of being something that you didn’t complete or found very hard to do before. Setting small daily goals will show you how much you accomplish every day and later it will transform into the major result;
- Set rewards. After you complete your daily goal reward yourself with something you particularly enjoy, a bar of chocolate, a walk in a park or watching an episode of your favourite TV series on a laptop. When you complete your bigger monthly goal, give yourself a substantial reward as well, allot the tasks and rewards according to their respective values;
- Acknowledge the benefits. Doing homework is not for nothing, setting small goals is a good measure of the progress, but you should also keep in mind your global goal, the whole reason to improve English. Remember that you want to learn and improve your language skills and every little bit helps you do it. Stick to the consistent daily study routine and you will get results and see your determination pay off.
Understanding yourself
When planning the homework it is valuable to understand what kind of person you are and what kind of learning better suits you personally. There are several types of memory:
- Visual;
- Audial;
- Kinesthetic.
Knowing which of them is the best for you allows for much more efficient learning. In case of visuals, it is helpful to arrange materials in a table or make a mind map. If you prefer audial, consider reading the material out loud several times, or even record and listen to the recording. Alternatively, you can ask a friend or family member to read it to you.