How To Learn English At Home: 11 Simple Strategies

You can’t learn English unless you move to an English speaking country.

Do you agree?

I don’t. In fact, I totally disagree with that.

Unfortunately, though, many learners believe that to improve their English they need to buy an expensive ticket to London, New York, Toronto, Melbourne, Cape Town or Wellington.

No, you don’t need that.

You can immerse yourself in English and become a proficient speaker of the language without ever visiting an English speaking country.

Here's how to learn English at home.

1. Read

I can’t imagine a language learner not reading. I'm the creator of the StoryLearning method after all!

Reading helps you:

reinforce your grammar
expand your vocabulary
consolidate structures and patterns you’ve already acquired
see lots and lots of language in context.

Reading is a great source of language input and it’s mental training for the brain too.

It’s no surprise that it’s one of the most beneficial ways to learn English at home.

But what should you read?

Well, there are a million things you can get your eyes on. The most important thing is that you understand and enjoy what you’re reading.

If what you’re reading is too hard for you, then you won’t enjoy it. And if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, chances are that you won’t learn much.

So make sure you read things that interest you and are appropriate to your current language level – just a couple of the rules of StoryLearning.

Here are some books for English learners I recommend. Or why not check out my short stories in English book.

But if books are not your thing, you can also read:

Online articles
Magazines
Blogs
Podcast transcripts
Comics
Social media posts
Website pages
Online newspapers
Short stories

The possibilities are endless.

2. Watch Movies And TV Shows

Movies and TV shows are cheap these days and you have countless streaming platforms where movies and shows are a click away.

Here are a few tips on how to learn English at home with movies and shows:

Watch them with and without English subtitles
Don’t expect to understand 100 % of what you watch. Be realistic.
Watch movies you’ve already watched in your first language.
Join online movie clubs. This will help you understand movies better through discussions and it’s great for your speaking too.
Read what the movie or TV show is about before watching it. This will help you understand what you’re going to watch.
Watch the same episodes more than once.
Watch only one minute of the show and try to understand as much as you can.
Have fun! If you’re not having fun, go watch something else.

I’ve put together a list of the 20 best TV shows to learn English.

I’m sure you’ll find some that suit your taste.

3. Listen To Podcasts

You can listen to a podcast while…

doing the washing up
cleaning the house
taking out the rubbish
running
walking around the neighbourhood

…or at any other time when you want to expose yourself to English while doing something else.

Podcasts are just great.

They save you time as you can do two things at once: learning English and doing whatever you need to do.

Again, make sure you listen to things you find interesting. Don’t listen to a podcast just because it’s in English.

And why not start a podcast yourself? I talked about why you should have your own podcast show in this post (Tip No. 4).

4. Use Self-Study Books

There are plenty of self-study books out there that are just great.

You won’t just find books about grammar and vocabulary. There are also pronunciation, exams, and skills development books.

These are fantastic learning resources.

Of course, you won’t learn English just by filling in the gaps in a sentence or doing other similar language exercises.

But self-study reference books are one of the many tools you can use to learn English. Yes, it might be boring for some people. But maybe it won’t be boring for you.

If you’d like to start using these books, I recommend that you check out the Cambridge “In Use” series.

5. Keep A Learning Diary

No, I’m not talking about writing diary entries like “Dear Diary, today I feel great because…” or “Today my partner told me I should…”

You can keep that kind of diary – of course. It would be a personal way to practice your writing skills.

But what I’m talking about here is keeping a learning log where you:

write down what your weekly learning goals are
how you’re going to achieve them
and what reflections you have about your language learning achievements.

This is not only a way to motivate yourself but also something you can do to hold yourself accountable.

Fabio, one of my colleagues did an experiment with his students using diaries. He discovered that keeping a diary can really help some learners improve.

You can find more details about his experiment here.

6. Write A Blog

You’re reading a blog now. Why not write one?

It’s a useful way to practice writing and connect with other people through your stories.

You can blog about anything you want. Here are a few ideas:

Your life
Dishes you can make
Trips you’ve been on
Something you’re an expert in
Books you read
Movies you watch
Video games you play
Your country
Learning English
Sports
Thoughts you have

The great thing about blogging is that you don’t need to be an expert web developer to open your own blog.

There’s an amazing blogging platform that requires no coding skills. It’s called Medium (I’ve talked about this in my previous post on the best blogs for English learners) and all you need to do is open an account – for free.

You can literally start blogging today.

7. Use Dictionaries

Learning how to use a dictionary – and then using it – is no doubt one of the best ways to expand your vocabulary.

In a good learner’s dictionary, you’ll typically find:

Clear definitions
Part of speech indication
Pronunciation guide
Example sentences
Synonyms and antonyms
Word forms
Usage notes and tips
Collocations and idiomatic expressions

And many other things.

Here are some wonderful dictionaries you might want to explore:

You can improve your vocabulary in your bedroom today with these dictionaries. No need for a ticket to England.

8. Read Aloud

Reading aloud is especially useful to practice and improve pronunciation.

Let me explain.

When you read aloud you need to focus on pronouncing words and sounds.

This is already good practice.

But if you decide to also record yourself and listen back to the recording, you might then be able to identify and correct any pronunciation errors you make.

Also, if you get a good pronunciation model from someone else, you can compare your pronunciation to that model and self-assess how you say things.

For example, you can read aloud a paragraph of a book and then listen to the audiobook comparing your pronunciation to that of the narrator. Or you can do the same thing using transcripts of videos, podcasts, and movies.

9. Explore Websites

Did you know that English is not only the most spoken but also the most studied language in the world?

Did you know that English is the most used language on the Internet?

This means that the web is a goldmine for you.

There are some really cool websites that you can use to improve and some of these are designed especially for learners of English. They’ve been made for you.

Explore them.

Here are my three favourite ones:

Engvid.com – Free English video lessons for beginner students to advanced. All lessons are taught by experienced English teachers and cover various topics such as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, idioms, business English, exam preparation, and more.
BBC Learning English: a must for learners of English. You can find pronunciation courses, podcast series, vocabulary quizzes, grammar courses, and many other cool stuff.
British Council – The British Council is an organization that operates internationally to promote cultural relations and educational opportunities. Part of this involves teaching the English language, so on their website you’ll find some great learning materials for free.

10. Hire A Private Tutor

Why not hire a private teacher that will help you learn?

If you decide to do so, there’s one important thing to keep in mind.

There are 168 hours in a week. Studying with a tutor for 1 hour a week and doing nothing to improve your English for the remaining 167 hours won’t really help you make progress.

It’s easy to think that hiring a private teacher will make you improve faster. But it won’t unless you work on your English skills between lessons too.

Teachers aren’t magicians. So, even if you study with a tutor, it’s always you who needs to do the work.

Be aware of this please.

11. Use Apps

There are some really cool apps that you can use to improve your English on the go. I selected some of my favourite in this blog post.

Have a look. I’m sure you’ll find at least one you can start using today.