How to get from B2 to C1 level?

March 18, 2023

Ey up! How have you been?

All of a sudden, you've recently decided that your level of English at this very moment is not good enough for running your daily basic errands. Good news is that you don't need any motivation or specific knowledge for making decent progress (it's quite nice if you have it though). What you do need is to spend a huge amount of time and put in a lot of effort. The journey ahead of you is long and as straight as an arrow. However, the result is definitely worth your struggles. Here you can find a bare version of that roadmap, describing the ways of improving your listening and speaking, as well as reading and writing skills. Those four pillars are essential for feeling comfortable with using any language. No time to lose, buckle up!

Disclaimer

The movie is a drama, not a documentary

All in all, there are lots of various awe-inspiring incredibly effective how-to methods and techniques to learn English. This text isn’t an example of that, though it shows you how to start building and molding your own working solution. It shouldn't be awesome, it merely must work in due course. Secondly, I'll provide some links here. Be reassured, I didn’t get a penny for that. Let's get back to it then!


No one ever steps in the same river twice

When we talk about a mathematical expression, it's all about coherence and consistency. Whereas language is, at first glance, more like messy waves. The thing is, we have to step over the same waves twice and thrice, exploring renewed knowledge and building fresh relations. Rather than following a straightforward plan, we may focus on some worthwhile principles.

Several subjectively golden tips first

  1. Consistency is key
    You should practice as many various English activities as possible. And in doing that, you should spend as much time as you have available. Hands down, reading a book for five minutes five times a week is miles better than reading one time a week for one hour. However, devoting one hour five times a week is even better.
    Evidentially, there is no chance to learn English in one month. Moreover, keep in mind that the road of learning may appear endless. Why, it's merely impossible to learn English entirely, and there is no "just-maintain-the-level" mode due to the fact that language is a fluid mutable substance.
  2. Rotate activities
    People who visit the gym are familiar with the fact that doing the same exercises repeatedly decreases the efficiency of them drastically. Thus, you should change teachers, environment, applications on your phone, websites you surf, youtube channels, tasks, approaches... well, literally everything in order to increase or at least maintain the same level of effectiveness. Even the Earth rotates, so each area of its surface gets a turn to face the Sun.
  3. Build an English environment
    First of all, switch all your devices to English. Secondly, find a person or two, who are ready to chat with you in English every single day. Then, delete all the non-English channels from your subscriptions on Youtube. Listen to podcasts any free minute you have, read reddit riding the metro, read news, watch a TV-show in the morning in English (never use subtitles!), etc. You must add as much English into your life as possible. If you study something, do that in English. You'll never have enough time for learning English. So, don't waste your time doing something using your native language. Dive to survive!
  4. Remember the 'Development Loop'
    Quite often we bump into a typical problem while learning English: you cannot learn rule A without understanding rule B, which requires knowing rule C, and to know C you should learn A. Ouroboros, huh? Again, languages are not mathematical. So, there is no straightforward line of learning. Be ready to learn the same things again and again, exploring new features and knowledge every single time. English is a bit of a messy turmoil.
    Words, phrases, irregular verbs, colocations and phrasal verbs are bricks. Whereas, grammar is the glue. You need both for construction, so grind them simultaneously.
  5. Be familiar with Accents and Dialects
    Choose your destiny as soon as possible. It's always much more difficult to get rid of hardened habits rather than build new ones. You will sound better when you have solid pronunciation, even if you have fewer words. Good news is that you don't necessarily have to change a lot all at once. Some tiny improvements can change your speaking drastically.
    In addition, knowing various specific aspects of accents you can help yourself to recognise any speech much easier.
    Also here: explore how to use connected speech.
  6. Read
    Choose uncomplicated books at first. It's better to read more, gaining vocabulary on a daily basis. Start with classic children's literature, continue with modern novels, finish with modern fiction. Quit reading complicated or not interesting books. If a text seems excessively sophisticated, try another one. Keep a couple of books with short stories in different places, and one in your backpack, so you can dive into a chapter any time. Buy cheap copies, though with good ink and paper. Double points for including grammar books in your reading plan.
  7. Write
    Writing by hand is a special king of magic. Start with your diary, write every day. Have no ideas? Open a grammar website and write down some rules. You'll kill two birds with one stone.

Here is an example of a roadmap, which I'd recommend:

Check the Basics

  • IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)
  • Learn irregular verbs by heart
  • Countable and Uncountable
  • Never ever use translators
  • Investigate all kinds of conditionals
  • Explore all kinds of clauses and agreements

If a topic looks easy, don't be too lazy to learn all the shades of its depth.

One more thing here. If you don't know where to start, start with polishing tenses. Then, while trying to use them, you'll understand what weaknesses you have. Cover those one by one then, and you'll explore another white spot you should investigate. Also, any grammar book can provide you with a sequence of learning the rules.

Study with proper grammar books

Revise Murphy (or any other appropriate grammar book) from the very beginning. Having covered the Red one in an evening, spend a couple of weeks/months with the Blue one, and finish with the Green book. Once it's done, revise everything. Don't forget about exercises, but don't lose your time if a topic is well known. The main difference between newbies and pros is mistakes in basics. Try to get rid of slip-ups now and then.

There are lots of other great book series though:

  • New Headway
  • Cutting Edge
  • Oxford Practice Grammar
  • The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation

etc.

Do Exercises

Practise makes perfect

Learn grammar and improve your accent on YouTube:

US:

UK:

AU:

CAN:

Practice Shadowing

An essential activity you should do daily. There are lots of different technics and nuances you can find on the Internet. So, the main idea is to repeat words and phrases after a speaker. It may be a film, podcast, tv-show, etc. I don't recommend songs, because it's more difficult to understand and they're always breaking language rules to find perfect rhythm and rhyme.

You can do it either out loud or merely whispering, recording yourself and listening to the record afterwards or just muttering with low concentration. It's more important to do it every day as much as possible. The jaw muscles have to get used to the new type of pronunciation, and you'll sound better and better. It's good to record yourself at least once a month to track the progress.

Anyway, make a habit to repeat every single phrase you hear in English. My favourite way of doing that is listening to a podcast while riding the metro, doing household chores on weekends, repairing something in the garage, etc. Check the place. If you are in a comfortable silent area you may read a book. Otherwise, use your headphones and do some shadowing.

One more tip here: if you're a shy person, try wearing a medical face mask as if you've caught a cold. So, nobody will pay attention to you, cos your murmuring is invisible now.

Boost your vocabulary

Choose your accent, start listening to a podcast and download an application for memorising words. Do that intentionally every day, many times a day. Here's the thing, it shouldn't be specifically "English-learning-podcast". It’s better to choose something you're keen on, and you'll consume new words and phrases in a natural way.

Some examples of random videos:

Read one book in a month. Here are some good examples where to start:

  • Mary Poppins by Pamela Lyndon Travers
  • Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
  • Animal Farm by George Orwell
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

And to continue:

  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  • Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
  • Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
  • A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
  • The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald

If a book isn’t easy enough to read, don't hesitate to stop reading and try another one. Add new words to a vocabulary application, you should estimate usability of the word by yourself though. It's not worth learning rare or outdated words and phrases, merely become familiar with them.

Find a personal tutor

You can start with a speaking club or a local/online English school. But having a decent tutor to guide you to you is essential. Just be ready to make lots of attempts when looking for a good teacher. While having conversational practice on italki or any other online speaking platform, you should speak 90% of the class time. Don't use such platforms for learning grammar. Speak a lot, request assessments of your knowledge and advice.

Online grammar lessons are already free on YouTube!

'Speak like a pro' checklist

  • Linking words
  • Connected speech
  • Accents and Dialects
  • Fronting and Inversion
  • Subjunctive mood
  • Slang and Idioms
  • Be careful with outdated words, phrases and constructions
  • Cultural differences and historical nuances

Awesome resources, where you can find everything

Useful tools you should use

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