THE MACIC STRATEGY
The MACIC Strategy is a proactive way of helping yourself succeed at learning English.
If you are serious about learning/improving your English or the English level in your company, then The MACIC Strategy is a good support tool for you.
M = Motivate A = Activate C = Concentrate I = Integrate C = Celebrate
There are simply so many things you can do, to input positively into your English learning. In addition to an English course, you can use a wide variety of different materials, resources and exercises to enhance and increase your learning.
The MACIC-Strategy is a personal tip from me to you!
M = MOTIVATE
Motivation is the most important factor when learning new skills or improving existing ones(See 12 reasons ). So what are your great motivators? How can you profit from learning/improving your English language skills? What do you need to stay motivated?
- Identify your personal reasons and motivations for learning or improving your English language skills. Write your reasons down and read them regularly to maintain your motivation.
- What are the advantages for you in the long term? (Please see the 12 reasons to learn/improve your English) For example: better job opportunities, better earning capacity, greater job security)
- Be determined to speak positively to yourself throughout the learning/improving process. Focussing on being positive will help you to remain motivated.
- Recognizing your efforts and successes by following through with a few little rewards as you make progress will again, feed into your motivation to continue learning and improving.
A = ACTIVATE
Open all possibilities to imrove. Look for what interests you and feeds into your energy to continue.
SPEAK LISTEN READ WATCH PLAY TRAVEL WRITE
- All systems go! All channels open! Activate everything that will help you to learn or improve your English. If it works for you, use it, do it, repeat it. Including radio, TV, DVDs, music lyrics, You Tube, English websites, games, puzzles, poems, apps, books, magazines, comics etc.
- Learning should generally be positive and enjoyable. Boredom is deadly for the learning process so avoid it whenever possible by giving yourself a wide variety of different inputs into your learning/improving process.
- Activating yourself to learn or improve your English language skills needs energy. Input to your English should happen when you have enough time and energy to focus on it. If you struggle with this, input with the things you find more interesting or more fun so that you may actually feel more energized by what you have done, rather than drained even further.
C = CONCENTRATE
Your success is all that matters. Do what works for you. Focus on step by step improvements. Perfection should not be your goal, all mistakes should be welcome because we learn a lot from them!
- Concentrate on you and your progress and success. Don’t compare yourself with other people, you don’t have to be competitive. If you find that being competitive helps you, gives you a kick to try harder or do more, then you can challenge yourself more, choose to complete something under time pressure, ask someone who is also learning or improving their English if they want to do a challenge with you etc.
- Ignore negative input from other people (or from yourself). Sometimes, some people respond negatively when they see that you are improving, they may feel challenged or threatened. Surround yourself and listen to anyone who inputs positively to your learning process and who recognizes your efforts.
- Be open to a different learning experiences. YOU can choose how you learn now, you are an adult. You may need to accept a different vision of yourself as an English language learner, to the one that developed when you were a child, or through negative school experiences. You are free to create yourself as a successful language learner!!
- Focus on getting into the `English zone´ as often as possible and not slipping back into your native language.
I = INTEGRATE
Flip the switch as often as posssible! At home, at work and in your free time. If you think, speak, listen, read, watch English whenever you can, the easier it will become to use and improve it. Practise is everything!
- Integrate the English language into your daily life. Five or ten minutes a few times a day is very effective, while you are driving to and from work, with a colleague, in your lunch hour, in the evening, at weekends and so on.
- Use every opportunity to hear, speak, read, write or think in English! The more often your switch your brain into English, the quicker and easier your progress will be.
- Trust your ears! We all learned our native languages by listening to our parents, families and friends. Your ears can do a lot of work for you if you let them. Keep listening times quite short and avoid getting frustrated by not being able to understand everything you hear.
- Tell colleagues, friends and family members about your goal to improve your English. Maybe they would also like to improve and you could share the challenge.
C = CELEBRATE
If you enjoy your small successes and reward your progress, you increase your own motivation, increase the learning effect and increase your chance of reaching your ultimate goal.
- Celebrating your progress and your efforts is extremely important. It actually increases the likelihood that you will continue learning and not give up. It is great and important to be congratulated or praised by other people, but why wait for or rely on other people to see or appreciate your efforts. Do it for yourself.
- Be sure to carry out any rewards that you plan for yourself. Forgetting them can have a devaluing effect on the whole process of your learning or improving, having a little reward gives you a positive feeling, energy and the knowledge that you can and are making progress. It boosts your confidence.
- Celebrate if you have used the MACIC STRATEGY! Using a support strategy definitely increases success. What’s not to celebrate!!!
