A person like me who is about to reach 30 and I want to strengthen my English. Due to my weak English and not being a native English speaker.
I’ve been reading some geology and chemistry eBooks, some names are very hard especially the longer names.
For example like these names and other complex names that may come in my path, I installed this Chrome extension, that reads the word aloud when highlighted and that’s I’ve been using for a while to learn how to pronounce complex words.
Can I suggest just reading normal books, magazines, and newspapers? I’m not trying to sound facetious, but you don’t need to improve your English vocabulary by knowing about chemistry and icthyosaurs. Read voraciously and engage in conversations with native English speakers. Watch television shows. All of these things will help your improve your English.
I agree with this. I don’t know how to pronounce those words you highlighted either! And I for sure would never use them in a conversation with my friends.
Being able to express yourself clearly and understand what’s being said to you is more important than being able to pronounce complex words. Reading novels, magazines, and newspapers will help you increase your vocabulary. Watching TV can be useful too.
Watch youtube videos on English “speaking practice”.
Some include the written language samples and a native speaker includes the appropriate intonation, pausing, and inflection.
Edited to add: Using chemistry texts and geology terms will be off-putting to many people in normal conversation. Speaking from experience: My brother arrogantly tries to impress people by using this kind of dialogue. He often ends up by himself because people, who now know him, avoid him at parties and events because he wont carry on “normal” conversations on family, jobs, vacations, local events, etc.
I agree with all of the above. For the highlighted words the most useful language to help with pronunciation would be Greek not English.
My daughter taught herself to read by borrowing books and their corresponding audio books from the library and reading while listening to a fluent reader. If science interests you, you could find books on the history of science, as they are more likely to also have audio books. Just some ideas. Good luck.
I agree with all of the above about not worrying about complex, scientific words. Instead, focus on writing simpler sentences. Make sure each is a complete sentence that contains a subject, verb and object. Eliminate unnecessary redundancy, as it will often confuse the reader. As you gain more confidence, you can add complexity to your sentences, as long as they contain a subject, verb and object and don’t have redundancy.
For instance, here is a sample re-write of your earlier post.
Good evening, users.
I am almost 30 and I want to strengthen my English, due to my not being a native speaker.
I’ve been reading some geology and chemistry eBooks. Some names are very hard, especially the longer names.
For example, for words like these, I installed a Chrome extension that reads the word aloud when it is highlighted. I’ve been using this for a while to learn how to pronounce complex words.
(screenshot)
Can you recommend any other methods that might be helpful?
That’s a really good idea. Another is using the app ANKI https://apps.ankiweb.net/. It allows you to make flashcards for your phone, and then presents them to you when you want to practice, testing you on the terms/words just as you’re about to forget them. It really helps to build your vocabulary. It can be used for concepts, too, for classes.
At your stage, the best thing to do is to just read a lot, especially novels. You’ll absorb a lot of spelling and grammar and colloquialisms just by reading for pleasure.
I would suggest you listen to the news in English every single night. I know folks who really strengthened their use of a second language by listening to the news in that language.
