If you TRY, you can do anything!

It's always been my belief that you cannot put information in other people's heads.  If you find a way to show them something, they can use their own intelligence to learn.  THis is my approach to teaching, trying to be both informative while allowing the students to find their own way of learning.
                    
(Source:-  http://www.youtube.com/user/JamesESL)

The above is what you can find in the introduction page of James's video clips on the YouTube site.  Collectively with a few other ESL teachers, a lot of learning resources and a forum can be found at www.engvid.com
(ENG and VID are the first 3 letters of the words English and Video respectively in case you can't figure out what ENGVID stands for.)

Someone with average intelligence should be able to move on in his/her own way if shown the way and given some indication to the learning resources.  I firmly believe what creates the driving force are INTEREST and CURIOSITY.

As I am helping English learners in China, most of them are just attracted to English not out of interest and curiosity but an incentive - a better career that leads to higher financial gains.

Rarely being used as a living language in China, the English language has been wasting the time and energy of the young students.  Students can easily spend 16 years learning it yet chances are that they can't even speak any English or they are simply using English words to churn out something incomprehensible to a real English speaker.

I have tired myself talking about these things again and again.  So, in a few words, I want to wrap up my thoughts and tell those with INTEREST and CURIOSITY only that they have to change their mindset if they are not already making any significant progress from their hard work studying the English language.

Listening is very important, and it can also give you hints that you are not making the correct English sounds yourself.  After you have gained the English sense, you don't worry about grammar anymore.  It is unfortunate that until you reach college level, you are being stuffed with grammar rules and have to labor with unrealistic grammar questions.

I always urge those who really like English language to move away from Chinese learning resources.  Push yourself to read grammar books written by native English teachers.  They are using genuine English.  Chinese writers and teachers dream up unrealistic examples and questions to test the students just for the sake of testing.  That has nothing to do with using genuine English.

So long as you have a computer and internet connection, you can access a lot of websites which are filled with free English lessons for ESL (English as a second language) learners.

Find one or two sites you like and stick to them.  If you are using too many websites as a beginner learner, you will get lost and cannot focus on your learning.  Choose a few that the style and content you really enjoy and use those regularly.

Having someone to show you what's genuine English is in my mind really important.  Otherwise, you can be lost in the learning journey.  If your pronunciation is not correct, you have to correct these problems quickly.  The way you deliver the words in a sentence is important if you mean to let people understand you clearly and readily.  All these can be learned by listening and imitating native speakers.  By reading a lot, you can see how English is being written and learn how to do that yourself.

Talking to yourself in the head is a good practice.  Try to think in English and talk quietly to yourself on anything round the clock.  You got to create that environment to immerse yourself in English.

Finally, I regret to say that college days are the final days you can make use of to perfect your English because it will be too late if you only wake up to the fact that your English is too weak after you started working.  You will be too busy, too tired, too pre-occupied with a lot of other things that chances are only a rare few can be determined enough to learn English again.  You could be throwing in a lot of money then and struggle hard to bring yourself to a satisfactory level.

If you are not sure you are really speaking proper English, join my evening open class at 7:30 from Monday to Friday.  

http://www.oralpractice.com/class_info_1861.html

To get a better understanding of my thoughts on learning English, come read this article of mine here:-
http://bbs.oralpractice.com/viewthread.php?tid=11265&extra=page%3D1