I began learning English when I was in the first form so I have been learning English for almost six years now. Every day we learn different things which are very important in any language: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation, translating and interpreting. And we are taught them in different ways.
I think that you must know grammar well if you want to master a language. But, in my opinion, it's very difficult to learn grammar, especially when we are taught it in isolation. What I mean is that you need to practise grammar together with vocabulary. And we often have a lot of grammar drills which are rather boring. To my mind, if we learned grammar using computer programs and Round-Up Grammar Practice books, it would be much more interesting.
Another serious problem is phrasal verbs. Each preposition or adverb changes the meaning of the verb. We don't have such a problem in Russian. It makes phrasal verbs very difficult to learn.
As for the vocabulary, in my opinion it's better to learn a few words at a time and practise them, rather than a lot of words by heart. You can memorize new words better if you learn them in their typical collocations. And another good way to remember new words is to make your own sentences with them.
A lot of students find English pronunciation hard, especially intonation, which is the most difficult part of pronunciation. Right intonation is very important because if you get it wrong, people may think that you are rude. We are taught English intonation by listening to native speakers and repeating after them which, in my opinion, is the best way of learning it.
I think that the most effective activities which help you to enlarge your vocabulary are singing songs, playing different games and watching different programs in English. Singing songs is the most interesting and useful of all of them because when you sing you memorize the words much better than when you read poetry without music.
We sometimes read different books and newspapers in English. This is another good way of enlarging your vocabulary because when you read you can often guess the meaning of words you don't know from the context. Then I usually look up new words in the dictionary and make notes of them which helps me to remember them.
And finally, translating and interpreting practice, especially from Russian into English, is the activity that helps you to feel confident in the language. Russian and English are very different, and only such practice can help you master the language.
