English Brain Training: Start Thinking In English (2025)

If you live in a place where most people speak the language you are learning, you may use a language for several hours each day. So it may become part of your inner speech. In other words, if you're still thinking in that language, your mind stops trying to translate things from your native language into the second language. But the majority of learning English audience lives in places where English is not the main language. This may be true for you. You may not have many chances to practice English. You may even be self-taught. When you speak, your speech might be slower than you would like. This is because your mind is still translating from your first language which can also sound unnatural in unnatural. English like every other language has its own sentence structure. The good news is that thinking English can bring you a huge step closer to fluency. It is not very difficult, but it does take conscious effort and practice. On today's education tips, we will share some mental exercises that can help. Number one, think in single words. Most experts know that it's best to start a small. So a good first step is to think in individual words. Look around you. What do you see in your head? Try to name each object in your surroundings. Charles Thomas has taught English to union members, children, and teenagers for over 10 years. He has also helped open schools in several countries. He currently works for EF International Schools in Washington DC. Thomas tells his students to name the things that they see around them, wherever they are. As you continue with this, it becomes more of a habit. So things are going to pop up into your head. Computer, telephone, chair, desk, whatever it is, wherever you are, start with nouns and then adding webs. He suggests he says you can also do this at home when you wake up and before you go to sleep. Teacher Andrew Hinshaw also finds this exercise helpful. I personally highly recommend this method. It is very good and great. He has been teaching English for 12 years including in wide known for the US Department of State. He currently teaches at the Kosario International Public Charter School in Washington DC. Hshawa remembers one method some of his Vietnamese students like I've had students tell me that they label everything in their room or their apartments so that these English words kind of a stick in their head. The next one is describe unknown words. Another exercise that both Thomson Hsha suggests is describing in your mind objects you don't know the word for. An example would be if you couldn't think of the word garage. Thomas says if you are looking at your house and you see your garage but you can't think of the name in English you can say the place inside where I put my car or you can say it's next to my house I keep things there. You can define the word or give it another definition for that. He says you can also use shorter phrases such as it's similar to or it's the opposite of. Ha says doing this can help learners of any language. As a Spanish learner, he does it himself. The next one is thinking sentences. The next exercise is thinking in simple sentences. For example, if you are sitting in the park, you can tell yourself things like, "It's such a beautiful day and um people are playing sports with their friends. Once this becomes easy, you can move on to more difficult sentences." Ha. sometimes uses this exercise to think about what he wants to say to people in Spanish. I definitely try to say these sentences in my head or try to put the balls together without thinking too much about if it's absolutely correct. And the next one is describe your day. Another exercise expert suggests is to describe your daily activities. There are a few ways to do this. Thomas asks his beginning level students to describe their day using a simple present verb form. So they would think to themselves things like I put on my shirt and he drives the bus. Other experts says you can mentally make plans in the morning when you wake up. This would require other web tenses. So, the skill level is a little higher. For example, you might tell yourself when I leave the house. I'm going to get an iced coffee, then I'll take the train to class. I'm standing with Paula today. She said she booked the study room at the library for 2:00 p.m. And the next one is thinking conversation. Now let's move to thinking conversation. When you do this, you are imagining yourself speaking to someone else. You're asking the question and thinking of replies. This is a great way to practice what you might say in a real conversation. For example, let's say the imaginary person asks you a question like, "What did you think of the award show last night?" How would you answer? Imagine the conversation and practice in your head. You can do this out loud or in silence.