The world wide web provides numerous offers, specialized courses, applications to study a foreign language on your own. And sometimes this variety leads to difficulty in selecting something from all this.

Sometimes this seriously demotivates us and transforms studying English into regular searching for useful and unlimited links.

This article will suggest useful tips on how software testers or QA consultants should study English [highlight dark=”no”]to make this process as efficient as possible[/highlight].

Constantly write

The first thing to start with is creating bug reports in English only.

When you have discovered a bug, try to spend 10-15minutes, translating your written data into a foreign language and try to do it properly (so that it will contain the correct meaning).

You can start your translation from a few components, not the entire text — steps to reproduce the bug since this part contains few grammatical structures. You will work mostly with an imperative mood.

When you translate this part, try to write reproduction steps in English at once when you will do this again. Some words will be frequently repeated, therefore, they will stay in your mind for a long time.

You can do the same thing with checklists and test cases.

Of course, you don’t need to create a document in English at once. Creating a few items will be enough for the first time, and then you will like this interesting task.

Though your progress will contain only a few phrases but it will be still a progress.

Plan

Creating work plans in a foreign language will be a good practice that will help you improve your level of foreign language.

You can also try creating brief work plans for the entire day, using simple and clear word combinations. Such plans are not only good in their nature but can also serve as a good base to train verbal explanations of work tasks.

Speak with colleagues

Having a plan, you can discuss your targets with workmates that can communicate with you in a form of simple dialogues in the language you are learning (if they understand it).

At the end of a day, put a checkmark on everything you have done, express the achievements orally, using the past tense.

Example: Today I tested the item login page, read the requirements, and asked the analyst on point 12.

Be an attentive listener

Be very attentive during calls. When the entire team tells how they spent their workday, you can write down some notes and then express them orally in English on your own.

Such small tasks can at first seem insignificant but they are efficient due to the fact that they are directly connected with your everyday work. Such a practice not only helps you learn new English words but helps you develop the skill of performing various tasks in foreign languages.

Read

Texts in foreign languages are not only a source of necessary vocabulary but also a perfect actualizer (when we read a text and meet familiar words, they instantly go to our memory and this increases the chances to learn foreign words).

Most of us are better at perceiving visual information. Therefore, if your lifecycle is fast, you should still try to find 20-30 minutes to read texts (books, articles, publications) in English.

Conclusion

To conclude the above, we can definitely say that [highlight dark=”no”]you should primarily pay attention to speaking[/highlight] while learning a foreign language. All modern online courses, word lists, exercises to practice grammar — all this is great, of course, but only speaking helps improve vocabulary and brings new words and word combinations to your memory.

You should constantly practice: try to imitate task execution in English, try to fill each empty space with foreign words (speak with colleagues, record your work, think out loud).