These days our phones can almost do anything: order us a pizza, keep us in touch with friends around the world, and tell us the weather. However, if you use your phone correctly, it can also help you improve your grasp of the English language.

Here are three simple ways your smartphone can help make you better at listening, speaking and reading the English language.

Change The Language On Your Phone To English

By changing the language of your phone, it forces you to use English. It makes you use the different vocab like “message” and “send” to get through simple tasks on a daily basis. If you want to challenge yourself, change your email accounts, social media accounts and search browsers to English as well.

Text Your Native English Speaker Friends

Don’t take the easy way out by switching to your native tongue. Force yourself to text your English speaking friends in English, and you’ll soon pick up every day English and phrases you would otherwise miss in ordinary conversation. Learn a new word or slang phrase? Write it down, ask your friends what it means and practice using it in your next conversation.

Download Duolingo

Duolingo is one of the best language learning apps on the market. Apple named it 2013’s “free iPhone App of the Year”, and it is easy to see why. The app makes learning a language fun and makes it feel like a game. You advance through its different levels while learning your target language. Before you know it, you will have hundreds of new words in your vocab, plus you can compete with your friends to be the ultimate Duolingo champion.

So what are you waiting for? Get out your smartphone and start using it to help you achieve fluency in English.

About the Author

Lauren Melnick is a South African travel blogger and ESL teacher currently living in Ubon, Thailand. When she isn’t making lesson plans and watching nursery rhymes on YouTube, you can find her eating up a storm, taking selfies with dinosaurs, and planning her next adventure.

Follow her travels on Wanderlust Movement, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.

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