Personal Projects Ideas for English Language Students
Personal projects are on the minds of so many students: they are great for learning new skills, building up a college application, and beating summer boredom. If you are studying English, here is a list of ideas that will promote your academic and cognitive growth and enhance your English skills simultaneously!
- Develop a scrapbook. A page of programs, movie tickets, notes from friends, and logos that you like…that’s just the beginning of scrapbooking. If you want the English practice, annotate your entries!
- Create a photo journal. Make sure you take the time to describe your pictures. Otherwise, it won’t be very good English practice.
- Write book reviews or summaries of poetry from English speaking authors. This will expose you to different styles of writing, new vocabulary, and depending on the poetry, rhyming words to help with your pronunciation!
- Write a children’s book in English. In the process, you could do research by reading some children’s books and learn vocabulary for popular kids’ games. If you’re an artist, you can also illustrate it! Double fun!
- Make a cookbook! Translate your favorite hometown recipes into English. Depending on your location and audience, make sure the measurements are in the right measuring system (English or Metric).
- Keep a travel diary in English.
- Design a vocabulary collage that tells a story. RSA Animate has some videos for inspiration.
- Keep a Funny Tumblr of jokes you learn in English. Tumblr is easy to use. Just remember, it’s public so everyone can see what you post.
- Watch movies and write summaries and reviews of them.
- Organize a yard sale. The more extroverted of you can organize a neighborhood yard sale. This involves talking to people and describing the objects that are for sale. Go the extra mile and really try to sell something by using persuasive language.
- Make hand-written cards and mail them to all of your English speaking friends. Lots of people type fast and don’t care about their errors on social networks, but when you put ink to paper, you’re committed to what you write. You will be more likely to take extra steps to make sure you are writing and spelling accurately.
- Volunteer. Have you ever heard that it’s better to give than to receive? Give some of your time.
- Develop a campaign to educate the public about an issue. You could tie this into the yard sale by taking the proceeds from the sale and donating them to your cause.
Whatever you decide to do, I hope it’s a success. At the very least, these opportunities will increase your exposure to English, and that’s the real goal!
