Over the years I have tried to learn more Spanish. I'll promise to only speak Spanish with my Puerto Rican family – but it doesn't take long before someone gets frustrated and reverts to English.

How can I learn to speak English easily? Gwen suggests to have realistic expectations about your communication skills. She recommends students to start with topics that they are interested in.

Most English-language learning classrooms use conventional teaching methods that focus on grammar drills, vocabulary ...

But students who are still learning English — a group that's swelled to 5 million nationwide, about three-fourths of them Latino — are losing even more ground.