Practice makes perfect

In the course of teaching English to non-native students all these years, I notice that the environment my students are in inhibit their learning of the language. For one thing, they learn English when they are in class. Once they are outside the classrooms,they start to talk in their mother tongues, hence depriving themselves of a a chance to practise the language. For another they seldom read newspapers, magazines or books in English. Worse still, they are too lazy to write essays. My suggestion that they write journals fall on deaf ears. That explains why there seem to be little improve in their command of the language.
The saying 'Practice makes perfect' is true as far as mastering a language is concerned. We need to constantly listen to, talk and write in the language very often until we have a hang of doing it spontaneously.
I always believe that to master English, we have to use it orally and write articles or essays with it almost every day. Reading English daily is a must. In fact, I would suggest that we think in English whenever we want to do anything. In this way, we are sure to be able to master the language in time to come.
I hope this little piece of advice will be of great help to those who want to improve in the English Language.