Shadowing Practice: 669. How to Learn English - Learn English Speaking with Video

Hello and welcome to Luke's English Podcast.

This episode is number 669 and it's called How to Learn English.

That is quite a bold title, but this really is a lot of what I have to say about learning English.

If you really want to learn this language, then this is my advice.

I've been teaching for about 20 years, podcasting for over 11 years now, and I keep finding out more about learning a language through teaching it,

getting feedback from listeners, and also through my experiences of trying to learn French.

This episode is a distillation of many of my thoughts and advice on how to learn English.

It's not going to cover absolutely every aspect of it

because language learning is a huge subject that encompasses so many different things, and you could talk about it all day.

But I have decided to talk about learning English, breaking it down into the four skills, and giving you as much advice as I can in this single podcast episode.

I hope you enjoy it and find it useful.

For those of you who aren't so familiar with me and my work, my name is Luke Thompson.

I think I'm the fourth most famous luke thompson in the

world my wife googled it the other day it turns out

it looks like i'm the fourth most famous luke thompson in the world

which is not bad i'm an english teacher a podcaster a comedian a husband

and a dad i'm from england

but these days i live in france my podcast is free

and is downloaded all over the world i also have a premium subscription in

which i focus more specifically on improving vocab grammar

and pronunciation to find out more about that go to teacherluke .co .uk slash premium info, but the free episodes are just available for all of you everywhere,

including on YouTube, where you can switch on the automatic subtitles if you prefer.

Right, so let's get started.

Hello, and welcome to my podcast.

I expect you want to learn English, right?

That's the main reason you're listening to this, I expect.

You want to learn English.

Well, good news.

The good news is that it's definitely possible.

There you go.

This news just in.

It's definitely possible.

You can learn English, and you will if you put in the time and the effort.

It's important to remember that.

You can do it.

But what do I mean by learn English, though?

What does that actually mean?

You can learn English.

What does learn English actually mean?

Well, I mean that you can learn to speak English fluently, clearly, and with confidence, expressing yourself with shades of meaning,

adapting your English for the situation both in speaking and in writing, knowing and being able to use a wide variety of vocabulary and accurate grammar,

and ultimately being yourself in the language and developing beneficial relationships with others based on effective communication.

So yes, you can do it.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

And that's it really, just a positive and encouraging message right at the start.

I think it's important always to remember that making progress in your learning is a realistic prospect,

and it will happen when you put in the time and the effort.

And more good news is this.

The more you enjoy it, the easier it is.

So, I hope this podcast helps you to enjoy getting English into your life on a regular basis, which is a key part of learning the language effectively.

But what else should you be doing in order to improve your English overall?

Well, in this episode, I'd like to talk in some detail about learning English and how you can do it.

This episode is a sort of a come to Jesus moment, which I feel I should do regularly just to remind everyone listening

that there is a method or approach at work here and it's not just you listening to people talking.

So a come to Jesus moment is sort of one of those phrases you hear in the world of business

or management or something.

It's when someone does a passionate speech or some event in which fundamental priorities or beliefs are reassessed or reaffirmed.

It's like when Jesus gathers his disciples around him in order to reaffirm their belief in what he's preaching

or to say some deep stuff which strengthens their faith.

So this is my come to Jesus moment here on the podcast.

Not that I'm comparing myself to Jesus, no, not at all, not even a little bit.

And anyway, that's not for me to say, is it?

That's for other people to it to point out, isn't it?

Not me.

Anyway, I've said before, I've said it before, and I'll say it again, there is a method to the madness.

In my podcast episodes, I'm always teaching you using my particular set of professional skills, but rather than presenting it all as a lesson,

I try to usually sort of present it more like a radio show or a comedy show even.

So amidst the episodes about music and comedy and interviews and so on, I thought it would be worth restating the core values of luke's english podcast

which i seem to do about once every six months or so, I think, on this podcast.

I do an episode like this where I kind of talk

about learning English just to kind of restate the main values of this whole podcast.

So I'm going to give you loads of advice here, and this is all based on what I've learned from these things, from teaching for about 20 years, from meeting thousands of learners of English,

some of them successful, some of them not, working directly with them as their teacher and listening to them talk about their studying habits and experiences.

It's also based on the academic studies I've done, especially the Delta, which involved extensive reading and writing on various aspects of how people learn and teach English,

and then doing my podcast

and getting testimonies over the years from my many listeners who told me how they've used it to improve their English.

And there's also my own experience of working on my French.

So anyway, the plan is to talk about learning English with a focus on the four skills.

That's listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

I've talked about these points actually quite a few times before on this podcast

and have given tons of specific advice about working on your English, including in episodes like 174, which was called How to Learn English with Luke's English podcast,

and other ones where I talk about listening, you know, specifics about listening, speaking, reading.

But I'm going to cover all of the different skills here.

But I probably will repeat myself a little bit, but I still get asked regularly to talk about how to learn English

and I think it's important for me to talk about learning English on this podcast on a regular basis.

Obviously that's what this podcast is about first

and foremost even though a lot of the time in my episodes you'll hear me

and my guests talking about all sorts of other things.

So learning English is the main aim.

Essentially the thinking is that you should listen to natural conversation on a variety of topics.

And it's simply listening to things in English, not just listening to things about English, that's going to help you learn this language, especially if you enjoy the content.

I'll probably talk about this again in a bit, but let's say

that ultimately the plan with the free episodes is to help you listen to English regularly for longer periods of time, long term.

The more, the better.

If the content is enjoyable, that should just make it easier for you to achieve that.

In fact, if you're really into what you're listening to, then you don't really even notice the time passing.

Then there's the premium content, which is an effort to push your learning beyond the gains

that you get from all the exposure and input you get from just listening.

The premium stuff is designed to let you kind of get the benefit of my experience

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and teaching skills in order to cut out a lot of work

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that you would otherwise have to do for yourself in just researching the language that you're observing.

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So I can essentially take you by the hand

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and lead you through some intensive practice to work on your English more directly.

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But anyway, that's my content.

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Let's now talk about learning English as a whole then, because learning English is a holistic thing.

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It encompasses many aspects and skills that are connected as a whole.

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There are receptive skills like listening and reading, productive skills like speaking and writing, language systems like grammar, spelling,

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vocabulary and phonology, social and psychological factors that come into play when we use language, when interacting with others.

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Then there are other factors that come into play, like identity issues, body language, culture, literature, pragmatics, and all sorts of other things.

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It's hard to know where to start, really, when talking about it.

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You need to learn English to the point where you don't even think about it anymore.

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The more you talk and think about it, the more it's, the more, in fact, learning a language starts to sound like the force from star wars you know stretch out your feelings

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or you know do

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or do not there is no try do not think feel let go let the english flow through you

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and i am your father oh wait maybe not that one

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but anyway it's about learning how to do something

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which goes right to the core of who you are in

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fact it's a holistic thing it incorporates many aspects as part of a whole process

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and so it's quite tricky to know where to begin let's put it like this language goes in and language comes out.

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I told you it sounds like the force in Star Wars.

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Language is within you and language is without you.

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It flows through you.

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It binds the galaxy together.

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There are receptive skills.

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This is how the language goes in.

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Productive skills.

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This is how the language goes out.

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Then there's the written language and the spoken language.

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And this is our system.

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You can think of it like a table with two categories on the horizontal axis and two on the vertical axis.

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So it's like a grid with four squares in it.

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On the horizontal axis, we have receptive and productive skills.

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On the vertical, we have written and spoken English.

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So within the table, we have the four skills, the four squares in this diagram.

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So in the box marked written and receptive we have reading.

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Okay, below that in the spoken and receptive category, we have listening.

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On the right in the written and productive side, we have writing.

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And then in the spoken and productive side, we have speaking.

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So those are your four skills, reading, writing, listening, speaking.

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The four skills are connected in various ways, actually.

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Reading and writing deal with the written word, of course.

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Reading helps you to write.

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The more you read, the more you should be able to write.

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It really helps.

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It helps you to see how the language is built, how words are spelled, and how sentences,

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paragraphs, and texts are put together with grammar and textual conventions.

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Also, listening and speaking deal with the spoken word.

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Listening helps you to learn how English actually sounds, how words join together in sentences or longer utterances,

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how words join together in sentences or longer utterances.

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It helps you get familiar with the speed, rhythm, flow, and intonation of the language.

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It helps you get used to natural pronunciation, which in turn helps you produce English in the same way.

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Words exist in visual form and they exist in spoken form.

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But reading and listening are connected too because they're both receptive skills.

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They provide us with input, which is the essential foundation of language learning and speaking and writing are connected because they are productive skills.

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These are the skills you need to use when using language for various purposes.

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This is where you're more active in the sense that you're constructing language, putting it down visually in the form of writing or using your body to produce it orally.

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Let's talk about those receptive skills then and input.

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And it's probably appropriate at this moment, if I'm about to start talking about input and learning English, who do you think I'm going to mention,

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ladies and gentlemen, who do you think, those of you who've got knowledge of this subject, who am I going to talk about when I start talking about learning English and input?

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Well, of course, it's going to be Professor Stephen Krashen, who is always name checked at this point in this sort of video or podcast episode.

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So from Wikipedia, I'll just read some of the sentences from Wikipedia about Stephen Krashen.

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He's got a PhD in linguistics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

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He has more than 486 publications contributing to the fields of second language acquisition, bilingual education and reading.

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He's known for introducing various hypotheses related to second language acquisition, including the acquisition learning hypothesis,

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the input hypothesis, the monitor hypothesis, the effective filter and the natural order hypothesis.

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Most recently, Krashen promotes the use of free voluntary reading during second language acquisition,

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which he says is the most powerful tool we have in language education, first and second.

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So the reading thing there is something that we'll come back to in the section about reading.

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But basically, yes, Stephen Krashner,

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an often referenced academic who published various papers and things about how we learn language,

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and he was focused especially on input.

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So yes, this is the academic, Krashen, who is always mentioned here when talking about how to learn English.

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He was one in a long line of linguists who came up with theories about how language is learned

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and should be taught.

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Arguably, we still don't really know how people learn languages.

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It's still a bit of a mystery, but various academics over the years have put forward different hypotheses to explain it

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and these have been the backbone of our understanding of language learning

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that has informed the way that we all learn and teach languages over the years.

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Krashen though is the one

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that people often talk about today including all the many YouTubers who regularly post videos about the best ways to learn, the only ways to learn, the secrets of learning and all that sort of thing.

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Krashen is usually brought up because his ideas fit in quite nicely to a model of language learning for today.

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I mean, it involves a lot of consumption of content in English, plenty of listening and reading, and that sort of content is in plentiful supply online,

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like, for example, episodes of Luke's English podcast or one of the many other podcasts that are available.

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So in his input hypothesis, in which he makes the case for the importance of comprehensible input for language learning krashen states

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that in fact the only way we can successfully increase our

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underlying linguistic competence this is our system of linguistic knowledge

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or let's say that kind of language instinct that you have

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which even subconsciously gives us a sense of when language is right

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or wrong it's our language force so he's saying

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that the only um the only way we can successfully increase our linguistic competence is through comprehensible input.

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So, um, I suppose it could be active in that you know a certain grammar rule and see when it's been broken,

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or passive in that you just feel that something is right or wrong but can't necessarily explain it.

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This is language competence.

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I would say that the passive knowledge is the vital one

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because ultimately you just want to be able to feel that language is right or wrong without really thinking about it.

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But that being said, your active knowledge can be really useful

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when doing things like avoiding common errors as a result of your first language, or consciously pushing yourself to create language which is normal, essentially.

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Anyway, Krashen says the only way to increase your linguistic competence is through comprehensible input,

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meaning reading and listening to things that we mostly understand, and that with the context of what you do understand, you're able to work out the bits that you don't know.

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This is how we acquire new language, basically.

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So, the bits that you understand, which should be most of it, helps you work out the rest.

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So, basically, we learn language when we understand it.

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So, naturally, according to Krashen, the receptive skills come first.

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I think this makes a lot of sense to me.

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I think it's bound to be true that we learn language by listening to it and reading it.

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But what about those moments when you have to speak or write?

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What about learning the grammar and all the rest of it.

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Well, Krashen would say that we learn the grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation of a language by listening to it or reading it,

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and that it's a natural process and part of how we decode language through comprehensible input.

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So, basically, don't worry about grammar rules and all the rest of it.

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Just listen and do your best to keep up and work out what's going on, and do it regularly.

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That's kind of good news, isn't it?

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Again, I'm sure this is true, but I also think it's worth studying the language a bit too.

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Breaking it down a bit, seeing how it works, actively trying to learn more vocabulary,

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maybe pushing yourself or forcing yourself to use certain structures that you don't normally use, checking up on the rules of grammar and doing some controlled practice,

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working on your pronunciation by copying and training your mouth and brain to cooperate with each other,

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like the way we practice certain movements in sport or musical parts on an instrument.

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So I do believe that control practice and conscious learning like that must also be beneficial because I've seen it happen.

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Doing some active studying can be a bit like a fast track of English learning.

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It can cut out a lot of time by helping you realise certain things about the language quickly.

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And I think that if you then notice it again while listening and reading, that only reinforces what you've learned.

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So a bit of grammar work or, you know, sort of conscious study is not necessarily a bad thing.

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Of course, you shouldn't get blinded by grammar or pronunciation rules

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and so on to the point that you can't see the wood for the trees.

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That's an expression.

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That's a nice expression to be able to see the wood for the trees.

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That's when you get caught up in so many details, you don't really get to see the overall picture.

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So try not to get hung up on grammar because it can make you process language in an unnatural and contrived way.

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It can get stuck in your head and block you a bit.

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Instead, try to notice patterns and incorporate them into your use of English.

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Try to see grammar study as a way of confirming things you've already noticed,

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or a way of consulting with a reference book as you also just absorb English more naturally.

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If you only study English with the grammar, it's going to be a bit weird.

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It's going to be a sort of odd abstract process for learning the language, just going by the rules first.

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It's better to focus on consuming English in the form of messages which you're trying to understand, and then perhaps check your grammar later to straighten things out.

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Premium subscription, again, is where I can help you with that sort of thing, hopefully combining it with the free content to give you lots of the stuff

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that you need to attack English from several angles.

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Anyway, what Krashen is saying, I suppose, is this.

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The input is vital.

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It's like your food.

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So let's talk about receptive skills and input.

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So language has to go in before it comes out, as we've said.

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How can you learn this language if you haven't heard it and read it a lot?

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I mean, you've got to, in order to know the language, you've got to just observe it and, you know, hear it and see it in order to know what it is, in order to actually be able to produce it.

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So read and listen to things that are slightly above your level

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so that you can understand like 60 to 80 percent okay that's what you should be understanding and

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and sort of the remaining 20 to 40 percent is what

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you're sort of working out from context obviously the more you

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understand the more you're likely to work out the rest

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so 80 20 is probably better that's where you're understanding 80 percent

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and that's that 20 percent

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which you know the the more you understand the more you're able to understand you see

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so you need to be able to understand

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that much for your brain to work out the remaining like 20 to 40 percent

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that you don't know meaningful context is vital So basically, it's the five L's, listening, listening, listening, listening, and listening, and the five R's, reading, reading, reading, reading, and reading.

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It's also largely a question of finding the right stuff to listen to, in the case of listening,

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or read in the case of reading there's this podcast of course others are available you can watch tv

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and films with

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and without the subtitles don't have any subtitles in your language just keep it either english on

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or english off when you're listening

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and you've got the subtitles you're not just listening really you're also reading

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so if you really want to test your listening skills subtitles off hopefully you'll find content

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that you actually want to listen to not just for studying english

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so if you do get addicted to a Netflix series and you can't wait to find out what happens next, that's good.

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That means that you'll get more comprehensible input and you'll be much more focused and involved in it, which is great for your English.

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Or maybe you want to hear another stupid

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and funny conversation with my friends just because it makes you laugh and you feel some sort of connection to it.

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All of that is great because it will help you listen more, listen longer, and listen long term.

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Um, okay.

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Um, so is that all I have to say about listening?

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I guess it's just the right content and then just getting the practice in.

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Okay.

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Um, I'm not talking about sort of listen and repeat and stuff.

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I'm going to come onto that later, but essentially find the right content for you and just get addicted to it and absorb it.

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I recommend podcasts because it's a way to actually just get more, you just get more of a focus on the language and you, you've got more freedom.

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You can listen to this when you're out and about with your headphones on and so on.

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But yeah, finding the right thing.

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So basically, you're going to go for stuff that's for learners of English or stuff that's for like just native speakers.

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You could go for the native speaker stuff.

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I'm sure that many of you are capable of following most of it.

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So that would be good.

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It can be tricky.

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Or you find stuff that's for learners of English

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that is pitched at the right kind of level and is not too sort of, that's not too kind of focused on teaching grammar

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and stuff just more fun stuff that you can actually listen to that's designed for you.

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So find the right content.

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Let's move on to reading.

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So this one is also a pleasure to talk about because it's a pleasure to do, and there are lots of great things to read.

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Let's hear from Stephen Krashen again, as he is the master of this whole input model.

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This is again from Wikipedia, which I think is fine as a source of information for just the basic things like this.

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So he talked about extensive reading.

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Extensive reading, free reading, book flood, or reading for pleasure is a way of language learning,

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including foreign language learning, through large amounts of reading.

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As well as facilitating acquisition of vocabulary, it's believed to increase motivation through positive effective benefits.

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It's believed that extensive reading is an important factor in education.

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Proponents such as Stephen Krashen claim that reading alone will increase encounters with unknown words, bringing learning opportunities by inferencing.

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That's kind of working it out.

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The learner's encounters with unknown words in specific contexts will allow the learner to infer and thus learn those words' meanings.

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Okay, so of course that system is disputed

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because this is the academic arena that we're dealing with

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and people are always putting forward ideas and defending them and disputing them and so on.

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It's how we move forwards and learn about this stuff.

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So this is extensive reading, which is different to the sort of intensive reading that you do in English lessons, where you spend ages on just one page of text,

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breaking it down into tiny chunks, understanding every single morsel with extensive reading it's all about just

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getting as much English into your head as you can by reading as much as you can

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and you focus on reading enjoyable things especially stories

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and you don't stop too much to analyze the language

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or even check words you just keep trying to follow what

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you're reading the more involved in it you are the better again this point about input is

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that it feeds your instinct for the language you get a subconscious sense of what's right

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or wrong which comes in very handy for

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when you're doing those nasty sentence transformations and use of English tasks in a Cambridge exam like CAE.

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What you really want in those situations is to know exactly

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which preposition or auxiliary verb is missing or to be able to manipulate sentences in a variety of forms.

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I reckon it helps to do a bit of language practice as well with a few controlled exercises

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but the idea is that it should all go into naturally giving you this sense of language competence.

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It's important, though, to choose texts which are not too difficult for you.

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You need to be able to understand enough to be able to get a grip on the rest of the language.

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So, which books do you choose?

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We've talked about the importance of choosing stuff that's interesting to you, that reflects the type of English that you might need.

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Genre isn't really an issue, meaning what type of book it is.

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People assume that you need to read or listen to the news, but as we've already established, they don't really talk like normal people on the news.

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You've heard me talk about that before.

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For some reason, everybody on the news seems to speak like this.

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And also, they write in a certain newsy style.

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Funnily enough, it might be more useful to read the tabloid papers as they write in a more conversational style, but I think it's worthwhile looking beyond the news.

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Basically, you can read whatever you want as long as it's in English and you're enjoying it, even comic books or graphic novels as they're known for adults.

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Graphic novels can be brilliant because they support your understanding with the images

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and often the English is in the form of speech, so you learn really directly how to apply that stuff to real life.

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I love graphic novels in French.

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It's my favourite way to work on the language.

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And there are lots of good graphic novels that you can get in French.

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So which thing do you choose?

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You know, open your mind a bit.

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You could go for comic books.

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You could consider the current bestsellers.

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These are the most popular books of the moment.

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If other people like the books, then why shouldn't you?

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So you could look in the fiction and nonfiction categories for bestsellers.

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Just check Amazon bestsellers or waterstones .com for their current lists.

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Or you could try graded readers, which are an excellent and underused resource.

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I really recommend them if you're not a strong reader.

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They're previously published books and often some of the great classics and modern classics in English, but they're republished with English that's graded for certain levels.

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The number of words is reduced, it's truncated, and essentially it's a way to increase the percentage

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that you do understand and decrease the amount that you don't understand, getting to that nice sort of 80 -20 spot where you can maximise your language learning.

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There are lots of titles to choose from and various publishers.

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I recommend that you get them at, I mean, people who listen to this podcast are probably intermediate and above.

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So I would recommend reading them maybe even one step above your level.

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So if you are B1, you could read a B1 or a B2 book.

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If you're B2, you could read a B2 or C1 book and C1, you know, C1 and above, basically.

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Okay, there are lots of titles to choose from.

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Here are some that I can recommend.

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Pearson Graded Readers, Penguin Readers, Oxford Graded Readers, and Black Cat Graded Readers.

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But your English may well be good enough now to have a go at a book for native speakers, so go for it.

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You have loads of options.

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Just make sure that you enjoy reading on a regular basis.

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Maybe consider reading something that you've already read in your first language.

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It could be a story that you know.

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It could be your favourite book.

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It could be a good way to try reading in English like that, you know, so you don't get completely lost.

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It's completely up to you.

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I would also add that it's important to choose texts

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which are written in modern style and perhaps about an area that you're particularly interested in.

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Perhaps think of it like this.

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What is the kind of English that you want printed on the back of your head, on the inside?

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I mean, what kind of English do you want printed on the inside

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of the back of your head? it's an odd question

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but I mean what is your target English perhaps it's the involving

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and descriptive storytelling of fiction

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or it's the matter -of -fact world of non -fiction I reckon non -fiction is probably better

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because it reflects the kind of English

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that you're more likely to be writing especially

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if it's things like academic work or reports

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because they're all about presenting you with information data commenting on what's going on describing how to do things

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and that's probably the sort of thing you'll need to use English for, especially in writing.

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So, just read and enjoy it.

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Here are some more book recommendations.

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So, there's a book called, I think it's called The Executive Guide to Email Correspondence.

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You can find a link to it.

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This might be a little bit dry to read, but it will really show you loads of examples of emails with full explanations so you can read and learn.

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So, it's just a good way, if you're wanting to work on your emails, read other people's emails.

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Uh, then there's anything by David Crystal, but, um, anything that he's written is fantastic.

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Uh, but this, the one I'm going to recommend is the story of English in a hundred words.

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So this nonfiction book will teach you the entire story of the English language through a hundred words.

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And there are some great words in there that you can learn.

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And through describing these words, he gives you the story of the English language.

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It's amazing.

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Some of those words are loaf, street, riddle, arse, jail, wicked, matrix, and skunk, to name but a few.

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So you're bound to learn tons from that.

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If you'd like to read a biography, I love to read sort of musicians' biographies, books about the lives of musicians.

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One of the best ones I've read recently, it was by Niall Rogers, the guy who founded the band Chic,

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a producer who worked with David Bowie and lots and lots of other people during the 70s and 80s.

393

An absolute legendary person.

394

And he had an incredible life.

395

And he may be one of the coolest people in the world.

396

And he wrote his life story.

397

And it's incredible.

398

It's brilliantly written, brilliantly told and captivating, and you won't be able to put it down.

399

It's fantastic.

400

It's called Le Freak, an upside -down story of family, disco, and destiny.

401

If you're looking for some fiction, I can recommend one book, which is a fairly short book.

402

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I can't help talking about it, and that's The War of the Worlds.

403

Now, the writing is a bit old -fashioned in this book, I have to be honest, but it's mostly modern in style,

404

and I think it's worth it because the story is amazing

405

and it's not too long it's wonderfully descriptive

406

and much better than any movie version could be it's definitely

407

one of my favorite books of all time that's the war of the worlds by h .g wells

408

so let's move on to talk about productive skills then

409

and output okay

410

so this is where we get to the more nebulous world

411

of productive skills it's like an alien land where monsters roam

412

a bit like the war of the worlds maybe okay i'm exaggerating

413

but i mean that productive skills are a bit harder to pin down

414

because even more psychological

415

and social factors come into play you have the public aspect

416

of it the fact you're trying to manipulate the language

417

and get your ideas across in the right way being coherent

418

and cohesive and in the right style with the right level of politeness

419

and with the correct conventional replies and requests and on and on it goes.

420

Again, I'm making it sound tricky, but I mean that you're involved in so much more because you're making the language and you're actually using it.

421

This is exciting because you get to express yourself, which is the most wonderful and gratifying thing you can do in another language.

422

And when it slides out quite fluidly and you're not too blocked by who knows what, then it's all gravy.

423

But sometimes it just doesn't seem to work out that way

424

and you get mixed up and it doesn't come out right at all.

425

There's a sense of performance in productive skills and a sense

426

that you have to be aware of the right way to conduct yourself

427

and to be able to utter things in English instantly, following what the other person is saying.

428

It's all done in a sort of unconscious blur, and thinking about grammar in that situation is a killer.

429

So it's about getting a level of ease, a level of comfort, a platform from which you can bob and weave your way through the conversation,

430

finding other ways to say things and switching correctly between tenses and situations.

431

I think you get what I mean.

432

So how do you work on these things is the question.

433

These things in particular, ease, you know, finding your own voice, finding a sense of fluency, control, that's learning the grammar,

434

being able to use it right without making mistakes, using the right vocabulary properly and pronouncing things so that people can understand you?

435

How much control do you have?

436

Range.

437

Are you using a wide range of language for a wide range of things?

438

Are you able to talk about almost anything?

439

Coherence.

440

Does it all actually make sense?

441

Can people follow you easily?

442

Cohesion, particularly in writing.

443

How does the whole text make sense as a whole?

444

And social factors like knowing how to put things and how to manage relationships through language.

445

Again, the idea is that this language is just built into you from all that exposure and input.

446

That's where we start again.

447

So I would say that there's a great deal of other stuff you can do, though, to improve your productive skills beyond just reading and listening a lot, of course.

448

So in both writing and speaking, the first thing to remember is you need to engage in it as much as possible, real writing and real speaking.

449

Ultimately, this means trying to use language to communicate a message in some way, and that's what you should be focusing on.

450

Meaningful interactions, especially ones in which you have something to offer or something to gain,

451

such as negotiations or even information gap situations in which you're telling someone something they don't know.

452

Also, social interactions involving being polite or building relations with people, discussing, agreeing and disagreeing.

453

Ultimately, doing it for real is the best workshop in which you can work.

454

Rolling with the punches and trying to keep track of what you're learning is a good way to do it.

455

This is why people learn English best when they're forced to do it because of their surroundings.

456

They learn by being a waiter in London for a year

457

or working in an office with native speakers

458

or being plunged into a foreign university for a year

459

or moving to a new country and having to cope with all the challenges

460

that brings and in a second language as well.

461

So I suppose this is immersion really, but it's more than that.

462

I recommend actually conversing with people just to practice.

463

It's the five Ps.

464

Practice, practice, practice, practice, and practice.

465

It's like going to the gym.

466

Fluency is like physical fitness in your mind and also in your body because you're using your mouth, your breathing, and your head and hands to communicate too.

467

And it applies to writing as well.

468

You can observe the way other people write their emails and kind of copy their style.

469

You have to really think about what you're saying or writing, and doubtless you will end up writing emails with requests, with information, with questions and other complaints, and so on.

470

So you will have to learn on the job.

471

Being thrown in at the deep end or if you just have to use English at work, it could be either a big stress for you

472

or it could be a huge opportunity to just go for it and use it as a practicing opportunity.

473

Anyway, let's talk about specific productive skills, writing and reading and how to work on them.

474

Let's say that you are not actually in a situation where you can talk to people or have correspondence with people.

475

Or maybe you're not in a situation where you have to write things which other people will ultimately have to read.

476

Unless you find a tutor on italki, for example, then that person could be your practice point for speaking and writing, giving you feedback as you go,

477

allowing you to engage in different, you know, forms of communicative practice.

478

But let's say for the purposes of this episode, it's just you and the English language, just facing each other off in a kind of Wild West fashion.

479

So how can you practice then on your own?

480

Well, let's start with writing.

481

Obviously, you need to write.

482

But what are you going to write?

483

And who is going to read it?

484

Well, the first thing is, yes, just write.

485

Write regularly, write meaningfully, and write with a reader in mind, even if nobody reads it.

486

This is important because it will help you get used to simply putting your ideas into words.

487

It's a creative process and also a mechanical process to an extent.

488

Building sentences is a sort of art or craft.

489

You have to practice it in order to get some level of comfort with it.

490

Let's imagine there's a muscle in your head.

491

Now, this is not scientific at all, what I'm about to say.

492

It's more of a metaphor.

493

But let's imagine there's a muscle in your head, which if you never exercise it, it will be weak and underdeveloped but if you exercise that muscle regularly,

494

it'll be strong, reactive, and quick.

495

I expect there is a part of the brain responsible for creating written language and a subsection for creating written English.

496

I mean, I guess there is, but I don't really know about the kind of neurological stuff.

497

But anyway, keep that part of your brain fresh by writing English as much as you can, and that's as scientific as I can get here.

498

So anyway, here are some things you could write.

499

so again anything

500

but you don't want me to say anything you want me to be more specific don't you okay

501

so you could write a diary that's just um oh here's a list here's a list of things

502

so a diary you could email an imaginary person

503

which might be a bit spooky or you could even email yourself

504

and just keep the email conversation going emailing yourself you could choose to write academic texts and search the different text types,

505

like, you know, different lengths, essays, different types of essay you'd have to write.

506

You could practice writing emails and make sure you're doing all the different types of emails and working out the conventions.

507

You could write reports and, again, try to work out the standards in report writing.

508

Formal and informal letters, the same.

509

And job applications, again, the same.

510

Basically, whatever you have to write you should try to find some samples of these texts

511

and aim to copy them copy the style copy the arrangements the language they use

512

and reproduce it yourself texts that you write will invariably be very practical

513

so it's about reporting information and asking questions

514

so you could look at sample texts and copy them it helps if you have a specific workbook for doing that, certainly with emails.

515

And I recommend Email English by Paul Emerson.

516

It's a simple workbook that helps you work on almost all those things.

517

And I'm not even sponsored by Macmillan or anything.

518

It's just genuinely a great book.

519

Email English by Paul Emerson.

520

And they have downloadable email writing tasks on the Macmillan website as well.

521

You can find the link on the page.

522

So you could get the book, work your way through that, and then do those email exercises as well.

523

So you're actually constructing full emails.

524

Ideally, you'll have a teacher to proof read your work, to correct you and give you feedback, ideally.

525

But if this isn't possible, it's still a good idea to write.

526

Here are some other ideas.

527

So the diary, as I mentioned before.

528

So you can just describe things that happened or make it more personal and really explore your thoughts and feelings.

529

If the words don't come, just use basic words in the beginning.

530

Try to find other ways to say what you want to say.

531

Don't just give up.

532

If you feel unable to express yourself perfectly, express yourself imperfectly at the beginning, but try to express yourself.

533

Again, it would help if you got someone to read it.

534

I don't know if you want anyone to read your diary, but I mean, I've made that point.

535

But here, I'm just saying you can do it on your own.

536

It's not ideal because you don't get feedback on it, but it's still good

537

because you've still got to practice producing written English writing is not just sentences it's paragraphs

538

and pages the thing

539

that you're writing will define how you write it this means

540

conventions of certain texts formality level of the language there are

541

specific exam tasks from things like IELTS FCE CAE CPE

542

and BEC hire

543

and BEC vantage you could try doing those those things those

544

different tasks often reflect the different types of writing you have to do.

545

So you would practice doing reports, emails, formal and informal, articles, stories and stuff.

546

And so those things will push you to learn the conventions of different types of text.

547

So it could be a good idea to take a Cambridge exam if you want to work on your writing.

548

The subject of vocabulary notes should probably be noted here.

549

You might write some notes on vocab, and I would recommend here that you take a more extensive approach to doing this.

550

What people usually do is they write the English word,

551

maybe a subtitle, maybe a translation in their language and maybe one other line and they just fly through this big list.

552

I would say don't just have one word per line.

553

I want to see one word or phrase at the top of the page

554

and then just loads of text underneath full of examples and your own examples with the language.

555

So it's like one page per word kind of thing.

556

That's how detailed I want your vocab notes to be.

557

You can then come back and you can cover up some of the words and try to remember them.

558

Alternatively, you can use my PDFs with the notes and memory tests if you're a premium subscriber.

559

There's another little plug for my podcast.

560

But anyway, vocab notes should be extensive.

561

Making more extensive vocabulary notes with plenty of examples means that not only are you recording vocab, you're also practicing using it in writing too.

562

So let's move on to speaking.

563

Finally, last but not least.

564

I mentioned italki before, and you can find tutors and teachers and conversation partners there for regular practice, and I do recommend doing that.

565

Otherwise, let's look at some ways you can work on your speaking other than in actual spoken practice with others.

566

This is basically developing your speaking on your own.

567

So this is quite a tricky thing to do because normally speaking is an instantly interactive form of communication.

568

It also involves a lot of listening and then being able to produce English instantly without hesitating too much.

569

It's also quite physical as it involves using your mouth to produce words in sentences the right way.

570

And of course, there are all those cultural things to think about too.

571

But really, speaking should just be your attempt to find your own voice in English with fluency and with a specific tone.

572

Of course, it comes through a lot of practice of having conversations in

573

which you're not really thinking about what you're saying on a grammatical level, but it's pouring out of you due to necessity and not being able to really think a lot.

574

Doing that regularly helps your brain map out the extent of the English that you have and increase it, sort of keeping it fresh.

575

That's not scientific again, but more of a metaphor of what I think speaking can do.

576

It activates something in you that you have to maintain and keep active, or those parts of the brain sort of go dull.

577

So it's the five S's, speaking, speaking speaking speaking and speaking

578

but with who well the fact is it just helps to talk to other people

579

and that's the best and most basic advice i can give outside of

580

that you have to manipulate your surroundings

581

and use your imagination to practice speaking on your own

582

so you could literally talk on your own

583

and even in your own head now this might sound a bit odd

584

but it's a surprisingly effective way to activate english that's in your head you essentially talk to yourself out loud in English, describing what's going on, what you're doing,

585

and what you're thinking about, and just say it all in English.

586

Alternatively, you can just do it in your own head and just think the sentences.

587

This also keeps that system of language production in your head fresh, but it's obviously better if you're actually producing the words with your mouth.

588

Also, there's the old listen and repeat.

589

You can use certain audio and play a bit, pause, repeat what you heard, rewind, repeat again, and keep going until you've got it,

590

and then check the transcript or subtitles to see if you're correct.

591

Check any new words and carry on.

592

Always find ways to vocalize the things that you're learning.

593

And that means saying them out loud, even to yourself.

594

You can also practice different speaking scenarios.

595

Preparing for a Cambridge exam, you can find past papers with speaking part preparation and practice.

596

That sounds like a tongue twister.

597

Preparing for a Cambridge exam, you can find past papers with speaking part preparation and practice try it can you repeat that Preparing for a Cambridge exam,

598

you can find past papers with speaking part preparation and practice.

599

Good luck with that one.

600

So find out what's required in the different parts.

601

Watch videos of people talking, people and people taking the speaking part on YouTube.

602

Practice answering common questions about yourself.

603

Practice speaking on a topic for a minute or two.

604

Practice discussing your opinion on the issues of the day.

605

Those are all specific speaking skills that you can practice on your own.

606

I particularly recommend listen and repeat, especially when you have to take quite a long utterance in English,

607

hold it in your head and repeat it like it's one word.

608

It's like going to the gym in English.

609

It involves a lot of things.

610

Understanding the clip that you've just heard, identifying the words and grammar being used, being able to remember it all, being able to produce it in a similar way.

611

That's a whole punch of different kinds of practice all in one go.

612

So listen and repeat is actually very good.

613

I mean, it's lacking one thing, which is your kind of creative having to come up with English of your own.

614

But you can do that as well and incorporate the language you've been learning in just spoken practice.

615

And if you repeat the sentence straight away and again, you notice certain little errors that you're making and you correct them again and again.

616

So repeat over and over again, a bit like practicing boxing combinations in the ring before the big fight. In reality,

617

the four skills are often mashed up together and you find

618

that you're doing things like listening and speaking at the same time while also taking notes, looking at visuals and so on.

619

It all gets very messy when language is actually applied to real communication in the real world.

620

Here's a little note about pronunciation and a sort of disclaimer.

621

So the disclaimer first.

622

I think that there are probably plenty of other things I haven't mentioned in this episode, such as not, you know, I didn't talk about specific memory techniques, I've done that in a previous episode,

623

or specific features of pronunciation, done that one as well, or exactly how to read a book to learn English, which I have done in the past too,

624

or plenty of other things probably that I've missed.

625

To be honest, this is just a podcast episode that I wanted to make about the four skills, and it expanded into an episode all about learning English as a holistic process.

626

Anyway, the note about pronunciation.

627

So it's worth, it is worth learning the phonemic script.

628

It is worth getting the sounds app on your phone.

629

Just go to the app store, look for sounds.

630

It's by Macmillan.

631

You can get the free version and just do all the exercises.

632

So it's worth learning the phonemic script.

633

It's worth getting the sounds app on your phone.

634

It's worth doing drills and practicing different features.

635

It's worth getting a book called Ship or Sheep or other books of that nature, the Pronunciation in Use series.

636

It's worth remembering that if you have an accent when you speak, that is fine and it's part of who you are.

637

The main thing is that you speak clearly, not which regional accent you have.

638

Clarity is the thing to achieve.

639

It's also extremely difficult to lose your accent in English.

640

Hardly anyone does it, really.

641

But you can still be fine with your accent.

642

English is quite open like that.

643

Everyone's welcome.

644

But there you have it.

645

That was quite a comprehensive look at how I think learning English is best when you combine two things, comprehensible input and a clever studying routine.

646

I think it can work wonders for your English, and that's what I try to do with this podcast.

647

I'll try to give you all the input in the free episodes

648

and then do some more focused studying in the premium content.

649

Hopefully, together, those two channels can boost your English to the max.

650

Okay, so there you go.

651

Thank you very much for listening.

652

If you've been listening to this on YouTube, don't forget to like and subscribe.

653

Okay, guys, you could download the Luke's English podcast app from the app store.

654

And you can sign up to Luke's English podcast premium by

655

going to teacherluke .co .uk slash premium info for all the details.

656

But that is it for this episode.

657

Thank you very much for listening.

658

And I will speak to you again soon.

659

But for now, it's time to say goodbye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye.

660

Thanks for listening to Luke's English podcast.

661

For more information, visit teacherluke .co .uk.

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