How To Teach English As A FIRST Language - EnglishAnyone.com

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all right hello I am Drew Badger the English  fluency guide and founder of englishanyone.com  

and in this video we're going to talk about  how to teach English as a first language so  

not teaching English as a second language  but teaching English has a first language  

hopefully we are working today it always takes  a minute to get subscribers notified so I'll  

just give people a moment but there should be an  entertaining video this is mostly for teachers  

but Learners will actually learn a lot from this  video but I hope everybody enjoys it all right uh  

so uh basically I guess one thing also we'll see  hopefully chat should be working too uh and I'll  

answer questions I'll try to go slow I actually  have notes over here so I don't ramble too much so  

to ramble means just talking about things and you  lose focus or whatever Cedar nice to see you there  

uh but welcome everyone if you do have questions  put them in the comments uh and I will do my best  

if it's about something I'm talking about right  at that moment uh then I'll try to answer that  

but if not I will try to keep moving and then  answer more questions at the end I like to keep  

these videos real relatively short at least for  the kind of lesson portion of it and then we'll  

see how we go from there all right uh so first of  all this is for uh people let's see Rafa's asking  

about removing an accent so part of what we'll  be teaching in this video is how to fix really  

every problem that Learners have so it could be  accents or great making grammar mistakes using the  

wrong words not understanding natives all those  things we're going to talk about in this video  

so first of all uh again how to teach English  as a first language rather than how to teach  

it as a second language and we're going to  compare these different things I'll give  

you some examples as well as some resources  you can use if you're a teacher to help your  

students learn more like a native speaker which  is really what this is so they're basically just  

two ways of learning a language so there is  for our purposes really there's like learning  

English we'll just call this e s l which is  English as a second language and then there's e  

FL which is English as a first language so  we're going to compare these two methods  

and this is specifically for learning English  which I'll talk about in this video but this  

same method applies for anything because really  there are only two ways to learn any language  

so the basic idea is that this is how  really like this is the native way

that you should be learning a language or  that as a teacher you really want to help  

Learners and first I want to talk about why we  do this so the basic problem with English as  

a second language is that it puts a lot of uh  what what I might call like filters or blocks  

between you and the language so we begin with uh  like here's the lesson over here here's like the  

teacher teaching like okay here's the alphabet  or something and then the learner is over here  

uh and they're not actually getting the  real language so they're getting usually  

like a slower version uh or a more kind of  textbook version of that so nice easier more  

formal language uh they're probably getting  translations and they're probably not getting  

like the real way that natives would be speaking  so it's almost like a different language between  

what real natives are actually speaking and what  Learners are getting in school and so this creates  

all sorts of problems when people try to speak  so we mentioned or somebody mentioned earlier  

about the accent so when you don't learn the real  language the way natives learn it then of course  

you're going to have problems with accent you're  going to think about grammar rules uh and hesitate  

when you speak trying to find the right word you  will often forget words because you don't really  

know them very well so because of all these steps  when you're learning the language you have to read  

do these same steps when you try to speak okay so  the English as a second language approach and this  

is not just for English this is for any language  I'm just focusing on English that's what I focus  

on but this is the same thing for any language  if you're trying to learn it as a second language  

and so this means you're learning it through  your native language rather than learning it  

all in English all right but the basic idea is  that if you're learning through all of these  

kind of steps that stop you from understanding  then of course you will go through those same  

steps again when you try to speak and that's  why communication actually becomes difficult  

we can just put a little maybe mouth over here  that's a bad picture I'm not the best drawer so  

we'll put a little here's a little lips over  here but they're basically shut off oh no you  

can't actually speak all right so even though  you're learning the language I wanted to make  

it clear here that you are learning the language  you're learning you know you're trying to memorize  

vocabulary you're learning more grammar rules  but this is not actually helping you speak okay  

so to contrast the English as a second language  with the English as a first language approach the  

reason we don't do this and the reason we do this  is because we want to eliminate all of these steps  

so we want to go directly to the real language  as quickly as possible and not put any barriers  

to learning so that we don't put any barriers to  speech all right so the basic idea for both of  

these things is that how you learn is how you  speak okay you will probably hear me say this  

many times I say it in videos in my lessons in  writing uh all over the place but the basic idea  

is how you learn is how you speak so if you learn  and have lots of difficulty understanding things  

or you're translating through your native language  then of course you will have trouble speaking but  

when you're learning the native way you don't  have to worry about those issues because you're  

just going directly to the language that's what  we'll talk about in this video if you have any  

questions about this basic idea of how you learn  is how you speak let me know keep going here with  

my uh make sure we have my I'm following my list  over here I got my notes this is great usually  

I don't have notes I'm just off the cuff off  the cuff for my Learners out there off the cuff  

this just means I'm doing something without  thinking about it beforehand I'm improvising  

all right but this video I really want to make  it for teachers and explain how this works  

uh so again I'll share some resources you can  click actually on the links in the description  

below this video after this video is finished and  that will give you some resources that actually  

show you how this works and how it's possible  because most teachers ask me how can you teach  

someone English without translating all right so  I'll show you an example about that in a minute  

but hopefully everybody understands this point so  far how you learn is how you speak and the English  

as a second language approach the traditional  language learning approach that most people do  

for learning any language is creating barriers to  understanding so you have barriers when you speak  

so it stops you from understanding so it stops you  from communicating all right and so we don't have  

that with efl we really want to understand things  easily and then that that way we can actually  

become a much more competent speaker very quickly  all right now before I get into actual examples of  

this and and answer some more questions from  Learners I want to make it clear about kind  

of the psychology and the way the brain works for  learning languages or really for learning anything  

because this is important to remember and it  explains why it's so important to learn English as  

a first language or any language you're learning  as that first language rather than trying to learn  

it the traditional way through an additional  language uh so the first part about this is  

that there really is no such thing as a second  language uh and so people think you know when  

they're adult they're trying to learn uh like okay  my native language is Spanish or French or Italian  

or Portuguese whatever that language is uh they  think they need to learn English as a as a second  

language because they have a native language and  then this is the second language and so we start  

using lots of translations and grammar exercises  and those kinds of things but there is no actual  

second language there's only just any kind of  language so French Italian Spanish it doesn't  

matter all of these languages are the same and  it's just how you learn them that's different okay  

so there is no such thing as a second language and  furthermore everybody speaks multiple languages uh  

already so an adult English speaker can speak one  way with children One Way professionally One Way  

casually so there are different ways of speaking  in really different languages and not to mention  

the different things you would learn like the  language of math of the language of science or  

the language of maybe your particular industry  so someone who is even working as a barista at  

a coffee shop or working in a company doing  paperwork whatever that thing is they have  

specific vocabulary that they need to use for  each of those things so everybody already speaks  

multiple first languages and this is why we know  it's possible to learn any language as a first  

language all right so that's the first thing  to understand about like the psychology and  

thinking about how the brain works so there's  only different languages all right it doesn't  

matter what the language is if it's French German  uh Japanese it doesn't matter it's only how you  

learn the language that's different okay really  really important to understand this okay all right  

espanol yes so if you're trying to learn Spanish  as an example you should learn it all in Spanish  

all right so how do we do that again I'm going  to explain that in a little bit more and there  

will be more resources again if you want to  click on those in the links below this video  

but again the basic idea not learning through  another language you want to go directly into  

the language you're learning all right so the  first reason to do that as I just mentioned uh  

is because there are no second languages there's  really just one one way of learning any language  

if you want to actually speak all right and so  let me make sure I'm going here through my notes

all right so I think we already covered let's see

all right so again more kind of basic basic  ideas or basic points about human psychology  

and the way the mind works uh so what we're  what we're talking about so far it seems like  

a uh like a weird a weird kind of idea but when  you're teaching someone especially teaching a  

language the goal is not really to tell people  the answer as an example uh like let's say  

I teach you Japanese I'm trying to teach you  some Japanese and I say like okay this is a red  

uh and that gave you a  translation in Japanese I say uh

so if I'm if I'm just teaching you a language  like this I'm telling you the answer and that's  

actually stopping your mind it's actually  making it more boring for your mind to learn  

I know this sounds like a a kind of weird idea  especially for language learning but the goal  

again is not to just tell people the answer it's  to lead them to discover it because this is how  

the mind the Mind likes to solve problems but  you have to make it possible you have to give  

the information for the mind to solve a problem  or to kind of understand the uh the translation  

or whatever without you telling what the answer  is so just like watching a movie if you tell  

people what the answer is or if they're doing  a puzzle they're trying to solve something and  

you just tell them what the answer is they will  be upset about that because they want the chance  

to solve that by themselves but language learning  as a second language it doesn't do that it just  

tells you what the answer is okay so that's  like another really big important point to  

think about for teaching English or teaching  any language really the goal is not to just  

tell people what a translation of something is  and this isn't even like a valuable thing to  

do because you're teaching them to translate the  point is to show them something and just like look  

and I can show you some other things that are also  red and I'm giving you examples of that so like  

this is like a red marker and I have uh like a red  see if they have anything other things over here

so here's a magnet red magnet akka akka so if I  hold up 10 different things and they're all red  

and I say I know that sounds funny to repeat  that you will get that understanding without  

me telling you what the answer is does everybody  get that okay this is a really important thing the  

point is to help you it's to lead you to make  the conclusion yourself and think ah I got it  

okay he means uh he's talking about the color  all right and I'll explain how this works again  

in a moment but I really want to talk about  the psychology explain why it's important to  

teach this way you don't want to just give  the answer because that's boring okay it's  

literally boring to people and they won't they  won't remember what you're teaching them but  

if you can lead them to make a discovery that's  how they're going to remember something and so  

it's much easier to do that when you're teaching  English as a first language okay akka akka Correa

all right now you can understand okay this is  red this is red not red not red all right so  

even if I just give you one example your mind is  already trying to figure out okay what does he  

mean by that okay all right so here we go we got  red I'm going to tell you what the definition is  

you do not want to do this okay this is again the  English as a second language well this would be  

Japanese as a second language but the same idea  okay so we really want to lead people uh for  

discovering things and that's really the goal of  helping someone learn a second language but you're  

learning it as a first language okay so it's like  learning any language as a first language like a  

native speaker all right that's really the goal  all right let me go here here continue with my my  

notes over here if you do have comments about  specific things I'm talking about like if you  

don't understand anything I'm covering as I go  through it just let me know in the comments here  

so we've talked about the goal of like leading  people and trying to understand things like uh  

trying to understand things it's almost like  solving a puzzle all right and so that's the  

the second kind of big point about this the third  point is that you don't want to focus on speaking  

all right and I know this sounds really weird most  of the advice that people give for English as a  

second language or any any language as a second  language uh is that you're trying to get people  

to start speaking right from the beginning uh and  so I would say okay here's like a marker and I say  

akka and then you just start repeating after me  but that's not actually going to help you speak  

and the reason or one main reason at least why why  basic repetition doesn't help you speak is because  

learning a language is different from learning  something like an instrument when you're learning  

an instrument like like a guitar you're learning  how to do very specific things and usually for  

learning to play a song there's one correct way  to play it and then you practice doing that again  

and again until it becomes automatic but language  learning doesn't work like that language learning  

uh specifically the goal of language learning  is communication and communication is dynamic  

you need to be able to respond you don't know  what people are going to say so you can't really  

practice for a conversation by repeating words  but what you can do is get lots of input that's  

going to help you understand things and that  will prepare you for conversations all right  

so I've just given you some like if I hold up 10  different things that are read you will understand  

what red is very quickly all right and I've  done that without just giving you the answer  

all right hopefully this makes sense all right  moving on so again the uh another good reason  

not to not to try to try to force people to  speak before they're ready is that you can  

really damage a person's ability to learn there's  like a filter inside your mind that stops you from  

expressing yourself it stops you from learning  when you don't feel comfortable and usually you  

don't feel comfortable because you don't really  understand what you're talking about so usually  

what's happening with natives as they're  learning I've given this example before as  

like an iceberg floating in water so we have  just a little bit of here of of like talking  

talking or speech but everything under here the  real Foundation of communication is understanding  

the language so you really understand the  language very well and that's what enables  

you to communicate so when you're teaching a  language your your goal as the teacher is just  

to make the understanding as easy as possible  and Lead students to really again discover ah  

okay I got it I understand what something means  not because you told them the answer but because  

they discovered that on their own all right so  you spend all of your time basically like 90  

you know more than 90 of your time just giving  lots of input so students get lots of examples  

of how things work just like I'm giving you  like 10 different things that are all red and  

so when you hear that same thing again in these  slightly different ways you really get a strong  

understanding of what red is in Japanese without  me telling you what the answer is okay sometimes  

it's helpful to explain something but as best as  possible you really want to make the language easy  

for people to understand all right and we do this  by working on giving lots of good input making the  

language understandable and I'll explain what I  mean by understandable in just a moment but the  

point is that we don't focus on speaking we focus  on making the language understandable because when  

you understand then you feel confident and  that's when you start speaking so speaking  

is the result of learning this way it's not the  the cause of fluency okay speaking is the result  

of learning this way so after you spend all this  time and it's actually a very quick process if you  

do it this way you will feel very comfortable and  you will start speaking automatically so whether  

you are a learner trying to learn a language  by yourself or you are a teacher trying to  

help people the point is you spend all of your  time uh just getting the understanding all right  

hopefully they'll see if I'm missing any  comments over here I think we should be

yeah so red AKA Rojo that's right so if you're  translating it into Spanish you don't want to be  

translating it either it's much more uh for for so  many good reasons when you discover something if  

I can show you and I'll give you another example  in Japanese uh there might be some Japanese people  

watching this so I usually I like to give these  examples in an alien language so I'll do that  

in a moment too but the point is you feel so much  more excited when you discover something yourself  

okay that's really the whole point and so  we want language learning is is a process  

that actually can happen very quickly but if you  have no motivation then of course you don't want  

to learn if a teacher is just telling you what  something is you don't really remember you're  

not engaged in the learning you don't feel excited  and so you forget what you learn all right so we  

want to stay I want you to keep you uh keep you  motivated and actually have you have you really  

discovering things and feeling much more confident  about the language because of that all right so I  

think looks like we don't have any questions so  far people understand it's a pretty good idea

all right so the goal of understanding is the  same way you learn uh and you can do this with  

understandable messages but let me explain like  what understanding means because I will often  

have adult Learners say to me Drew uh like this  method doesn't make any sense I already understand  

the language but I can't speak all right so let me  really make this very clear for not only teachers  

but Learners as well what's really happening when  I talk about understanding or how your mind is  

working is there a kind of uh like three levels  generally speaking about understanding or three  

ways of understanding uh some new vocabulary or  grammar whatever that is and so the first one I  

guess I could order these in either way we'll put  this as like I don't know level level one two and  

three so kind of working up from from down here  usually the first thing we have here is exposure

exposure just means you're hearing something  or maybe you read something and you can kind  

of understand it it's it's a little bit um it's  it's like now known to you so you just know some  

information you're exposed to that information but  maybe you couldn't use it fluently and you maybe  

you would probably forget that if you don't  hear it again the second level is awareness

and this is when you recognize something  so if I if I hear somebody else using it  

my passive vocabulary is at this level  and I think oh okay I understand when  

other people are using it but I'm still  stuck at this level uh for ownership

so ownership means I'm fluent and I can actually  take that vocabulary and use it so at all of these  

levels I'm still talking about understanding the  language but if we have only exposure then we will  

likely forget that information so this is usually  what happens when teachers are moving too quickly  

or students are learning maybe they watch a bunch  of YouTube videos that teach random vocabulary and  

then they don't review that anymore so you're  getting exposure to the language and you might  

have awareness if you can remember it but usually  this is just like the the passive vocabulary  

and the ownership level is the active [Music] the  active vocabulary where you actually understand  

and can use and can recall and you actually feel  confident really knowing what it means so when  

students say to me Drew I understand a lot of the  language but I can't speak this is the problem  

okay so you're not you're not actually  understanding the language well enough to speak  

all right so I when I gave the example before  about looking at things that different things  

that are read and you're learning the Japanese  for that uh I'll give another example now  

and this is where we get the  idea from from kind of there's  

is basically two pieces of  this so there's understanding

understanding like a native [Music]  

so understanding like a native means you're  getting information all in English and you're  

learning it the same way a native would learn it  uh and number two is the naturally varied review

now review is important because if you only hear  something one time you will just maybe have the  

exposure or awareness level of understanding  but you won't actually develop fluency and again  

this is just how the mind works we really need to  get lots of exposure to the language and we need  

to hear varied review otherwise if we just hear  something if I just say like I keep repeating that  

you're not going to remember that very well but  if I give you lots of naturally varied review so  

an example of this for vocabulary purposes we've  got akka akka and if I give you 10 more things  

20 more things 50 more things you will really  feel very confident about saying the word akka  

all right so understanding like a native  and naturally varied review all right

so hopefully this makes sense so far I'll give you  another Japanese example and then kind of an alien  

example just in case there are any Japanese people  watching this video as well this is really most  

powerful for Learners and teachers when you uh  when you don't already know the language all right  

so I'll just give you a quick lesson in Japanese  and we'll see what you can understand it's  

important to know that there are different  kinds of naturally varied review so the two  

things I'm going to do number one teach you all  in Japanese without having you uh try to remember  

anything and using your native language uh or try  to give you translations anything because I don't  

know what your native language is so I can't  use your native language but I can help you  

make uh make you really make the make Japanese  understandable and that will help you learn it  

but the naturally varied review comes in many  different ways and part of that is because if  

I just show you something one time and you never  see these words again then you'll probably just  

forget them again we're getting to the exposure  level maybe awareness but we're not getting you  

to the ownership level where you really feel  confident about that and so we really need to  

give you lots of different examples and it could  be examples over time so we give you more examples  

on different days I can give you a lesson today  you come back tomorrow you learn a little bit more  

you extend and you deepen your understanding  and then that's where you start feeling more  

confident about speaking alright so we don't have  you practice saying anything the goal is not to  

repeat me it's to understand the language so well  that you remember it and can use it automatically  

all right so quick lesson in Japanese marker  marker marker marker Akai Maka imaka o

aoi Maga Akai Maka

akka akka akka Akai G-Shock G-Shock G-Shock

U

AO

kudo kudoy Maka o aoi markup Korea

sorry

caught it up sort it up correct sorry all right  so that was just a very basic example in Japanese  

and if I could continue teaching you that and  give you lots more examples and you also heard  

different Native Japanese speakers giving  you those same examples of course you would  

become fluent automatically it would be guaranteed  because we're teaching you the way your mind the  

way your brain wants to learn languages all right  does that make sense all right so let me give you  

another example of this naturally varied review in  a different language all right so if I'm teaching  

you let's say we're trying to teach some aliens  some English or something like that or aliens  

or we're going to a different alien planet and I  give you a kind of typical flash card here uh let  

me see I'm gonna I'm gonna put this try to try to  give like a pretty good uh picture of this thing

so if I show you this just  give you a flash card and I say

blah blah so imagine I'm I'm like an  alien trying to teach you something

blah blah so if I just show you this your  understanding level is maybe like could  

be 80 percent so you're thinking to yourself I  don't know what does he mean maybe I mean shape  

maybe I mean a tool maybe I mean wrench

something else and so if I only give you  one example of something it's making it  

more difficult for a learner to understand all  right and so if I just say blah like a like a  

regular teacher in a classroom and I'm holding up  a flash card I say blah and students are looking  

like I don't quite understand what that means all  right it's not immediately clear and the goal is  

again helping you really understand it so we  want to take you from 80 percent all the way  

up to 100 level of understanding because then  you would feel confident about saying the word  

blah because you know what it means you would  understand it you would understand it well you  

would feel confident about using it so I give  you another flash card uh let's let's see this

blah so black blah now you're understanding maybe  you're you're moving a little bit forward so we  

know we're not talking about wrench because this  is not a wrench it's a different thing all right  

it could be a shape it could be a tool maybe so  our understanding is improving maybe we're at  

like 90 because we can we can guess maybe this  is a like a little bit better so I give you yet  

another flash card and this is where I'm going to  give you let's see here's uh something different

and so with each one of these things  blah blah blah and if I give you maybe  

10 more examples of different things it would  become clear okay he's talking about a tool  

but this is it's on the teacher to explain this  and make it clear for learners okay so if you just  

show something one time if you have one example  of something it's really not very clear what it  

is and that's why people use translations because  they don't have a better way of making it clear  

to Learners so they have to use translations that  just say okay like we can't just explain what it  

is and help you get more examples of something  we're just going to tell you what the answer is  

and that ruins the learning okay so that ruins  the motivation it destroys the understanding and  

you're just going to make it forgettable so this  is why I'm going to give you a bunch of different  

examples and I'm trying to help you really this is  one example of naturally varied review where your  

understanding is likely not perfect from the first  one so we give you more and more until we can get  

you all the way to 100 and when you feel you  are at 100 that's when you want to speak that's  

when you feel confident and comfortable okay so we  don't start by having you repeat words or say them  

out loud what we do is really make the language  understandable okay so that's again we want to  

like if I just expose you to the language if I say  blah I want to take you from awareness all the way  

up to ownership so you really feel confident blah  blah blah blah blah you're hearing it again and  

again but in different ways and each of these  really help to you're kind of like trying to  

find the Target and understand something the same  way a native would now it's interesting to note  

here that uh even as natives are learning their  native language most natives are not learning  

their language this efficiently so a child  might hear blah like their dad says like blah  

and they don't know if their dad is talking about  the color the shape what it's used for if we're  

talking about a general group of something it's  only over time as Learners get more examples of  

things that they really start understanding ah  okay now I remember my dad said like two years ago  

my dad said blonde he meant wrench or he meant  tool or he meant whatever all right so the really  

great thing about being able to teach a language  if you teach it like a native but you teach it  

this way you can actually get fluent faster than  natives are getting fluent because you're making  

the language really understandable Isn't that  cool so without trying to make the language too  

easy you can still give lots of naturally varied  review make the language understandable students  

feel excited about learning and again the progress  happens very fast all right so you're not telling  

people what the answer is you're leading them to  discover what that is and if this is why like we  

have these multiple icons in Frederick so this is  an app we created for people specifically learning  

English as a first language it's one of the  resources you can find at the link in in the link  

in the description below this video but the basic  idea is that if we give you only one image for  

something thing it's much easier for you to forget  that or to not really understand it very well but  

if we give you multiple images it's all of them  together that create these layers of understanding  

and when you really understand something then  you speak okay it doesn't make any sense to try  

speaking before you feel very confident about  what you say so again we don't want to spend  

time telling Learners things and having them try  to repeat them after us you don't get fluent by  

repetition as I mentioned earlier in the video  remember language is dynamic communication is  

dynamic so we don't want to spend time repeating  things when we might hear something completely  

different in a conversation but if we get lots of  different examples and we really feel confident  

about something in the same way we don't just  hear one person speaking we hear lots of different  

natives giving these same examples and in that  way you feel very confident about what you're  

hearing okay so I'm hearing 20 different natives  say the same thing you feel very confident about  

that you really understand it you're prepared in  conversations for that and that's when you start  

speaking okay so specifically for teachers out  there the goal is not speaking from the start  

the goal is understanding from the start worked  and then you become a more confident speaker  

all right and let me see if I have anything else  uh I wanted to talk about for this it's much  

easier for you to see how this works and rather  than me giving a whole bunch of examples in this  

video I created a whole playlist uh this was even  over 10 years ago so I've been teaching this way  

for many years and right on YouTube there's a  playlist you can click on in the description as  

well that will show you these steps for someone  who's an absolute beginner so part of this can be  

done with that playlist it's just learning through  videos if you want to watch someone so it actually  

shows me teaching English all in English so it's  learning English has a first language for absolute  

beginners and this is also good for people who  still make a lot of basic mistakes the other  

thing you can use also is Frederick which is also  linked in the description below and another thing  

I created a blog post or it's really like an  actually long article about the five main ways  

that people learn different languages so people  want to learn English there are five main ways  

that people do this and I cover all of that in  that article as well and then of course we've  

got fluent for life which is how Learners adult  Learners are learning the language and they are  

focusing on this way of learning for people  who already understand a lot of English but  

can't speak so the big problem for most of those  Learners they're at the understanding level but  

they don't they don't really think or it's it's  probably my fault for not being clear enough about  

those different stages of understanding and so  when I say like the goal is understanding people  

think like okay I know the vocabulary but I can't  speak so the problem is you don't really know the  

vocabulary well enough you're not really spending  enough time with it and even if you don't speak  

you can still become fluent because the goal is  understanding all right all right now let me go  

back and answer some questions but I think that  covers everything again the the basic idea of all  

this is really just learning English the same  way a native would learn it all right but you  

can actually do this much more efficiently if you  can get the right information to Learners so as a  

teacher you should be thinking about that how can  I make the language understandable all in English  

rather than me trying to use translations so if  you use a translation it means the language is not  

understand okay if you use translations it means  the language is not understandable and as you go  

through this process I've given you some basic  examples with simple things and visual things but  

obviously as the language becomes more advanced  you should be able to use all of the things all  

of the vocabulary you learned so far to explain  more things in more advanced ways but it can all  

be done in English all right so let me go back and  look at questions but that's the basic idea about  

this I didn't want to take so long and hopefully  if there are any other questions about this I can  

explain them but let me go back through comments  looks like we've got some people saying hello from  

various places nice to see everybody here got  Venezuela Brazil keep your accent this is part  

of your identity yes so again like the the accent  when people I know a lot of people are interested  

in either removing their accent or developing a  particular kind of accent accent is less important  

than grammar and this is how you learn well  grammar vocabulary everything uh but don't worry  

so much about your accent if you have an accent  yes like it can like part of the accent is part of  

who you are uh and also it's less important than  grammar the point is really to be correct when you  

speak and if you sound you know you have an accent  or whatever as long as it's understandable then I  

wouldn't worry so much about that but it is nice  like for me I like to like if I'm talking on the  

phone in Japanese I want people to think like oh  is this guy Japanese or not that's just like part  

of my goal for that but each person has their  own their own goal all right let's see here if  

we have any more questions um let's see hello  everyone from Ecuador more Brazil Brazil's in  

the house yes Bangladesh efl so much better yes  Luke is you're right uh saludos Disney I can't  

I can't even I'm not going to try to read that I  can't read that well I'm sure Ecuador so this is  

another example of like if I just if I just read  something and I can't pronounce it correctly I'm  

probably not going to feel very confident about  saying it but if I hear 10 different people  

speaking and like hear you know the name  of something then I'm probably going to  

understand it well and feel a lot more confident  about that good morning from Nepal uh let's see  

agreement says I love your method of teaching and  learning the language yes remember I I haven't  

done anything special or different all I'm doing  is making it clear how like the the native process  

works and letting teachers and Learners know that  it's possible for you to do that also so you don't  

need to be a native to learn like a native okay  you don't need to be in a native English-speaking  

country to learn like a native you really just  need to get the right input and this is what we do  

in videos or in programs like fluent for life or  Frederick we've created these systems that allow  

people to learn all by themselves and you can  actually become fluent without speaking this way  

all right uh let's see and of course we get  a uh an ambulance or something like usual  

uh how's it going Kazakhstan online to hear you  glad to hear it nice to see you there I recommend  

you guys watch Ellen two very good to practice  your listening yes like when people talk about  

watching a particular thing uh there's a very  useful useful kind of proverb it takes a village  

to raise a child and this means you should not be  only listening to me for improving your English  

you want to listen to lots of different people  including mostly natives so rather than trying  

to listen to a bunch of teachers you should  be working up to understanding the native  

level because again the way teachers speak is  often very different from how natives actually  

communicate all right so including myself so what  we do in fluent for life is we actually take you  

through these different steps uh from the kind of  understanding at this level to understanding at  

the native level and feeling more confident about  that [Music] uh so active alone how can we do this  

in a good level um so again it's about getting  more naturally varied review I give an example  

of this for adult Learners who already understand  a lot of English there's a recent video I made  

about making espresso and that is uh it's it's got  different examples of it's one kind of naturally  

varied review and so this example is you watch  different people doing the same thing and so they  

would talk about it in slightly different ways  so you would have some overlap in the vocabulary  

so in that video I walk you through uh four  different videos about making espresso and you  

can do this by yourself obviously the benefit of  having a guide like me is that I can explain to  

you what the vocabulary is in a natural native way  but you watch let's say the first video and maybe  

there are a lot of things you don't understand but  you watch the second video and you think oh yeah  

look at that here are some a lot of the same words  and phrases that appear again and we watch a third  

video and look at that all these same words and  phrases are appearing again and you're going to  

get a little bit of overlap here and here and  then we watch a fourth video and look at that  

so all of this vocabulary in here you're going  to feel very very confident about that and this  

increases as you get more and what you'll notice  as you're a learner or even as you're a teacher  

and you notice this in your students is when they  understand something uh they will they will really  

feel confident about saying that so especially  little kids uh and after you reviewed something  

so many times you know the pattern so the language  pattern in the one example from that video uh is  

taking some coffee and and pressing it down in  the little coffee filter now in like the coffee  

world this is called tamping something down so to  Tamp down the coffee but I had never heard of that  

like you I know the word temp but I had not heard  it used in that way I didn't know that was even  

like a special word for that industry and so now I  know the word Tamp and I could explain how to make  

espresso just by watching all of these different  videos about doing it all right so as I hear  

something more and more I will anticipate that in  conversations I will know what people are going  

to talk about and then it really helps me to to  understand kind of how the flow of conversations  

work or how people are going to describe something  all right so if they're especially steps in doing  

something this is a really great way to learn uh  for for anybody trying to learn by themselves and  

this is what we do in fluent for life so we want  to give you not only the real language but we  

want to give it to you again and again and again  in different ways the point is really not to be  

bored as you learn and to help you discover the  language for yourself rather than me just telling  

you the answer or giving you a translation in your  native language all right now uh one final point  

about this that I'll say for teachers is that it's  it's really uh it's important to remember that  

Learners will often not tell you if they don't  understand all right so imagine you're a teacher  

in a classroom and you've got lots of students  and you give them an example of something and  

you say hey does everyone understand this and if  people do not understand they will usually not say  

so all right they will not admit that they don't  understand something and so even natives when they  

are learning like a parent is trying to explain  something to their child uh that student or that  

child might not understand but they just like yeah  I understand you know because it's embarrassing if  

you don't understand but the truth is it's the  teacher's fault if the child or student does not  

understand something all right so it's my fault  as a teacher if my lessons are not understandable  

okay so that's why I go over things again and  again and again and a lot of my videos are  

just talking about the same thing in different  ways and it's interesting to see when Learners  

uh like they go through examples of things and  they like one one student might learn one thing  

and get it quickly and another student might  take a few times and and they still get it but  

that's why I cover things in many different ways  so remember most people will will not admit they  

don't understand something so until you can see  it in their eyes and they start wanting to speak  

just keep reviewing that information uh let's  see all right foxtrot says good evening teacher  

curious says hello you help us a lot thank you  sometimes I feel good at English but sometimes  

not it depends on my mood I don't know why well  psychology is a very important part of learning  

and so the way you feel you might be feeling  confident on a particular day I know even me  

sometimes I'm like Oh my Japanese feels like  a little bit worse today or my Japanese feels  

awesome today it just happens like that also  you will notice uh depending on the the thing  

you're talking about so if you're talking about  something that you know very well then you can  

probably feel more confident about that but if  you don't feel confident about that or you don't  

know that vocabulary very well you will feel less  confident and that will affect your speaks speech

uh

all right and uh let's see Paul's tences hi Drew  newbie ESL teacher in China here I have a question  

when you teach how long do you stay on a topic  to take a group of adult Learners from exposure  

to ownership and how do you know when so again uh  remember people will not likely uh say that they  

understand something so you really should make  it very clear you're teaching it all in English  

you're giving them many examples until like you  can kind of see it in their face this is a lot  

easier to do especially if you have a classroom  of people and you're looking at them right now I  

can't see your face so anybody watching this video  I can get it like if people type something that's  

like oh I get it I understand then I know they  understand but again it's nice if you can actually  

see their face so if I'm teaching my own children  I can see if they really understand something or  

not and the true test is if they could actually  use it themselves but the important thing here  

is I don't want to put pressure on them to speak  especially before they're ready the goal again  

is not for them to speak it's for me to make the  language understandable and then they would feel  

confident using the language after that so I  would repeat something as many times as I need  

until they're like all right we get it like  I understand you know it's like okay like ask  

them a question and see if they respond back  so if I keep giving you examples in Japanese  

and like if I keep doing it and I see you're like  okay like we get it we get it it's like all right  

do you get it today and then I would test them  again the next day and the next day to see if  

they actually still understand that so they might  understand understand something at the moment you  

probably remember akka so I'm talking about  the color red in Japanese but maybe tomorrow  

you've forgotten okay and that's understandable  again if we you know knowing the the word for  

sure for uh red in Japanese is not essential  for your daily life so you probably will not  

remember that information but if you're trying  to learn the language and you want to be reminded  

of that you should be reminded in a different way  so in a different context I don't want to just  

repeat it like these flash card things uh spaced  repetition it's much more efficient to learn with  

naturally varied review because your brain learns  more from getting these varied examples than it  

does from just seeing the same thing again and  again all right so it's boring to the brain the  

brain wants lots of new examples okay so good  question uh I would take more time and again  

test them on on future future days as well  so use that use that time to review it's  

much better especially if you're trying to get  people to speak uh to focus on stuff more than  

than most people would feel like comfortable  with but the point is if you're using different  

examples so if you just repeat something again  and again it will get boring very quickly but if  

I give five different examples of something all  in the same lesson it's covering the same topic  

then it will be much more interesting for people  and they will naturally enjoy that lesson More

hello from angle this is uh Alfonso  

all right hopefully all right I think I answered  Paulson's question good question though hello  

all right I'm learning more English on here  than my college classes yes uh and you will  

learn even more when you just focus on uh  adult or just really content for natives  

uh so what I do in these videos is trying to help  Learners and explain to them that number one they  

can get fluent like a native and number two it's  possible to do that without being in like a native  

English-speaking country so the point is really  to focus until you understand something very well  

uh and that's how you know you can understand  it like you can use it so that's how you know  

you're getting to that level all right Alfonso  again how can I get motivation for learning new  

vocabulary uh it's got to be interesting for you  it should be like a puzzle you're trying to solve  

all right so often like you're either trying to  review something and hear it in different ways  

or you're learning some new content and you  understand maybe 80 or 90 of it all right so  

the the language learning process especially  for new vocabulary it works like a puzzle so  

if we imagine our puzzle here and we've got uh  you know like different different puzzles tapes

usually as you're starting to get fluent like  if you imagine a baby a baby will over time  

begin filling in these puzzle pieces but as I  mentioned earlier in the video parents are not  

very efficient about how they teach so the baby  will get like a random example and this could be  

you know a six-year-old kid or even a 10 year  old kid something they might not understand  

an example with only one but as they continue to  get more examples they fill in the understanding  

of that and so if you're trying to learn new  vocabulary you should have all of these pieces  

mostly filled in so you understand already 80 to  90 percent of something so if I'm going to read  

a book in Japanese I should understand most of it  so anything new I can understand from the context  

all right so when you're teaching people again  this is a great reason why uh a non a non-native  

learner can get fluent much faster than a native  because the teacher if the teacher does a good job  

you can make the language very understandable very  quickly so you can teach it efficiently make sure  

people really understand things without spending  a lot of time doing things a traditional way

uh C

uh okay uh so hi everybody from Malaysia how can  I okay I answer that question yesterday I tried  

to catch the jokes from movie Dumb and Dumber  but several got mostly missed unfortunately but  

I trapped yeah so that just means there are too  many like empty pieces of the puzzle and remember  

that you might understand vocabulary but you might  not understand cultural references or particular  

uh uses of that vocabulary so that's the thing  that you learn over time the same way a native  

does so natives will often not understand a joke  in a movie if they also don't know some kind of  

reference there's actually a funny uh joke about  this in I think it was the uh The Avengers movie  

so in The Avengers movie if you have not seen that  it's a bunch of superheroes that are together they  

make a superhero team called The Avengers uh and  one of the characters uh what's his name Tony  

Stark is the guy who plays Iron Man so he likes to  make little little quips little kind of jokes he  

says funny things and what's interesting about the  the team is that they're all from the same time  

period uh actually I think we'll like Thor one of  the characters I mean he's like from a different  

planet or whatever it's kind of confusing but  the interesting thing is one of the characters  

Captain America uh he's much older because he was  basically Frozen for a long time and they brought  

him back into the present so in his his movie he's  like I don't know 50 years older than everybody  

else but he still looks young so there's a point  in the movie where uh the characters are telling  

different jokes and Captain America doesn't  understand what they're talking about he's  

like I don't understand but then they use a a joke  that's a little bit more from his time period and  

he's like ah I got that reference he says I got  that reference all right so that's an example of  

him knowing the language but not knowing the joke  so don't feel bad about that it's just a you know  

getting used to the language that's something  that happens naturally as you start learning  

more like this we actually cover a lot of that  in uh in fluent for life so we're trying to  

show people like here's what the reference is  and here's the kind of thing how here's how  

you can learn more about that and here's why the  joke is funny that kind of thing uh uh all right

uh so Alfonso says what is the best way of  learning vocabulary in English so I've just  

covered that here and again that's really  helping you understand things like a native  

so uh naturally varied review where you're  learning you're focusing on one particular  

word or expression and you're hearing that in  many different ways from different speakers in  

different tenses all of that is going to help you  use the vocabulary very easily all right it was  

says then I watch Forrest Gump and shadowing the  Tom Hanks accent it was so funny I think it is the  

best way to study and have fun yeah so if that's  working for you fantastic if you can understand  

a whole movie like that that's great your English  is already at a good level but if you still have  

mostly a passive vocabulary I would focus more on  particular things that you that you struggle with  

uh hi everyone from Vietnam nice to see you there  good to see you uh I'm a Magno from Brazil Sao  

Paulo Stanley says great job thank you oops not  watch watching good evening is this live yes it is  

uh let's see yes it's live right now but  if you're watching it later then it's not  

all right so Lewis says yes psychology good  answer yes it's it's interesting to think about  

the psychology of language learning and a lot  of teachers don't focus on that they just focus  

on the language itself but if you don't know a  lot of things about how the human mind works and  

how the human mind learns then you're kind of  wasting your time uh so Mohammed says I cannot  

remember words yes you're so you're stuck at the  uh exposure or awareness level of understanding  

and not at the ownership level and it just means  you didn't get enough varied review to get you  

to that higher level if you watch what view I  I have a video that talks about that like the  

three levels of understanding uh it's a recent  live video I did I would watch that if I were you  

all right Drew I enjoyed the video about espresso  glad here at Ceda uh yeah so the that's just one  

example of that to help people understand like  it is possible and you can continue I would spend  

more time the reason I picked those videos is  because they wouldn't like get me a copyright  

strike so I I was funny I just took like the top  four videos I found for that but you will find  

a lot and I would recommend like listening to  different people like listening to women speak  

I didn't have any women in that video because I  couldn't find any but I would recommend people  

go out and you will you will learn even more even  if you watch the exact same vocabulary from two  

different speakers you will learn a lot more uh  let's see all right it's enough fees enough if  

I'm pronouncing that correctly my beloved teacher  it's my pleasure glad to hear it Paulson thanks  

Drew glad to hear it uh let's give Drew lots of uh  a little thumbs up yes please do if you know other  

people who would like to learn this way what I do  is really helping people who know a lot of English  

but still struggle to speak really the reason is  they're just not getting review and the naturally  

varied review that's like that's that's really the  the uh it's probably the most important thing that  

I teach of like you know I think a lot of what  I do is important obviously but the naturally  

varied review point is really important because it  gives you the review you need without being bored  

uh so hello everyone this is Lucas again it's Lima  I don't feel any Improvement in my skill after my  

beginner classes what advice can you recommend for  me uh salima I would recommend learning English as  

a native speaker so English as a first language  rather than learning English as a second language  

your beginner classes I'm guessing taught you  English through your native language and it  

created more problems than Solutions unfortunately  so it's not your fault if you have trouble  

communicating it's really just the way most people  teach the language and so as soon as you make this  

switch and you can do this like we have this at  all levels at englishanyone.com so the lowest one  

again you can begin with that video playlist that  we have right here on YouTube if you watch that  

that's in the description uh Frederick do this as  well it's also in the description or fluent for  

life for people who already know a lot of English  but still can't speak so that's for intermediate  

to Advanced learners Drew is awesome glad to hear  it konichiwa Drew says Elena nice to see you there  

uh prateek says I'm always stuck while talking  in English yep again the answer I bet people can  

guess naturally varied review you just need to  get more review and the varied review is really  

important it's not just repeating something again  and again it's hearing it in different situations  

from different speakers in different time periods  all of that is going to naturally improve your  

vocabulary and your memory and make you feel much  more confident uh spend time memorizing words with  

space repetition words no I would not do that  again like spaced repetition is useful only  

because people don't think about like naturally  varied review and how how language learning really  

works for for communication so the goal is not  it's not even to like just remember vocabulary  

really the goal is to prepare yourself for  spontaneous communication all right so remember  

language learning is different from trying to  learn to play an instrument or even learn like  

a physical like a like a punch when I'm doing a  martial art something like that so if I'm learning  

karate okay I'm gonna do like my punch and  practice that again and again but maybe in a in  

a real fight someone breaks a bottle over my head  and oh [ __ ] like now what am I gonna do I like  

maybe they maybe my arm is held down and I'm not  prepared for that all right so there's different  

kind of practicing that you do for particular  things but learning like trying to practice a  

song where you repeat something again and again to  get good at doing that that's not going to prepare  

you to play jazz music and to improvise and to  make your own kind of music very well that's a  

different kind of learning so when you're learning  in a conversation or preparing for a conversation  

uh the goal is really to be ready for for number  one all of the very the various things that you  

might hear from other people uh but then also to  feel very confident about the kinds of responses  

you would make all right so you need to first  like feel confident about listening uh to other  

conversations often people or other people in  conversations often people will feel uh they  

will feel nervous about expressing themselves  or they will not feel confident about about  

what they say uh because they're worrying about  what they will say and they're they're kind of  

in their own head and this is a problem  for English as a second language learners

uh let's see all right so hopefully that makes  sense so so much better than space repetition  

is naturally varied review Ellen says I'm not able  to travel to Japan I will have to meet you I'm not  

in your hometown yep uh so I think Elena you're in  Chicago I think my dad is actually coming out here  

next week I haven't he's never been to well he's  never been to Japan while I've been here but he  

will be here next week so I get to hang out with  him he's bringing some Chicago with him I guess  

all right so full house is uh thanks a lot Andrew  you are the best I learned with you and today  

I'm an English teacher in a private school wow  fantastic hopefully you were following the efl  

method I know that's uh it's more difficult for  some people because their school makes them learn  

this way I don't know why anybody continues to  do this uh I mean my basic ideas that most people  

don't think it's possible to learn English as a  first language they just think it's not possible  

to translate but even if you're only teaching for  a test this is still a much more efficient way  

of learning so it's much faster and the Learners  would learn how to speak as well uh Solomon needs  

to see their High coach from India I understand  a little bit but I don't speak help yeah so uh  

Lillian just spend more time with the language  with specific things you want to learn but it  

should be all in English all right so if you don't  understand something again we got our exposure  

awareness ownership level of of communication  uh so we if you only uh like hear something one  

time you will likely forget that and you will  not really understand the language well enough  

to use it so this is why I mean just to make it  very clear for people people argue with me about  

this but if you don't feel confident if you don't  know something then how would you be able to speak  

if you don't know something if you don't  know vocabulary very well if you don't  

feel confident about it how would you be able to  speak all right so why focus on speaking first  

you don't focus on speaking first you spoke  you focus on understanding it and then when  

you feel are really confident because you  understand something that's when you speak  

um let's see and that says how do I learn  English as a first language go back and  

watch this video watch this video again but  the basic idea is the things I'm talking about  

number one learning all in English number  two getting naturally varied review so this  

is not a traditional like spaced repetition  where you're just hearing something again and  

again we want to give you lots of different  varied input that really makes the language  

easy to understand it keeps you motivated and it  builds your memory and fluency automatically uh

uh let's see so Lil Wayne you guys are speaking  with each other okay and particular sir is English  

your first language if not then what's your  first language yes my first language is English  

uh my second language is nihonglo Japanese  but I don't really uh now that I understand  

more about language learning I don't really  think about them as like my first and second  

language it's just both of them are my first  language but one of them I just know less so  

I know less Japanese but I'm learning them both  like a first language all right so you can know  

multiple first languages this is how you should  be thinking about it uh salima again I didn't  

learn anything in my native language I have  American Canadian teachers but my problem is  

that I have a strong language only inside the  classroom outside the classroom I feel bad yes  

so again the most people spend time in this it's  like a bubble a language learning bubble where  

they don't really get much exposure to uh to the  real language that natives are using most people  

teaching language in a classroom are not going  to give you the real language that natives speak  

and so this is another reason why people ask me  Drew please teach me privately give me private  

lessons it'd be a waste of your time to get  private lessons because you shouldn't be learning  

only with one person and you should be learning  with lots of native examples all right so not only  

learning with me but like lots of native people  who are actually speaking the language the way it  

is in real life and so what we do is we we get you  up to that level like the first lesson you'll hear  

it it's easier to understand we're teaching you  a lot of vocabulary but then you hear that same  

vocabulary and grammar used in a real conversation  so you hear how natives would blend their words  

together and and again like you you need a way to  bridge that I call that the fluency Gap so you're  

able to understand and communicate in a lesson  but if you can't do that in a real conversation  

it means you're not getting enough review and  practice to get you up to that level all right

uh uh all right Pablo says great uh how can I  learn German from English or should I use the same  

method yes so remember every learn every language  as if it's your first language that's the secret  

right that's really that's really the whole that's  the secret under underpinning everything else it's  

like the one ring to rule them all you know you  got like there's all these other you know Secrets  

or things about language learning but this is the  core if you learn it as a first language like a  

native speaker you will become fluent much faster  than doing anything else and in fact most things  

like learning it as a second language will prevent  you from doing that now unfortunately I don't know  

uh anybody who who really does there's really  nobody who does this in English but me uh so  

you will get lots of people that teach English  and English but really going into the detail  

um and and trying to make it understandable and  giving you the naturally varied review you need to  

to not only make it like it's like a simulation of  a native environment but it's much more efficient  

but I don't know anybody who does that in other  languages so it's kind of hard actually I want  

to do a um like a challenge just for myself just  to spend maybe a week if I had like some language  

learning material in a different language that  teaches the way I teach like the way I teach in  

Frederick or the other videos I have if I had  something like that for a different language  

like learning Arabic or Hindi or something like  that I would I would do that just to show people  

it's possible to do them but nobody has that  information available I'd have to kind of create  

that myself which is kind of a pain in the you  know this is why it took me a while to get fluent  

in Japanese once I understood this now I can just  understand things very easily but if you don't  

have a teacher there to give you the material  it's more difficult to to follow the system  

laughs uh let's see so yes if you can learn German  in German all right uh well and uh again Cheyenne  

hopefully I'm pronouncing that again correctly  thank you for all the great comments it's nice  

to see you visiting the channel thank you again uh  glad to hear it glad to hear we're being helpful  

uh yes living in Chicago say hi to your dad for me  yes I will say yes Miss Elena is also in Chicago  

let me what's what area specifically are you  in so we are in uh like the South Side Ariel  

says uh greetings from Cuba your way of teaching  blew up my mind all right now this is a uh that's  

close very good so you would just say to blow my  mind blow up your mind is like kind of exploding  

exploding your mind that's the idea of the phrase  but the actual phrases to blow my mind and again  

if you heard 10 different people use blow my mind  like oh wow that explanation blew my mind no he  

really blew my mind you know if you're hearing  different people in different situations then you  

will feel very confident about using that so Lucas  says yes comprehensible input uh so I want to make  

it clear Lucas about how the comprehensible  input actually works so like crashing talks  

about getting comprehensible input and he's  talking about over time but it's important that  

you don't just repeat the same input all right so  that's the it's kind of the thing I'm adding to  

that so he's absolutely right that you should  be learning English like a native or learning  

whatever language like a native but it's important  to get the naturally varied review that tells you  

how to teach over time to build fluency and memory  and confidence and motivation all right so you  

don't want to just get comprehensible input and  repeat it you want to get naturally varied review  

foreign Jefferson says hi Andrew I would like  to thank you for all your great lessons I've  

learned a lot from you I'm living here in Boston  and I would love to meet you one day uh it would  

be great yeah that would be great I haven't  been back to America in a couple of years now  

uh let's see how do you suppose to exactly I'm  always stuck on this well you're supposed to it's  

just when you're making a recommendation about  something like you're supposed to learn this way  

but a lot of people don't you're supposed to  but tomorrow I'm supposed to uh I'm supposed  

to go to the dentist but I think maybe I will  not so I'm supposed to supposed to all right  

and also again uh there's the understanding  of it and like the understanding of a phrase  

or expression or grammar Point like supposed  to but when you hear in a real conversation  

it's often supposed to yeah I'm supposed to  do this I'm supposed to do that all right so  

let me put it up on the board for you so you see  the difference again this is why we why we teach  

people in fluent for life so the learner is down  here so they already have like some understanding  

and some knowledge but the native level of speech  is up here it's almost like a different language  

from here to here all right so down here in  a regular English classroom you hear supposed

to all right so one example of this like I  am supposed to do something like tomorrow I  

should or it's recommended or that's the plan  but maybe something will change or right now  

I'm supposed to be in Africa but my I don't  know my plane got canceled and now I'm still  

in Japan all right that's not true actually I'm  just giving an example all right so there's one  

level of the learning is the vocabulary itself  all right so understanding really what it means  

but you also have to be prepared for how it is in  a real conversation which often sounds more like  

suppose [Music] supposed to suppose death yeah  I'm supposed to do this I'm supposed to do that  

supposed to suppose suppose all right people will  often they will be speaking very quickly they're  

trying to have uh just a much more Blended fast  way of expressing themselves supposed to supposta  

so this is why you need naturally varied review  to get you up to this level you need to understand  

the vocabulary hear it used by different people  at different speeds in different time periods  

so you understand the grammar the vocabulary the  pronunciation and then you really understand this  

and you feel very confident about hearing it in  a conversation as you go through this process you  

feel much more confident about the language so  you speak okay so you could use it I'm supposed  

to do this so I'm explaining it very clearly I'm  supposed to yeah so I'm supposed to be sleeping  

but you're watching this video instead okay so  one example very good all right and as you hear  

that if you heard a hundred different examples  of I'm supposed to you would feel a lot more  

confident about using it all right but it's not  just hearing like again the the comprehensible  

input is like okay I kind of understand what it is  but the comprehensible input is really a process  

that's what naturally varied review is  comprehensible input is the process of  

hearing it uh over and over and over again all  right but in different ways so you're not just  

repeating something we're moving you from supposed  to supposed to supposed to supposed to supposed to  

supposed to supposed to supposed to supposed to  supposed supposed to it's supposed to supposed  

to supposed to okay so this is just one example  but the point is to get you from here to here  

with lots of different vocabulary and once  you're up at this level now you can really  

start learning a lot of English in English uh the  same way natives do let's see what time it is all  

right going for 75 minutes so far all right lots  of good questions though all right learn English  

with Mana nice to see good advice over there with  uh with the muscle arm there you go salima thank  

you so much Lucas says I can understand almost  everything that you're saying but when it comes  

to listen to daily conversation or movie it's very  hard to listen to again it's a different language  

English in the classroom versus English in the  real world so you have to you have to either try  

to jump directly to that by yourself which is  really hard so if you try to watch a movie or  

listen to a conversation especially a conversation  with multiple native speakers in it it can be very  

difficult your mind is working very hard to try to  process all of the information so it's much easier  

to go through this in comfortable steps this is  what we do in fluent for life all right so you  

can try to do this by yourself it's much easier  like if I'm uh watching a YouTube video about how  

to make an espresso like I showed in that espresso  video you're getting different examples of that in  

a classroom kind of feel but it's a native speaker  doing that for other native speakers and then if  

you just ask a barista that's like the highest  level of that so if you ask a barista hey how  

do you make an espresso they would probably speak  very quickly they would be blending their sounds  

but you would be prepared for that because you  watched all of this if you don't have this and  

you try to jump directly to this it's going to be  much more uh it's going to be much more difficult  

uh all right so Vanessa says hello do you have  a list of native teachers like you like the FL  

method uh I don't know about anybody else that  teaches the way I do they're what what you  

will find especially like here on here on uh on  YouTube uh or just other like websites around you  

will find other people uh who do teach English  uh in English but it's still using ESL methods  

so actually if you if you click on the link in  the description uh below this video I have an  

article talking about the five different English  language learning methods and I talk about that  

so you've got uh people who are teaching English  through another language and using the ESL method  

so they're still teaching with translations and  telling you grammar rules and things like that and  

you also have uh people who do this like native  speakers who teach English in English but they're  

still using uh still telling you grammar rules  and still trying to get you to think about things  

that way instead of helping you understand the  grammar like a native all right so I don't know  

if anybody does that uh maybe somebody is about  it I I don't I don't know I'm not heard about  

anybody even if you search like learn English as  a first language it's like I don't know there's  

you probably wouldn't get many results for that  uh I actually I think I think this is probably  

the first video really about like how to learn  English as a first language but I've got lots of  

examples on our YouTube channel which we started  uh I don't know like over 10 years ago so even  

the First videos I made on the YouTube channel  are like examples of naturally varied review  

uh but again uh so I don't know maybe there are  people who do that I'm sure probably more people  

do it now a lot of teachers uh do Follow Follow My  Method and so they're they're teaching the way I  

do now but I'm just I'm trying to make it easier  and especially now that we have more resources  

like Frederick or this playlist and you can find  the links for both of those in the description  

slim says English college is worse and wasting  time who can agree with that the Pablo says thanks  

a lot the goat English teacher hello from Mexico  thank you very much Paul and Cooper from India uh  

hello India so I'm supposed to be sleeping yes  I live close to the White Sox stadium ah yes so  

you live on the South Side as well my dad is a  fan of the White Sox he has season tickets and  

he goes uh to quite a few games he holds up  signs at the park if you see him over there  

foreign is it possible to learn English without  using your native language yes absolutely the  

point is just to learn it uh it should be  understandable so whatever your whatever your  

level is you should already understand uh at least  80 to 90 percent or you're getting lots of very  

easy to understand lessons uh the same way I do  it in like Frederick or I do it in that English uh  

like it's it's basically for beginners but anybody  even who wants to learn things like something like  

prepositions and adverbs of time and place and  that kind of thing uh it's good review for adults  

who are still making basic mistakes so you can  find links for both of those in the description  

uh little berries along the path that's a nice  name I can understand what you're saying nearly  

100 but if you ask me a certain question  I don't know where did my English go how  

to fix this problem thank you yeah so that's it  again I bet someone else can give the answer to  

that it's naturally varied review all right if  you understand something you're at the level of  

awareness but you don't feel confident using the  language so that means you're not getting enough  

review to really feel confident about it so you  need to hear more people and again like the nice  

thing about this process is you don't need to  go anywhere or know anyone to do this you just  

need more input all right and so you can get  this by yourself uh like from fluid for life  

which is what we do we have it all organized  for Learners who can who are at the level for  

our program which is intermediate to Advanced  so they know a lot of English but can't speak  

fluently but you can also do it by yourself if  you feel confident it just takes a little bit  

more time and usually people are it's there  there's a lot more vocabulary that's harder  

to understand so that's why we like to prepare  people for conversations in fluid for life and

uh salima says yes English to English is the  best way but it's good for you to have basic  

English first yeah your lessons helped  me a lot great thanks glad to hear it  

uh so I'm preparing for my IELTS this year  IELTS exam yeah for me your English is clear  

enough to understand from Morocco yes so I  am being intentionally clear all right that's  

why I say supposed to and that's supposed  to like I would in a real conversation so  

if I'm talking with a friend of mine like  it's it's a much different way of speaking  

okay so I'm like a friend of mine might say uh  hey are you are you coming to my house tomorrow  

I said I'm sorry I can't I'm supposed to go to  my friends where I'm supposed to do work I'm  

supposed to do something in my house so I have a  plan to do something but notice how I'm kind of  

mumbling my words because I like he understands  what I'm talking about he knows those language  

patterns so well that he can understand them even  if even if I'm not being clear about that yeah I'm  

supposed to do something tomorrow I'm supposed  to I'm supposed to spend time with my wife  

I'm sorry I can't come over tomorrow I'm supposed  to spend time with my wife I'm supposed to spend  

time with my wife okay so the the the like the  the words don't really change but the actual  

way of communication is so different um so this  is why if you try to go from this level to this  

level by watching movies or trying to get into  a conversation before you feel comfortable then  

of course it's going to be frustrating for you  even if you understand people you will still feel  

less confident about speaking and your replies  will likely be very simple so people will say  

something blah blah blah blah blah blah and maybe  you understand some of it and you say ah yes or no  

all right Earl says how often do you make videos  uh lately I've been doing like once a week but I  

don't think this past week I was excited to make  uh this video people have been asking me for a  

video about uh uh like how to teach English so  if teachers are asking me how for a video on how  

to teach English but really the easiest way to  see that is just to see the examples of it so  

rather than I kind of covered some some Theory and  and things about psychology in this video but if  

you look at the examples of how to do it it's just  getting information that you understand in English  

and lots of varied repetition okay so it's not  like wrote repetition with the exact same thing  

over and over again you want to get varied review  that's why it's called naturally varied review

uh so Eleanor kind of practice I  can practice my lessons Okay yeah  

so Danielle says I have a question in order to  reach the fluency in English I need to learn new  

words every day or practice words that I already  know all right uh so good question Danielle let  

me make this clear for everyone uh what you what  you usually find in ESL learning and this is even  

ESL videos right here on YouTube uh is you'll  find something that's like uh like here's 10 10  

new phrases to learn about whatever so you learn  one two three four five six seven eight nine ten  

uh and and what happens is like maybe uh you might  remember the first one or the last one they're the  

kind of psychology reasons why this happens like  usually you remember more the first thing you hear  

or the last thing you hear but the stuff in the  middle you usually forget but in general these  

things will probably be forgotten also if you  don't review them all right so the the goal is  

not to learn more vocabulary uh it's to actually  know the vocabulary you know very well all right  

so if we imagine how a native learns so if we look  at the English as a first language approach so a  

child we imagine this is like uh this is an adult  and this is a native Native child so the native  

child let's say they learn uh three new words they  are going to hear that again and again and again  

but in different ways all right so your goal as a  learner is to do what they do so if you learn this  

way you will get fluent like they do all right  remember how you learn is how you speak how you  

learn is how you speak how you learn is how you  speak I say this over and over and over again uh  

and again the point is not just just repeat  that I want to make it very clear you're not  

just learning one thing and repeating it again and  again I gave an example of uh teaching my daughter  

again I understand these things about learning  so I'm and I'm trying to teach my kids and as  

as efficiently as I can so I want to teach  them quickly I don't have a lot of time to  

teach them and they spend most of their time in  English so the only way for me to make sure they  

really get like English uh like learning English  well with the time I spend yep exactly very good  

so we got harsh so I gave that and you remember  if I don't remember the word excellent and so  

vato likely remembers that because I gave so much  varied review all right so my daughter asked me  

when I was walking her to school I said oh uh you  know you wanted to ask me something and she said  

yeah what is what does harsh mean all right so  she just gives me a word now I could just give  

her an explanation or a definition of the word I  say all harsh means I don't know like difficult  

or something and just give her a definition  but instead what I want to do is really help  

her understand it so I can give her ownership  of the word okay I want to give her ownership  

of the word so she really understands it so I  want to give her lots of different definitions  

uh or different examples of it in different  ways and so we have a word like harsh and I'd  

say well where did you hear that and then  she tells me okay like you know someone's  

kind of yelling at somebody else I say oh like  so they the person was like don't be so harsh  

it's like oh like don't be kind of mean or  difficult or make something like make it hard  

for me something I said oh maybe there  was like some harsh some harsh language

so like using some harsh words so if someone is  yelling at me they're like oh you're a bad teacher  

and like you suck and like why don't you get some  different colored markers you always use like red  

and blue or whatever is just what I have so people  get angry at me I say whoa why are you so harsh  

don't be so harsh so don't be so like all right so  that's one way of using it using it harsh weather  

so on that day we were walking it was a little  bit colder I said will this weather is okay but  

if we really have so again vato with some harsh  weather uh well now it's like it's like a blizzard  

got lots of snow very cold and uh oh my goodness  and so as I'm giving her all of those examples I  

think maybe two days ago I was thinking about  that again and I said hey all right what does  

harsh mean and she was just like difficult  you know so she gave me like you know just  

like a basic explanation but it's because she now  understands what this means she has ownership of  

the word so she can talk about harsh weather like  a harsh environment like if you live out in the  

desert and the Sun is beating down on you every  day like to beat down on you like what uh like  

that crazy sun is beating down on me uh that's  a harsh environment so it's difficult to live in  

okay so when you're getting vocabulary the point  is not to uh to learn like one thing and then  

quickly go to the next before you understand it if  you can understand something and use it fluently  

right away that's great then you can you know  just keep going but most people are not doing that  

they learn one thing uh and and this this whole  system just like it just promotes people wasting  

time on you know watching YouTube videos or  whatever uh that don't actually help them

uh the Publishers should I try to read books  in English I want to teach my daughter she's  

two years old uh yeah so you can get naturally  varied review and and books are a great way to  

do that there's also a study um on my on my site  you can look at the uh the one about I think we  

talked about reading but this is about teaching  Japanese students like these two different ways  

so if you click on the link for the five learning  methods you can learn more about that uh there's  

a link to that study also but yeah so you can  read or you can listen or you can watch and you  

should be getting all of this material from  different places if you only read it really  

slows down the language for you and you need to  hear how natives are really saying things but if  

you do that it will of course help you improve so  I learn a lot of Japanese from Reading as well as  

you know listening to people or watching movies  or something like that but reading is a great  

way to do that you can also uh have her play with  Frederick so she could even start with level one  

with the alpha bet and teach yourself language  very quickly that way so even my when my girls  

were two years old I started them using it and  so now now they can read uh and again it's it's  

pretty simple how it works like if you're letting  kids discover things for themselves uh it's  

much easier than trying to tell them what stuff  means anyway but yes reading is a very good idea  

uh Lucas again uh let's say me saying that thing  every time when I don't know the right word yeah  

that thing that thing yep how many words does it  take to be fluent in English asks Ariel okay this  

idea about how many words it takes to be fluent  in English hopefully the the example of a child  

uh and and a and an adult learner makes sense  for for people understanding this the the if  

we imagine each one of these little dots is  a vocabulary you know could be a phrase or a  

word or a grammar point or something and this is  the same thing for a native over here it doesn't  

matter how many you know because you get fluent  in each individual word or phrase as you know it  

all right so either you know that either you know  that phrase by itself either you can use it well  

or you cannot all right so what usually happens  for Learners is they have most of their vocabulary  

they can't use fluently they can understand it  they have that passive level of understanding  

but they don't they can't actually use it fluently  they don't have like enough review and they don't  

have that confidence about it but natives they  might have a smaller vocabulary they might know  

fewer words but they really feel strong about all  of this vocabulary okay so obviously when a child  

learns something new uh if they only hear it one  time they will forget that so that's why I need to  

practice the word harsh with my daughter uh so  she hears it again and again and then develops  

that fluency with it all right so the the idea  that you need to have a certain number before you  

get fluent doesn't really make any sense because  you actually get fluent in individual words and  

phrases all right so you don't you don't think  about like okay now I know 100 Words and so I can  

speak fluently but lots of Learners know maybe  a thousand words but still can't speak okay so  

it's not how many words you know it's how well  you speak how well do you know that vocabulary  

all right and it depends again you will have most  things that maybe you know to a passive level and  

some things you know at the ownership level all  right so don't worry about trying to trying to  

build up fluency by building your vocabulary  it doesn't work that way uh salima says last  

question when I speak English people around me  like my classmates and colleagues they tell me  

my English is very good but I don't feel that  inside me what can I do with that problem uh  

it depends on how good I I don't know how you  speak if your speech is actually good maybe  

you're you know you just have a self-confidence  issue about that and maybe you're worried about  

some small things about that uh usually like  English speakers can be uh they're more honest  

usually like more honest than let's say like  Japanese speakers so out here in Japan I could  

say I could pronounce Japanese badly and speak it  badly and people would say oh wow you're Japanese  

is so good you know so I'm I'm I understand like  when people are are giving me a compliment it's  

it's more like a social communication thing  um you know just trying to have like a good  

relationship rather than like actually saying my  Japanese is good so I know when when people are  

actually impressed by my Japanese or when they're  not um so I'll give you an example of that this  

was a couple years ago I was at a business it was  like a business dinner with some with various it  

was like Japanese business owners and one guy who  used to be the uh he was like the like the vice  

governor of the of like the nags like a prefecture  um but anyway so we were having a meeting uh it  

was just a dinner meeting and I was being  introduced uh so each one of us you know  

like the the speaker who organized it he was just  introducing all of us and then he introduced me he  

was like ah this is Drew he's from America uh and  I was like and I said like oh I've been found out  

in Japanese I was like uh and everybody started  laughing uh and so they they like because the  

joke is like it's all a bunch of Japanese people  and me I'm clearly not Japanese based on how I  

look so I was making a joke that like uh oh they  found me out that I'm not Japanese uh but in in  

that case like I didn't need anyone to tell me oh  your Japanese is good like you I made like a very  

good joke it was a very simple example uh in that  situation uh and people laughed and I understood  

like that was like them showing respect to my  ability like even though I didn't speak a lot I  

was just I really said one word uh but it was well  timed and people understood like my use of the  

language was very good so again it could be like a  psychology thing where you know maybe you're hard  

on yourself for whatever reason but often you know  a lot a lot of people like they uh even if their  

language is good they still have just issues about  maybe they don't feel confident or they're they're  

not perfect or something like that but remember  the value you can give to people in conversations  

even if it's only like listening that you're  really good at most people actually are much  

more uh they're better speakers than they think  all right hopefully that makes more sense oh my  

goodness all right well this this video is going  on way longer than I anticipated so I'm gonna have  

to go through these last 12 questions in about one  minute here uh so an efl we have to learn one word  

in different contexts it's not about just like one  word it's all of the vocabulary you learn it just  

it just needs to be understandable and it's easier  if it's in context so if I if I hold a marker  

and show you something like I'm like flipping  flipping the marker up flip up the marker like  

that it's easier for you to understand that rather  than me telling you a translation or definition  

uh let's see I had similar experience with  slima yeah so again it depends on what your  

specific issue and your your actual level with  the language hello I'm Marcella from Brazil I  

love English and I'm learning English Alone  by YouTube yep and you can get fluent that  

way too uh my mistake is learning words that  I will rarely use so we can choose words to  

learn because I think wasting my time learning  useless words yeah exactly so the the basic idea  

is that you should learn what you would need for  your life so this is why in fluent for Life what  

people are doing is they're selecting particular  topics that they need for their life so a lawyer  

would watch lesson sets about communication and  debating and law and things like that and maybe  

a person in sales would focus on other things  about marketing and other things like that all  

right so whatever you're doing if you're a barista  watch videos about people making coffee in English  

it's pretty easy all right so focus on the stuff  you actually need for your life and that's going  

to make you number one more motivated you'll  be more excited because you're actually using  

it and it'll be easier to learn all right so you  already have some kind of context for it but in  

general ESL is going to teach you the language  but make it more difficult to speak efl is going  

to actually teach you the language and make you  a fluent speaker automatically even if you don't  

speak all right so if you'd like to learn more  I'm going to have to shut it down because I'm  

now out of time it's already 12 o'clock noon wow  just time flew by oh my goodness hopefully this  

has been an entertaining video for you it's been  a pleasure joining you today if you're watching  

this later go ahead and click on the links in the  description so those resources are available and  

especially if you're a teacher definitely watch  the uh the video series about learning English and  

English and get Frederick if you don't have that  already that will show you even adult Learners  

are using that to improve their vocabulary and  their listening and their pronunciation but let's  

say hey good night but hopefully you've enjoyed  this if you have please share it with other people  

especially other teachers of the language and  I'll see you in the next video bye-bye [Music]