Forgetting words when speaking English? Let's fix it!

If you forget words when you try to speak English,

you're probably making this one big mistake.

Let's fix it.

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Do any of these sound familiar to you?

When I come to speak English, my mind just goes blank.

When I want to speak,

I forget the words I just learnt yesterday.

I feel my vocabulary is too simple.

I feel so frustrated,

and as one student said, "I feel like a bird

with broken wings who's trying to fly."

But ah, what's happening?

What's going on?

Let's find out.

My name is Keith from English Speaking Success

and the website, the Keith Speaking Academy,

here to help you become a more confident speaker of English.

So if any of those student comments earlier sound familiar,

then it's probably due to two things.

The first one is it may be

that the way you are learning vocabulary,

there's a problem there.

And the other one is to do with your mindset.

Actually, I have done a video

all about how to learn vocabulary effectively.

It's up here.

It's three simple, effective steps

on how to learn vocabulary.

It's great, even if I say so myself.

Can I say that? Yeah.

Yeah, it's pretty good.

If you haven't seen it, go and watch it now.

Oh no. That will ruin my YouTube analytics.

Never mind. It's important.

If you haven't seen it, go and watch this one first.

If you have, stay here.

In this video, I want to build on that video

and the idea and explain to you the one big mistake

you're probably making when you're learning vocabulary.

Also, I wanna talk about what the solution is,

and finally, I want to give you six practical,

simple steps you can follow to learn vocabulary effectively.

Ready? Good.

Before we begin, I also suggest that you download the PDF

to this video because there are several golden nuggets

in this video, and I think you're gonna want to come back

to it again and again.

So go and download.

You can go and download the PDF in the link below.

Right now, let's get into it.

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Okay, so the big mistake, the big mistake

you're probably making is that maybe you think

learning a word is this,

you see it or maybe you hear it somewhere,

you understand it, you check the meaning in a dictionary

and then you memorize it and that's it.

And then great, I've learned it.

Now I can go and try and use it.

That's the big mistake because that is not learning a word.

Actually, what you've done is you have studied the word.

Learning is very different.

Learning is much, much deeper than studying.

Let me say that again.

Learning is much deeper than studying

and it takes a lot longer.

Learning a word is this, you see it

or hear it somewhere, you understand it,

check the meaning in a dictionary, memorize it.

So far, so good, right?

And then you use it

and the using it is part of the learning process.

In fact, I would even take out memorizing.

You can try and memorize,

I don't think it's that important.

Using it, it's part of the process

and we haven't finished yet, right?

Learning the word is also then seeing it again

in a different context, maybe several days later,

understanding it, but this time, not the meaning,

but understanding when and how you use it,

where you can use it, how to use it, and how not to use it.

It's a deeper understanding.

And then you're using it again.

And all of this is the learning process.

The last bit, probably repeating again and again,

maybe for the rest of your life (chuckles)

or maybe for a few weeks, okay.

So you can see here, right, what the problem is.

When you just SUM, see, understand, and memorize

and try and use it, you may or may not be able to do it,

right, because you haven't fully learnt the word yet.

Can you see the difference?

So in my GOLD course, "IELTS Speaking GOLD course,"

students may watch a lesson with me.

They then get a word list and they study 10 words,

and then they go and have a conversation

in the breakout rooms, speaking practice rooms,

where they can speak to students all around the world

and they say, "I'm so frustrated,

I can't use these words perfectly."

And I say, "No surprise,

because you haven't learned them yet.

You've only studied them."

You're at the start of the journey.

It's like you've just got on the train,

you're just on the train

and you start moving outta the station.

Yes, you've seen the words, you've understood them,

you've memorized them, and then you want

to get off the train.

You think you've arrived.

You haven't arrived, the train is still going.

The whole process takes longer.

and the key is to change your mindset.

Don't be thinking, "Oh, come on, I should know this now,

haven't I arrived?"

No, you should be thinking, "I'm gonna enjoy the journey.

So much more to do."

Enjoy the journey.

It's a long process of learning.

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Okay, now, in fact, there is another important thing

that is going on, and I think it'll be useful for you

to better understand what is happening, to know this.

Have you ever been in that situation

where you hear a word or a phrase, you hear it

and you go, "Yep, I know that. Got it."

And then you try and use it in a conversation

and oh, you can't.

You don't know how to use it, right?

That's because there are two kinds of vocabulary.

There's passive and active, and the passive bank

are the words that you can recognize and understand,

but you can't use them.

The active bank, which is normally much smaller,

are the words that you recognize, understand,

and you can actively use them.

That's why it's called active, you can use them.

The passive bank will always be bigger than the active bank.

But the process of learning, this process,

I call the SUUSUU process. (chuckles)

I have a niece called Susu, and this SUUSUU process is

how you move the words from the passive to the active bank.

I'll give you some tips,

very practical ways on doing that in a moment.

But it's important you understand.

I mean, the passive bank is always gonna get bigger.

It doesn't disappear, because as every time

you read and listen, that grows.

(graphic whooshes) The important thing is

that you are moving the words to the active,

some of the words to the active area.

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The more, the better.

But you will never get all of them across,

that's just the way we are.

Okay, and a final word of consolation.

When you feel frustrated with vocabulary, just let it be.

It's absolutely normal that you're not able to use them

for all of the reasons I've explained, right?

I mean, speaking is complex.

There's so much going on.

Fluency, accuracy, the grammar,

the pronunciation, the vocab.

It's not easy at all.

It's perfectly normal.

All of this takes time and practice, okay?

Going back to my original video,

study, practice and review that three-step process,

that's what it's about.

Okay, let's move forward to solutions.

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Okay, so now that you know what is happening,

what do you need to do to learn vocabulary effectively?

What do you think?

Right, exactly.

It's basically focus more on learning, the learning process,

not just studying, right?

The answer really is SUUSUU.

See or hear a word, understand it and use it

and then see or hear it again,

understand it on a deeper level, use it and recycle,

recycle, recycle all the time, right?

And have the mindset.

On a very practical level,

here are six things you can do to help with this.

Number one, learn words in context.

It's much better to have a context than just a word list.

So listen to podcasts, videos, films, read articles,

much better than a word list.

Word lists are okay, but I do encourage you

to make your own word list

rather than just take them from somebody else.

Try and make your own word list from the things

you are listening to and reading.

That process of making your own list

also helps your learning and your assimilation

or acquisition of the language.

Number two, don't focus on memorizing, focus on using.

Number three, focus on being active, right,

to get the words from the passive bank to the active bank.

So to go from understanding a word to being able to use it,

you need to do activities to do that.

That may include simply repeating a word,

making up phrases, your own phrases, making up a story

with the word or some of the words,

practicing one or two of the words in a conversation.

Try not to go into a conversation with a list of 10 words,

hoping to use them.

It's too many. One or two is enough.

Number four, change your mindset.

Focus on the journey, not the destination, right?

When you're learning, you are on the train,

it's probably not time to get off.

Stay on the train.

Focus on the learning process,

on enjoying that process, right,

rather than just ticking off words on a list.

And an interesting note here,

because I know some of you use flashcards, I use flashcards.

Just be careful.

Do you know when you swipe and you go to the left?

Yes, I know it, yes, I know it.

To the right, I don't know it, I don't know it.

Just be careful what you mean when you say, I know it.

Does that mean you understand it?

Or you can use it?

Just be careful with that.

Flashcards are great, really good tool to use,

but be aware of what you mean when you swipe either way.

Number five, stop trying too hard.

Hooray, at last, a teacher who tells me to slow down.

Because I know so many teachers, school and university

are pushing and pushing you.

Listen, stop trying too hard, okay?

Instead of trying to build up a huge bank

of advanced vocabulary, focus your time and energy

on moving the words you know from the passive bank

to the active bank.

See step number three above on how to do that, okay, chill.

Number six, if you're in a conversation

and you block, can't find the word, paraphrase.

Paraphrasing is a great skill to learn.

It's where you don't know the exact word,

so you try and say it in another way.

It's a great skill because it helps you communicate.

It helps your fluency.

It's evaluated in IELTS Speaking.

It's a necessary skill and it's just, it's a great thing

to do, rather than being like um.

Paraphrase.

And those are the six simple steps.

Let me give you a number seven for free, an extra one,

and that is, listen more to English.

I would say read as well,

but if you're focusing on speaking,

the listening is the parallel skill, right?

Listen more to build up your passive vocabulary,

to build up that kind of feeling you have for the language,

to build up your appreciation

of the melody of the language and the pronunciation.

Listen more.

I think you should be listening to at least an hour a day

of English if you really want to make progress.

That's it.

So now you know why you are forgetting words

when speaking, right?

You know what to do.

Focus more on the learning process, not just the studying.

And it's great, I mean, yes, learning is deeper.

It takes more time.

It's more time on the train.

Enjoy yourself on the train of learning English. (chuckles)

That's it for today.

If you've liked this video, give me a like,

do remember to subscribe.

I do encourage you to download the PDF,

just to go back and review these points,

help you as you start implementing them.

Maybe just choose one or two to start putting into action

and start noticing the results and work on your mindset.

Don't forget that, it's very important.

Great, thank you so much for watching, my friends,

and I will see you maybe in the next video.

Take care. Bye-Bye.

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