How to learn fluent English on your own at home (5 step study plan)

Hello everyone and welcome back  to English With Lucy. Today,  

we're going to talk about whether you can learn  English at home on your own. I think you can,  

and I'm going to give you some tips and  recommendations. It's a pretty weird time,  

isn't it? A lot of us are suddenly having  to spend a lot of time on our own at home,  

but this does not mean that we have to put a  pause on what we want to achieve, like learning  

a language. It is possible to continue learning a  language on your own at home, and I'm not going to  

talk about all of the tried and tested methods  like watching TV shows, movies with subtitles,  

listening to the radio. I've mentioned all of  that before. These are new tips that are more  

relevant than ever before. Let's get straight into  it. The first one is free conversation classes.  

If you want to learn to speak a language, you are  going to have to practise conversing. I reached  

out to some of my students that I consider  to be very, very successful, and I asked them  

what they are doing during lockdown. The one  activity that came up time and time again,  

was online conversation classes. I thought that  was really interesting because I expected that  

they were paying for them, but it turns out that a  lot of them are doing it for free. This surprised  

me. I didn't think that there would be people  running online classes for free, but there are,  

and you can find them, and you can use them  to improve your language skills on your own.  

There are lots of non-profit, online communities  offering Zoom conversation lessons. There are  

lots of teachers that offer these group sessions  to advertise their private sessions as well.  

Through the other tips, I'm going to  provide links in the description box,  

but I'm not for this one because I don't  want to overwhelm a small group, basically.  

I will leave it to you to search websites like  Meetup.com and Facebook and other language forums  

to find these Zoom groups. Sometimes they're run  by teachers and sometimes they're run by students,  

learners of English, who want to meet other  like-minded students and practise together.  

Most importantly, if you can't find one of these  groups or you can't find one that suits you,  

why not try hosting one? I'm sure if you post  in language forums or underneath YouTube videos,  

you will be able to find a group of like-minded  people who also want to practise conversation  

with you. You might think, well, that's great,  but how do I access proper feedback if nobody  

there is a professional teacher? Well, that  brings me on to point number two, which comes  

thanks to the sponsor of today's video, Busuu. When I was speaking to my students about learning  

from home on their own, there were two key  problems that came up again and again and again.  

Motivation and access to feedback. That's where  the Busuu comes in. They have a solution for both  

of these problems. If you haven't heard of Busuu  before, it's a global language learning community  

on both desktop and mobile, which I  know is very important to some of you.  

They have loads of language courses that  you can take to practise your speaking,  

listening, reading, and writing in English, and  many other languages like Spanish and Japanese.  

On this platform, you can connect with speakers  of the language that you are learning and receive  

feedback. Feedback is like gold dust when  you're learning a language. It is so valuable,  

but it's often very hard to find, especially  if you are learning a very popular language.  

They also have this amazing study plan tool,  which is going to help you stay motivated.  

It breaks the language down and reminds you  when and what to study, allowing you to set  

realistic goals. When I start focusing on learning  a language, I get overwhelmed. I don't know where  

to start. This breaks it down for you. To sign  up to pursue and explore what they have to offer,  

click on the link in the description box. You  can sign up for free, or you can choose to get  

a premium account, which has loads of additional  features. They are offering my students an  

extra 30% discount on all memberships.  Use my code, Lucy30 to take advantage  

of that offer. Let's move on to number three,  accountability partners or accountability buddies.  

This one depends on your personality and whether  you like working under pressure or not. I know  

that I work best under pressure, so this tip  is one that I've used a lot in the past.  

When people embark on a difficult challenge,  like losing weight or running a marathon,  

they often find it easier to do it with someone,  somebody that's going to act as an extra push of  

motivation, because sometimes if you don't feel  like doing something, but you see someone that  

you're close to doing that thing, it pushes  you and it persuades you to do what you don't  

necessarily want to do. This applies to me. If  I see my fiance Will, doing lots of exercise  

and going to the gym, I feel far more inclined to  join him. You can do this with language learning  

too. You can find an accountability partner. I  bet there's a nicer name for it. English buddy,  

or something like that, or a motivation mate.  Somebody that you can be in touch with, you can  

check in when you've done your study session, you  can share something new that you've learned.  

You can compare techniques. This can all be  done over WhatsApp or text message or email,  

but forming a friendship with someone and being  in the same situation, offering those kind words,  

when you need to, offering those motivational  words, when they need them. I had this when I was  

learning Spanish at school with my friend Tasman.  She was amazing. We always spoke to each other on  

WhatsApp in Spanish, and when I heard that she had  joined a new conversation class or something like  

that, I felt really motivated. There was a little  element of competition as well. It's whatever you  

like. Maybe you don't like competition. Maybe you  do. Maybe you just want someone to say nice words.  

Maybe you want somebody to tell you off. I don't  necessarily recommend that, but everybody learns  

in different ways. Number four, listen to specific  podcasts. I've mentioned podcasts before.  

I've got lots that I recommend. I absolutely love  podcasts because you can multitask. I love running  

and listening to something educational, whilst I'm  doing exercise, seems like an excellent use of my  

time. If you want to improve your listening and  pronunciation, the most amazing way to do it is to  

listen to a podcast whilst reading the transcript  at the same time. I always recommend that with  

audio books, but I'm focusing on podcasts today.  What I'm talking about is something that I think  

all podcasters should do, adding transcripts to  your podcasts. It's great for language learning.  

It's also so important for accessibility. If  you're hard of hearing, you're missing out  

on a lot if there aren't transcriptions provided.  There is a fantastic website that I've found that  

nearly solves this problem. I think many of you  will find it very, very useful, indeed. If there  

is a podcast that you like, one of the popular  podcasts that does not provide transcriptions,  

there is a website called Podscribe. I'll put all the links in the description box,  

but basically because there is a cost  associated with generating transcriptions,  

this website offers you the opportunity to  pay for a transcription to be generated.  

It's often between five and $7 per hour-long  episode. Once you have made that donation,  

those transcriptions are then there, available  for everyone. So, it's a real community thing. If  

500 people just made that one donation, then there  are podcast transcriptions for 500 episodes out  

there. I really recommend taking a look. Lots  of transcriptions have already been donated and  

you can also donate some other ones, so you're  not only helping yourself. You're helping other  

people as well. Not just people that are learning  languages, people that have a disability as well.  

What a fantastic idea. There are such marvellous  people on the planet. There really are. The  

last one, number five is imitation, a  topic I've spoken about a lot before.  

It's what I did when I was learning  Spanish. It really helped me achieve natural  

fluid pronunciation. It's no secret that I  used to live in Spain, and when I conversed  

with my Spanish friends, I looked at their  mouths, which sounds weird, but it's not.  

Instead of making eye contact, I  would make eye to mouth contact,  

and I would look at their lips and their lip  position and their mouth shape. I'd look at where  

they put their tongues in their mouth and how  their teeth were in comparison to their tongues.  

I probably made them feel a bit uncomfortable. So,  that is one of the beauties of studying at home  

on your own. You can do  this without embarrassment.  

All you need is a mirror and a smart device. Take  a video of somebody speaking slowly and clearly.  

If you really like the way somebody  speaks, but they speak quite quickly,  

play around with slowing them down. You can do this on YouTube. Sometimes  

it doesn't work so well. Make sure it's a  video where you can clearly see their mouth.  

Hold the video up to your face. Play the video.  Hold the mirror up to your face. Recreate  

the mouth movements and the intonation and  the tongue position. If there is a sound that  

you just can't grasp, this technique will really,  really help you. When people try to improve their  

public speaking, whether they're learning a new  language or doing it in their own native language,  

it is often recommended that they practise in  front of a mirror. This is very much the same.  

It's about getting more comfortable. Right? That's  it for today's lesson. I really hope you enjoyed  

it and I really hope you can take some of these  tips and put them into practise. A big thank you  

once again, to the sponsor of today's video,  Busuu. Remember that you can sign up for free  

or you can get to one of their premium memberships  and you can claim 30% off with my code Lucy30.  

The link is in the description box. Don't forget  to connect with me on all of my social media. I've  

got my Facebook, my Instagram, and my website,  Englishwithlucy.co.uk. There you can access my  

mailing list and previous lessons and PDFs as  well. I'll see you soon for another lesson.