The Ultimate Guide to Fluency in English Conversation | Go Natural English

Hello!

How's it going?

Welcome to the Ultimate Guide to Fluency in the English language.

This is without a doubt the best place to learn how to become fluent in English and

what not to do, things to avoid on your journey to fluency.

I have an extensive, exhaustive list of what to do and what not to do to become fluent

in English that I have to look down at my laptop to remember everything.

So, let's get started with the first and possibly most important tip right away.

You need to become an independent and motivated English learner.

Without proactive action on your part, you cannot become fluent.

You cannot rely on other people to tell you what to do.

You have to be motivated on your own as an independent learner to become fluent in English.

So, this is about your mind set.

Before you even touch a textbook or watch a lesson, you need to be motivated and independent

to become fluent in English.

Next, know your goals.

What do you want to learn in English?

Do you want to know English to become a doctor?

Or do you want to know English for general conversation?

Your goal will determine what you study.

Next, change your thinking.

You have to consider yourself an English speaker from the beginning, from the get-go.

Don't consider yourself an English learner or a student of English.

Start thinking of yourself now, from today, as an English speaker.

Next, find a conversation partner.

You need to practice whether it's with a tutor teacher or a friend who will help you to practice.

You could find a conversation partner which means someone who wants to learn your native

language in exchange for helping you with English.

Now, there's a lot of sites on-line where you can find an on-line conversation partner.

Or if you're lucky enough to live in a city with a lot of English speaker, or you could

find an in-person face-to-face language exchange partner.

Next ... Next, my computer should turn back on.

Okay.

Get more out of listening to English.

Don't just focus on the meaning of the words you hear, but listen to how the words are

set.

Listen carefully to pronunciation, intonation, stress, and how we use English as native speakers.

Next, don't stress out.

If you make a mistake, just keep going.

This is so important.

Relax and enjoy your journey to fluency.

Have fun with it.

Don't stress out.

If you make a mistake, just let it go.

Next, try keeping a speaking journal.

This is a great strategy to practice and also to see your improvement over time.

You could keep your speaking journal on your smartphone or another device when you can

record.

And try speaking a little bit every day recording yourself and listening to it later on to check

and see how you can improve and how you are improving.

Next, practice common sentence structures.

Learn phrases that will be useful for your conversations in English.

It could include, for example, "I think that", "It's interesting that", "I find it", "It's

better to" and so on.

You need to review, review, review, review.

This is super important.

Don't expect yourself remember everything the first time that you learn it.

Unless you're some kind of superhero, it's just not something that you should expect

yourself to do, to be able to remember everything that first time.

We have to repeat, reuse, review, reflect.

Use it and recycle it to remember it.

All right, next, we need to learn to think in English.

You have to begin to use English in every way you can, and that begins with your thoughts.

So, instead of thinking in your native language, try thinking in English.

Ask yourself "What am I going to do today?", and start making your plans in English in

your mind.

You'll start dreaming in English if you start thinking in English soon enough.

Don't just study grammar, because studying grammar is not going to help you with conversational

English.

Studying grammar will help you for a grammar test.

But don't just study grammar if you want to be able to speak in English.

Remember that if you want to be able to say something in English, don't translate it first

into your language.

So, when you're listening to English, try to understand what you hear directly for its

meaning in English.

So, try to think of other words to explain a meaning to yourself in English.

In other words, do not translate.

Avoid translating from English to your native language.

Why?

Because it will take more time and because translations don't always work.

Also, you need to have a good balance between reading, writing, speaking, listening, grammar.

So, don't focus all in one area, but try to do a little bit of each area every time you

study.

Now also, watch or listen to, or read a diverse array of materials.

So, when you're looking at reading materials, if you want to listen to materials in English,

try one day reading and listening to a science topic, another day a general news topic, another

day it could be a gossip column, another day it could be something completely different.

Hopefully, something that you are interested in, because that will keep you motivated and

interested in becoming fluent in English.

Also, don't be afraid to make mistakes.

This is super important.

Mistakes are not a bad thing.

Mistakes are actually bringing you closer to fluency.

Every time you make a mistake, you're at least using English.

Even if it's not correct, you can start to notice your mistakes and improve on them.

But making mistakes is better than doing nothing, than being paralyzed and not saying anything.

When I say "paralyzed", I mean feeling so stuck in your fear to make a mistake.

So, try to be a fearless English speaker.

And it's okay to make mistakes.

Start speaking immediately.

This is so important.

Even if you don't speak correctly with 100% perfect grammar and just the right vocabulary

word, it's okay.

Just start speaking right away.

From the first moment that you have one word to say, start speaking, start communicating.

Focus on using the phrases and the words that you already know to explain more complex topics,

more complex ideas.

And you'll learn more advanced vocabulary as you go.

The number one important thing is to start speaking right away and use what you know,

focus on what you know and how far you've come already.

And little by little you can add to your vocabulary.

And use key words and phrases that apply to your everyday life.

This is really important, because you're going to use these phrases more often.

So, for example, if you're using an English textbook or taking a course that teachers

you about a topic that's not really applicable to your everyday life, sure it's good to learn

it, but focus more of your time and energy on learning phrases, words and even grammar

structures that really work for you and how you want to use English in your life.

Listen to podcasts.

I love podcasts, because I can take them with me wherever I go.

So, I could be at the gym, I could be washing dishes, I could be really doing anything,

I could be on a train, on a bus, and I can listen to podcasts.

Of course, you should know about the Go Natural English podcast, but there's a lot of podcasts

out there that you might be interested in, and they're a great way to get more English

listening.

So, build fluency with podcasts.

Now, I've mentioned thinking English before and asking yourself, for example, in your

mind "What am I going to do today?"

in English.

So, try this.

Try planning your day in English.

Try making your calendar or your list of things to do all in English.

You could start simply with your grocery list or supermarket list, what are you going to

the store to buy.

Right down those items in English.

This is what I used to do in Spanish just to help remember words and to develop my fluency

from the very basic beginning level.

But do this and get in the habit of doing this and making English part or your daily

life.

These are things you can do: planning your day, making list, thinking.

These are things that you can do without even living in an English-speaking country without

even having a conversation partner.

So, don't tell me the excuse of "Oh, I don't live in an English-speaking country, so I

can't become fluent in English."

That is an excuse.

So, no excuses.

I have more tips for you.

We're not done yet.

Get outside the classroom.

You might be used to a traditional English classroom that teaches you how to speak English

in a classroom.

But if you want to speak English fluently, you need to get outside of the classroom and

become exposed to English as we use it in everyday life for many different situations,

not just in a classroom.

Learning English in a classroom teaches you classroom English.

But if you want to learn English for conversation, you need to start experiencing conversation

outside the classroom.

So, get out of the classroom.

Classrooms are great, I love school, but you have to also get out of the classroom.

So, don't spend all your time inside the classroom on English fluency.

You need to get out.

Also, when you're learning conversation, you're learning English fluency, focus on the main

idea.

If you don't understand every single word, don't worry, let it go.

Focus on the theme, the topic, the main idea of the conversation.

And you can learn each word later.

Even native speaker might not know every single word and might not hear every single word

in a conversation.

So, don't try to understand everything, especially don't stop, don't panic if you don't understand

every single word.

Just relax and try to understand the main idea.

Definitely, listen to English every day, read English every day even if it's just for fifteen

minutes, that's 15.

Fifteen minutes, it can make such a difference.

So, don't avoid English thinking, "Oh, I don't have three hours to study English today."

That's an excuse.

Everyone can make fifteen minutes in their day for listening to English or reading English.

Also, you can keep an English journal.

I mentioned speaking journal before, but try a writing journal.

It could be a real notebook, pen and paper, it could be on your laptop, you could email

yourself your journal, you could use your smartphone and just take notes as in English

journal.

Your journal could take many different forms.

You could use your journal of the things you've done to study English, so it's kind of study

reflection journal.

It could be a journal of your thoughts like a "Dear Diary" journal in English.

Or it could be your practice.

It could be writing down your opinions in English so that later, you could share them

in conversation.

You could do a lot of different things in your English journal.

One thing I used to do in my French journal is to write songs in French.

So, start writing songs in English.

Do whatever your heart desires.

But just start creating, start writing in English in your journal.

I have more tips.

We're not done yet I've told you this is the Ultimate Fluency

Advice Episode, so I hope that you're enjoying it.

If you're enjoying it, like it, share it, comment.

I have to say that.

Subscribe.

Now, I want you to surround yourself with English.

That means music, news, magazines, books.

That means social media.

I want you to start joining groups where people are speaking and chatting in English.

Surround yourself with it.

Really, you can immerse yourself in English or really in any language as long as you have

the Internet.

So, if you're lucky to live in an English-speaking city or country, or you have a lot of English

speakers in your area, you're lucky, because you can do things in person in English.

But even if you can't, get on-line and do it.

Please, please, be confident in English.

Don't be shy.

I have heard from too many English speakers, "My English is bad", "My English is so poor",

"I speak horrible English."

Stop!

You have to stop telling yourself these negative messages.

Really, very, very important it to be confident.

Now, you might think, "Gabby, my English is horrible.

How would I be confident about it?"

I'm not saying you're English is perfect, I'm saying to have some self-pride, some self-confidence,

at least a "can do" attitude.

You don't have to say, "My English is perfect.

I'm the best English speaker ever."

But at least believe that you can improve and don't focus on how poor your English is,

because when you say that to other people, then they get a bad opinion on your English.

Even if they say, "Oh, no, no, your English is fine, it's great, it's wonderful."

You don't want to encourage other people to think your English is bad.

Why would you say that?

Instead, say "I'm working hard to improve my English" or "Please, be patient with me,

because I'm still learning English."

That's much better than saying "My English is really bad."

Great.

What else?

I have more tips for you.

You need to do lots of things.

What else?

Watch for patterns.

Understand that English is not always logical, it's not always ...

There's not always rules that are black and white, right and wrong, but look for patterns,

try not to follow patterns and copy and paste according to these patterns.

So, if you hear a certain phrase, try to use it over and over, try to copy it.

Copy the patterns that you hear in conversation, like if you hear people talking about the

weather, copy that, use it in your own conversations.

And what else?

Let's see.

I've shared a lot of these already.

We have a few more though.

Consider the type of leaner that you are.

So, how do you learn best?

Do you learn best by reading, listening, maybe certain topics that you enjoy reading or listening

about.

Do you enjoy writing stories?

Do you enjoy singing songs?

I learned French, Spanish, Portuguese, a little Japanese by singing songs, because that's

the kind of learner I am.

I love to thing songs, I love music.

And if you're the same way, you can really benefit from that kind of technique doing

something fun.

During your morning routine, you can make English part of that.

Make English part of your daily routine, so when you're getting ready for work in the

morning, try listening to music in English, try listening to the news in English.

There's a lot of ways that you can make English part of your daily life and work with your

learning style.

It doesn't have to be dry, it doesn't have to be boring.

You don't even need a classroom, you don't even need enroll in a course or have a teacher,

or have a textbook, but you do need to make English a part of your daily life.

You need to immerse yourself, really, and believe in yourself.

You can try role play, you can try making your own conversations even if there's no

one around to practice with.

You can start writing dialogs.

And then, when you do have a teacher, tutor, language exchange partner or a friend, you

can check them.

Then, you can check them, but don't worry about making everything perfect from the start.

You just have to start using English.

So, don't be shy about using it.

You have to use English or you're going to lose it.

Be patient with yourself, but be motivated and take action.

Also, you don't have to wait for permission to learn English.

You don't have to wait for your teacher to tell you to turn to the next page.

That's what it means to be an independent learner.

You know when you're ready to turn to the next page.

So also, I want you to use English as a tool.

This is one of my top tips.

Use English as a tool not just to learn English, not just to get an A in your English class,

but use English as a tool to accomplish other things in life.

For example, to connect with people, to learn things about the world, to do research, to

search on-line, to meet new people on-line, in person, wherever, whenever, to travel,

to make your travel experiences more worthwhile.

Use English as a tool for the life, the lifestyle that you want to live.

So, I've shared a lot of different strategies with you about how to become fluent in English.

You'll notice that a lot of these tips have to do with your mind set.

Don't be shy, be confident, start speaking English right away and a lot of other tips

too.

So, look for another like-minded learners, you can create your own group for studying

English.

And if you need more guidance, you can always come back to GoNaturalEnglish.com.

There's a free course that I've made for you to share more about the Go Natural English

method.

You can find it at GoNaturalEnglish.com/7steps.

That's the number 7, S-T-E-P-S.

So, I hope to see you there.

I hope you enjoyed this Ultimate Guide to English Fluency.

And thanks for watching.

So again, thanks for being an awesome part of the Go Natural English on-line audience.

I'm Gabby Wallace, and I hope to see you soon.

Bye for now.