How to use a mobile phone to improve your English

Hello, everybody, and welcome to today’s video.

So, I’d like to begin today’s video not with language but

instead with a number.

52 days.

But why 52 days?

Well, 52 days is the average amount of time that a person

from Britain spends on their phone every year.

Yes, that’s right, in a year.

To be exact, that is 74,825 hours,

and that amount of time clearly shows that mobile phones have

the ability to motivate, engage and interest us.

And so, yes, the topic of today’s video is this object

that we spend so much time with, and specifically how it can

help us to study English, those everyday features of

a smartphone or those popular, common apps that we use a lot,

and how they can help us improve.

Of course, as ever, before I begin,

if you’re new to the channel,

please don’t forget to click subscribe.

That way, you’ll never miss out on any of our great videos.

But without any further waiting, let’s get on to today’s video.

And I’d like to begin today’s video by introducing you to

a friend of mine.

This is Gregalito.

Gregalito spends hours a day studying English.

And although his English is improving,

he doesn’t always have the time or desire to

spend hours sitting at a desk with a book.

Instead, he needs something a bit more interactive.

So what about this, Gregalito?

Okay, but how can this help Gregalito learn English?

To begin, change the language of your mobile phone to English.

This means that the voice operating system of your mobile

phone will only work in English, which will give you a great

opportunity for speaking practice when you use

your virtual assistant, such as Alexa or Siri.

And you’ll also sharpen your pronunciation,

as you have to speak clearly for the voice

recognition software to understand you.

And of course, don’t forget about

the listening practice that you get when you

listen to its responses.

In addition to helping your speaking and listening,

changing the language of your phone will

also mean that you pick up mountains

of new vocabulary. From social media,

GPS apps or weather apps,

and just from generally operating your phone.

They’ll all help improve your reading ability and,

in the case of social media, your writing ability too.

To make sure you learn this vocabulary effectively,

you should keep a vocabulary list on your phone.

You could also add in vocabulary from your

normal studies as well, and recap on it whenever

you have a moment.

Or if you want to recap on it even more,

screenshot it and use it as your wallpaper.

In addition to a written list, you can also have picture lists

as well.

Take a picture of those things or scenes that you don’t know

the words for,

then learn the vocabulary and save the pictures in a separate

file for you to revisit later.

Or if you’re very dedicated, edit the photo by putting

words on it.

Your speaking ability can also be improved by using

a voice recorder.

It could be your lexis, pronunciation, or pace.

Every time you listen back to yourself,

you’ll become aware of an area in which

you need to work on.

Every time you write something on your phone,

write it in English for some extra writing practice.

So maybe it’s in your notes section of your phone,

when you do your to-do lists or shopping lists,

or when you’re making plans in a calendar app,

or even when using a search engine.

Always write in English.

And the beauty of this is that the autocorrect feature

will also provide you with a bit of help sometimes if you

don’t get it quite right.

Okay, so now we have a happy Gregalito.

Let’s recap on how he and you can improve your English using

a mobile phone.

So there you go, some ways in which

a mobile phone can help you practise

and improve your English.

As ever, please don’t forget to like this video,

to share it everywhere and, of course, click subscribe.

And thanks for stopping by, and I’ll see you next time

for more language fun.

So goodbye from me.

Hey, Siri.

Goodbye, Siri.

Nice talking with you.

And goodbye from Siri.