How to Learn English Effectively - The Secrets to Learning English

so today we're going to learn this is  actually based on a really good ted talk  

by the same name uh and in it there are  some really great tips about how to learn  

a language and i'm going to apply it today to  learning english so the secrets to learning  

english how can you learn english effectively if  you guys are interested the woman's name is lydia  

makova so i'll put her name in the comments  after so you guys can check out her talk but  

today i'm going to review the four ways to learn  english effectively so let's go ahead and begin  

teacher how can i learn english this is the  question we get the most on our facebook page  

and on our youtube channel so very often on videos  posted on live streams like this or the one with  

dr dawn we get a lot of questions asking how  can i learn english right how can i be better  

so we have posted many videos and done many live  streams like this about improving your speaking  

improving your listening reading and writing being  more confident and just generally becoming better  

at english so today i'm going to try and take  all that we like to talk about on our channel  

about becoming better at english and put  it together into these four easy steps  

so how to learn a new language how to learn  english there are four steps enjoyment methods  

system and patience so we will go  through and talk about each of these  

one by one how they are important what  does it mean and how can you use it to  

really go to the next level with your english  okay so let's begin with number one enjoyment  

so what does this word mean enjoyment in this oh  let me find my mouse it's somewhere there we go  

we see the word enjoy and in enjoy we see the  word joy right happy so if you get enjoyment  

from something it makes you feel happy you like to  do it right you enjoy it so step one is enjoyment  

this is truly step one it is the most important  so before we talk about any other steps you must  

enjoy what you are doing so if you do not enjoy  learning if you don't like learning english  

or the way that you're learning english you will  not want to do it right you will stop you will not  

be interested or you will feel that oh i have to  study oh i don't want to right we don't want that  

we need to make sure that no matter what you are  finding a way to enjoy learning because again  

if you don't you're not going to want to do it  right so how can you do that what does that mean  

often when we think about studying english or  studying any language we think of things like  

memorizing vocabulary studying grammar rules  things that maybe you enjoy doing i know i love  

learning new vocabulary but not everyone  wants to sit down and memorize 10 words  

a day or 20 words a week or what have you or  maybe the way that they're doing it flash cards or  

oh grammar rules right maybe they don't maybe  you don't enjoy that so you have to think  

about this question what do you enjoy maybe you  enjoy breeding fiction books meeting new people  

going to coffee shops playing sports  playing video games watching tv  

watching movies photography which is taking  pictures right painting or listening to music  

or maybe there are so many more things right  so right now as you watch think about this  

question what do you enjoy anything what are  your hobbies what do you like to do what do you  

enjoy okay so think about it for a minute so  for me i for example i love to read i read  

almost every day um i love to go to coffee shops i  love uh playing games watching movies so on so on  

what do you enjoy anything right there are maybe  one million more things we could add to this list  

okay so now that you have thought about  maybe three to five things that you enjoy  

now add english to it okay so what does that mean  well that brings us to step two which is methods  

okay so now that you have thought of some things  you enjoy we need to take those activities and add  

learning to them okay a method is a way of doing  something you must use your interests to choose  

your learning methods and notice here oh  sorry guys i always lose my there it is  

your interests your methods what does this mean  your methods will be unique or special to you so  

you will not have the same methods as me maybe  we'll have one similar method but they will be  

different depending on what your interests  are okay so we're going to make some methods  

another great thing to do if you're having a hard  time is talk to others about how they learn too  

you can also just use a search engine  like google to look up uh how to learn  

methods study methods or maybe  again i gave the example of movies  

you can just search how to study english  using movies how to study english using blank  

right and you can find some interesting  methods and find one or two that works for you  

so next now that you have thought about what you  enjoy let's talk about some methods so here are  

some meth some things that i might enjoy right  i like reading fiction books i like going to  

coffee shops i like playing online games i  like painting and i like listening to music  

great so these are all things that i enjoy so now  i want to add english to it how can i use what  

i enjoy to learn english right add english to my  hobbies and interests so let's take a look at some  

sample methods for each of these and you can think  about your hobbies and interests and how you might  

add english to them so number one i like reading  fiction books well this one's probably easy  

right you can read the english version of your  favorite book for example maybe you really love  

a classic novel and you've read it so many times  and you know it is available in english well  

try reading it in english this is a great  method because you already know the story  

right so because it's not a new story it's easier  to start to learn the language around the story  

when you already kind of know what's happening  who the characters are what the plot is and so on  

okay number two i like going to coffee shops oh  this one's a little more tricky if i love going  

to coffee shops and love drinking coffee  and making it and so on i can always study  

coffee culture in blank speaking countries so  of course if you're learning english you want to  

maybe study coffee culture in english-speaking  countries so learning language is not just about  

vocabulary right culture is uh language is a  part of culture culture is a part of language  

so learning the language around different parts  of culture like music culture movie culture in  

this case coffee culture can be a great way to  learn to talk about something you really like  

in a second language right great just always  start with things that you enjoy because you want  

to actually learn how to talk about those things  you actually enjoy those things okay number three  

i like playing online games okay so what can i  do to use english if i really just want to play  

games with my free time you can try to play on an  english server like the us server the australia  

server whatever is close to you geographically  and easy to use maybe it doesn't have too much lag  

and play on an english server especially games  that have an open chat section and you can type  

right chat with english speakers  read see what they're talking about  

though this isn't the best way to learn  formal english it's a great way to learn  

slang and kind of the way people talk to  each other in that environment and again  

culture right so you can see inside  gaming culture in different countries  

okay how about painting or really any hobby for  example let's say you really really love painting  

read about your favorite artists art and  lives in english so who do you love what  

what uh which artists inspire you or make you want  to paint well one method you could possibly use  

is to read about your favorite artists  art their pieces right and their lives in  

english and finally listening to music you  can explore english music and study the lyrics  

so again each of these also has culture in it  too which is great right we're learning about  

um coffee culture gaming culture paint uh maybe  art art art culture music culture and so on so  

these are all example methods so think about  what you enjoy and how you can add english to it

okay so methods are the base right so number  one enjoy what you're doing number two  

make some methods based on what you enjoy so  let's say i've chosen those five things right so  

let's say these are my five methods okay great  read the english version of your favorite book  

that's great to say but i need to go farther i  need a system i need to develop a system and so  

do you this means you need a study plan so  before we get to that so we see here a calendar  

right i can't just say i will read my favorite  english book or my favorite book in english  

okay when for how how often how long  will you read for when will you do it  

how will you fit it into your schedule so  if you're like me you love having a plan  

but maybe this doesn't come naturally to you you  don't really ah no i'll just do it when i can  

so for if that's how you feel i need i want  to tell you that this is a very very important  

step if you do not have a system that is  doable enjoyable easy to stick to for you  

then you you won't get any farther okay so  let's talk about how to make a study plan  

your study plan should be smart so  what is this this is called an acronym  

that's when each letter stands for a  different word so the s stands for specific  

m stands for measurable a attainable are relevant  and t time bound so we're going to talk about all  

of these but let's take a look at what these  words mean first so first we have specific  

this means that i shouldn't just say i'm going to  read a book specific would be what kind of book  

which book uh how many pages how often  what what days what times and so on  

measurable to measure something we might think  of like a ruler right oh it's 10 feet or 100  

kilometers right but here we want to be able to  measure our improvement right so whether that's  

um i will read 25 pages a day until i finish the  book right i can see my progress or i will study  

15 vocabulary words a week and use them  in my writing okay and you can measure  

how many words you use and how many  you're learning right measurable

a is attainable this means you can do it another  word we might use is achievable this means it's  

possible you can do it so don't say i will study  i will read a book for three hours a day every day  

because you probably won't right it probably will  be impossible for you to do that maybe you will at  

the start but a word we would use is sustainable  this means if it is not sustainable this means you  

can't keep doing it it's too much so make sure it  is doable attainable achievable okay something you  

can do even if you only have five minutes a day  to uh do something do one of your methods that's  

okay even just once a week whatever works for you  the point is you have a system and you can do it  

and for and there's no reason  that you should have to stop okay  

the r stands for relevant so this  means that what you choose to do is  

uh it is important it's useful right it is not  something that you'll never use so let's say you  

this goes back to your methods right you want  to choose methods that are uh that interest you  

are based on your interests and that you will  actually use the language for right and finally t  

means time bound so whether that's uh  i will read this book in two months  

or i will give myself 30 minutes every uh 30  minutes three days a week to do it it needs  

to be time-bound so let's take a look a little  bit closer at what these mean okay so specific  

make your goals specific and narrow for good  planning right more effective planning it's uh  

again i could say read a book or i could be  specific and say read uh 15 pages of harry potter  

in english um every week and highlight the words  and write them down and that i don't know and  

write them down on a separate place to study right  measurable so you need to choose what your goal is  

is it that you want to learn more words is it that  you want to read faster what is your goal choose  

what what you're measuring and keep track of it  right so if you choose words learned the number of  

words you learn let's say you start off and then  and you're learning a lot of new words and then  

it stops well now you can change what you're  doing right it means you need to measure  

attainable again make sure you can do your  goal make sure it is possible that your plan  

is doable relevant it should match your goals  right don't do something that isn't important  

to you and time bound realistic and have  an end date i want to do this by this time  

having smart goals is very important having a  smart system of learning is extremely important  

and you can do it so let's  look at an example of a smart  

learning goal for studying english right i've  been talking about um uh reading so for example  

i will read harry potter for 15 minutes every  day right that works for me in my schedule  

i will look up words i don't know and  quiz myself on new vocabulary each week  

i will finish the first book in two months okay  great so we have let's make sure we have each part  

specific yes so i say how often 15 minutes  every day vocabulary quiz each week measurable  

well i'm quizzing myself right i'm checking  my learning and if i'm not doing very well  

on my self-made quizzes well i can change what i'm  doing change how i'm reading give more time to it  

attainable well 15 minutes every day is attainable  for me and two months that works i can do that  

are relevant well i always loved harry potter and  i know that there's a lot of really good language  

in there so definitely relevant and time bound  yes i have my daily goal my weekly goal and how  

long it will take me to complete so use this as  an example for how to create your learning system

okay so of course you have to enjoy the  methods you use to and develop a system  

using them and that's great but the  last step here is patience this means  

being okay to wait right you should not expect to  learn the entire english language in two months  

you can't do that but you can make progress this  is again why that m measurable is so important  

if you are studying and practicing but you are not  measuring your progress it will be more difficult  

to see how you are improving so keep track this  might mean uh something like recording yourself  

keeping a journal let's say you want to work on  your writing keep a journal get a notebook and  

write in it at the end of each week maybe  and then as time goes on you can look back  

and maybe see your earlier mistakes oh i know  that that that i shouldn't have done that now  

i know what's right and maybe you can even fix it  right for speaking maybe try to choose something  

to describe or talk about or a certain topic and  record yourself on your phone or on your computer  

and then come back to it maybe a few three months  later and see oh yes i've gotten better or if not  

that's okay that just means you need to change  your methods right and with reading you can search  

and find uh books the the english level the how  hard different books are to read so maybe start  

very easy right and slowly very slowly  work your way up and that's a great way to  

keep track of your progress as well and to  help yourself feel patient so remember you  

should enjoy what you're doing use your hobbies  and interests to create unique special methods  

take those methods and put  them into a well-planned system  

and be patient with yourself and don't be afraid  to change right if you develop a system and it's  

not working for you change it right you may end  up going back and forth between these two things  

again and again and you may over time find also  different methods that work for you so just keep  

going through this is not a one-time thing you're  going to have to change because you will change  

your interests will change your schedule  or job might change so just be willing to  

always change these steps as you go on as well all  right so those are the main four but there is a  

fifth that i would like to add and that  is high expectations and self-compassion  

so i think that it is very important  to set high goals for yourself  

but also don't beat yourself up if you don't meet  those very high goals you set but you want to  

make sure you are trying to do something you know  you can do but that's going to be challenging  

right we want to challenge ourselves so you should  acknowledge or recognize no yes this is hard  

english is hard learning a second language is  quite difficult especially if you do not live in a  

country where you're hearing that language all the  time so if you are learning english and you live  

in england well it will be it's a little easier  for you because you have to use it every day you  

see it on signs you hear it on the radio tv movies  everywhere you're surrounded by english but if you  

are learning english and you live in pakistan  for example i saw someone on our comments today  

saying that uh that's where they're watching from  today well you probably don't hear as much english  

right it's it's gonna be more difficult to  seek it out learn from it and you really  

are more responsible for your learning so it  really falls on you so it is hard but still set  

high expectations and big goals for yourself  trust that you can do it that you are capable  

but also don't beat yourself up when it  takes longer than you think to reach those  

goals maybe my goal is to pass the um past  a certain level of a toefl test or topic or  

not that ielts or some english test maybe  there's five levels of a test and i want to  

pass um level three by the end of the year and i'm  working really really hard really really hard and  

i don't pass well maybe i got to like 2.5 that's  still really good right i'm still making progress  

so make sure to set high expectations for yourself  and if you don't meet it in the time you want to  

be patient right persistence is the key keep going  as i showed you on the last slide you might have  

to change your methods change your system again  and again until you find what works for you  

but you will find something if something isn't  working for you try something new because you may  

be just one step away from finding the methods  and systems that help you to meet your goals