The #1 Key to Advanced Fluency: Word Chunks

What’s up everyone? I'm Andrea,  your RealLife English fluency Coach.  

Although English is my native language, I’ve  spent years of my life learning Greek and Spanish,  

so I’ve been in your shoes - I know exactly what  it’s like to know all the grammar and rules,  

but still be nervous when words that I know  I’ve learned just don't seem to come to me.

And although this may sound like a far off dream  for you, I want to invite you to imagine yourself  

speaking English confidently and naturally,  automatically connecting your thoughts in a  

fluid rhythm that anybody can  understand. What is that like?

In today’s lesson, we are going to focus on  the number one key to advanced fluency that  

is going to help you to effortlessly learn  and remember vocabulary the natural way!

Let’s look at this sentence: Nice to meet you,  

where are you from? (put “read out loud” on the  screen) Now repeat after me: Nice-tuh-me-choo,  

where-r-ya from? (2x - Give them  a chance to listen and repeat).

When I say, “Nice-tuh-me-choo, where’r-ya from”  (and you repeat after me), I’m not speaking  

or teaching you word for word, because your  fluency depends on your ability to automatically  

recall, interpret and express yourself in  units of meaning, which are called word chunks.

This lesson is divided into two parts: 

First, I'll help you understand what  chunks are and why they are so important.

Then, you are going to practice using them with me  

with three different exercises that you  can start doing to improve your fluency.

And right at the end I have a  really special surprise for you.  

So make sure you watch all of this video  to check out what that surprise is.

So, before I teach you everything you need  to know about this powerful fluency tool,  

if you want to take your fluency beyond  the classroom and into the real world,  

and be able to understand fast English, to speak  confidently with anyone, and connect to the world,  

then I invite you to become a RealLifer. Just like  Mr Thunder who says he now understands about 90%  

words in our lessons through learning with  us, making our lessons highly effective!

So now let's help YOU understand our lessons  confidently, too. Just make sure you click on the  

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Word chunks are a sequence of words  that come naturally together to express  

an idea. For example, when you  first learned "Nice to meet you",  

you didn't study each word in the  sentence. You simply learned them  

altogether, and even how to answer it by  saying "Nice to meet you, too!", right?

So, we can say that chunks are " a string  of words that we can find in our memory  

as a ready-made unit."

In this first part, I will help you  to understand why word chunks are one  

of the best ways to advance your fluency in  English. Let's start with a simple exercise.  

I'm going to say a list of words and I want  you to memorise all the items in the exact  

same order I say. Do not take any notes  and do not pause and replay the video, ok?

Ready? Here we go.

All right! What were the words on the list?

Hum... How did you do? The  words and the order was:

Touch, Drink, Well, Jump

Now, let's add some challenge  to it. Listen and memorize:

Can you tell me them now? Here they are.

So, you may be thinking "Okay,  Andrea. I'm here trying to memorise  

words and sentences. But, what's the point?  How does that help me improve my fluency?"

In both activities, you had to  memorise a list with four items,  

right? Well, here's the reason why  chunks are such a powerful tool.

The cognitive workload, that  is, how much your brain had to  

"work" to memorise the items was  exactly the same for both lists. 

“The human brain’s working memory has extremely  limited processing capacity. It can only process  

4 items simultaneously, regardless if  one item equals one word or four or five"

What does that mean? This means that while  

for the first one, you memorised only four words,  

for the second you memorised 22 and your brain  used the same amount of energy in both cases.

Let's look at a practical example. Let's  say you’re learning food vocabulary. So,  

instead of going on and on with a  list of 10 words to describe food,  

it'd be much more productive to  learn them within a chunk. Look!

Instead of learning and trying to memorize  Ripe, bitter, mild and acidic, go for... 

This banana is not ripe enough to eat.

Coffee leaves a bitter taste in the mouth

That chicken had a very mild flavour

Some great desserts are made with acidic  fruits, like lemon pie, for example

The chunks contribute to fluent speaking because  you won't have to construct word by word when  

speaking. It will free your "thinking capacity",  that is, decrease the cognitive workload your  

brain has to go through as words will be  understood and recognized as one single unit.

Think of the example I just showed you. When  talking about food, you already say bitter taste,  

mild flavour and acidic fruits rather than  each of these characteristics separately.

Now, I want to invite you to start noticing  chunks every moment you're studying English.  

And the best place to start  is with our free masterclass.  

You’ll be able to check out how our Native  Immersion course works and start understanding  

fast native speech and the vocabulary  and pronunciation we use in real life!  

To try that for free right now, just click  up or the link in the description to sign up!

In this first exercise, I'll  teach you the pronunciation of  

some chunks you can start using  right now to sound more fluent.

The first one is I'm going off on a tangent… First, contract the verb AM to 'm -  

I'm. Repeat after me. Then, connect OFF with  

ON and A - OFF ON A [oh-fun-uh] Your turn. Finally, work on your intonation.  

Your voice goes up and down I'm going off on a tangent...

Let's try? Repeat it with me  I'm going off on a tangent 

Now, let's put this in context. Repeat after  me "I'm sorry I'm going off on a tangent here,  

but I always get excited when  someone mentions Harry Potter.  

Shall we go back to the financial report?" The next one is I guess what I'm trying to say is

First, contract the verb AM  to 'm - I'm. Repeat after me. 

Then, connect what with I'm -  What I'm [wha-uhm] Your turn. 

Reduce the word to to tuh and  stress the words guess and trying.

Let's try? Repeat it with me I  guess what I'm trying to say is  

If you want to understand daily conversations and  practise your listening skills with the British,  

American and Australian accent, then why  not check out podcast? You can listen to  

it while cooking, walking your dog or doing  housework! I’ll link it down below for you!

Moving on to our next exercise, let's look  at how chunks can help us learn collocations,  

that is words that are commonly used together,  like the verb depend is always followed by the  

preposition on or that you always  say do, not make your homework.

So the best way of doing this is trying to apply  those words to many different contexts. So,  

I will show the chunk and you will repeat it,  completing it with different words each time.

First, let's use What do you say we go for  a coffee after work? to invite someone out.  

Repeat it after me. 

What do you say we go for a coffee  after work? Now, it's your turn.

Catch a movie / have a drink / grab a bite

Now, let's practice asking another question  to invite someone out. Repeat it after me. 

Are you up for a walk in the park? Now, it's your turn.  

Change the part in blue to the picture you see.

In this exercise, we'll have a conversation  about life and work in the city. In a traditional  

classroom, you'd probably learn words like  outskirts, commute, city centre and residential to  

talk about the place where you live. Here, you'll  learn and practice them as part of the chunk in  

a conversation. Let's do this twice. First you  ask me the questions. Then, you answer them, ok?

You: So, tell me, where do you live?

Andrea: I live in a small town on  the outskirts of a very big city.

You: Oh, interesting! And do you also work there?

Andre: No, I have to commute from  Oakwood, my town, to London every day.

You: I see. How long does it  take to get to the city centre?

Andrea: I actually work in a residential area.  I'm a physiotherapist so I go to people's homes.

Andrea: So, tell me, where do you live?

You: I live in a small town on  the outskirts of a very big city.

Andrea: Oh, interesting!  And do you also work there?

You: No, I have to commute from  Oakwood, my town, to London every day.

Andrea: I see. How long does it  take to get to the city centre?

You: I actually work in a residential area. I'm  a physiotherapist so I go to people's homes.

If you liked this lesson, don't forget  to click on the thumbs up and also let  

us know in the comments. You can now  continue practicing with me, Ethan,  

Ollie and other learners. Embark on a Global  Adventure and join the list to be a tester of  

our exclusive speaking and listening app! Just  click the link in the description to sign up.

Freebie: Memrise deck with chunks from lesson So, at the start of the lesson I said I had a  

special surprise for you, well, you'll  have the chance to continue practicing  

the chunks we studied with a special deck  on Memrise that we’ve created for you.  

It’s a free gift we’re giving  you for learning with us!  

Just click on the link in the description down  below to sign up to Memrise and download it.  

It’s that simple! So now it’s time to go  beyond the classroom and live your English!