How to learn fluent English - plan for success. An English teacher’s secrets

12,505 views ・ 2018-01-12

Simple English Videos


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hi I’m Vicki and welcome back to part two of this lesson on goals and plans.
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I’m sharing what I do with my students, things that I’ve found work, so you can
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try them too.
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Good goals and good plans make learning English easy.
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Last week we looked at goals.
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If you missed it, here’s a link.
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But you should now have a list of things you want to do in English.
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In this video we’re going to turn them into an action plan.
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Before we start, you have to understand the secret to learning English.
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It’s very simple.
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Learning English is about doing lots of small jobs – easy jobs – but they have to be
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the right jobs.
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The right jobs are jobs that solve your problems.
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01:01
Take listening for example.
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I find it hard to understand native English speakers.
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Why is that?
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Is it because you don’t know enough words?
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Yes.
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I need to expand my vocabulary.
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Or perhaps you know a lot of words but you don’t recognize them when you hear them?
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Yes, I should work on pronunciation.
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Or maybe people speak too fast and you can’t interrupt to check you’ve understood?
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Yes.
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I should learn some phrases to ask people to slow down, repeat and explain.
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So you get the idea, right?
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Different problems have different solutions.
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Your action plan is going to be list of jobs that solve the problems you’re facing.
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So you want to be able to talk to your boss in English and not feel stressed.
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That’s my goal.
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We speak on the phone normally.
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What are the calls about?
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I have to give her an update every week – a progress report.
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And what happens?
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We usually start with some small talk.
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Is that easy?
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She often asks about the weather and I always say the same thing.
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It’s raining.
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It’s not raining.
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Do you want to learn some new phrases to talk about the weather?
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Yes.
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And then she asks me about my work and I explain what I’ve done.
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How does that go?
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Sometimes I can’t find the words I need.
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Do you need more vocabulary?
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No, I know a lot of technical words for my job.
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But I’m afraid of making mistakes.
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Grammar mistakes?
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Yes.
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If you’re talking about progress, you might need the present perfect tense.
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I don’t understand the present perfect.
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Do you want to work on that?
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Yes.
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OK.
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What else happens?
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She asks about my projects.
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That can be hard.
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Can you predict what questions she’ll ask.
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No, not always.
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Well, sometimes I can.
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Like, is it on time?
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Or is it in time?
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Which one is it?
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We can work on that.
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Good.
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So start with your goals, and then ask yourself questions.
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You want to identify the things you should do to help you reach the goals.
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And again, make a list, but this time it’s not a list of goals.
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It’s a list of jobs.
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You’re building a plan of action!
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When you do this, some jobs will be small and some will be big.
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Make sure they’re all manageable.
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So if they’re big, you’ll need to break them down.
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You want small jobs that you can fit into your days and the times you have available.
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Lists are great when you’re learning English.
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They stop you forgetting things and it’s so satisfying when you can tick things off.
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And you can keep adding more jobs later, and change things later.
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OK, the next step.
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Suppose you want to learn 5 phrases to talk about the weather, or when to use the present
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perfect, or whatever it is.
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What can you do?
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Google it, of course.
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There are so many good websites to help you these days.
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And YouTube videos.
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We’ve got hundreds of videos to help, so subscribe to our channel.
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OK, I’ve got few more tips to help you - things we know from language learning research.
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The first one is about pronunciation.
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If you work on your pronunciation, it will probably help your listening too.
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And vice versa.
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Work on listening helps with pronunciation.
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The two go together, so that’s great.
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You get a double benefit.
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Another thing - vocabulary.
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Don’t try to learn lists of words that are very similar.
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For example, if you want to learn say, eight new words for vegetables, working with a list
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might sound like a good idea, but you’ll probably muddle them up.
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Research shows we’re likely to confuse similar words if we learn them together, so space
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them out over time.
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Stories are great for learning vocabulary, and that’s another thing.
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Reading.
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There’s lots of research that shows reading is a very effective way to learn English.
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So books, articles, news stories.
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And reading isn’t just great for vocabulary.
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It improves grammar as well.
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And one final thing before we stop.
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Sometimes when I meet a new student I find they have self-doubts, feelings that they
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won’t be good enough.
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I don’t know if I can pass this exam.
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I’ve never been good at learning languages.
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Is it possible to become fluent in English without living in America or the UK?
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It’s been a long time since I studied English.
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Am I too old?
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If you feel like this, you’re not alone.
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But you know, as a teacher, I’m never worried.
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I know that if you identify your goals and make a plan of action that fits your lifestyle,
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the work is easy, and your English is going to take off.
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07:01
I’ve been teaching English for forty years, and I’ve seen it happen so often, I never
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doubt it any more.
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So get your pen and paper and start making your lists of goals and plans.
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Doing the work will be easy after that.
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Have fun and happy studies.
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See you next Friday.
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