3 Steps To Improving Your English Alone At Home

hey what's up Stefanie the English coach here from EnglishFullTime.com

in this video we are going to talk about how you can improve your English alone

from home in just three steps just three things you need to do to work on and

improve your English so if you're new to my channel welcome if you're not new hi

it's been a while has this been a rough year for you too or just for me this has

been one of the most challenging years for me personally and so I took a little

break from YouTube so thank you for your patience I'm back now I'm ready to make

more content I'm feeling much better than I have in a long time and the crazy

thing is everything that I've gone through this year that has been really

challenging has nothing to do with what's going on with the whole world

right now with the crazy virus and lockdowns and quarantines oh my goodness

I was already going through my own stuff before any of that happened so when that

happened I was like oh great so when it rains it pours let's go anyways I'm sure

you are spending lots of time at home right now like many of us and hopefully

you're taking advantage of this time to really work on your English so that's

why I decided to come back to my youtube channel with this video in particular ok

so again three things you need to do to work on your English alone at home and

by doing these things you're really gonna see some dramatic improvements now

I want to say a couple things first I've talked about two of these things before

but I haven't really discussed the other one yet so I'm excited to get into that

and the other thing is a lot of people don't progress in their English because

they are only doing one or two of these things that I am about to list so as

you're watching this video I just want you to analyze your own situation and

what you can improve in your own habits to get the results that you want to have

the first thing that you need to do in order to improve your English and we all

know this is input right you need to be listening to English watching stuff in

English reading in English okay doing these

things and you can do it in so many different ways I mean you guys we have

Netflix we have YouTube we have podcasts everything you can't imagine it is

easier than ever to access the English language and to hear how native speakers

speak so you can focus on one dialect like if you're really trying to learn

American English which I'm assuming you are since you're here on my channel and

I am from California then you can find youtubers who talk about things that you

are interested in they don't have to be English teachers just whatever topics

you like actually if you haven't done this already you should make a list of

your interests okay your interest your goals whatever it is that excites you

whatever you're trying to achieve in life and then you should consume content

that has to do with those things okay so don't force yourself to you know do

anything that you feel you have to do I know some people will read classic

novels in English because they feel that somehow that's really gonna help them

and classic novels if you're really not interested in classic literature they

can be quite boring so stick to stuff that is interesting for you when you

consume the material then it will be effortless it won't feel like a chore

you should be excited when you turn on your favorite podcast or when you go to

your favorite YouTube channel be excited and settle down into a couch or a chair

and we're go for a walk while you listen to something and so the other thing I

want to say about this is if you don't have certain types of content a certain

channels certain podcasts or whatever it is that are your go to that you love

then you should really spend some time searching and digging and finding

content that you like it's really worth it sometimes it can take a whole week to

find a channel that you really love or a podcast that you really love but again

by doing the digging by taking the time to find the content that you love to

find the types of movies that you love or a series that you love by investing

the time in that it's really going to make it a lot easier when

you settle down to actually input the English consume the English in the

various formats because you'll know oh I love this show I'm gonna go right to

that okay so for those of you who already know what types of movies you

like and series and books etc I want you to go ahead and list them in the

comments that way the people who are still trying to find content that they

like they can see your suggestions and hopefully find something that will be

interesting to them so just write what it is that you like if it's a book genre

or the title of a book or a series movie etc and why you like it and why you

recommend it okay so that's input and again I think we're all clear on what

input is and why it's important the next one is output right input and output so

output is speaking and writing it's communicating in the language when you

have input you're putting a bunch of English into your brain but then it has

to come out and a lot of people do not practice their output they don't use

English so everything stays in their brain and then when it comes time to use

the language they feel like oh my gosh I can't speak the words don't come out and

this is the reason why you have to practice the speaking until it becomes

effortless and in the beginning it might feel like I can't do anything but if you

consistently do it it will get easier we actually did this earlier this year and

the fluency breakthrough challenge this is a challenge that I lead twice a year

we're gonna do it again in July if you're interested and I will leave a

link in the description for you to get more information about it but basically

this challenge is all about output in English it's about helping you speak

English communicate in English write in English create content in English so you

can finally stop consuming so much English and actually learn really

creative ways to use the language to talk with other people to have

conversations etc and for those of you who did participate in the fluency

breakthrough challenge this year and last year I really hope you guys are

continuing the methods and the strategies that you learned because you

saw how it worked in the challenge and you

had really great results so just keep doing all of that and you'll keep

improving your results okay so the last thing you need to do to improve your

English and you can do this alone at home you don't need a teacher for this

is you need to actually study now I don't really talk very much about study

that's why I wanted to talk about it in this video but sometimes it's not enough

to just consume English and then speak English and write English like put it in

put it out or take it and put it out sometimes that's not enough because you

could be making the same mistakes over and over and over again and never really

fixing them or you might plateau you might feel like you know what I listen

to English all the time I speak English all the time I use the

language but I really don't feel like I'm improving and that's why it's

important to study but what am I talking about when I say study I don't mean just

saying oh my gosh I need to improve my grammar let me purchase a grammar

workbook and I'm gonna do the workbook and you know then I'll improve no that's

not what I'm talking about what I'm talking about is you analyzing your own

weaknesses you have to know what your weaknesses are and you shouldn't need a

teacher to tell you what they are right because when you get to a certain level

of English or any language when you can understand a native speaker like you're

here watching my video you understand me so that says that you're at a certain

level and when you're at this level you also have the ability to identify your

own weaknesses and your own struggles so for example let's talk about

pronunciation when you speak if you constantly encounter a sound that is

very difficult for you to make that is a sound that you should work on until it

becomes effortless when you're speaking if there is a certain grammar

construction that you struggle to make or you don't quite understand that is

something that you should study and what I highly recommend is that you have a

journal where you can write down what you are learning now depending on how

you like to learn you can have a journal where you write by hand you can have a

word document on your computer where you just type everything or you can actually

use some type of social media account like Instagram to log everything that

you're and keep track of it and what I

recommend is that you keep track of new words that you learn you keep track of

sentences that you really like if you read something in a book and you go wow

I really like that sentence I like the way that was constructed write it down

and refer back to it read it again so you can remember it and start

incorporating sentences like that into your own English if you hear a phrase in

a movie or an idiom or a saying or something like that that you really like

then write that down as well okay and if you're doing this on Instagram or

something if you take something from a movie you can take a picture of the

movie and then that can be the photo that you upload and in the description

you can write what you learned that way you're creating a visual diary for

yourself you're gonna see what it is that you learned where it came from and

you'll be able to read your own description to remember what was it that

you learned and why did you like it okay so I just want to end this video by

saying that I actually do all three of these things with my own English even

though I am a native speaker I listen to English every day I'm surrounded by

English I speak English okay but I also study English I've never stopped

studying and the kind of studying that I do it's not really grammar related

sometimes it is like if I say something and I go you know what I don't know if

that's correct I go and I look it up to see if it is correct or not but the kind

of studying that I really do is I study communication for example I might say

something and then depending on how a person reacts I might realize oh I

wonder if I could have said that better I wonder why that person reacted in that

way let's say they have a negative reaction and I really analyze the way

that I use the language so that I can get the results with it that I want to

get and have the influence that I want to have and have the relationships that

I want to have so I'm continuously studying English and working on

improving my own communication skills and I want you guys to know that it's a

lifelong process and I will compare this quickly to Spanish because you guys know

I am a Spanish speaker it's not my native language I learned

Spanish starting when I was 14 continuing into my adulthood where is my

Spanish compared to my English let's say my English is like way up here my

Spanish is actually quite a bit lower and I am a fluent Spanish speaker but

Spanish was never a priority for me the way that English was especially once I

became the English coach because what happened was I was living in Argentina

and I was using so much Spanish speaking Spanish every day reading Spanish

studying Spanish etc that my English started coming down I kid you not I was

struggling to communicate in English and when that started happening I was like

no way like I love the Spanish language but I really don't want to lose my

English and the way that it is especially because I work with English

learners and I have to make sure my English is sharp so I can help you guys

and so you can imitate me so once I noticed that started happening I

prioritize Spanish a little bit less prioritized English a little bit more so

now with Spanish it's kind of like a tool that I have in my toolbox and when

I need it I take it out but I never really need it for anything serious I

don't use Spanish for work well first of all now I'm living in California my

husband is a Spanish speaker but we communicate mostly in English so I just

use it when I'm with my husband's family or when I meet a Spanish speaker and

they don't speak English and so the Spanish that I have I'm fluent in

Spanish it's really good enough for me to achieve the things that I want to

achieve with the language so I reached my goals and I don't have to

continuously consume Spanish with input the output and the study because I've

reached the level that I want to reach with that and sometimes I think like oh

my goodness like I should really work on my Spanish I should make it even better

but then I realized like for what right there are only so many hours in a day

and I don't have time for everything so you have to figure out what your

priorities are and then go after them and for some of you watching this right

now you know maybe English is not your priority and maybe you feel guilty like

you don't study it enough or work hard enough but maybe it's because you just

don't need it in your life right now and maybe when you do need it

you're gonna start using it a lot more now that's not to say you shouldn't be

preparing because if English is going to be important for

your future then you should be motivated right now to be improving it because it

will be necessary in the future so I kind of jumped all over the place in

this video I hope everything made sense and you guys I really hope all of you

are healthy I hope that this whole situation ends kind of soon so we get

back to normal life but I also know that that might not happen for a while so

let's make the best of it while we're in the situation that we're in and I'm just

glad to be back and making videos for you guys again oh and did I say I'm in

my new office yes this is my new office totally undecorated right now I may not

even decorate it we'll see because you know priorities right now my priority is

making content it's helping you guys it's doing things it's not spending a

week decorating my office so anyways I have an office it was necessary I needed

to get away from the house and come to a place and work at least for now

and we'll see where life takes us so okay that's it you guys and I will see

you soon in another video bye again three things that you need to do to

improve your English so I want you as I'm making so as I am hmm and I was

gonna say something else what was it and hopefully for the people who don't

really know what they like wall just made a weird sound okay so and then

hopefully for the people who I don't even know if I'm gonna edit that out

okay let me let me regain myself okay so for those of you who already know the

type of content that you like I want you to go ahead and share it in the comments

whatever YouTube channel it is or whatever or I can talk today I can never

talk on these videos so for those of you who know what type of content you like

if you have a favorite type of I don't know okay so for those of you who

already know I go and I look it up to find out if it is correct sorry I'm

something I'll point out anyways mm-hmm think of something my mouth hang on you