1 Hour of English fluency tips you MUST know to get fluent

welcome to this incredibly important and special  English lesson where we're going to go through  

in depth the four essential skills you need  to master in English these are pronunciation  

Reading Writing and listening this is a special  lesson because I brought together these four  

skills and my best tips strategies and examples  so that you can improve improve your English step  

by step each one of these skills is crucial  to master in English and it's going to help  

you write more fluently speak fluently read with  better understanding and to be able to understand  

better when you hear people talking in English  the key is this go through this entire lesson  

and either take notes write the notes down or go  to the description to get the summary and then  

so important is that you take action that you  take what I talk about in this lesson and apply  

it to your everyday learning so get ready to take  this English lesson because it could transform the  

way you learn English and therefore transform your  path to English fluency let's start with listening  

here is a question that I received on the last  podcast episode now listen to this carefully  

and see if this is something that you've been  wondering about too okay hi I find your podcasts  

are useful and valuable and really keen on them  however there's one things that I always wonder  

I mean you speak pretty slowly and there's not  many Advanced vocabulary in your podcasts I could  

mostly understand your content therefore will  they help me to improve my listening or have I  

to listen to a difficult audio so this person is  asking if my podcasts are useful for her because  

she can understand nearly everything or mostly  understand the content and doesn't feel like  

there are many Advanced vocabulary items in there  so I'm going to talk about this today because I  

think it's something that a lot of people think  about and wonder if listening to podcast made for  

English Learners is valuable firstly let's talk  about the pace of my podcasts when I am given a  

podcast whether this is for English Learners or  on my other channel which talks about marketing  

I tend to talk in a presentation style and  if you think about TED talks and the way that  

people speaking a TED talk it's fairly similar to  that I try to keep it a little bit more natural in  

the podcast but it's still a presentation and when  you are presenting things you don't just talk like  

you're having a conversation it's a different  type of way of speaking however on my YouTube  

channel I'm sure you have watched some of the  conversations that my wife and I have had where  

we just discuss various topics and those ones are  different because we're having a conversation and  

the way you speak in a conversation is different  to the way you speak when giving a presentation  

and secondly when it comes to Advanced vocabulary  when I talk about how to learn English most people  

already have learned the words and phrases needed  to think about and talk about and listen to that  

topic because if you are an English learner then  you will have researched and listened to podcasts  

about how to learn English how best to learn  English therefore you've had the repetition of  

the phrases and vocabulary and you're probably  more familiar with this type of topic than if  

I started talking about vocabulary about pingpong  for example and if I talked in a very similar way  

but talked about pingpong which I don't know if I  could make a podcast on that but let's say I did  

then you wouldn't be able to understand as much  because it's more of a specialized topic so those  

are my initial thoughts about this but I do want  to talk about this further because it brings up  

a really important point when we're talking about  what to listen to when learning English what type  

of things should you listen to when learning  English okay and before I go into that I just  

want to say hi my name is Jack from T fluency if  you are new here welcome to you and feel free to  

subscribe to whichever podcast app you're using or  if you're on YouTube click that subscribe button  

and the notification Bell and then also take  a look at the description for some resources  

that will help you learn English including my book  which is free to download the five-step plan for  

English fluency now to help me talk about input  and the type of input you need the the person  

that I think is so important here and somebody  that I have followed for a long time is Dr Steven  

crashing and he talks a lot about comprehensible  input comprehensible input which basically means  

input that you can understand okay so I found this  article which summarizes this quite well and it's  

saying comprehensible input in English is English  language that you can understand language inputs  

of things that you hear like podcasts the radio  conversations as well as things that you read  

like books article English blog articles Etc and  cres specifies that you can't just read or listen  

to anything and improve your language you have  to read or listen to things you can understand  

language acquisition happens best he says when the  input is just slightly more advanced than your own  

level so for this episode we'll focus on listening  but you can apply this to reading as well and the  

key Point here is that you need to find resources  things to listen to that you can understand you  

have to find things that you can understand but  also find things that challenge you a little bit  

as well and I think this works really well because  when you understand something you can enjoy it you  

can get the repetition of sentences so that you  acquire the language now acquiring a language and  

learning a language is SE to be different because  you can learn grammar rules okay you can learn  

sentence structure and pass a test to say okay  I now know how to form the present perfect using  

different pronouns Etc and objects and to do  different types of verbs and then you can pass  

a test to say you've done that but acquiring  this is where you reach your stage and I talked  

about this in my last episode where it just feels  natural to you where it just feels natural to you  

okay where you say and use the present perfect  in a natural way because it just feels right you  

don't have to think about the rules when you're  speaking and getting lots of input helps you  

with this because you're going to listen to the  present perfect again and again and again you're  

going to read it again and again and again if you  read books as well and by doing this you're going  

to acquire the grammar in a natural way you're  going to learn this in a natural way but only  

if you can understand what you're listening to if  you don't understand what you're listening to then  

you're not going to acquire the language with the  same efficiency it's not going to be as good and  

by listening to things you understand you're also  going to understand the context because learning  

grammar is not just about sentence structure  and conjugating verbs it's also about knowing  

when to use that grammar so if you keep hearing  people talk about how many times they've been to  

a foreign country how many times they've been to  this Etc um then what you're going to do is you're  

going to understand when you can use this and say  things like oh I've been to Italy twice or I've  

been to the US once and you'll be able to use  the right structure and use the present perfect  

in the right situation so that's one reason why  getting lots of comprehensible understandable  

input is important and by the repetition that you  get you're going to acquire the language and just  

really truly understand grammar and when to use  it correctly however if you just constantly listen  

to things that you can understand then you're  not going to learn new things and I think that  

when you whenever you listen to one of my podcasts  let say that you understand 80% of what I'm saying  

then you're going to learn new things because you  can understand the majority of what I say and then  

you can more or less guess the new vocabulary  or if you're listening on YouTube watching on  

YouTube you can turn on subtitles and see the  words and phrases I'm using and look them up but  

the key here is that you need to have that base  of understanding something and then then you can  

learn new things from Context you can understand  a new word or an adjective for example because I'm  

using it in a certain way and you understand what  I'm saying therefore for most people listening  

to this I think my podcasts and other English  learning podcasts are great for comprehensible  

input don't always think that you have to  learn new vocabulary that you have to listen  

so that you can learn more advanced vocabulary  because there are certain words and phrases that  

we use again and again and again okay and we have  these high frequency phrases and words and idioms  

that people use on a conent basis so it's better  that you master those phrases especially when it  

comes to what you normally talk about so if you  need English to give presentations about finan  

things then you can learn English for finance  because those are the words and phrases you're  

going to use again and again but you're also going  to have to learn the basic phrases for small talk  

conversation negotiation talking about your past  talking about what you like the usual topics  

that you learn as a learner and by listening to  things that you already understand you're going  

to get that comprehensible input which is a rep  repetition you need to acquire a language not just  

know the grammar but acquire it so that you can  speak naturally and understand people when they  

talk so before I talk about the resources you can  use I just want to go back to this question again  

where they're saying is this useful will it help  me improve my listening or do I have to listen to  

difficult audio I think the best thing to do is to  get lots of comprehensible input listen to things  

you understand and constantly increase the level  of what you listen to so challenge yourself at  

times I know I have done this when I was really  focus on learning Spanish I what I did was I  

started by listening to the news and I followed  the news therefore I could understand the news  

stories especially international news stories  and I learned new vocab because I already knew  

what the story was about so there are different  things that you can do to constantly improve what  

you're listening to and the the level that you're  listening to and I think the key here is to go  

slowly to go slowly okay to really just build  up your comprehensible skills so that you can  

improve your your comprehension and the way that  you can listen to people when they speak so here  

are some resources that you can use and firstly  know that the difference between resources made  

for English Learners and also resources that  aren't made for English Learners and you might  

want to focus more on one or the other depending  on your level so I think some great things to to  

listen to and to read as well firstly the news  if you're interested in it if you're interested  

in the news like politics Global topics Etc and  you already know what's going on in the world  

at the moment then reading the news and listening  to the news in English is a great stepping stone  

to moving on to different types of things but  also I think other things that are great English  

learning podcasts like this one um presentation  style talks like Ted Talks personally this is  

just a my opinion I'm not a big fan of TED talks  but that type of style are great um interviews  

where you can go on YouTube and and just watch  interviews on topics that you like because usually  

with interviews they're more of a presentation  style where people are presenting what they  

believe and they're asking questions and they're  talking about a topic that you're interested in  

and then also graded readers these are books  that have been adapted for different levels so  

you can say okay I'm an intermediate speaker and  listener I'll find books graded readers that are  

for intermediate Learners and then you can think  okay and B1 let's try b1.2 or B2 on topics that  

I I already know and understand and then find  things that are comprehensible things that you  

can understand and then build up your knowledge  and your listening over time because another thing  

is sometimes when you're listening if you're not  used to listening to things in English but you  

you know the language then it can all just happen  too fast you're thinking in your head and you're  

missing things so it's about reaching that stage  where you're just listening and understanding to  

what people are saying and then you move on to the  next level and then just to talk about the other  

part with Advanced vocabulary again this I think  it's so important to think more about frequent  

quently use phrases that you need to know  instead of advanced vocabulary both are  

important but I think the the frequently used  phrases this is more important and being sure  

that you can quickly understand someone when  they use that phrase and again focus on the  

type of English that you're learning think about  what am I using my English for right now or what  

am I going to use my English for in the future  and then focus on those words and phrases find  

audio find books find podcasts that focus on  those types of topics and then just acquire  

language and and vocabulary over time there'll  be some words and phrases in here I'm sure that  

nearly everyone listening to will have found  something new for example before I said quite  

frankly maybe that's something new to you and  you can look that up and repeat this again  

and then you can learn it so just in summary this  podcast is made for English Learners I speak with  

a presentation style which some people find slow  for example but I've listened to podcasts that  

aren't made for English learners for example  someone like Sam Harris listen to one of Sam  

Harris's podcast episodes and you'll notice that  he speaks much much more slowly than I do but he's  

not making podcasts for English Learners that's  his St style of presentation and I like that style  

of presentation although sometimes I do speed it  up and then secondly comprehensible input in my  

opinion is so important and it's important to find  things that you can understand so that you can get  

the repetition of phrases so that you can really  just improve your comprehension and that you can  

just acquire the language instead of learning the  language but you still want to find something that  

is going to challenge you so that you can learn  new words and phrases so nothing is nothing is  

lost it's better to listen to something that's  too easy than too hard in my opinion because  

that that's the way that you're going to enjoy  things it's going to happen naturally you're not  

stressed about understanding things instead you're  just getting some great input and repetition and  

all this all of this uh all these phrases that  you're going to just acquire and truly understand  

by listening to things a lot but at the same  time do challenge yourself from time to time  

do think okay let's try to listen to this podcast  episode that I didn't understand 6 months ago can  

I understand it now can I understand this TV  show that went over my head a few months ago  

do challenge yourself and and think about listen  to a variety of different things and different  

accents that you can understand different people  but I would love to know your thoughts what kind  

of things do you like listening to do you  enjoy listening to things do some podcasts  

or some resources make you feel stressed  because you can't understand them and what  

else do you like listening to let me know in the  comment section if there is one on the app you're

using so that is how to improve your listening  in English I hope you found those tips useful  

before we go on to speaking and writing let's  now go through reading this is an important  

area because in everyday life we're going to read  in English and this method is going to be really  

useful and it's going to break down the difference  between extensive and intensive reading and also  

look at how to improve this skill let's go into it  now before we talk about intensive and extensive  

reading in the books Etc I do want to say if you  want to get a free book then go to tofluency.com  

there will be a link in the podcast description  and you can download that for free it's going  

to give you a a plan of action so that you can  actually move forward with your language learning  

and also if you enjoy this episode then please  share it with your friends and if you are feeling  

very generous leave a review below okay so let's  start with intensive versus extensive reading  

and why this is important because there are  two types of reading when it comes to language  

learning in intensive is where you read to learn  new words and phrases and you analyze the text  

and the grammar so you pause you stop if you don't  know a word and look this up or you pause you stop  

when when you want to have a look and think about  a sentence so you're really focusing on the words  

and the phrases and the grammar and not the book  in general now extensive reading this is spelled  

e t NS i v extensive reading is when you read for  fun and you are reading just to enjoy the story or  

the book in general so you don't stop to look up  new words and phrases instead you just continue  

reading like you would in your own language so  that is a difference intensive is when you're  

focusing on the words and phrases you're focusing  on learning structures and grammar extensive is  

when you're just reading a book and you don't stop  so you're trying to get the general meaning of the  

story or the book in general now you might be  thinking which method is best which one should  

I focus on well it depends on a few factors and  soon you're going to learn how you can do both  

at the same time but first let's discuss which  books in English are best for you which books  

you should buy or read to help you learn English  now my answer to this is very simple there is no  

one book that is perfect for everyone so there's  no book that is going to be perfect for everyone  

a book that suits you a book that is perfect  for you probably won't be perfect for another  

learner listening to this podcast so with that in  mind I recommend that you find books that first  

and there are three categories here first books  that interest you books that interest you don't  

waste your time reading something that you find  boring if you find it boring put that book down  

and find a different book there's no reason to  read something that doesn't interest you because  

we have access these days to books from all over  the world we can loan them we can read them online  

we can buy them we have access digitally to so  many different books and we can also think about  

this in ways of this could be an article online  or it could be a magazine so read things that  

interest you and the main reason for this is that  firstly it's more fun because why read something  

that you find boring but secondly if you find it  interesting then you're likely going to use the  

language that the book uses in everyday life you  want to talk about this book it's on a subject  

that interests you and if a subject interests you  then you're likely to talk about it now number  

two find a book that you can understand find a  book that you can understand there is nothing  

more frustrating than reading something that is  too difficult so this means that you should find  

something a book that isn't going to be too  complicated and this is going into the area  

of something called comprehensible input this is  where you get input you listen to things you watch  

things and you read things that you can comprehend  that you can understand because if something  

is going to be too difficult you're going to be  frustrated by reading it and also it's difficult  

to learn new words and phrases when there are  so many new words and phrases to learn or when  

you're not understanding what is going on in the  story now a quick tip for that is a graded reader  

a graded reader now these are books that have been  adapted for Learners like you so you can say okay  

I have a lower intermediate level or a higher  intermediate level and you can find books that  

have been written specifically for your level now  if you want to learn more about this just search  

for graded readers and I'll leave these tips in  the description if you want to know how to spell  

this and what's important to know is that basic  English is good so basic English is good this is  

how you are going to learn new words and phrases  in a more natural way so so far we have said that  

you should find books that interest you things  that you enjoy and books that you understand now  

the third tip is to find books that are specific  to how you use English now or how you want to use  

English so books that are specific to how you  use English now or how you want to use English  

in the future for example here is a very specific  example if you're going to take the I exam read I  

sample papers or I outs reading model answers  because that is what you need to focus on or  

if you need to learn business English then find  books that are related to business if you want  

to be able to have good everyday English where  you can use small talk and have conversations  

then read books that have conversations in them  this is just getting a little bit more focused  

so that you are really maximizing the type of book  that you're going to read and what I recommend you  

do as well is go to a website that allows you to  have a look inside a book for example I when I'm  

looking at a book I go to amazon.com and it says  take a look inside uh Kindle an ebook and I start  

reading a few pages if it looks good if it's  intered me if it's comprehensible Etc then I'll  

buy the book but if not then I'll move on find  a different one and get that one instead so feel  

free to go on Amazon or whichever website you use  to get audio books and and ebooks and just start  

reading a book and see if it's right for you now  I mentioned audio books there I think it's also  

smart as well to find books that have audio  books because what you can do is a few things  

you can read the story first and then listen to  it afterwards or you can even read and listen at  

the same time now you might not like audiobooks so  it might not apply to you but a lot of people want  

that Audi book so that they are able to listen  and while they're reading or listen to an audio  

book after they have read the story okay so let's  now say that you have your perfect book and you  

understand the difference between intensive and  extensive reading what's next so how best read  

a book this is what I think is a really good  way to make sure you're getting extensive and  

intensive reading at the same time and it also  cuts down on it reduces the frustration so this  

is a method that will include both both intensive  and extensive reading and there are three steps  

here it is firstly read extensively so read the  book without stopping but highlight vocabulary and  

grammar that you don't understand or any phrases  that you want to learn so you don't stop when  

you're reading but either on your eBook reader or  on a pizza paper a paper book you highlight words  

and phrases that you don't understand or words and  phrases that you want to learn you keep reading  

for a chapter or a certain number of pages and  again you don't stop to look anything up yet but  

once you have read a chapter or once you come to  a stage where you think okay I'm going to go back  

now and have a look at these words you can go back  look at the highlighted words and phrases and then  

use a dictionary or whatever tool you want to  use to understand what these words and phrases  

mean so again step one you read extensively but  highlight vocabulary and grammar you read for  

a certain am amount of time and then you stop go  back and look up these words and phrases that you  

don't understand so this allows you to read for  fun but also to learn something new at the same  

time and you're not stopping every time you don't  understand something instead you're reading and  

understanding what is happening in the story or in  the non-fiction book and if you find a book that's  

comprehensible that's not too difficult for your  level then this should be relatively easy to do so  

you're reading for pleasure you're highlighting  language as you go and then on once you reach a  

really good point you can go back and look up  the words that you have highlighted now this  

method doesn't stop there because there is a way  that you can remember the vocabulary and grammar  

that you've just learned and a way for you to  internalize this now this is my favorite me method  

and I've talked about this before with the lrrc  method but it's more specific this one to words  

that you have written down or read and this is  what I recommend you do because it's going to help  

you learn new words and phrases vocabulary grammar  and just English in general there are three steps  

to this firstly you take the sentences that you  have highlighted and copy them now you can do  

this with an ebook there's a way to do it if you  go to the description I have a link where I give  

a guide on this but you can copy and paste them  from your Kindle or your ebook then you paste them  

into spaced repetition software and create digital  flashcards okay so you take the sentences put them  

into software so that you can create dig digital  flashcards and then you repeat the sentences  

over a few weeks so that you internalize the  words and phrases and therefore the vocabulary  

and the grammar that you have learned this is a  very simple thing to do and it only requires a  

few minutes of your time every day but it will do  amazing things for your English now once you have  

done this once you have gone through each chapter  taken the words and phrases put them into software  

learned them or repeated them over the long term  go back in about a month and read the book again  

and you'll be amazed at how much you have learned  and how much more you understand this time you  

won't need to stop you'll be able to fully focus  on extensive reading because what you've done is  

you have taken the words and phrases that you  didn't understand or the ones that you wanted  

to learn you have repeated these using software  so it's a very efficient way to do it and then  

you go back and you see these words and phrases  and you just know what they mean now this method  

this whole method might sound quite complex but  it's very simple once you learn how to do it so  

again what you need to do is find books that  are perfect for you read extensively so that  

you can enjoy the book but while you read the  book highlight words and phrases then go back  

after a chapter or two chapters and look up  what these words and phrases mean then take  

those highlights the the highlighted sentences  put them into software repeat them over the long  

term then go back and read the book again this is  how you can use one book to learn so much English  

but also have fun reading at the same time now  the next part is really important and it's often  

overlooked by many students and it's English  pronunciation now this will greatly improve your  

fluency and also your confidence when speaking  in English so again take your time listen to  

this section twice if you have to and let's talk  about how to improve this skill I believe that  

most English Learners aren't doing enough nowhere  near enough to improve their pronunciation and  

that if they did then they would speak with more  accuracy fluency and confidence and that is why  

in this lesson I'm going to outline what you can  do in a very practical way on your own to improve  

your English pronunciation and the way that you  speak English so be sure to listen to this lesson  

or watch this lesson on YouTube until the end  because I'm going to highlight and give you  

the exact step-by-step plan so that you can  become a more confident speaker by working on  

this area of English but before we get into all  of that my name is Jack from to fluency be sure  

to check out the description because I'll have  some great resources for you including my book  

the five-step plan for English fluency all right  let's get started like I said at the beginning  

of this lesson most Learners don't focus enough  attention and study time to work in on the way  

they speak English working on their pronunciation  and this is true as well for for most language  

courses most language schools and I think this is  the case because most people need to do this on  

their own and really focus on it and it's hard for  a teacher with 30 students or even six students  

to work individually with each student to make  sure that they're saying the right vow sounds  

the right consonant sounds using word stress  and intonation but there are so many benefits  

s when you work on your English pronunciation  because what you're going to do if you improve  

this area firstly you'll speak more accurately  because you'll be using the right vow sounds the  

right consonant sounds and people will be able  to understand you better but you're also going  

to speak more fluently because you won't need to  focus on how to speak instead you can just speak  

naturally and use the right sounds in a natural  way without thinking about what you need to do  

with your mouth what you need to do in order to  make those sounds so it's going to allow you to  

speak more accurately but also more fluently and  this will lead to confidence and it will also lead  

to you speaking where you just flow everything  just flows which means it just happens naturally  

it's effortless you don't need to put lots of  effort into this so today we're going to look  

at how you can do this the the stepbystep process  in which that you can dramatically improve the  

way you speak and then I'll also give you some  very practical tips at the end so that you can  

take action and get started with all of this but  first I want to talk about gol golf the sport of  

golf the one where you have your clubs and a ball  and you swing the golf clubs so that the ball goes  

in the hole and the reason I'm talking about this  is because it's going to help you think about the  

way to improve your pronunciation by using this  analogy okay so let's say that you start playing  

golf the first thing you need to do after buying  your golf clubs is to learn how to swing a club  

learn how to swing a club so learn how to hit  the ball properly with your golf club and you  

need to think about and learn all about your hand  position where do your hands go on the club how  

do you stand what's the correct stance do you  lean forward are your legs narrow or are they  

then you need to think about what you need to do  with your hands and your elbows and your shoulders  

and your hips when you bring the club above you  and then you need to think about and learn what  

you need to do next to then hit the ball and  follow through so that the ball goes straight  

and most people here will watch YouTube videos so  they can learn how to swing a golf club properly  

or they'll buy a book or they will take private  lessons and this part is important for later so  

you might learn from YouTube or by having a  private teacher who's going to say do this  

with your hands stand like this lean back head  straight back straight okay what you need to do  

next is this Etc so once you learn how to swing  a golf club the next thing you do is you practice  

this skill you're not playing a game of golf  instead you are practicing how to swing the golf  

club properly so you are practicing this skill you  have learned how to do it and now it's time to try  

it so you swing your golf club and you hit the  ball the next thing you get is feedback feedback  

and you can do this in a few ways you can give  yourself feedback in terms of what happens to  

the ball if you hit the ball well then that's  good feedback if the ball trickles which means  

goes slowly along the ground then you know you  need to make some changes but you can also get  

feedback by having a teacher a golf instructor  watching you and telling you what you need to do  

to change so they might say okay next time keep  your elbows straight or next time keep your head  

down or next time keep your back straight and  then the other way to get feedback is to record  

yourself swinging a golf club and then comparing  your swing to the way you are learning which might  

be a YouTube video and then you can look at what  you need to do and what changes you need to make  

so that you get better at this skill and this is  a constant loop it's a cycle you learn what to do  

you practice you get feedback and you make changes  so with the feedback you're learning more and more  

with the practice you're trying it you're trying  the skill and then with the feedback you're making  

changes and then there are two more steps here  the next step is to get repetition when you can  

do the things correctly so let's say that you are  correctly holding the club and you're using your  

hands in the right way getting repetition gives  you muscle memory and it makes it effortless and  

I'm sure you've heard other people say repetition  is the key to everything by repeating something  

you learn how to do it effortlessly and you  gain that muscle memory but playing golf would  

be boring if you didn't play golf so you have a  game of golf you go around a golf course this is  

fun this is why people practice golf but it's  also a way to do two more things which is to  

perform Under Pressure to perform Under Pressure  to be able to hit the right swing or use the right  

swing when you're playing a game and also learn  more about where you need to improve so maybe you  

need to improve your putting you need to improve  your drives or maybe your short game but the game  

of golf is where you are enjoying yourself you're  having fun but you're also learning how to perform  

under pressure and learning what you need to  do to improve some more now this podcast isn't  

about golf but this analogy really helps because  learning English pronunciation and being able to  

speak English is exactly the same as what I  have just described where you learn how to do  

something you practice it you get feedback you get  repetition and then you use it in a more natural  

way you perform Under Pressure let's take two  sounds in English as an example these two sounds  

are minimal pairs the V sound and the F sound  they're two similar sounds but there's a a big  

difference here and to be able to make these  sounds correctly you need to know what to do  

with your mouth in order to to get this right you  need to know what to do with your throat and your  

teeth and your lips and your tongue in order to  get these sounds correct so let's just practice  

this a little bit the V sound is where your top  teeth touch your bottom lip behind inside your  

mouth and you make the v v sound V very V very and  there's a key part to this your throat vibrates  

it's a voiced sound one where your throat vibrates  so very practice after me V very very good now the  

F sound is similar because your mouth does the  same thing but your throat does not vibrate it's  

an unvoiced sound so f f f fun fun let's say  two words that are similar now to practice with  

v and and F very fairy very fairy very fair  very fairy very fairy now if you can notice  

the difference between those two sounds that is  great but the key here now is to think okay how  

can I master this how can I really learn these  two sounds in a way where I can just say them  

effortlessly well again learn what to do learn  about your teeth and your lips and the vibration  

like I just explained then practice practice  these sounds but the key part as well here  

is that you need feedback so after practicing you  need feedback to know if you're doing it correctly  

or not and this is where I believe most Learners  should should really put a lot of attention on  

and it's this to record yourself record yourself  saying these two words and record yourself when  

you practice pronunciation and speaking in general  now you can have somebody evaluate you so you can  

have somebody evaluate your your English and the  way you speak and I'll talk about more how I can  

help you with that soon but recording yourself  is so powerful because when you record yourself  

you can listen to the way you speak in a much  more meaningful way when you're just speaking  

and you're not recording yourself it's very  difficult to notice any mistakes you make or  

any changes you need to make but when you record  yourself it's more observant it's more obvious  

to notice what you need to do to change so learn  how to say these sounds as this example practice  

yourself saying them and then record yourself and  make changes think about the changes you need to  

make in order to say these sounds correctly and  then once you can do that get repetition so repeat  

the sounds over and over again in a small smart  way so you're not just repeating it a thousand  

times today but you're repeating it a few times  today a few times tomorrow once or twice in 4 days  

Etc that's the type of repetition that is really  efficient okay so so far what we're doing is we're  

thinking about the best way to master the sounds  of English and master English pronunciation Step  

One is knowing what to do with your mouth to make  the sounds seep step two is practicing step three  

is recording yourself step four is making changes  and then this is a loop a cycle okay maybe I need  

to do this with my teeth let's learn what to do  again you practice again you record yourself you  

think that's better but it's not perfect so you  make some more changes until you are happy with  

the way you say it and then step five is to get  that repetition so that you build the muscle  

memory you can build muscle memory in your mouth  just like people build muscle memory playing golf  

or playing soccer or working out anything really  where it just becomes effortless and that's the  

stage we want to reach now practically if you want  to say okay over the next three months I really  

want to focus on this area and I recommend you  do I recommend exploring this area at least but  

then focusing time each week maybe each day to to  pronunciation then I think this is a really good  

idea firstly learn the sounds of English learn  the different sounds of English the consonant  

sounds vowel sounds Etc the schah as well and use  the method that I've talked about in order to do  

this now this might take some time you're going to  get frustrated sometimes it might be a little bit  

boring but like I've talked about in the past try  and make it as fun as possible and be motivated  

to know that by doing this it's really going to  help the way that you speak English now it also  

means working on things like stress and ination  stress and intonation and I'm going to give a good  

example of this in a second and then finally it's  working on things like retractions and linking  

and working on these areas is not just going to  improve the way that you speak with accuracy and  

fluency but it's going to help your comprehension  too because if you can say these words and use  

retractions and use linking things like I could  have done it I could have done it which is a  

retraction of I could have done it but also  linking I could have done it I could have done  

it then you'll better understand other people  English speakers when they're using this too  

and people use retractions and Linkin all the  time it is so common so in order to understand  

people this will be really useful for you so find  a course or anything really just research this are  

these areas of the sounds of English dress and  intonation retractions and lincol and go through  

the different areas practice get feedback Etc now  I do want to say that I have a program for this  

I'll leave a link in the description that goes  through all these areas and then you can also  

send in your recordings to me and I will evaluate  these recordings for you and tell you what I think  

you need to do to improve so I've worked with  hundreds of students on this area and I know the  

the common mistakes that people make and why they  can't exec you a certain sound or they can't use  

retractions in a natural way and then like I say  make this part of your study plan so really commit  

to this because it's just going to make you become  more confident more fluent and more accurate when  

you speak English and then going back to the  golf analogy we talked about having a game of  

golf where you perform under pressure and you  learn what you need to do to improve this equip  

here is having conversations in English or talking  to a teacher or having a language exchange partner  

where you put everything together you have to  be able to use the correct sounds while speaking  

which is a much more complex task than just  repeating phrases let's say and repeating the  

sounds of English that's going to help you just  improve in general it's fun to have conversations  

this is why people want to learn English and then  also it's going to give you a good indication of  

where you are and what you need to do to improve  now I do want to practice a phrase here because  

I'm going to look at retractions and linking but  also stress and intonation okay so the phrase  

is I could have done it like I mentioned before  now could have becomes Coulda I coulda I coulda  

I could have and then done it done it done it  becomes well there it is it links together and we  

also use the the glal stop done it done it done it  and then altogether I could have done it I could  

have done it now I also want to just highlight  some word stress here because listen to this  

now I could have done it I could have done it now  this is the stress with the emphasis on I that's  

the most important part of the sentence because  I'm stressing it like that I could have done  

it I could have done it and then listen to the  intonation here I could have done it I could have  

done it it goes a little bit high at the end too  so there are different things that you can do with  

stress and ination uh with intonation there's the  Fallen intonation the RIS intonation and then the  

rise and fall intonation but all these things are  inside my program the to fluency program or you  

can look them up individually or take a different  course on pronunciation the key though is to think  

about if this is an area you would benefit from  if you spent some time with it and then going  

through that cycle where you learn how to make  the sounds or how to use intonation or how to use  

the the schah then you practice it you get  feedback you make changes you keep learning  

you keep practicing you keep making changes  and then you get the long-term repetition  

so that it just builds into muscle memory  so that you can speak English fluently and

accurately now the final skill is often overlooked  and I believe that writing is such a great way to  

improve improve English to practice your writing  and to use the method that I'm going to talk  

about right now so continue learning take this  last section and I'll see you after this last  

section we are going to talk about writing today  and more specifically six tips to help you improve  

your writing now before we go into those tips  it's important to know that writing is one of  

the four skills of English where we have reading  writing listening and speaking so reading and  

listening are both input skills whereas speaking  and writing are output skills and obviously when  

you're having a conversation with somebody you're  speaking and listening at the same time and this  

is a difficult thing to do so when you think  I can't speak in English it's difficult to  

have conversations in English know that is normal  because what you're having to do is to think about  

the grammar the vocabulary your the way you speak  the sounds of English and you also have to listen  

and understand what the other person is saying  whereas when you're reading you can take your time  

to understand something and look up new words  and phrases and if you want to learn about my  

reader method then listen to episode I'll put it  in the description too I'm just looking it up now  

now episode 10 of the toluen podcast if you're  listening on iTunes or elsewhere now with writing  

I think it's a great skill to practice for a  few reasons because when it comes to writing  

it's an output skill but you can take your time  where when you're speaking if you're having a  

conversation then you're you're obviously having  to speak to people in a spontaneous way to adapt  

to think about what you're saying and to to  speak more quickly whereas when it comes to  

writing think about just sitting in your office  or in your bedroom or at school wherever it is at  

your kitchen table with a computer or a pencil and  pen and just taking your time to create sentences  

to write paragraphs to keep a diary if that's  something you want to do where you can go into  

Google gole look up new words and phrases type  in a phrase into Google to see if it works and  

also use different apps which we're going to  talk about later so I see writing as a great  

skill to help you formalize which means create  your own sentences without feeling rushed without  

having to do this quickly within a conversation  so think about how you can Implement more writing  

into to your daily schedule and enjoy it don't  feel pressure feel like what you can do is take  

what you have learned recently and try to create  your own sentences from it so let's go into the  

six tips now and like I say be sure to check out  the description for some of the links I'm going  

to mention now the first tip is is going to be  quite specific especially if you're studying  

for the iots exam or if you're using English in a  very specific way for examp example for your job  

and this is to focus on the writing style you  need so focus on the writing style you need so  

think about the way you're going to write in  English if you need to do this for a specific  

reason so if it's for the IOS exam focus on that  if you have to write speeches for work focus on  

that if you need to write emails at work focus on  that but also if you want to learn conversational  

English then you can write like you're having a  conversation okay so just some ideas for you you  

can make a story you can create a story if it's a  conversation English you can also write in like a  

diary to write your thoughts about your day and I  think this is a great thing to do for any learner  

I do this on a daily basis just just as a a  great exercise where I talk about my day what  

I did yesterday I talk about my write about my  goals I write about what I want to do for example  

yesterday I wrote let's write some reals or shorts  for the next week which are the mini videos for  

Instagram and YouTube and I'm saying do three to  four this week and get another podcast done one  

that focuses on how to learn English which is  what I'm doing right now so this is something  

I wrote yesterday and just doing that on a daily  basis will help you just get into the habit of  

writing for English so tip one is to focus on  the writing style you need if you are going to  

write specifically for something but then if  you're just wanting to improve your English in  

a general sense I highly recommend doing a daily  diary so it makes you do it on a daily basis and  

then also thinking about ways to write something  conversational and another thing to do is then to  

if you watch a YouTube video of one of mine for  example like one of our conversations then you  

can write some thoughts about that YouTube video  now tip two is to find examples of text and copy  

them now what I've been talking about so far with  writing is more of a creative role where you're  

writing in your diary you're putting your thoughts  across you're creating a story that type of thing  

but another way to improve your writing is is to  imitate other writers now if you followed me for  

a while you'll know about my method that will help  you with your general English and especially your  

speaking where you listen to an audio phrase  you repeat that phrase you record it so then  

you can listen back to it and then you compare  your version to the original and think about  

making changes that's the speaking method that  I've been teaching for a long time but we can  

do this for writing too where what you do is you  just find any kind of text and you copy it down I  

like to do this or I think a good idea if you're  thinking about the text to find is for example  

iils exams get the IELTS model answers if you're  doing it for like emails find email templates and  

just copy them down and what I'm saying here is  not to copy them for exam or copy them for your  

specific email but the way I like to see is you  put on some relaxing music you get a cup of tea  

or your favorite type of drink and then you simply  read a sentence copy the sentence read a sentence  

copy the sentence and you don't Focus too much on  the language here you're not trying to memorize  

anything instead you're just writing things down  and copying things and I think this is a great  

method to try because you're going to naturally  internalize sentence structures and writing styles  

and if you do this again for specific purposes  that's going to be great you can also just do  

this with any sentences that you find online for  example let's say I do a video on tanky phrases  

you can take those phrases write them down  copy them down in a notebook and then if you  

want to then expand on this and create your own  sentences then uh use the app that we're going to  

talk about later but this is a great way to  internalize sentence structures uh word order  

and also a powerful way to learn grammar too now  another way to this is tip three is basically  

about how you can improve your writing okay and  it's it's using a different skill and the tip is  

this to read a lot so to read a lot because this  is will be one of the most vital ways for you to  

help become familiar with the way that English  is written and it's also going to help you spot  

the mistakes you're making in the moment and if  you copy passages from what you're reading it can  

also help you overcome mistakes that you're  making and I think graded readers is a great  

place to start and again go to episode 10 to learn  more about reading and I'm not going to talk much  

about this because you know as a learner you'll  probably know the power of reading and how it  

can help you but it's going to help your writing  because it's going to give you the input you need  

to then create something but like I say also just  copy it so when whenever you read something think  

about copying a few paragraphs especially ones  that interest you or paragraphs that contain the  

type of language that you think is relevant tip  four is about practice and getting feedback so  

it's important to get feedback on your writing  so that you can overcome mistakes now tip five  

is going to give you an app that will help you  with this but here what what I want to get across  

in tip four is just to feel like practicing is a  good thing to do and to implement this into your  

daily routine or your learning routine so after  trying the copying tactic where you copy text and  

you start to feel a little bit more confident do  some writing exercises and try to find a teacher  

or somebody who can correct you now there are ways  to do this for free there are different apps you  

can use for this and I'll leave some of them in  the description below but also join the group  

learn English with Jack on Facebook so search for  learn English with Jack on Facebook and copy your  

writing text into there and ask for people to give  you feedback you can do this on different forums  

as well but there diff there are apps you can use  for this or you can pay a teacher who's going to  

just give you that extra attention and go through  the writing um task that you do and this is  

especially important if you're doing the I exam  and you need to get that feedback for your exam or  

if you're giving a a speech or if you're writing  an important proposal for your work or writing a  

project for your work well you can get somebody  who really goes in there and corrects things for  

you now tip five is to use apps that are not just  going to correct your spelling but they're also  

going to correct your grammar now I'll leave  a link in the description for my favorite one  

here and it's an affiliate link it's free to use  but if you decide to get the paid version then I  

will get a little commission if you use my link  so feel free to use that link but this is a an  

app with a web browser extension and also an app  and it also integrates into your uh email Facebook  

Instagram different apps that you use so that when  you're writing let's say you write something like  

he has or let's think of a mistake that is quite  common um I enjoy to go to the beach it will say  

n uhuh not to go but I enjoy going to the beach so  it's going to help you with verb patterns grammar  

prepositions if you use the incorrect preposition  it will tell you so it's going to help you improve  

your grammar as you're writing but it's also going  to give you tips and advice and more examples  

so that you can just remember these rules in the  future I think this is an app that everybody needs  

so definitely check out the description under tip  five and use the link that I leave there now tip  

number six is is to take your time and search for  new sentences to learn and practice okay so take  

your time when you're when you're writing enjoy  it and also search for the sentences and phrases  

that you want to use and a way to search for a  phrase is to use things like dictionary apps and  

things like that but also you can just type things  into Google you can either do this in a a general  

sense or you can put the quotation marks over it  so it's an exact phrase so if you're insure about  

something like I just done a lesson on everyday  versus everyday and I'm just going to do this you  

can hear me typ in if I type in I learn English  every day is two words then I get or if I just say  

I learn English every day sorry yeah I get 94,000  results and then if I type in I learn English  

every day one word it's 28,000 and in those most  cases it it shows you that the one with the more  

results generally means it's the correct one but  also the app in tip five will help you with that  

anyway and what you can do here is when you type  phrases into Google a lot of the time you can put  

ESL on the end and it's going to give you articles  or Forum posts that will talk about that phrase  

and it'll give you that phrase and it will say  write it like this or write it like that and this  

is what I mean by taking your time so you can look  for the correct phrase and websites are going to  

help you with that so that when you're writing you  are making sure it's correct as you write and then  

obviously getting feedback or using an app to help  you with that so those are the six tips um what I  

recommend you do again is I think one of the best  things you can do is to keep a a daily diary or a  

journal where you just put down your thoughts  about anything what you did yesterday what you  

want to do today what you're grateful for what  you're happy about your goals Etc and that just  

gets you into the Habit right of using everyday  English in a way that you might talk about to  

other people so you can even just write about what  you enjoyed about the TV show you watched last  

night just anything your thoughts on anything but  especially things that you like to talk about in  

daily conversations because that's the type  of English you're going to use and then use  

the copy method where you can just absorb English  and learn it in a natural way especially if you  

want to learn it for a specific reason and then  use the app that I mentioned in tip five so that  

it gives you instant feedback on the way you're  writing and if you're writing in the correct way  

and then get feedback from a teacher if you  really want to get that specialized feedback

okay those are the four skills of English  if you have made it this far congratulations  

because you've taken this powerful learning  advice and you've managed to get to the  

end now that doesn't mean you have completed  everything instead the key part is to really  

take what I've talked about here and apply it  take action start using these methods today  

and then be sure to continue learning with me  here on YouTube or apple podcast or Spotify  

or castbox wherever you're watching or listening  continue taking the lessons be sure to check out  

the description for English learning resources  and share this episode this English lesson with  

a friend thank you so much for being here and  I will speak to you next time bye for now now