6 Powerful Tips to Help You Learn English on YouTube Effectively

(funky music) - Hello, this is Jack

from tofluency.com,

and welcome to this English lesson

where you are going to get six tips

to help you learn English more efficiently

on YouTube, or another way to say

is to learn English faster by using YouTube.

So, there are so many English learning channels out there

including this one, To Fluency.

If you are new, subscribe.

And I'm sure you're taking lessons

on things like phrasal verbs, new vocabulary,

grammar lessons, watching conversations,

and just generally getting English lessons

from teachers from all over the world.

So today, I'm going to talk about

how you can get more out of those lessons,

and also give you some other tips as well,

so that you can improve your other areas of English.

Be sure to stick around until the end

because I have a question

that I would love for you to answer.

So, let's get started with tip one.

Tip number one is to watch videos

and to subscribe to channels

that aren't made specifically for you,

that aren't made specifically for the English learner.

Now, how much of this you do depends on your level

because there is something called the input hypothesis

where it's a good idea

and it's more beneficial to listen to things in English

that are just above your level.

So, if you have an A1 level of English,

then you won't be able to watch

some of the more complex videos,

some of the more advanced videos,

but if your level is anywhere between B1 and C1 or C2,

then I definitely recommend to do more of this.

This will help you gain exposure to natural English.

It will help you listen to more conversations as well

and I highly recommend thinking about the type of videos

that you're interested in,

and a good way to do this is just think about

what videos do I watch in my native language,

and then find videos or similar videos done in English.

For example, if you watch football videos or soccer videos,

then find them in English.

If you're interested in politics, then do the same.

Find videos in English about politics.

Take your time to find some good channels,

channels that you like, subscribe to them,

and then watch them when they come up in your feed.

Again, this is a way for you to get more exposure,

to get more input, and to learn more

about why input is important, then check out the description

because there is a video there for you.

Tip number two is to turn on captions

if you think that this is going to help you.

Now, this video has captions professionally done,

so it's probably around 99.7% correct.

The problem is is if you turn on captions

that have been automatically generated by YouTube.

Now, this is actually getting a lot better,

and if you speak clearly or if the video is clear,

then these automatic captions are becoming quite good now,

but in a lot of cases, it just doesn't work.

So, if the video has automatic captions,

just be a little bit careful about this

because you don't want to be reading something

that doesn't match to the audio.

I made a video recently where I talked about

if it's best to turn on captions or not,

and the conclusion of that was it does help

if you have captions in English

when it comes to the understanding of the language.

So, watch that video and think about

if you want to turn captions on or not,

and if you do, make sure that they are correct,

that someone has done this professionally.

Tip three is to get involved.

So, this mainly means commenting on videos.

Commenting on videos is a good way for you

to practice what you have just learned.

So, I'm going to ask you a question,

again, at the end of the video

and this is a chance for you

to get involved in this community.

So, it's not just about practicing your English,

but it's also about connecting with a teacher.

I recognize users who always comment on my videos,

and I've built up a relationship and a connection

with these people because they are constantly

on my channel and they are involved in my lessons,

but it also does give you the opportunity

to practice your writing,

and I recommend that you take your time with your comments.

So, maybe use something like Grammarly

to ensure that you're writing correctly,

and then just think about the best way

to explain what you want to say.

That is one of the benefits of writing practice

because you can take your time.

There is no rush to say something

like you are having a conversation.

So, take your time, leave comments,

and practice your English in the comment section below.

Tip number four is to repeat what you have learned.

So, there are two main ways you can do this.

You can save the video and then watch it again later,

so you can create your own playlists of videos

and you can split them up into different categories.

You can also do things like save a video to watch later,

so then you can go back to it and repeat it.

This allows you to ensure

that you fully understand a lesson

that someone has given,

but another way to repeat what you have learned

is to go to the description on videos

where the teachers leave the phrases,

and I do that in most of my videos that have phrases,

and then use some type of software

to get long-term repetition.

So, what we're talking about here

is using spaced repetition software

to get repetition of those phrases

in order to internalize them,

in order to commit them to your long-term memory.

Now, if you don't want to use technology and software,

you can simply write them down in a notebook

and review them according to the method

that you want to use,

but repeating these sentences over the long term

is a way for you to fully commit them

to your long-term memory,

and so that you can use them naturally in conversation

when you need to.

Tip number five is to repeat what you hear

or write down what you hear.

So, there are three methods

that we're going to discuss in this tip.

The first one is shadowing,

and shadowing is when you listen to any type of audio.

In this case, a YouTube video,

and you just repeat what you hear.

You don't pause the video.

You repeat what you hear.

So, you're about half a second or a second behind the video,

and you're just repeating what that person is saying.

It's quite a difficult skill

because you have to listen and repeat at the same time,

but if you do it with videos that aren't too quick,

where the people don't speak too quickly,

then it is definitely attainable.

Now, I've talked about shadowing before,

and I will leave a link to that in the description.

The alternative way is the LRRC method,

listen, repeat, record, compare,

where you listen to a phrase,

you pause, you repeat the phrase, you record your version,

and then you compare your version to the original,

and this is a way for you to really focus

on the way that you say things.

So, it's not just about repeating the phrase,

it's about how you say it,

and if you record yourself doing this,

then you'll be able to notice the mistakes you make,

and then you can modify the way you say it,

and then improve your speaking.

So, try it for this video.

Pause the next sentence that I'm going to say

and record yourself saying it.

This is what you wanna do.

So, try that.

Try it with that sentence.

Another thing you can do as well

is write down what you hear.

So, when you're listening to a YouTube video,

especially one where you want to focus on the language,

you can pause the video, and write down what you hear.

This is a great exercise to improve your listening

and your writing too.

And the last tip is to record videos

of you speaking in English and upload them to YouTube.

This is great speaking practice

and it can also help you overcome your fear of speaking.

Now, here's a quick tip.

You can make that video unlisted,

which means that it's not going to be public

if people are searching for things,

or it's not going to be shown on your YouTube channel

when people come onto your channel,

and then you can share that link

with your teachers, your friends,

or anyone who you think should see this video.

This means that you are in control,

that you can share this with your teacher to begin with

and get feedback from them,

or with a friend, an English-speaking friend,

who can give you feedback,

and just seeing yourself on video speaking

helps you gain confidence.

At first, it's awful.

No one likes watching themself on video at first,

but you soon get used to it,

and this just helps you overcome your fear of speaking.

Now, if you want to make them public

and share them on Facebook groups with me

or with any type of teacher, then do that,

but I know a lot of you will think

I don't want to make them public to begin with,

I just want to make them unlisted,

so know that there is a way to do that.

And make videos where you describe your daily routine,

talk about what's happening in your country at the moment,

answer questions left at the end of videos,

talk about anything, but just get that practice

and upload it to YouTube as an unlisted video,

and then watch it back yourself

and share it with anyone who you want to share it with.

Okay, so those are the six tips I wanted to share today.

Now, I have two questions for you.

What tips have I missed here?

So, what else do you recommend people do

if they want to learn English on YouTube?

And then secondly, I want you to leave recommendations

of channels which aren't teachers,

so don't include English teachers here,

but just other channels that you think people should watch

to improve their English,

and then just describe the channel.

So for example, if you are a big football fan,

maybe you watch the F2Freestylers.

Leave that comment below

and tell them why this channel is good

for English learners who like football.

I'm really intrigued to see the type of channels

that you recommend here

and the type of videos that you watch in English,

which aren't English teacher related.

So, you can answer both questions or just one question,

but again, get involved, leave a comment below,

and then like and share this video.

If you have found this video useful,

then please share it with your friends.

Thank you so much for watching

and I'll speak to you soon.

Bye-bye.

(funky music)