5 things to practice every day to improve your English communication skills

hello everyone and welcome back to english with lucy today i'm going to talk to you about five things that you can practice every single day to improve your english learning a language is like learning to play a musical instrument you can't just pick up a violin and know how to play it or at least i didn't when i learnt the violin you have to practice a little bit every single day and over time you will improve and become fluent you can't just practice loads the day before an exam and expect to be perfect at playing that violin it's exactly the same for languages the best way to learn a language is to practice a little bit every single day and in this lesson i'm going to give you five different ways that you can incorporate english or any other language into your daily life i think that quite a few of these you won't have heard before so let's get straight into it number one and uh i am so excited to be able to mention one of my favorite things to listen to ever on my channel my first piece of advice is to follow an audio soap opera what is a soap opera i hear you ask well i shall tell you a soap opera is a daily serial or series dealing with the daily lives and events of the same group of characters normally in the same location most commonly they are on television we have lots in the uk like eastenders coronation street emmerdale but i'm recommending you listen to an audio one and there's one in particular i would like to recommend i really really recommend a radio soap opera by the bbc radio 4 called the archers the arches the arches it's special for so many reasons not least because it is the longest running drama in history it was started in 1950 first aired in 1951 and also because i think it is absolutely perfect for english learners it follows the daily lives and dramas of a group of fictional characters in the fictional countryside village of ambridge each episode is around 12 to 14 minutes long i'm not quite sure exactly how long but it's definitely under 15 minutes it's spoken in relatively clear english in a variety of british accents and sometimes not british accents as well other accents but it's fantastic because the plot summaries are posted on the bbc website i will link to all of this below in the description box and the great thing about this is that it deals with daily happenings which is great for your life too current events routine things and you can repeat all of the parts that you missed it's on every single day apart from saturday they have a rest and once a week they condense all of the week's episode into one and that's called an omnibus and that's around 75 minutes long i love listening to the arches when i go running i listen to it every single day and if i miss one then i always catch up there is no beginning and there is no finish to the series there aren't any seasons so it might take you a couple of episodes to get used to the storylines and to work out who is who and to recognize the different voices give it five or six episodes and you'll feel really included it's wonderful because it's free to listen to it's beautifully produced and there is a huge community of archers fans a lot of them are older but a lot of them are younger too and if you search hashtag the arches on twitter big tip here you'll see lots of people talking and discussing the topics of the episode and maybe you could interact with them so i'm going to leave the links for the arches episodes and also the plot summaries in the description box and i really hope some of you take up this opportunity to listen to a daily english audio soap opera 10 to 15 minutes every day is definitely going to help your listening it's going to help your pronunciation and it's just going to help your general enjoyment as well because it's a great program right before i get too passionate let's move on to piece of advice number two so number two is talk daily with natives now i bet so many of you are thinking uh i wish i would love to talk to natives every day but i don't know how and no one seems to want to talk to me well i have a couple of suggestions one is paid for and one is free and the best thing in my opinion would be a combination of the two so a combination of both paid-for classes and language exchanges would be amazing because you can take what you've learned and heard in the language exchange and verify it with your teacher for an extra layer of security to make sure that you're not making any mistakes now on to tip number three set yourself a daily word goal learn x amount of words every single day this tip is really important because it also links to tip number four i have mentioned this strategy in a previous video but i actually have a really important extra layer to this strategy that i would like to discuss with you in order to build your vocabulary quickly you need to learn at least one new word per day but hopefully more than that i've spoken to you before about keeping a word diary or just a notebook or a list on your phone keep it with you all the time and always be aware wherever you are do i know that word in english do i know how to say that in english you might see a tree do i know how to say that specific variety of tree in english if you don't write it down in your own language in this book in this list and then at the end of the day before you go to sleep research all of these words and translate them into english it will help you train your brain to always be hungry for english after a few weeks you will always be looking for new words that you can learn words that you didn't even realize you didn't know now there is something else that you can do with these words and this brings me on to point number four write a daily journal with a difference depending on your level i would buy a paper journal or diary i get so tired in the evenings i can't spend loads and loads of time writing so i personally would buy a work week planner or a homework planner or a study planner where you've got all seven days across two pages in each of those days i would write three or four sentences about my day trying to incorporate those words that i learned in my daily word list the words i mentioned in point three that way not only are you learning the new words and learning what they mean but you're making sure they're fully integrated into your brain and also doing this before you go to sleep will mean they stick in there even more then you can wake up in the morning read what you wrote the night before and you've got those words fresh in your head ready for the day ahead it's honestly such a fabulous technique because it builds your vocabulary it improves your writing skills it improves your reading skills if you search the pronunciation of the word it will improve your pronunciation and your listening skills and if you book in sessions with language teachers you can have them correct your writing so every week you can bring them two fresh pages of writing for them to correct honestly if you do this every day it will help you so much right time for the last point point number five the tip is to perform daily translations of subjects you are interested in now i know a lot of you want to stop translating and think in english however i think translation forms a very very important part of language learning especially when it's around something that you are interested in it's really really good to compare how things are said in different languages and translation helps you with that in my opinion the best way to practice your translation is absolutely free which is fantastic and it's right here on youtube pick the youtubers that you really really like the youtubers that talk about subjects that you're interested in maybe it's photography maybe it's technology maybe it's pets maybe it's makeup you can actually contribute subtitle translations you may have seen that underneath all of my videos i have a link where i give the opportunity to contribute subtitle translations so i write the subtitles in english and then you can write them in your own language it's amazing because it helps my videos reach and help a wider audience they also get their name displayed under the video which is really really cool and it helps their translation skills you could translate videos from your native language into english that would be a really good way to practice but even translating english subtitles into your own native language is a really good reading and translation exercise i will post a link with more information on community subtitle translations in the description box right i have discussed all five points i really hope you've learned something i really hope you try out one of my five recommendations also links to listen to the arches and also the information on subtitles don't forget to check out all of my social media i've got my facebook i've got my instagram and i've got my twitter and i shall see you soon for another lesson learning a language is like learning a music [Music] soap opera is a drama cereal complex stupid [Music] right before i get too passionate let's move on to epic episode they're an online database and platform of latent blah blah blah blah blah blah online language teaching platform all you have to do is click on the description in the link box no that was wrong damn it i was doing so well [Music] [Music] you

Channel: English with Lucy

Views: 10,356,756

Keywords: ESL, Learn English, English lesson, native speaker, vocabulary, conversation skills, IELTS, TOEFL, how to improve communication skills, communication skills training, speak english, fluent english, improve english speaking skills, tips to improve english, speak confidently, how to become fluent in english, native speaker english, american english, how to improve english, learn english daily, learn inglish, inglish, english with lucy

Id: ksYCNuctkmQ

Length: 10min 21sec (621 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 27 2019