My Number 1 Tip for Truly Fluent English

in this video I'm going to give you my number one tip for fluency in English I [Music] have been teaching English for the last thirty years and mostly to advanced students the number one question I get is how do I feel more confident when I'm speaking English and how do I reach that final level of fluency my students work in a professional environment where they are required to speak English every day many of my students still have insecurities about the way they're communicating in English I would like to give you a tip in this video that I believe will fix that problem and will take you to the final step of fluency you need to know which type of student you are my students fall in two different types of categories and both of them have weaknesses they're very different weaknesses and you need to know what your weakness is and work hard on fixing that weakness let me tell you about the two different categories we have one type of student that's in the first category and that's the student who studied English for a long time for many years maybe since they were a child they studied English in their country their grammar is excellent in fact these types of people can sometimes even teach native speakers of English about grammar rules and I think that's fantastic I think it's very important to have that strong foundation so that when you're speaking English you know you're saying things correctly and when you're writing you know that your sentences will be correct that's really important it's very valuable to have a strong foundation in how the language works to really understand the rules that way when you're speaking you don't get confused between the present perfect and the present perfect continuous and the past simple tenses those are clear to you and you use them well so for example you know the difference between I have done I have been doing or I did it's wonderful to have that foundation and if your grammar is advanced you we'll also feel comfortable using the passive voice compared to the active voice for example it has been done it was done these things are clear to you and I think that's fantastic that's really really important a lot of people don't realize just how important that is and how good it feels when you've truly mastered English grammar however the weakness might be that you're not comfortable using idiomatic expressions and you're not comfortable speaking with native speakers because you just don't have the everyday words you lack everyday vocabulary and maybe you're not comfortable using informal speech and casual speech when it's time to speak to colleagues during your break or just have small talk with native speakers at work or with clients you feel insecure and you worry that your English is not good enough now let's talk about the students that belong in the second category and then we will talk about how to work on these weaknesses these are people who are comfortable speaking English maybe because they lived in an english-speaking country for a long time maybe because they're very social they really enjoy talking to people they don't care about making mistakes and they're listening to the expressions that native speakers are using and they're imitating them and when you listen to them these people sound quite fluent these types of people don't necessarily live in an english-speaking country if they could also be young people who grew up watching YouTube in English or watching American films and TV shows and they imitated how native speakers speak when you talk to them you're so impressed with them they use all sorts of expressions their native speaker friends say wow you are really fluent but do you know what their weakness sometimes is these are people who don't have a foundation in English grammar they feel insecure about their English because they never develop that strong foundation maybe when they studied English in their country in school they didn't like grammar they avoided it a lot of people don't like grammar or maybe they never released studied English in school very much they just started speaking to native speakers and they became fluent the challenge for them is now they have to go back to the basics they have to learn grammar from the beginning otherwise it's going to be very difficult for them to work in a professional environment in English if they want a promotion it might be difficult for them to get one because when they're writing email or when they're giving presentations they're making lots of grammar mistakes and that's making them feel insecure in a professional environment so to be truly fluent in English you need both you need to be in category 1 and category 2 you need to be the person who's grammar is excellent and the person who is comfortable using all sorts of idiomatic expressions all sorts of different types of vocabulary casual words more formal words and you need to be comfortable speaking with native speakers when you combine those two that's the final step of fluency I used to teach a lot of advanced English classes and in my classes I always had both types of students and as a teacher the challenge for me always was which group do I try to help the most it was very important for me to always be teaching both groups in the same day sometimes I was helping them expand their knowledge of expressions and sometimes we were focusing on advanced grammar but I always knew that during my lessons one group of people would feel that the lesson was very easy for them and the other group was learning a lot and vice versa that's always a challenging thing for a teacher who's teaching advanced students so for you to be truly fluent in English you need to make a decision that you're going to make that weakness a strength and here is the most important thing I'm going to tell you in this video do the thing that you don't want to do in English that's how you achieve the true fluency work on the skill that you have been avoiding if you know that your grammar is not good all the rules make sure that you know why people say things the way they do make sure that you're able to explain to other people why we use a certain verb tense or understanding gerunds and infinitives and knowing when to use to versus ing if you don't feel like studying grammar by yourself find a good teacher that can explain the rules well and grammar teachers don't necessarily need to be native speakers and if you belong in category two then I suggest you try to learn a lot of expressions and try to speak with people force yourself outside of your comfort zone don't be too analytical don't be worried about your English being perfect sometimes worrying about making mistakes can almost make you paralyzed and your brain freezes and suddenly you don't know what to say I would say you need to relax and enjoy speaking with people and start using expressions even if they're not necessarily correct even if you make mistakes while you're experimenting with using new expressions generally people in category two are more comfortable and less shy and they don't really think about do I sound perfect they just speak and they're okay with making mistakes and if you have nobody to speak English with in your environment speak with yourself watch English movies and TV shows write down the new expressions that you're learning and just speak to yourself speak as much as possible you don't necessarily have to be living in an english-speaking country you can do that in your own home just talking to yourself using expressions that you've been hearing on TV or an American films practice your English by having conversations with yourself don't avoid your weak area that's the area you need to focus on the most if you'd like to reach that final level of fluency so ask yourself what is my weak area and then stop avoiding that area don't avoid that area anymore that's the area where you need to put all your energy so that's the secret to true fluency working on weakness what is your greatest area of weakness and maybe for you that final area of fluency is related to how you feel about your pronunciation and about your accent you can definitely do something about that too on my website accurate English comm you can buy the American accent course and it teaches you all of the rules that you need to know about good American pronunciation and having a good clear accent so that people understand you when you speak so if you'd like to reach that final level of fluency you must work on your weakness do the thing that you've been avoiding do the thing that you're not comfortable doing do the thing that you don't like doing and I like this quote that summarizes what I've been talking about life is easy when you live it the hard way and hard when you live it the easy way and that means we must not avoid those things that are hard for us maybe for you it's grammar or maybe for you it's conversation you need to know your final weakness and then work on it and that's the secret to true fluency thanks for watching and keep practicing your English

Channel: AccurateEnglish

Views: 185,309

Keywords: accurate english, fluent english, advanced english, how to be fluent, tips for fluency, lisa mojsin, esl, ielts, toelf, american english, how to speak fluently, advanced english lesson, mastering the american accent, confident english, speak enlish like a native, english grammar, idioms, idiomatic expressions, casual english, formal and casual words, advanced grammar, grammar mistakes

Id: d-bZjr8Ckiw

Length: 10min 11sec (611 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 21 2020