You understand English but can't speak fluently? This is why! (ACTION PLAN!)

hello lovely students and welcome back to English with Lucy I want to know if you can relate with this I can understand English but I can't speak it fluently I receive so many emails and questions from students and the vast majority of them in one way or another make this same point do you feel that you've spent hours days years studying English but suddenly when you have to speak you go blank the words don't come you forget all of your grammar you stumble over your pronunciation and your vocabulary goes down the drain to go down the drain is an idiom meaning to disappear well this lesson is for you I am going to help you to break free from your current struggles with spoken English and I'm going to help equip you with practical skills to strengthen your confidence in speaking English fluently now before I discuss why this happens because we have to know why before we can work to solve the problem I also want to mention that there is a free pdf that goes with this lesson it contains the Full transcript of the lesson all of the tips I'm going to give you plus we've highlighted key vocabulary so this lesson won't just improve your English skills we can also work on your listening skills your pronunciation skills and your vocabulary at the end of the PDF there is a quiz so you can test your understanding if you'd like to download that free pdf click on the link in the description box you enter your name and your email address you sign up to my mailing list and then the PDF will arrive directly in your inbox and after that you've joined the PDF Club you will automatically receive all of my free weekly lesson PDFs along with all of my other news course updates and offers it's free and you can unsubscribe at any time okay let's go back to the question why do so many students feel they are able to understand English but they are unable to speak fluently when the moment arises well this is mostly related to the fact that understanding a language requires the use of receptive skills listening and reading most English Learners focus on language input like watching films YouTube videos TV shows all in English they listen to English-speaking podcasts they read books in English to immerse themselves in the language as much as possible this is fantastic lots of us do it and don't stop doing it it's a great way to build vocabulary and to gain a better overall understanding of how the language functions but and there's always a bat this doesn't do so much to increase your fluency when speaking because in contrast speaking requires the use of productive skills you need to take a more active role in your studying and by that I mean practice you need to focus more on output using the language rather than just taking it in we need to have a good balance between the two but unfortunately language output can be much harder to find than language input it's not so free and easy to go to an English-speaking country and find a personal English tutor or find an English-speaking best friend this is why I meet so many grammar Geniuses students whose knowledge of grammar is higher than most native speakers however they just can't speak they know all of the theory but when it comes to the Practical they struggle today I have six practical tips for you the first one is completely free and that is talk to yourself this is something I actively did when I was learning Spanish one of the simplest things you can do to increase your output is to talk to yourself and you can start right now it could feel a little bit strange but it's truly magical how well talking to yourself Works to improve your fluency and fluidity plus you do it all day long anyway so why not do it in English most of us not all of us have a little voice in our head when we think some people don't have this but most of us do this little voice probably speaks in your native language see if you can come up with an English Alter Ego for your inner voice if you can't find that in a voice you're going to have to speak out loud I am watching TV I am washing the dishes I am picking up the plate I am scrubbing it with a sponge I hope my husband brings home pizza for dinner now I really recommend speaking out loud because you need to practice creating new sounds and feeling how words are formed in the mouth but narrating in your head is a great way to start and it's a good thing to do if lots of people are around you this slight adjustment can help you significantly increase how much you use English during the day and it's especially useful if you don't have anyone to practice speaking with and you can't afford to hire someone to practice speaking with now I want to make a further addition to this point and this is a way you can supercharge your vocabulary no joke I used it myself this was one of my first videos on YouTube actually was how to drastically increase your vocabulary because it works as you are narrating in your head or out loud everything you do in your day watch out for when there is a specific word or phrase that you just don't know in English keep a vocab diary I think back in the day in my first video like seven years ago eight years ago I told people to write down in an actual notebook nowadays there are apps for that you can use your notes app you could program your smart watch to take in your voice for example what if I'm walking down the street and I realize that I don't know the word for traffic light in Italian the language I'm learning I would do something like this because I love using my smartphone first I would ask Siri to write it in my notes hey Siri right traffic light in my notes easy as that then I'll ask it to set a reminder at 6 PM for me to go through my new vocabulary hey Siri set a reminder at 6 pm tonight to translate and review my new vocabulary okay okay I've added it beautiful so tonight at 6 PM when I've got home I'll get a reminder to go through the new vocabulary I've added today I haven't had to type a single thing it's been such low effort but I know that every day I'll be expanding my vocabulary with the words around me that I'm actively noticing that I do not know in English or whichever language you're learning after that you need to practice using these in sentences out loud okay that's my free super accessible way of increasing your English output now let's move on to tip number two talk to a tutor but this one is incredibly important why is talking to a tutor better than talking to yourself or talking to another English speaker three things in my opinion you can say to a tutor how you would like the conversation to go and you can reenact situations in which you felt you've failed in the past maybe someone at a networking event asks you what you did for a living and you stumbled over your words got flustered and just gave a really oversimplified version of what you do a version that did you know Justice when you hire a one-on-one tutor you can run through those exact situations so you never have to struggle like that again the next two points are really important too Corrections you want someone who fully understands the English language who can accurately correct you when you make mistakes that might be your grammar vocabulary pronunciation or more importantly whether you are speaking clearly and naturally I don't recommend aiming for absolute perfection instead you want everyone to understand what you're saying and number three you're in a safe space with a tutor to request feedback to make mistakes you're not going to be ridiculed you're not going to feel embarrassed a personal tutor is someone who experiences mistakes with English Learners all the time it's literally their job and because of all of that experience they can give you targeted advice to make quick improvements now let's think back to our school days we all had a teacher that we didn't like we didn't like them they didn't like us we didn't get on I had multiple teachers like that some of them absolutely should not have been teaching children when they so obviously hated children so for many students the fear of finding the wrong tutor gets in the way of actually finding the right one because unlike school this is something that you are personally paying for you're making an investment so to spend an hour with a teacher that you end up not liking that's an expensive mistake now here's where I think I've got a really good solution for you in more ways than one two ways actually have you ever heard me mention langua talk before this is a company that I liked so much I decided to become a part of it so technically I'm sponsoring myself here I truly think that language talk is the best online language tutor platform and this is how it relates to this lesson when you first start browsing through the English tutors on the platform firstly you can rest assured that they are incredible quality language talk has an incredibly strict screening process well below 10 of applicants get accepted onto the platform then you can filter by their availability the country they're based in for time zone the price per hour to make sure it fits with your budget and also your motivation whether you're learning for your career because you're moving to a country because you want to pass a specific exam then you'll see all of your suitable tutors appear and every single one of them has a video so you can go through your own filtration process and make sure that it's someone that you will connect with then you will see this button here and this is really important nearly all of the tutors on language Talk offer a free trial session so you can make sure you're right for each other that completely eliminates the risk of paying for a session with someone that isn't right for you then if you want to be extra sure I'm giving you a 10 lesson credit for free to claim that all you have to do is book your first paid class and then message their support team with the code 10 Lucy this code is valid for anyone signing up for their first class from today to visit language talk to view all of their tutors to claim your free trial session and get ten dollars lesson credit for free click on the link in the description box okay tip number three involves writing one of the best ways to get yourself prepared for speaking in any situation is to write down what it is you would like to say before speaking take time to write out all of the sentences you plan to say and then practice saying them aloud now I don't expect you to carry a notebook around with you and write down everything you want to say before speaking that's just impractical but this is an exercise that can be added to your daily English practice the best way to approach this is to think about situations and potential conversation topics especially those that interest you because learning English should be fun also think about questions or opportunities you get frequently in English we use the term an elevator pitch so this refers to trying to sell something to someone that you've met in an elevator that's American English it would be a lift in British English you've only got a limited amount of time so you've got to get the message across quickly and efficiently try to think of elevator pitch versions of your most frequently received questions I'm thinking ones like where are you from you might say something like ah well you can probably tell that I'm not from here I was actually born in Italy but then I moved to France at the age of four I went to college in the US which is why I speak with a slight American accent write it down practice it because you know you're going to get asked a lot another one is what do you do for a living or how did you learn English you can begin with simple conversation questions and gradually increase the difficulty level this will help to build your confidence and improve your fluency over time see I'm not very good at giving strong opinions so sometimes if I'm going to an event where I know I'll be asked about a Hot Topic that's quite divisive I do prepare in advance it helps me to feel more relaxed or less less anxious I'm not somebody who can just give an eloquent opinion piece straight off the bat straight off the bat means immediately with no preparation hence why we need preparation written preparation it's also a great idea to prepare these written answers and then present them in a tutor session to ask for their feedback so many of my students have come to me with things that they frequently have to defend almost like why they are fasting during Ramadan that's one question that my students got a lot same with why they wear a hijab why they are vegan and choose not to consume animal products why they chose to leave their country when they love it so much there are loads of really difficult questions that you might want to take a step back and think about to be able to give it a true answer that you're really proud of and comfortable with the biggest one the one I get most frequently is of course self-introduction and I have an entire video about this that I will leave Below in the description in that video I explain all of the necessary steps for preparing notes to introduce yourself confidently and fluently okay number four this is something I've said time and time again and I wholeheartedly believe that it is the correct way forward focus on fluency not Perfection or not accuracy fluency over accuracy every single time you need to be understood not applauded as a grammar genius to me this means that you need to start to feel comfortable making mistakes if you avoid speaking with people out of fear of making mistakes you're going to have nothing to learn from you're starving yourself of opportunities no one wants to make mistakes it's embarrassing and it can cause us to lose confidence learning and speaking in another language is a very personal sensitive topic but getting out of your comfort zone and making mistakes while speaking is genuinely one of the best things you can do to improve your fluency and if you can not everyone can but if you can try to have a sense of humor about it see this as an opportunity to laugh with yourself not at yourself with yourself some of my best anecdotes in Spanish come from the mistakes I made whilst learning Spanish I love those stories they're so special to me they're great ones that I can get out at any dinner party when speaking in Spanish and I can have the entire room laughing I chose not to be embarrassed in the moments where I made those mistakes I chose to take a step back and laugh at the hilarity of the situation now I understand it's not that way for everyone I learned Spanish because I wanted to learn Spanish I liked Spanish I liked learning it but lots of people learn English because they feel they have to they cannot progress in their life until they have acquired the skill of speaking English so I understand how it's a bit harder to laugh at yourself when you don't even want to be learning the language in the first place so at the very least see it as an excellent learning opportunity and the good news is that most English speakers and other English Learners are usually pretty willing to help when you need it you just have to ask if I talk to a non-native speaker and they make lots of mistakes I will not correct them unless they ask me to so if you do want those Corrections you can say by the way if I make a mistake you can let me know and then to go back to point one I really suggest that you keep a notebook or your smartphone ready to take notes whenever you receive a correction or just after you receive the correction so that you can review the information later number five is not for everyone but it works really well for some students and I've seen it in action and it's awesome it's shadowing shadowing means copying other English speakers it's imitation when you are purposefully learning new words or just casually watching a video repeat what you hear you don't need to be thinking about sentence structure or verb tenses or grammar in general just repeat the words and Sounds by repeating the words and phrases you're activating your mind so that you can obtain new information understand the speaker more easily improve muscle memory for forming words and practice natural word stress and pronunciation I've noticed a few of my students involving me in shadowing they take videos normally the short one minute videos I post on Tick Tock or Instagram and the video is of me but it's their voice in the background they listen to the video and then they try to repeat exactly what I say in the exact way I said it again it's not for everyone but it's really effective if you do want to try it it's a big topic so let me know if you would like a lesson on shadowing where I can go guide you through it and I'd be more than happy to put that together for you just let me know there's no interest I won't bother and number six this one is fantastic it's something I make all of my students do at the start of our pronunciation courses it is to record yourself speaking have you ever heard a recording of yourself speaking in your own language and felt really surprised at how you actually sound I had this I used to make radio shows when I was a child recording onto tapes so vintage and then CDs yeah CDs after and I was amazed at how different my voice sounded I always thought I sounded much posher than I felt and this disassociation with your own voice and the way you sound is really important when learning another language I hear my voice all the time now because I'm constantly making YouTube videos and recording course videos and audios the first couple of times hearing and watching myself back I felt so embarrassed and I cringed a lot at how formal and so British I sounded but now I feel really confident I know exactly what I'm going to sound like it's no surprise to me I also sometimes review my videos and think I was speaking a bit quickly there or I was speaking far too quietly or I mispronounced this word without realizing it I really think it's important for you to record yourself so that at the very least you start to become comfortable with how you sound then you can also start noticing things that you can improve on additionally it's a fantastic Benchmark because where you are now is hopefully going to be the worst you'll ever be your English will only get better as you study more and more hopefully in a year's time you can play the recording that you'll surely take after this lesson and think oh my word bless me I was trying so hard but I've improved so much since then in my pronunciation program we invite the students to read a text featuring the majority of the sounds and English and the features we teach in the program they record they can post it in the group or they can keep it privately and then they record again at the end of the 12-week program to notice the difference and this is so important because sometimes you improve just simply without realizing it so this is my little challenge to you and it includes point three actually which involves writing down your frequently asked questions choose a frequently Asked question probably your self-introduction or what you do for a living record yourself reading it save it somewhere where you know you'll be able to access it again and then set yourself a reminder for one year from today in one year's time I'd like you to record that same text again and see how much you've improved then will you promise me one thing you will come back to this video in one year's time and let me know whether you noticed a difference okay that is it for today's video that was a long one so don't forget to down load a free pdf which contains the Full transcript you can use it for your listening practice we highlight all of the key vocabulary we give you the definitions examples and the pronunciation and we also have a quiz at the end very important for testing if you've truly retained what you've learned and don't forget about that language Talk offer click on the link in the description box you can browse all of the amazing English tutors watch their videos find out if they're right for you then you can book in your free 30-minute trial session and you can claim your free 10 lesson credit on your first paid Lesson by messaging the support team with 10 Lucy don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media I've got my Instagram I've got my Facebook and I've got my website English with lucy.com where I've got loads of extra lessons written lessons and I've got my free pronunciation tool it's an interactive phonemic chart where you can click on the phonemes and words that contain the phonemes and hear me pronounce them it's a lot of fun I've also got all of my courses including my B1 program my B2 program and my C1 program comes out on the 15th of May I will see you soon for another lesson [Music] foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: English with Lucy

Views: 601,032

Keywords: #Grammar, #EnglishGrammar, #LearnEnglish

Id: FZMznBKlbB0

Length: 22min 29sec (1349 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 22 2023