- Hello, this is Jack from ToFluency.com. And today we are going to talk about, you're going to learn
about the power of input and sentences when it
comes to acquiring English and mastering the English language. And to do this, we're
going to use the help of a website called Antimoon.com. Now, I came across this
website quite a long time ago, and I've just recently found it again. And the writer of this website,
the owner of this website is called Tomasz, and he
is from Poland originally. Now, Tomasz has reached a
fluent level of English. If you read his writing,
you can clearly see that he is fluent in English. And he writes about
how he learned English. And I love his ideas are very similar to what I believe is the most
powerful to learn English. And a lot of this is similar to the input hypothesis method, or getting enough comprehensible input so that you can store
language in your brain to then use later. Now, what Antimoon and I have in common is that we both love sentences. And what I mean by that is we both see the power of sentences. And the input method through
sentences works like this: if you see lots of sentences in English, then you are going to store
them away in your brain, and if you get enough flexibility in this or enough variety of these sentences, then you'll be able to
use them in a natural way. You're not going to think
about grammar rules, you're not going to
translate in your head. Instead, you're going to
use this store of sentences that you have and be
able to produce language accurately, instantly, and flexibly. And this is much better
than being in that stage where you're having to
think about grammar rules when you're speaking English, when you're having to think about how to construct this
sentence in the correct way. And you know a word in English but you're not quite sure
how to put it into a sentence and you're not quite sure exactly what the sentence
structure should be. Or, worse, if you're always translating from your native language
word for word into English when you're speaking. So, we're going to have a look at some of what Tomasz writes about here when it comes to this method. And he really explains in a very clear way it's not just about taking
one sentence and repeating it, but it's the power of being
able to use these sentences flexibly when talking. So, let's have a look at this now. He says, "Of course, this
model is very simple. "The brain doesn't really
look for whole sentences, "but rather for parts
of sentences, phrases. "It can build very
complicated and long sentences "from these parts. "So it doesn't just imitate
one sentence at a time, "it uses many sentences at the same time "to build original sentences." (upbeat music) If that doesn't quite make sense, the next part is going to
give you some examples. "For example, if it has heard
'the cat is under the table,' "it can easily produce 'the
dog is under the table' "or 'the book is under the chair.' "The brain can also do more
advanced transformations. "If you give the brain
these three sentences: "I like golf, I like fishing
for salmon, golf is relaxing, "it can produce this: fishing
for salmon is relaxing." So, what is doing is it can take all these different sentences and the way I like to explain it is that you internalize the grammar, you internalize the patterns of English. You don't consciously think about them but instead you reach this stage where it just feels
right to say a sentence in the right way. So you're not having to think about rules, you don't have to think
about sentence structure. It just feels right to
say it in the correct way. And this is a stage that
I want you to reach. And to reach this stage means that you're going to
have to get lots of input and focus on sentences
and not single words and not grammar rules. The article goes on to say,
"The model describes the process "of a child learning its
first native language. "The child listens to its
parents and other people." Now, this sentence can be
construed in two different ways because a child doesn't always
listen to their parents, in that a child doesn't always
do what their parents say. But what it is saying is the
child is always listening, it's always getting lots of input by listening to their
parents, their friends, TV, and anyone else who is
present in their life. "The child's brain collects sentences "and gets better and better at
producing its own sentences. "By the age of five, "the child can already
speak quite fluently." This is true. By age five, children can speak fluently. They make a lot of mistakes but they're constantly improving, and you can have great
conversations with a five-year-old. Now, here comes the key part, because a lot of you
watching this will be saying, "Yes, but that's different. "That's how children learn. "That's how children learn
their native language." "The same model works for
learning a foreign language. "In fact, we think it is the only way "to learn a language well." I love that part. I love that part. Adults learn in the same way. This is saying you
learning a second language should learn in the same
way as a child does. By getting lots of input. By recognizing grammar rules
and patterns in the language. By internalizing vocabulary through the repetition
of various sentences, thousands of sentences over time. "What the model means
for language learners. "The brain produces sentences "based on the sentences
it has seen or heard. "So the way to improve
is to feed your brain "with lots of input, correct
and understandable sentences, "written or spoken. "Output, speaking and
writing, is less important. "It is not the way to improve
your language skills." Now, I'm not completely
convinced about this part because there are a few things here. Firstly, you can practice your
speaking in a controlled way. So, you can repeat sentences out loud so that you're improving the way you speak at the same time as getting lots of input. That is my method, the To Fluency method. Also, when you are speaking and having conversations with people, I think you are getting some of the most powerful
input you can get. Because think about when
you have a conversation with someone in English. You are so focused on what they are saying and you're getting specific input based on the types of
conversations you're having. You're speaking in a conversational way so you're getting
conversational English as input. And also, I think it's good to practice to put everything together, specially if you are working on things like your pronunciation and also using a method
like the To Fluency method. But I understand what the
writer is saying here, that input so just so important when it comes to acquiring English and mastering the language. And the last part: "You
don't need grammar rules. "You learned your first language "without studying tenses or prepositions. "You can learn a foreign
language in that way, too." I agree, grammar rules aren't necessary for mastering the English language. Sometimes they can help, specially when you take
examples from grammar lessons. And again, it's those sentences
in the grammar lessons that you need to internalize in order to speak more naturally. So, I am a big fan of input method, and specially when
people focus on sentences when it comes to language learning. So, here are some takeaways. Get lots of input. Listen to things in English,
always be listening. Read a lot in English. And when you are focusing on language, be sure to learn English
through sentences. I also recommend using
space repetition software to get lots of repetition of the sentences you want to focus on. So, use something like Anki and just put sentences into that software so that you can repeat them
in the most effective way. Or if you want to get
phrases delivered to you, then join the To Fluency program. And then get some natural
practice on top of this to put everything together so that you can practice
using your English in a more natural way, and also so that you can
get some really good input when you are having those conversations. So, let me know what you think about this and what you have
learned from this lesson. I'll leave a link to the
article in the description so that you can read this article and then just read all the other ones that he recommends to you, because I love the way that
this writer writes in English. Everything is simple and concise. It's a good example of not
trying to over complicate the English language. So you, as an intermediate
or advanced English learner, will be able to follow this
article and get a lot from it. And before you go, please
like and share this video. Share it with anybody who needs to learn English in this way. And while you're here, why not watch another one of my videos? They are on your screen now. Thanks again for watching, bye bye.
