Let's talk about how you can improve your English in 2020 that's coming up.
Hey everyone, my name is Wes. This is Interactive English,
which is all about helping you practice and improve your English skills.
And a new year is upon us.
It is 2020 so if you're thinking, you know,
this year I would really like to improve my English skills.
I want to tell you seven different ways that will help you do just that.
So I want you to think about this as like a checklist,
seven different things that I want you to do to help you improve your English.
So I do, I want you to go through these seven things one at a time.
Just check them off as you go through them.
And this is going to help you improve your English. So number one,
the very first thing that I want you to do this year is to identify a mistake.
And it can be any type of mistake. It could be a grammar mistake,
it could be a pronunciation mistake.
I just want you to identify one mistake and truly focus on fixing it.
Now you may be thinking, well, how am I supposed to identify one of my mistakes?
Well, if you're thinking about pronunciation,
listening is a great way to do that because you might be listening to a TV show,
a song or anything and you'll hear it and you think, well, okay,
that's not exactly the way that I'm saying this word, or I'm saying this phrase,
and you can find something that you might be pronouncing incorrectly or grammar
For example, reading is a great way to do that because you are reading how the grammar is
used correctly and you might see something that you have not really been doing
and you'll be able to identify one of your mistakes that way. Now,
I don't just want you to identify the mistake and think, Oh, okay,
I've been making this mistake. I now know what I should do,
and then you forget about it. That's not what I want you to do.
Once you have identified your mistake,
I want you to wait one week and then go back and revisit it and try to learn it again,
practice using it again, and then I want you to wait another month and then go
back to it again. Learn it, practice it.
And the reason I want you to do this is because that is the best way to correct
it up here and truly correct the mistakes. So once you've identified it,
then go back a week later, practice it,
and then go back a month later and practice it again because that is going to
help you the most and you really just need to identify one mistake.
If you can identify more and get into the habit of doing that,
then that's perfect. But for right now, let's just stick with one.
The first thing I want you to do,
identify a mistake and then really focus on correcting it.
The next thing that I want you to do, number two, is to commit to reading.
Truly commit to reading. And when I say that I'm talking about a book.
Often I tell learners all the time,
you should try to read a little bit each day and you can do something very easy
like reading something online. However,
what I want you to do is to commit to reading a book,
make a larger reading, and truly improve your skills,
and I know some of you may be thinking, well that's,
that's going to be easy to do, but this can actually be quite challenging.
The reason that that many people don't end up reading books is because, well,
maybe they don't find time for it. Everybody has a busy life and they say, well,
there's this book, it's 500 pages long, when am I ever going to finish it?
But that's what I want you to do. I want you to find a book,
especially a longer book,
and try to commit to reading it and you don't have to read it within one month.
That's why I want you to start earlier in the year because even if you just read
a few pages each day. Give yourself more time to read.
But that is going to make it a habit throughout the entire year. Now,
if you're trying to figure out, well, what kind of books should I read?
I have two suggestions for you.
First read something you're interested in because that's going to help you
continue reading throughout the year. If you're not interested in it,
you're going to get bored and you're going to,
you're just going to stop reading and that's not what we want. Number two,
if you're worried that you might not understand everything that you're reading,
perhaps you're worried that you won't understand all of the vocabulary in the book.
In that case, I would suggest that you read something that you are already familiar with.
For example, maybe you have seen the movie Harry Potter,
but you haven't read the book.
We'll start reading the book and even if you don't understand everything that
you're reading, well, you've seen the movie.
You are already a little familiar with the story so that way if you come across
words and phrases that you don't know,
you can still follow along because you already have an idea as to what the story
is about. So this year, 2020 commit to reading.
I want you to choose one book, commit to reading it, cover to cover,
try to choose something a little longer and then spend a little time each day
just reading that book.
Give yourself plenty of time so that you can finish the book this year.
Number three, I want you to complete an active learning exercise.
So if you don't know what I mean when I say active learning,
many times people may not have somebody to practice their English with.
Perhaps they're not taking lessons.
So they'll do things like listen to music or read books or watch TV shows.
Those are all examples of passive learning in which you are just listening or
reading and you actually don't have to do anything afterwards. Now,
if you're completing an active learning exercise,
then you are either listening or reading or speaking and you actually have to do
something. You have to respond in some way.
So I want you to find some type of active learning exercise that you can
complete and it can be anything. So maybe you want to practice your grammar,
the present, perfect tense, go online, do a search.
You will find all sorts of online exercises using that grammar or you could also
do a listening comprehension exercise where you will listen to something and
then you have to answer questions.
You can even participate in our online lessons.
We do interactive quizzes all the time in which you watch the video and I ask
you to write your answers in the comments and to actually participate in the
lesson. That is an active learning exercise and that's what I want you to do.
Many of you may already be doing these and that's great. If you are,
then I want you to choose something else,
choose something different and add one active learning activity in 2020 the next
The next thing that I want you to do, number four,
is to add one more form of exposure to the language specifically add one more
form of listening exposure. So when it comes to listening,
I think many of us think of,
well watching a TV show or a movie or listening to music that is very common.
Maybe you can add listening to a podcast.
Maybe you can add listening to an audio book.
Maybe you can add listening to more YouTube videos.
So think about the variety of things that you do when you're listening and try
to add one more thing to that list, whether it's a podcast or an audio book,
and get one more form of listening exposure.
Number five is that I want you to add a little bit more time to your learning
and try to make it a routine. So during the day we're, we're all pretty busy,
but throughout the day there, there are these tiny little moments that we have.
See if you can take that time and actually practice learning English.
Perhaps you'll listen to something like we just talked about a podcast and audio
book, but I want you to think about your day,
think about your schedule and try to find a little bit more time to get some
more English and then make that a routine. Start a new routine.
So you could do this during your commute, during a walk,
outside your lunch break, or even cooking at home.
Find one of those moments. Find that time,
even if it is just a very short amount of time.
Use it to practice your English skills and this is a great way to improve in
2020 number six is start a diary.
I think writing is an underestimated language skill because when you're writing
you are using a variety of other skills.
You're trying to think of new vocabulary.
You're trying to use the correct grammar structure. So this is great practice,
which will help improve your overall fluency. So take a notebook, start a diary,
and you can write about anything you want.
You can write about events in your life, you can write about your goals,
things that you wish to accomplish, you can write about how you feel.
Try to write as much as you can, but it doesn't have to be a lot.
Even if you just write a few sentences, every bit helps.
So start writing a diary.
That is something I really hope that you can do in 2020.
Number seven, and this is my favorite one, is that I want you to have a conversation.
I want you to speak to me.
And the way that you are going to do that because so many of you out there say,
well, I want to practice speaking, but I don't have anybody to talk to.
And I understand.
So what I would like you to do is I would like you to record a video introducing
yourself. I want you to record a video talking about well where you live.
Tell me about your family. Tell me about your job. Do you do,
tell me about your goals, things that you want to accomplish.
Send me a link to the video in the comments of this lesson so that I can watch
it and I will write you a comment so that you know that I got your message.
I know some of you may be shy.
Perhaps you don't want to talk in front of a video camera. That's okay.
If that's the case, record yourself like it's a podcast. Put it online,
send me a link to that audio and I will still listen to it.
I just want to hear from you and know that you are practicing your speaking
skills. So these are the seven things that I want you to do.
This is your checklist and go through them one at a time and just check them off
in 2020 because this is going to help you improve your English fluency.
If you enjoy this lesson, please hit that like button and as always,
thanks so much for watching and I'll see you next time.