hey everyone welcome to the monthly
review
the monthly show on language learning
where you discover new learning
strategies motivational tips new study
tools and discover new resources
by the way you can download all the
lessons and bonuses you're about to see
right now on the website
so click the link in the description to
sign up for your free lifetime account
and start speaking in minutes okay
today's topic is
a brutally honest way to improve your
language
you're going to learn one
why tests are actually crucial for
language progress and two how you can
put yourself to the test so if you're
learning on your own and feel like
you're not making any learning progress
it's likely you're taking it too easy
you're not reaching your full potential
so an outside motivator like a test can
and will fire you up and help you get
better you'll discover how in just a
second
[Music]
but first listen up here are this
month's new lessons and resources
first can you talk about your home with
the brand new my house pdf cheat sheet
you'll be able to talk about your home
and everything inside furniture the
different kinds of rooms and much more
download it for free right now
second if you love travel then you'll
love this the brand new travel words and
phrases pdf learn all the must-know
travel phrases with this ebook download
it for free right now
third useful bank vocabulary this one
minute lesson gives you all the
must-know bank vocabulary so you can
start talking about money in your target
language
and fourth school vocabulary can you
talk about your school
and the degree you have this one minute
lesson will teach you to do just that
to get these free resources click the
link in the description below right now
okay let's jump into today's topic
a brutally honest way to improve your
language
so if you're learning a language on your
own do you ever feel like you're just
coasting through without making real
progress then it's possible that you're
taking it a bit too easy so what should
you do
part one why tests are crucial for
language progress the quick answers are
one tests give you an honest assessment
of your language skills and two
motivation but let's break these down in
full
if you've ever enrolled in a language
school or taken a language class you've
probably taken a placement test based on
your results the teachers place you into
an appropriate class so tests can help
you learn what's appropriate for your
level
tests also allow for ongoing assessment
through things like weekly quizzes and
tests every month
so what's the big deal with tests and
quizzes
even though some of us don't like tests
tests can give you honest assessments of
your language skills in specific ways
for example if you fail the listening
part of a test you know your weakness is
there
if you forget a grammar pattern you know
you need to practice it more
but if you're learning alone you might
not get many testing opportunities and
you may not be aware of mistakes you're
making in your studies right now you
don't know what pieces you might be
missing
tests can give you opportunities to
check your actual language skills and
sometimes they give you a brutal reality
check
now the second benefit of tests is
motivation think about it as a
self-learner no one else is going to
push you to do your best and most people
like to take it easy so if you're
wondering why you're not fluent yet but
you've been coasting along learning
words here and there without actually
testing your limits consider that it
might be because you haven't actually
been testing and pushing yourself at all
tests can give you that push that
challenge that urgency to improve that
motivation there's a specific date and
time for the test you have to be ready
by that deadline just think back to the
night before a test you felt the urgency
back then you were motivated to pass so
this is exactly why a lot of
self-learners take proficiency tests it
gives them something to aim for
something to be motivated about
something to achieve
now tests are not the complete answer to
language learning but they do give you a
way to assess yourself and they give you
a challenge so what can you do as a
self-learner
part two how you can put yourself to the
test
before you worry about failing recognize
that it's not about passing or failing
it's about getting an honest assessment
of your progress
the first and most obvious thing you can
do is sign up for a language proficiency
test there are many kinds of proficiency
tests available so you can pick the
right one for you
signing up will put you under added
pressure and give you extra motivation
to improve this is something that's hard
to do on your own
second if you're a premium plus member
on our website then you can get weekly
assignments that put you to the test
these assignments are graded and you get
feedback from your teacher so you know
what to do to improve and how
the third thing you can do is come back
and review once you're done with a
lesson or pathway download the dialogue
tracks and review them at a later date
see how much you can understand this
tests your listening plus your vocab and
grammar for speaking record yourself
with our voice recording tool and
compare yourself to the native
pronunciation remember you can always
self-test by coming back and seeing how
much you understand
the fourth thing you can do is test
yourself with a harder lesson
think of it as trying to lift a heavier
weight at the gym to see if you can do
it you can do this for reading speaking
and listening
simply go to a higher level like
intermediate or advanced and try a
lesson
with reading you can also try our higher
level extensive reading books
again remember with all of this the goal
here is not a pass or fail result the
goal is to get an honest assessment of
your language skills which you know and
what you don't know if you realize that
you're mispronouncing a certain word
you'll know how to correct it if you can
understand only fifty percent of a
lesson well that means you should review
it until you get to one hundred percent
if you don't understand a lesson
dialogue at all which is where most
people get intimidated make it a goal to
master the dialogue give yourself a goal
to aim for
and if you can't read as smoothly as you
would hoped all it means is that you
should give it a few more tries until
you're better
alright everyone in the last monthly
review we asked you to submit a video or
audio file of yourself speaking the
language introducing yourself or talking
about your country in the language so
thank you to all of you that sent in
submissions you've all received a
premium plus subscription as a reward
now let's take a look at some of the
submissions
okay so now i'm going to listen to some
submissions that you have sent in for
this month i'm super excited let's get
started
hi alicia my name is raslov and i'm from
turkmenistan but now i'm starting in
russia in city called belgart
i'm 23 years old and
i'm studying english
because of
i
like this language it's a very
interesting language for me i can use it
with my friends when i speak with my
friends and
i can use this language all around the
world yeah so
i want to improve the english and
thanks for your
channel thanks for your videos
i can do it
so after watching your videos i open for
myself something new something
interesting and
useful
thank you very much for your channel for
your videos thank you very much bye bye
bye
wow that's so cool so he explained that
he's using it with his friends like he's
able to use it when he use english when
he talks with his friends i think that's
really cool and that he's found
something new as a result of watching
our channel that was awesome thank you
so much for sharing and good luck with
your continued studies that's so cool
thank you okay let's go on to the next
one
rewind hi alicia hi i'm zian and i'm
from malaysia
hi i have been learning english since my
schooling years
however i always felt that i wasn't very
good at grammar
well not until i've signed up for
english class101.com
so thank you for making
this helpful videos and i can feel my
progression and learning grammar right
now cool
thank you so much and i will always be
glad to learn more from you thank you
and bye bye
wow that was such a cheerful message
that was awesome thank you so much for
sending this your pronunciation was very
clear and you sounded so positive in
your message that's great that you have
that specific goal of improving your
grammar i think that's probably really
helpful and it's really cool that you
said that you can tell you're
progressing and moving forward so that's
awesome good luck i hope that we can
continue making more stuff that can help
you as you try to work on improving your
english thank you for sending this
that's really cool all right that's
everything we have for this month so
that was awesome thank you to everybody
who sent messages this month and i look
forward as always to your messages for
next month too
so which entry did you like the best
leave a comment below or do you think
you can do better here's the challenge
for you yes everyone watching this
record a 30 second to one minute video
or audio clip tell us about where you're
from and you'll win a one month premium
plus subscription
to submit click on the link in the
description sign up for your free
lifetime account then fill out the form
attach the audio or video file and press
submit we may feature you in next
month's episode so a lot of learners
will see you and your progress and will
hopefully get inspired to improve and
master the language to submit a
recording click the link in the
description and follow the instructions
on the page
so thank you for watching this episode
of monthly review
next time we'll talk about
a seven minute seven second rule for
language learning success
if you enjoyed these tips hit the like
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link in the description see you next
time bye