Have you been studying a language, but do you feel as if you’re not making any progress?
In today’s video I will go over four possible explanations for this
and I will try to solve your problem.
So, let’s go!
The first problem may be that you’re studying in the wrong way.
What does that mean?
Most of us don’t learn in the same way.
In fact, most of us learn best in our individual learning styles.
So, a good place to start would be to find out what your style of learning is.
We all have our individual learning styles.
However, in general we can distinguish these forms of learner types:
The first one is the “visual learner”.
The visual learner prefers images or pictures when he or she is learning something.
The second one is the “aural learner”.
If you’re like this, you will find it helpful to listen to things or maybe hear music while you are learning.
The third learner type is the “verbal” one.
If you’re a verbal type of learner that means that you benefit from hearing speech,
talking yourself, but also writing a lot of words.
The next learner type is the “physical learner” type.
If you are like this, you like to use your body and you like to touch stuff or you like
to use your hands.
The next learner type is the “logical learner”.
If you’re like this you like systematic things
or you like to have rules or you like to benefit from logic.
So, systems like grammar explanations and so on would work for you.
The next one is the “social learner”.
If you’re a social learner you benefit from learning in groups
or learning together with other people and doing group work.
And the last type of learner is the “solitary learner”.
If you’re like this you prefer to be on your own and you prefer self-study.
So, a good place to start is to know which learner type you are.
For example, if you are not an aural learner
you can listen to as many speed learning CDs as you want to;
You’re probably not going to improve your English.
Likewise, if you are a verbal learner, and you’ve never ever written a word down while learning a language,
chances are that you might not really improve that much.
That said, a lot of us have combined learning styles.
So, maybe you don’t fit in just one area.
Maybe you are both a verbal learner and an aural learner or something else.
Different combinations apply to different people.
If you want to find out what way works best for you
and you’d like to get personal advice,
please send us an e-mail to this e-mail address: english@huitsllc.com
All right. Let’s go to the second problem. Problem number two.
The second possible problem is that you may have reached a “plateau”.
Especially people who have been studying a language for a longer time
reach this phase in which they feel that they’re not making any progress anymore
even though they actually do.
And, so, if this is you, all you have to do is be patient. Hold on!
This phase could linger on for maybe a few months to up to even a year,
but you will find out that if you keep on going (if you don’t give up),
at a certain point you are using words that you would’ve never been able to have used before.
Well, we all get to that point where you feel that you are not progressing, but you are actually.
So, keep on going! Don’t give up!
Number three!
A third thing that might be going on is that you are not focusing on the right thing.
An example of this would be something that I find going on in a lot of Japanese schools,
where they try to teach English while focusing too much on grammar and grammar rules.
Although this may be beneficial for the logical learner, for almost any other learner type
there is no benefit in focusing on grammar rules so much if you’re trying to learn a language.
So, for a lot of people it will be more beneficial to study words and focus on the vocabulary first.
That said, if you focus on the right type of vocabulary that will help you, but
if you focus on the words that you will never ever use,
again, there is no point in studying these words and you will not make any progress.
Let’s look at it in this way…
If you wanted to go on a diet, because you wanted to lose weight
you can study all you
want and you can read all these different books about how to diet and how to lose weight,
but if you never put in the time and the effort to actually lose weight
you will never really lose weight, would you?
So, study and focus on the right things that are actually important.
And that brings us to number four, which is the last point in this lesson that I would like to discuss.
Maybe you are not actually putting in the right amount of time and work.
This might not be something that you’d like to hear,
but I would like to compare studying any language to doing a sport.
We may not all be talented enough to become a professional athlete,
but we can all be at a level that we can enjoy a sport and that we can become even good at a sport, I think.
However, if you’d never ever put in the time how will you progress?
So, think about something that you are good at.
What is it that you can really do well?
And how did you get to this point?
Most likely you didn’t get there overnight.
And if you are very honest to yourself, you probably spent a lot of time and effort
into acquiring the skill or nurturing it to a level that you are at now.
So, the thing is that you have to do the same if you want to become fluent at any language.
For example, if I wanted to run the marathon of New York
and I would say to myself, “OK, I’m going to run the marathon of New York tomorrow,”
it’s not very likely that I would be actually be able to do it.
But if I set a more realistic goal
(for example, I would like to participate in the marathon of New York next year around this time)
and if I would actually put in the time and the effort to practice for it,
it is very likely that I would probably be able to do so.
So, how does this relate to languages?
Well, if you expect yourself to be fluent at English tomorrow
that’s probably going to be very tough and you’re probably not going to be able to do it.
But if you set a goal like "OK, by the end of this year I want to be able to speak 1,500 words
and use those words in communication"
(which actually also means that you would be pretty fluent already)
that is most likely going to happen.
Because that way you would only have to study
no more than five words a day, right?
So, you can definitely do that!
And if you keep on studying everyday and if you use your English every day
you will get to a point where you could actually be fluent in a year!
And that’s all for today.
If you want more tips on how to study any language, please watch our other videos,
because we will put out a series of six episodes in total on this topic
and if you want to know how to learn any language within less than six months,
please subscribe to our channel,
so that you don’t miss out on that video, which is coming up too very shortly.
All right. That’s all for today.
See you again next time!
Thank you very much.