Hello, everyone, and welcome back to English with Lucy. Today, I am going to talk to you
about my five tips for achieving fluency in English. I know this is a topic that lots
of you are interested in. It does depend on what fluency means to you. Different people
will feel fluent at different stages. So you've got to define that for yourself, but I'm going
to offer you my advice today and, hopefully, it will be a learning experience in itself.
I've created a free PDF that goes along with this lesson. It's got the full transcript
plus key vocabulary that I have used throughout the lesson. If you'd like to download that,
click on the link in the description box, you enter your name and your email address,
you sign up to my email list, I send the PDF directly to your inbox, and then from this
week onwards, you automatically will receive my lesson PDFs for free. It's a free service
along with all of my information, offers and course updates. Let's get started with the
lesson.
My first tip is possibly the most important one. It is do not expect miracles. There are
a lot of products out there at the moment that promote becoming fluent in 30 days. I
even saw a video the other day promising fluency in a week. You've got to be realistic. Before
you do anything else, before you progress with your fluency journey, get that idea out
of your head. Fluency is a marathon, not a sprint. It's absolutely fine to sprint towards
certain goals, but make sure they are achievable goals. Otherwise, you're just setting yourself
up for failure. Having learned two foreign languages myself, I can understand completely
how frustrating it is and how much pressure there is to get to a certain level quickly
or to pass a certain exam before a certain date. Not everyone out there is a language
genius. Try and understand your own abilities and your own pace of learning and set realistic
goals around that.
I ended up learning Spanish really quickly because I had the golden opportunity of going
over there and living with a Spanish family and having a Spanish partner. When I went
to learn Italian afterwards I was disappointed because I learnt it much more slowly and I
didn't find it easy to get to a high level. I had to realise it's not me. It's my situation.
So I set realistic goals around it and I ended up doing really well in my Italian modules
you have to focus on immersion. You have to immerse yourself in the language. That's not
always an option for many people in the world. Instead, I like to think of it as make fluency
a lifestyle choice. Do as much as you can to immerse yourself in the language, but also
accept that it's not always possible especially in a pandemic to travel over to a country,
give up your work, leave your family and spend two months there to get fluent.
It's easy to compare yourself with other people. For example, I always tell the story about
how I learned Spanish and it's frustrating for other people to hear, "Oh, you got fluent
because you lived in Spain. So, of course, you did, but what am I going to do?" The reality
is that before going to Spain I completely immersed myself in Spanish whilst living in
England. It was my lifestyle change. I was so passionate about learning the language
that I thought about it a lot of the time. Spanish music, I listened to music, I watched
TV shows, films, I tried to speak with other speakers of Spanish, I tried to meet as many
Spanish people as I possibly could, and I spoke to them via WhatsApp, via Voice Notes.
I did everything I could to immerse myself remotely.
One thing that I really like to get my students to focus on is trying to think in English.
Take some time each day to really talk to yourself out loud or in your head in that
language, no translating. Stop translating in your head. Think in English or at least
try. For me, that was really the key to becoming fluent. You may even find yourself developing
an additional personality in that second language. This happened to me in Spanish. I've got English
Lucy in my head and I've got Spanish Lucy in my head. We have different sense of humour,
we play with words and language in different ways, and I am so happy with that. It's really
cool to discover that new part of yourself, but you can only do that by really trying
to make it part of your lifestyle.
Tip number four is examine unique characteristics of the language you're learning, English.
It's fairly easy to learn the basics especially if you can translate to and from your mother
tongue. However, what really makes the difference when it comes to achieving fluency is learning
things like phrasal verbs, idioms, humour, really try and focus on those parts of the
language. Admittedly, they're the most difficult parts to learn and that's why many people
don't achieve fluency.
Phrasal verbs and idioms are particularly difficult because there are no real rules.
You have to learn them as you go. The best technique I can think of is learning them
in context. If you are interested in improving your phrasal verbs in English, I could always
look into developing something to help you so let me know if you'd be interested in that.
In the meantime, I have got lots and lots of videos on phrasal verbs and on idioms as
well. I have a place in my heart for idioms. I absolutely love them in both English and
other languages.
My last tip is focus on pronunciation and, in particular, I would say, focus on pronunciation
over grammar. I'm a pronunciation nerd. I've never had too much time for grammar. This
is my personal view. I'm sure lots of teachers may not agree with this but I think one of
the most important things is being able to be understood. It's not about losing your
accent. It's about pronouncing each sound correctly so that it's clear. That's why in
all of my vocabulary videos, I always add the phonetic transcription. If you do not
know how to use the phonetic transcription, I really recommend that you familiarise yourself
with it. I have created a tool on my website. It's free to use, englishwithlucy.co.uk. I've
created the phonemic chart. It's got all of the sounds that we use in modern RP and you
can click on each phoneme and hear me pronounce it, and I've also got some words containing
each phoneme and you can click on those too and hear me say them.
i:. No. eə.
Learn how to use these IPA transcriptions because they will transform the way you learn
pronunciation. Once you have mastered each sound in English, you'll be able to put them
together and pronounce things in a much clearer way. If you're really interested in learning
how to produce each sound, then I also have my pronunciation course, all the information
for that is in the description box, but it's very thorough.
Right. That's it for this lesson. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope it motivated you slightly.
If you'd like to download the free PDF that goes with this lesson, it's got the full transcript
and I've picked out the key vocab as well. All you've got to do is click on the link
in the description box, enter your name and your email address, you then sign up to my
mailing list and every week you will then receive my PDFs automatically for free plus
If you'd like to improve your listening skills and your vocabulary even further, then you
can try watching some of the videos on my vlogging channel where I vlog my life here
on a farm in the English countryside. All of the vlogs are made with you in mind. They
are all fully subtitled so you can pick out that vocabulary. Don't forget to connect with
me on all of my social media. I've got my Instagram, my Facebook, and my website, englishwithlucy.co.uk.
I will see you soon for another lesson.
It's nearly nine. I'm dying. It's just too hot to film in the day. Is this on? Yeah.
Oh it's about to go out of battery at some point. Let's get on with it. I pronounce things
in a much more clear way. In a much clearer way. Hello, everyone, and welcome back. Oh,
I need to slow down.