- [Jack] Here's a question that I received
on the last podcast episode.
Now, listen to this carefully and see if this is something
that you've been wondering about too.
Okay, "Hi. I find your podcasts are useful and valuable.
I'm really keen on them.
However, there's one thing that I always wonder.
I mean you speak pretty slowly and there's not many
advanced vocabulary in your podcasts,
I could mostly understand your content.
Therefore, will they help me to improve my listening
or have I to listen to a difficult audio?"
So, this person is asking if my podcasts are useful for her
because she can understand nearly everything
or mostly understand the content.
And doesn't feel like there are many advanced
vocabulary items in there.
So I'm gonna talk about this today because I think
it's something that a lot of people think about and wonder
if listening to a podcast
made for English learners is valuable.
Firstly, let's talk about the pace of my podcast.
When I am given a podcast,
whether this is for English learners or on my other channel,
which talks about marketing,
I tend to talk in a presentation style.
And if you think about TED Talks
and the way that people speak in a TED Talk,
it's fairly similar to that.
I try to keep it a little bit more natural in the podcast,
but it's still a presentation.
And when you are presenting things,
you don't just talk like you're having a conversation.
It's a different type of way of speaking.
However, on my YouTube channel,
I'm sure you have watched some of the conversations
that my wife and I have had,
where we just discussed various topics.
And those ones are different
because we're having a conversation.
And the way you speak in a conversation is different
to the way you speak when giving a presentation.
And secondly, when it comes to advanced vocabulary,
when I talk about how to learn English,
most people already have learned the words and phrases
needed to think about and talk about
and listen to that topic.
Because if you are an English learner,
then you will have researched and listened to podcasts
about how to learn English, how best to learn English.
Therefore you've had the repetition
of the phrases and vocabulary
and you're probably more familiar with this type of topic
than if I started talking about vocabulary
about ping pong, for example.
And if I talked in a very similar way,
but talked about ping pong, which I don't know
if I could make a podcast on that, but let's say I did,
then you wouldn't be able to understand as much
because it's more of a specialized topic.
So those are my initial thoughts about this
but I do want to talk about this further
because it brings up a really important point.
When we're talking about what to listen to
when learning English, what type of things
should you listen to when learning English?
Okay and before I go into that, I just want to say, hi,
my name is Jack from To Fluency.
If you are new here, welcome to you
and feel free to subscribe to whichever podcast app
you're using or if you're on YouTube,
click that subscribe button and the notification bell.
And then also take a look at the description
for some resources that will help you learn English,
including my book, which is free to download,
"The Five Step Plan for English Fluency."
Now, to help me talk about inputs
and the type of input you need,
the person that I think is so important here
and somebody that I have followed for a long time
is Dr. Stephen Krashen.
And he talks a lot about comprehensible input,
comprehensible input, which basically means
input that you can understand.
Okay, so I found this article
which summarizes this quite well.
And it's saying, "Comprehensible input in English
is English language that you can understand,
language inputs of things that you hear, like podcasts,
the radio, conversations, as well as things that you read,
like books, article, English blog articles, et cetera.
And Krashen specifies that you can't just read or listen
to anything and improve your language.
You have to read or listen to things you can understand.
Language acquisition happens best, he says,
when the input is just slightly more advanced
than your own level."
So for this episode, we'll focus on listening,
but you can apply this to reading as well.
And the key point here is that you need to find resources,
things to listen to that you can understand.
You have to find things that you can understand
but also find things that challenge you
a little bit as well.
And I think this works really well
because when you understand something, you can enjoy it,
you can get the repetition of sentences
so that you acquire the language.
Now, acquiring a language and learning a language
is seen to be different because you can learn grammar rules.
Okay, you can learn sentence structure
and pass a test to say, "Okay,
I now know how to form the present perfect
using different pronouns, et cetera, and objects
and to do different types of verbs."
And then you can pass a test to say you've done that.
But acquiring this is where you reach a stage,
I've talked about this in my last episode,
where it just feels natural to you,
where it just feels natural to you, okay?
Where you say and use the present perfect
in a natural way because it just feels right.
You don't have to think about the rules when you're speaking
and getting lots of input helps you with this
because you're going to listen to the present perfect
again and again and again, you're going to read it
again and again and again if you read books as well.
And by doing this, you're going to acquire
the grammar in a natural way.
You're going to learn this in a natural way
but only if you can understand what you're listening to.
If you don't understand what you're listening to,
then you're not going to acquire the language
with the same efficiency, it's not going to be as good.
And by listening to things you understand,
you're also going to understand the context
because learning grammar is not just
about sentence structure and conjugating verbs,
it's also about knowing when to use that grammar.
So if you keep hearing people talk about
how many times they've been to a foreign country,
how many times they've been to this, et cetera,
then what you're going to do is you're going to understand
when you can use this and say things like,
"Oh, I've been to Italy twice,"
or, "I've been to the US once,"
and you'll be able to use the right structure
and use the present perfect in the right situation.
So that's one reason why getting lots of comprehensible,
understandable input is important.
And by the repetition that you get,
you're going to acquire the language
and just really, truly understand grammar
and when to use it correctly.
However, if you just constantly listen to things
that you can understand,
then you're not going to learn new things.
And I think that whenever you listen to one of my podcasts,
let's say that you understand 80% of what I'm saying,
then you're going to learn new things
because you can understand the majority of what I say.
And then you can more or less guess the new vocabulary
or if you're listening on YouTube, watching on YouTube,
you can turn on subtitles and see the words
and phrases I'm using and look them up.
But the key here is that you need to have
that base of understanding something
and then you can learn new things from context.
You can understand a new word or an adjective,
for example, because I'm using it in a certain way.
And you understand what I'm saying.
Therefore, for most people listening to this,
I think my podcasts and other English learning podcasts
are great for comprehensible input.
Don't always think that you have to learn new vocabulary,
that you have to listen so that you can learn
more advanced vocabulary.
Because there are certain words and phrases that we use
again and again and again, okay?
And we have these high-frequency phrases and words
and idioms that people use on a constant basis.
So it's better that you master those phrases,
especially when it comes to what you normally talk about.
So if you need English
to give presentations about financial things,
then you can learn English for finance
because those are the words and phrases
you're going to use again and again.
But you're also going to have to learn the basic phrases
for small talk, conversation, negotiation,
talking about your past, talking about what you like,
the usual topics that you learn as a learner.
And by listening to things that you already understand,
you're going to get that comprehensible input,
which is a repetition you need to acquire a language,
not just know the grammar,
but acquire it so that you can speak naturally
and understand people when they talk.
So before I talk about the resources you can use,
I just wanna go back to this question again,
where they're saying, "Is this useful?
Will it help me improve my listening
or do I have to listen to difficult audio?"
I think the best thing to do
is to get lots of comprehensible input,
listen to things you understand
and constantly increase the level of what you listen to.
So challenge yourself at times.
I know I have done this
when I was really focused on learning Spanish.
What I did was I started by listening to the news
and I followed the news, therefore,
I could understand the news stories,
especially international news stories.
And I learned new vocabulary
because I already knew what the story was about.
So there are different things that you can do
to constantly improve what you're listening to
and the level that you're listening to.
And I think the key here is to go slowly,
to go slowly, okay?
To really just build up your comprehensible skills
so that you can improve your comprehension
and the way that you can listen to people when they speak.
So here are some resources that you can use.
And firstly, know the difference between resources
made for English learners and also resources
that aren't made for English learners.
And you might want to focus more on one or the other
depending on your level.
So I think some great things to listen to
and to read as well, firstly, the news,
if you're interested in it,
if you're interested in the news, like politics,
global topics, et cetera, and you already know
what's going on in the world at the moment,
then reading the news and listening to the news in English
is a great stepping stone to moving
onto different types of things.
But also, I think other things that are great,
English learning podcasts, like this one,
presentation style talks like TED Talks.
Personally, this is just my opinion,
I'm not a big fan of TED Talks
but that type of style are great.
Interviews, where you can go on YouTube
and just watch interviews on topics that you like.
Because usually with interviews
they're more of a presentation style
where people are presenting what they believe in,
they're asking questions and they're talking about a topic
that you're interested in and then also graded readers.
These are books that have been adapted for different levels.
So you can say, okay, I'm an intermediate speaker
and listener, I'll find books, graded readers
that are for intermediate learners.
And then you can think, okay, I'm B1, let's try B1.2 or B2
on topics that I already know and understand.
And then find things that are comprehensible,
things that you can understand and then build up
your knowledge and your listening over time.
Because another thing is sometimes when you're listening,
if you're not used to listening to things in English,
but you know the language,
then it can all just happen too fast,
you're thinking in your head and you're missing things.
So it's about reaching that stage where you're just
listening and understanding to what people are saying.
And then, you move on to the next level.
And then just to talk about the other part
with advanced vocabulary.
Again, this I think it's so important to think more about
frequently used phrases that you need to know
instead of advanced vocabulary.
Both are important but I think the frequently used phrases,
this is more important and being sure
that you can quickly understand someone
when they use that phrase.
And again, focus on the type of English
that you're learning.
Think about what am I using my English for right now
or what am I going to use my English for in the future.
And then focus on those words and phrases,
find audio, find books, find podcasts
that focus on those types of topics
and then just acquire language and vocabulary over time.
There'll be some words and phrases in here.
I'm sure that nearly everyone listening to
will have found something new.
For example, before I said, "Quite frankly,"
maybe that's something new to you and you can look that up
and repeat this again and then you can learn it.
So just in summary,
this podcast is made for English learners.
I speak with a presentation style,
which some people find slow, for example.
But I've listened to podcasts
that aren't made for English learners.
For example, someone like Sam Harris,
listen to one of Sam Harris's podcast episodes
and you'll notice that he speaks much more slowly than I do.
But he's not making podcasts for English learners,
that's his style of presentation.
And I like that style of presentation.
Although, sometimes I do speed it up.
And then secondly, comprehensible input, in my opinion,
is so important and it's important to find things
that you can understand so that you can get the repetition
of phrases so that you can really just improve
your comprehension and that you can just acquire
the language instead of learning the language.
But you still want to find something
that is going to challenge you
so that you can learn new words and phrases.
So nothing is lost.
It's better to listen to something that's too easy
than too hard in my opinion because that's the way
that you're going to enjoy things.
It's gonna happen naturally.
You're not stressed about understanding things,
instead you're just getting some great input
and repetition and all these phrases
that you're going to just acquire and truly understand
by listening to things a lot.
But at the same time, do challenge yourself
from time to time, do think, okay, let's try to listen
to this podcast episode that I didn't understand
six months ago, can I understand it now?
Can I understand this TV show that went (swooshes)
over my head a few months ago?
Do challenge yourself and think about listening
to a variety of different things and different accents
so that you can understand different people,
but I would love to know your thoughts.
What kind of things do you like listening to?
Do you enjoy listening to things?
Do some podcasts or some resources make you feel stressed
because you can't understand them?
And what else do you like listening to,
let me know in the comment section
if there is one on the app you're using.
And like I said before, check out the description
for more resources, including my book
"The Five Step Plan for English Fluency"
and also the program that I have at the moment
and any new programs and courses that I'm going to make.
So definitely go check that out.
Subscribe, click that subscribe button right now
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Okay, thank you so much for listening
and I'll speak to you soon.
Bye bye.