Hmm... I need to practice my English. How should I do it? Maybe I could watch a movie...
Or how about a TV show? Or maybe listen to a podcast...
Nah. I think I'll read a book. But I don't know which book to read.
So nowadays there are more resources to learn languages than ever. Which is amazing. We never
have to go to the library and study these huge books. Really, in fact, we never even need to
leave the comfort of our homes. However on the other hand, this can make it really overwhelming
with so many different resources and tools to choose from. How can you possibly know what to do,
on which day, at which time? That's why today we're giving you a completely free study plan! And
the great thing is that all of it is concentrated on just using one app which is completely free.
The RealLife English App. So before we start, if you have not already, make sure that you
download the free app by clicking up here or down the description below. Or you can simply
search for RealLife English in your favorite app store. You can pause the video if you need to
and come back here after you have downloaded it and created your free account.
All right, so let's begin. So it's really important when you're learning English that you
vary the approach to the way that you're learning. Just like when I go to the gym, I don't want to
work out the same muscles every single day. I need to vary what I'm doing so that I can equally build
all of my different muscles. Makes sense, right? However so many different learners when studying
English tend to just focus on one area, they don't have that balance that they need to use
the language effectively in different ways. So the idea behind this weekly study plan is to help
you to be confident and natural speaking English, reading and writing in English and understanding
anyone. So every single Monday we release a new podcast episode that is perfect for practicing
your listening and your reading with different accents. You can listen to it right on the
RealLife English app with a full transcript. So when you open up the listening part of the app you
will see that you can choose different episodes. When you choose the newest episode, you'll have
both the transcript and the notes. And also notice that under the notes you have a list of the most
important vocabulary from that episode. Over on the transcript part, you can actually read
the transcript of the episode and follow along as we're speaking. So on this first day we recommend
that you listen to the episode and read along with the transcript and challenge yourself by
trying to identify three uses of connected speech in the episode. Let's take a look at an example.
In this in this example we can hear three connected speech patterns. And
the cool thing about the app is that you can reduce the speed by tapping right here.
So, for example, if your listening isn't so confident,
then you can go as low as 0.5 speed. But let's try it out at 0.8 speed.
All right, so you've made it to day two of the study plan. So what you're going to do
is go back to the same episode, but this time we're going to focus on vocabulary
by going to the notes section. So go through all of the vocabulary notes there and the definitions
and be sure to note down any of the words that you don't know along with the example from the episode
in your vocabulary notebook. And today I really want you to just focus on three of these words. So
spend some time thinking about them. Try to think of different ways that you could use them. Even
write down some different examples with them and say them out loud to yourself to practice. And now
are you ready for a little bit bigger challenge? So you're going to open up the speak part of the
app to connect with someone else in the global chat. So what you can do here is connect with
another English speaker from another part of the world for a four minute conversation. And the way
that you're going to challenge yourself especially here is by trying to find an excuse to use these
different three words in a conversation. Or maybe you could have three different conversations and
try to use one word in each conversation. You could even try teaching these different
words that you're learning to your speaking partner. Because teaching is a really great
way to strengthen your knowledge of these words. So let's give it a try. Let's say that I learned
the words: enlightening, breakdown and unwind while listening to the podcast. So now I'm going
to go connect to another English speaker and try practicing these words during the conversation.
Hey! How's it going? I'm Ethan and you are? Hello Ethan, I'm Thiago. Nice to meet you.
So, tell me, what did you do last weekend? You know, I always try to unwind on the weekend by
reading books. Do you like reading books? Oh yes, I do love reading books in English.
Do you have a favorite one? Oh yeah there's a ton, but one of my favorites has got to be
the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It's really enlightening. It's all about what different
successful people have in common. Nice! By the way, you used some words that I didn't understand.
What does enlightening mean? Yeah of course, well enlightening is when...
Are you enjoying the lesson so far? Then be sure to subscribe so that you can catch new lessons
like this one every single week. Because here at RealLife English our goal is to help you go from
feeling like a lost insecure English learner, to being a confident and natural English speaker.
Just like you can by using the app. Okay, on day three you're going to challenge your
ears by listening for comprehension. So you could choose a new podcast episode or go back to the one
that you've already been listening to and listen without relying on the transcript. Just really
trying to tune in to understand as much as you can without that crutch. Don't worry if you don't
understand every single word, the idea here is for you to really catch the gist or the main idea
of what's being spoken about in the episode. And then you could take the practice a bit
further by writing a summary trying to describe what you learned in the episode or what the
conversation was about. So here's an example of a summary that I wrote about podcast episode 283.
Finally you can listen again with a transcript to test your comprehension. How'd you do? All right,
now how about doing some mimicry? Mimicry is about imitation, trying to emulate what you
hear as closely to the original pronunciation and accent as possible. Since you have the transcript,
you can practice reading it out loud pretending that you're one of the hosts of the episodes.
Imagine yourself saying those words in that situation reading out loud is a really great
way to improve your speaking skills. Welcome to the RealLife English podcast
where we help dedicated English learners just like you to cultivate the courage,
the confidence and the skills... And then as an extra step, you can listen to the original
audio and compare your pronunciation. To take it to even next level you could try recording
yourself and then comparing those side by side. And now it's Friday and let's take the challenge
to the next level by practicing your speaking skills. And I don't just mean getting in a
conversation with someone, but let's actually make it deliberate. You want to actually have
some specific goals with your speaking, not just to have a casual conversation about the weather,
which isn't really going to challenge you at all. Here's some examples of how you can be specific
with your goals. So you can connect to another learner and talk about your favorite TV series,
you could even tell them what happened in an episode that you watched recently. You could
create a list of interesting questions or you can look these up on the internet, there are tons that
I used to use when I was teaching. And you could challenge yourself to use different questions in
every single conversation that you have. This is really great, because it'll also have you speaking
about diversity of topics which is going to really expand your ability to speak on different themes.
The more deliberate and specific that you are with your practicing goals, the better this is really
going to stretch you to improve your speaking so you don't get too stuck in intermediate.
So now it's the weekend, I'm sure you're pretty tired from a long and busy week
of English studying and maybe working or other studies that you're having to do.
So we don't need to be quite so deliberate with our studying on the weekend.
If you can have a conversation with someone in the app that's really great.
If you can listen to a podcast while you're doing something else, that's also fantastic.
One thing I do highly recommend though that you carve out some time for on the weekend, is doing a
reflection about your studying over the week. This is really nice, maybe you can brew yourself a cup
of tea or make a cup of coffee and sit down with your favorite playlist of music maybe in English
and just reflect a little bit upon your week. Let's take a look at some questions that can
help you to do this in case you're not sure where you can start with your reflection.
Now I highly recommend that you keep a record of these reflections, because it will really
outline your English learning journey. It will help you to see where you've made mistakes,
where you can do better and what's really worked well for you. So there you have it. A complete
seven day a week study guide for you to improve your English just with one app, the RealLife
English app. Definitely download it if you have not already. And I want to hear from you: Have
you tried out the RealLife English app yet? How has the RealLife English app helped you to improve
your English? Why don't you share with me and your fellow learners down in the comments below?
So just to recap, here is what your weekly study plan looks like. Feel free to take a screenshot of
it if that will help you. You put it up on your fridge or maybe put a screensaver on your phone
or laptop so that you can see it every single day and know what's up for you next during the week.
And do you ever feel like you can write really well in English,
but you just can't speak it? Well, we made a video
just for those of you that have this problem. You can check that out next. Let's watch a clip: