- Hi students, hope you're well, and today's video I want
to talk to you about slow audio processing speed, which
in other words means having a delayed response when you're
speaking English.
So let's imagine somebody in a conversation asks you
a question, it could be a simple question like,
'What's your name?'
And instead of answering straightaway saying,
'My name is Jade,' or 'I'm Jade', it's like one, two,
two and 1/2, and then you speak.
So that's the delayed response and a very simple example.
If you have this problems, this will also affect you
in your native language, but over the years
you would have learned to cope with answering questions,
thinking on the spot, and the delayed response part
will be much shorter.
The problem occurs when you're speaking
in a different language when you don't have so much experience
that the delayed response can seem really, really long.
And the problem with that is, it makes you feel awkward
because it took you a long time to answer,
it makes you feel stupid because it looks like you
can't answer a simple question.
And also for the person you're speaking to,
it makes it seem like you don't know English.
So because of this, they can massively
underestimate your ability.
So it might create this impression of you
that your English is rubbish, or you're just a beginner, when
in fact you do know a lot more.
You can write a work email.
Or if you've got time to think about what you're saying,
you'll be able to answer the question,
you'll be able to have a conversation;
it just takes you longer to get there.
And the delayed response can cause
heightened anxiety and embarrassment,
which will make it get worse.
Once it starts, it can really make the flow
of the conversation ruined.
And another thing that happens with people
is, when they want to join in a conversation, let's
say there are more people there, because it takes them so
long to get the language in their heads,
by the time they're ready to say the thing they want to say
the conversation's already moved on,
so you would need to be really assertive to say it by then,
and often it just doesn't seem worth it,
so people don't join the conversation because of that.
So there are examples of how slow processing speed can
affect your English, and also I'll say about it that
it's a really frustrating problem to be able to deal
with, because students often think,
'Oh, this is because I don't know enough words,
my vocabulary is not big enough, so I just need to go learn more
words, and then this won't affect me anymore'.
Whereas, my point of view is it's
not about the size of your vocabulary,
because some people with a very small vocabulary
are able to rapidly answer questions and find
the language in their heads much more easily.
And I think that's the key point about
this slow audio processing.
It doesn't mean that you're stupid
or you're rubbish at English, it means
that it takes you longer than most people
to find where that language is stored in your head.
The filing system that you use in your memory
is not as efficient, or maybe it's
a bit disorganised in there.
Or more likely than not, the filing system
is in the wrong place in your brain.
So instead of being able to go straight there and find it,
you have to go all around these alleyways,
and eventually you find it, but it will be too late.
So bearing that in mind, if you suffer
from slow audio processing speed is there
anything you can do about it?
The answer is yes, but obviously is going to take time
and longer than you think, because you're going to have
to practise simple phrases many, many times,
because this will build up the pathways.
So if you think of it from another point of view,
you have this problem also in your native language,
but you learnt how to cope with it and overcome it because most
of the conversation that we use in our daily lives is according
to a script, with very small variations.
So you didn't realise it, but you learn to get faster
processing language because, the more times you say a particular
phrase the easier it's going to be to find in your mind.
So the thing that you have to do with English now
is the same process, the most useful language
and most useful phrases, it has to be repeated multiple times,
so you can find your way to where that language is
stored in your mind.
In a conversation, you don't have time
to grammatically build sentences.
OK, I know some people do that, I have met students
who are able to do that, but I would
say most likely those students don't
suffer with this problem of very slow processing speed.
Because if your processing speed is slow,
most likely the mind is going to be blank for a few seconds
before the language appears, so you're not
able to build it as you go.
So how are you going to be able to overcome, well, speed up?
I wouldn't say completely overcome slow processing speed,
is to practice using a repeat after me
method, where you're not attempting
to memorise all the phrases that you're
doing repeat after me on.
It's just practice.
It's a method that you just go over sentences repeatedly,
because that's going to burn those pathways deeper.
It won't be the only kind of English practice you ever do,
but this is what's necessary to help build up those pathways.
So the main point of doing the repeat after me exercise,
is that, there is that fill in the blank time,
there is that time pressure that you
have to repeat what you just heard,
and this also helps with the reaction times.
If you're not good at it at first, that's OK,
because the more you practise the better that skill will
improve.
Now this is the part of the video where I tell you
about the solution I have for you,
because the English Jade course I created,
one of the things it does is it will
help to speed up your slow processing speed,
and is a repeat after me method.
All you need to do is 10 minutes practice five days a week.
It's not a memorisation thing when
you're trying to stuff words into your head,
where you're forcing it into your brain,
all you have to do is listen, repeat, or listen, read
a script, and repeat.
So go and check out the course, which is an englishjade.co.uk,
and that's going to be a really good way for you
to have some practice material and a method
for you to follow to speed up your audio processing speed.
Thank you for watching and come back again soon
for future video.
I'll see you then.