Welcome to lesson two in my “Greatest Hits” video series. This lesson is for learners
who know a lot of English, but can’t express themselves confidently and fluently. It’s
also for teachers, since I’ve been asked to make more training for language educators.
I began this series by saying that you must learn ANY new language like it’s your first.
And if you watched video one – There’s No Such Thing As A Second Language – you’ll
know why I’m not shy about promoting language learning ideas and methods that work, even
if they’re controversial. In this video, which might seem even crazier, I’ll prove
that English learners really can become more fluent with LITTLE OR NO SPEAKING PRACTICE.
“Impossible!” you say? Keep watching…
The most basic thing to understand about language learning is that fluency develops WORD BY
WORD. This means that fluency is something you develop in EACH word, phrase and grammar
point you learn, rather than fluency being some communication “level” you reach in
the language as a whole after “enough” study and practice. This explains why many
adult English students can use only SOME of their vocabulary without thinking or translating,
and why many native English-speaking children can express themselves better than adult learners
who have LARGER vocabularies and MORE knowledge of English.
But let’s compare the traditional way with my approach so you see how fluency really
works.
Have a look at the characters on the screen, and imagine you’re learning a new written
vocabulary in some alien language. These characters represent the numbers one through nine.
In a traditional language lesson, I’d probably “teach” you the new characters by giving
you translations, rules to study, and flashcards to memorize. But, though these methods CAN
help you LEARN the target vocabulary, these methods work AGAINST your ability to USE the
vocabulary confidently and automatically.
This happens because traditional methods like translations and grammar explanations are
“filters” that STOP you from understanding the language like a native. If you LEARN through
these filters, you must also use these filters when you SPEAK. So instead of expressing yourself
naturally, you hesitate to think about rules… You forget vocabulary… You translate…
And you must first organize sentences in your head. Ultimately, SPEAKING PRACTICE becomes
much more necessary and important as the way to OVERCOME the difficulties caused by the
“filters” of traditional learning methods. It’s like traditional methods move you AWAY
from fluency, so you must then spend a lot of time practicing just to get moving back
in the right direction! Sounds like a confusing, frustrating and painful way to learn a language,
doesn’t it?
After our traditional “lesson,” even with some practice, you’d still likely have trouble
remembering all of these characters for a test… And if you had to recall them quickly
IN A CONVERSATION, you’d probably become nervous, forget everything and freeze up.
So, what’s the alternative? How can you learn the characters so you RECALL THEM WITHOUT
THINKING?
With my approach, the goal is really to develop fluency INSTANTLY, meaning you UNDERSTAND
WITHOUT ANY FILTERS so you can correctly and automatically USE what you learn, EVEN WITH
LITTLE OR NO SPEAKING PRACTICE.
Let’s look at the characters again, but in a much more understandable way…
Pretty cool, right? Did you FEEL the “switch” in your brain when you understood the characters
“like a native”? Without using any translations or explanations, I’ve made the new characters
UNDERSTANDABLE by integrating them with what you already know, almost instantly. And the
BEST PART is that I could give you a test with a THOUSAND characters or more and you’d
probably get them all right, EVEN WITH LITTLE OR NO PRACTICE!
But for the people watching who STILL aren’t convinced that this is the way you should
be learning – and teaching – ANY language, here’s one more example with English…
This lesson helps students understand some basic prepositions like a native English speaker:
on the table at the table
That’s it! Easy, right?
So what did I do to make this understandable?
First, the lesson is ALL IN ENGLISH. Remember that we want to make English understandable
WITHOUT going through “filters” like translations, rules and explanations. Next, I CONTRASTED
some related situations and words to make both phrases easier to understand. It’s
a lot easier to understand the word “fast” when you see it contrasted with the word “slow.”
Notice how I also kept the examples very simple, while offering a bit of diversity, to make
everything clear. With these basic elements, we can produce a lesson that we KNOW FOR SURE
will develop fluency, WITH LITTLE OR NO PRACTICE!!! Isn’t that incredible?!
Of course, more advanced vocabulary should be learned in the same way, going FROM THE
SITUATION TO THE VOCABULARY (rather than through translations), and using simple words the
student knows to understand more complex ones. I must also say that speaking practice IS
great, especially for building confidence. But the truth is it’s far less necessary
for building fluency if you LEARN THE RIGHT WAY.
What I call “FLUENT UNDERSTANDING” is the REAL foundation of your ability to speak,
NOT the size of your vocabulary, or the number of grammar rules you know. So my job as the
English Fluency Guide – unlike a traditional English teacher – is to make English understandable
automatically so you develop fluency as soon as possible. I don’t want to TELL you what
words mean by giving you translations, teaching rules or confusing you with explanations.
I want you to DISCOVER and UNDERSTAND the language with simple lessons, visual examples
and stories… Because this is the ONLY way you become a confident, fluent communicator!
If you are a teacher, your lessons should be understandable ALL IN ENGLISH, and with
as little explanation as possible. When you do this correctly, your students will FEEL
instant improvement, and you’ll GUARANTEE they become successful speakers!
If you are a student, I hope you now see that fluency should happen INSTANTLY… And that
you really can become a successful English speaker even if you think you’re too old,
don’t live in an English-speaking country, and don’t have anyone to practice with.
To understand THOUSANDS more words and phrases so you speak English like it’s your FIRST
LANGUAGE, click on the link in this video, or on the link in the description below this
video. See you next time! Bye-bye!