Well hello! I'm Emma from mmmEnglish!
I'm super excited to share this video with you today.
I want to challenge your thinking about fluency.
What does it mean to be fluent in English?
And are you actually more fluent than you think?
Before we get started I just want to thank
the sponsor of today's lesson, Skillshare.
Now I mentioned Skillshare a few weeks ago,
in this lesson here.
They're an online learning platform
with lots of free classes but through their
Premium Membership, you can access
thousands of amazing classes
taught by expert teachers across
so many different areas.
It's mind-blowing really,
just how many different courses there are.
I've taken three classes already.
I took one in productivity because
I need as much help as I can get in that area.
But I'm completely hooked on baking.
I've never baked my own bread before but I've taken
two classes about bread-making on Skillshare
and I'm getting pretty good at it now.
I learned so much about the baking process
and it's actually easier than you think.
Now, taking a course relating to your interest in English
is an awesome way to build your fluency around topics
that you love
and Skillshare is the perfect place to do that.
It's super affordable, a premium membership
will cost you as little as ten dollars a month
on their annual plan.
But Skillshare have given us a special deal today.
The first five hundred mmmEnglish viewers
who sign up with a credit card using
the link in the description
will get two whole months of premium access
to all their courses. It's unlimited!
You can take as many classes as you want!
We're so grateful to Skillshare for offering this deal
and giving you yet another way
to practise your English skills. So quickly!
Get down there and grab that link
before someone else does!
All right. Back to the lesson.
Today I've got three ways to increase
your English fluency, but first
and this is a very important question.
What does fluency mean to you?
Now it's tricky because if I asked five of you,
I'm sure I'd hear five completely different answers.
What does it mean to be fluent in English?
What do you think?
I want you to write me a comment below. Tell me your
opinion about this question.
For some people, fluency is being able to have a normal
conversation with a native speaker.
Small talk, general topics like work, where you're from,
your family - that kind of thing.
But for others, fluency relates to tests and exams.
A certain level that you need to achieve before
you can enter a university or apply for a visa.
And that's okay too!
But it's really important that you answer this question.
When you say "I want to be fluent in English"
what do you actually want to be able to do?
Really think about your answer.
I'm pushing you to do this.
I want you to join in on this discussion,
be part of the conversation today here my friend.
Don't just watch, I want you to participate.
So for me, fluency is a mix of ability: reading, writing,
listening, speaking skills
and confidence. Confidence to stay in
an English conversation. To me, fluency doesn't mean
that you're an advanced English user. It could
but it doesn't necessarily mean that.
In my opinion, someone who's fluent in English can
maintain a conversation and feel reasonably relaxed
while they're doing it.
Their tone and their pace is comfortable.
They don't hesitate too often.
They should be able to speak words and also express
their feelings through their facial expression.
And importantly, they should be able to talk themselves
around their mistakes,
correct themselves if they need to.
The more confident that someone is speaking English,
the more relaxed they are, right?
They're comfortable in the language even if
it's not a hundred per cent perfect. So
with my definition of fluency, someone who is
an intermediate level student, could be fluent in English
because fluency is about having the skills
that you need to communicate comfortably
and effectively but not perfectly.
So I wonder if our ideas of fluency are slightly different.
You might completely disagree with me and that's okay
as long as you know what English fluency means to you.
Okay we've all agreed that your own definition of fluency
is completely acceptable here.
And now that you know that definition,
it's time for us to talk about some ways that you can
increase your fluency.
Firstly, I want you to worry less about accuracy.
Now for some of you, this might not be such a new idea.
Maybe you don't worry too much about your mistakes
and that's perfect.
But stay with me because I've got some other strategies
coming up later in the lesson.
But for most of you, this idea might seem a little crazy
especially if you've studied English at
school or at a university.
Everything that we are taught there is about
getting it right and if it's not right, it's wrong.
You have to prove your ability by passing an exam.
Well, life is nothing like an exam so I want you to
forget all of that when you're thinking about fluency.
As your teacher, helping you to become more confident
as an English speaker, you need to change
the way that you think about accuracy when you're
speaking in English.
Now I'm not talking about writing in English here,
I'm talking about speaking.
You know that there are many different ways
to say the same thing, right?
And if you make a mistake when you're speaking,
you just need to learn how to loop yourself around
in that conversation and fix it.
You don't need to feel worried or ashamed,
it happens to me, to native speakers all the time too.
All you need to do is feel confident that you can fix
the mistakes that you make.
If you're too focused on the mistakes that you're making
and you're constantly questioning yourself in your head
during your conversation, this is going to hold you back
because if you're too afraid or you're too worried
to even start speaking,
how are you supposed to get any practice, right?
So try to focus less on the mistakes that you're making
and focus more
on communicating your message clearly.
This is going to help you to relax and focus
on the positives of your conversation.
Yes I am talking about your mindset here.
I'm talking about changing the way
that you think about yourself.
Now that is easier to say than it is to do, I know
but the reason why I want you to
shift your mindset on accuracy
is because you need to start exposing yourself
to English in real situations, right?
So that you can get comfortable
being flexible with the language.
It's what native speakers do all the time, right?
We make up words to express our ideas
we end and we twist the tenses a little
if we make a mistake
but it doesn't really affect the meaning of our sentence.
Well we might not bother to fix it,
who cares when you're speaking to, you know,
friends and family in particular
so don't get too caught up on accuracy.
Now the next thing I want you to think about is
focus on the English that you need to use.
Now there's two different ways to think about this.
The first way is to think really broadly about English
as a language. The reality of English
or any language is that there are
thousands and thousands of words yet,
only a percentage of those are used frequently
in daily conversation and I'm talking about
native English speakers here, not English learners.
An average native English speaker actively uses around
ten to twelve per cent of English words.
That's their active vocabulary, words that they use
to express themselves when they write and they speak.
Now this is the full vocabulary that they use
out in the world but satisfies their need to communicate
in every part of their life.
Now this same average native speaker keeps about
twenty-three to twenty-four per cent of English words
in their passive vocabulary
which means that, you know, their words that they
read and they listen to and they understand
but they don't really use them themselves.
There is a percentage of English words
that you need to know and understand
and I invite you to focus on
more specific and useful parts of English rather than
feeling completely overwhelmed by this
really huge and complicated language.
To put it simply,
if you know ten per cent of English words, you'll be
as good as a native English speaker.
So break that down for yourself, you know.
Focus on the first one thousand words
then move on to the next three thousand, five thousand.
I've shared some really useful links about this
in the description box below so if you're interested
in getting word lists and the most
common uses of words,
grab the links in the description.
Now the second way to think about this
is to think more specifically about how you use English.
So become fluent in that particular area of English.
Be an English expert in the
space that you need to use it.
So if you're a freelance graphic designer
or a web developer and you want to work with
international clients,
you need to become fluent in that area,
in your area of expertise.
What are the conversations that you're going to have
with those clients? What topics do you need to discuss?
What words do you need to express your ideas?
Now this is exactly the English that you need
to focus on and this translates directly into your
interests and your hobbies as well.
If you're passionate about photography or
growing vegetables or flying drones,
you want to be able to talk about those things in English
too, right?
You'll want to meet other English speakers who are
also interested in those things.
So focus on the vocabulary and the expressions
that you need to do this.
You need to find your people, others who are as
passionate as you are. You need to join online groups
and communities or even meet up in person if you can.
Grab the Skillshare trial that I mentioned at the
start of this lesson. Just take all of the courses
in photography, learn as much as you can
about the things that you love.
You'll be able to listen to native speakers
talking about the topic.
You'll learn new words and expressions and ways of
talking about your interests, right?
You need to expose yourself to that particular type
of English. Now the fastest way to increase your fluency
is undoubtedly, to live in an English-speaking country
where you're surrounded by it, where you can
immerse yourself but if you haven't got
that opportunity to do that,
well the next best thing is to surround yourself
with English through courses, through programs,
through communities.
Now if you really want to improve your fluency
in a particular area, then find a tutor to work with you
and specifically ask them to practise roleplays.
Now a roleplay is when you pretend
that you're in a particular situation.
It's like you're acting, you pretend that you're
doing something, you're speaking the English
that you would need to use in that situation.
Now my fiance Shah, did this brilliantly
when we were studying in Spain.
All he really wanted to be able to do in Spanish
was speak to the butchers at the markets
about the jamón,
the regions, the pigs, what they were fed,
what problems the farmers faced - that kind of thing.
He needed to know how to talk about very
specific topics
so he asked his tutor to roleplay with him.
She had to pretend that she was the butcher
and have conversations with him about pigs
and they practised again and again and again.
His tutor was wonderful but I'm sure
she thought he was crazy.
But after six weeks of practising,
Shah went from being basically a beginner to being
fluent in butcher Spanish which is completely hilarious
but seriously, thinking about how this strategy
could supercharge your English in a particular area,
could be a really useful tool for you.
I mean you can apply this to any area.
If you work at a hotel,
and you need to be able to speak to customers
who are staying at the hotel in English,
you really need to be fluent in a few very specific things.
You need to be fluent in giving good directions.
You need to be fluent in offering assistance,
you need to be fluent in helping them to pay their bill,
that kind of thing.
You don't need to know a whole lot of vocabulary
about economics and finance and farming.
It's absolutely possible to be fluent in the English
that you need.
And reasonably quickly too. If you
can focus on the English that you need to be fluent in
and that is what you should be working towards, right?
So I guess what I'm trying to say is that
shifting the way that you think about fluency
can make it seem more achievable, right?
Now I want you to tell me in the comments
what do you want to be English fluent in?
What specific areas?
I might be able to make some extra vocabulary lessons
to help, particularly if lots of people are asking
around those topics.
I really hope that this lesson was helpful for you.
I hope that you kept your mind open
and we stayed curious through the lesson,
allowing yourself to think of some of these different
ideas, even if they sound a little different
and I really encourage you to keep these different ideas
in mind if you want to increase your fluency in English
or in any language, then you need to think specifically
about what you need and take action.
Start doing it.
I mean you could start with some of my lessons, right?
If you want to be
fluent talking about relationships in English,
watch this lesson.
If you want to be able to talk about money, go there.
What you do next is up to you, right?
But I hope to see you in one of those lessons!