This is the beginning of a series of posts about English learning. I want to highlight some points in the English learning process that can make a huge difference, especially if these things were noticed at the beginning of the process. Besides these tips, I want to give you a list of material, sources where and how you can study. So, let's get started!
Very well. Many of us are used to studying, learning, having access to a book, then learning grammar, starting to apply, and then keep learning. More or less in that same order. And that's right, there's nothing wrong about it. But if we're talking about learning conversation, and fluency, to be precise, this approach just doesn't work.
If you want to learn more grammar, there you go. You can keep your studies like you're probably doing. Get some books accordingly to your level and study them. However, if you're interested in keeping a conversation flow going, this standard method doesn't help at all. And the worse is that this same method is still presented on many many English schools around there.
I'm sorry for complaining! But then, how to get to fluency? The answer is simple, just learn how to speak, and focus on pronounciation. Practice hard words, and hard sounds, and discover how and when to use them. To learn in the same way as babes do, naturally. Listening, repeating, getting wrong, repeating again, and understanding their meaning.
This approach is not new, and it's known as learning backward because you focus on understanding and speaking first than writing and grammar. Maybe that can be new for you, and even shocking. Probably you took the wrong way for so long. The bright side is that now you know how to finally be fluent. If you want to know more about it, I would recommend you this podcast episode See it here, they speak Brazilian Portuguese and English.
And now, here are the tips as promised, where you can find good content and material to really study. Not only theory.
Pronounce
Start exactly where you are. Think of the most difficult word for you right now. Let's say that it's the word mother, focus on it, repeat 10, 20, 50, 100 times. Until you can say it nicely, the closest possible from a native speaker. For a good pronunciation reference, you can use the linguee page, also forvo a website that has pronounces recorded by natives.
Resources
- https://forvo.com/
- https://www.linguee.com/
- Cake app (you repeat and the app shows if you're good or not)
- Elsa Speak app (super nice for pronunciation!!)
- /TH/ sound: https://www.inglesnuecru.com/370-e-hoje-estamos-falando-sobre-o-som-do-th/
- /R/ sound: https://www.inglesnuecru.com/532-o-som-do-r-em-ingles-e-suas-dificuldades/
- More /R/ sound: https://www.inglesnuecru.com/586-o-som-do-r-em-ingles-e-como-aprender-de-uma-vez/
- The 3 /T/ Sounds: https://www.inglesnuecru.com/585-os-3-ts-do-ingles-e-como-podemos-te-ajudar-a-desvendar/
- The /S/ sounds: https://www.inglesnuecru.com/531-silencio-por-favor-silent-s-e-silent-b-em-ingles/
- /AW/ sound: https://www.inglesnuecru.com/523-voce-sabe-pronunciar-o-aw-sound-em-ingles/
- /AH/ sound: https://www.inglesnuecru.com/522-como-pronunciar-o-ah-sound-em-ingles/
- Repetition (shadowing): listening natives speakers and repeat out loud after them without thinking to much. More here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljEP_ywBm7I
Listening
If you can understand almost everything in an English conversation, you can start with something more real, like the news, or even private classes online. Another great option is to listen to podcasts (I love this, I'm a podcast addict).
Important: pay attention to the pronunciation. Try to understand, yes, but the key is to be able to speak like them. To be able to reproduce the exact same sound.
Resources
- English Class 101 on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeTVoczn9NOZA9blls3YgUg
- Inglês Nu e Cru Rádio: https://www.inglesnuecru.com/episodes/
- Watch a bunch of movies in English WITHOUT SUBTITLES.
- Radio Garden, a web radio station. This one it's from NYC: http://radio.garden/visit/new-york-ny/9Yi25umJ
Conversation
And last but not least, the practice itself! Challenge yourself and make mistakes. Don't skip this part. Try, even if you are not so confident, or have a short vocabulary. Just go for it.
If you don't have a group, or friends, or something like that, I strongly recommend trying TNT, especially if you're Brazillian. You must subscribe for a free account and then you can book meetings. The meetings are on the Zoom platform for one entire hour. They have meetings every weekday, you can choose an hour that works best for you and book. The meeting link will be emailed to you.
Resources
- Subscription for TNT: https://www.talkntalk.com.br/
That's it. If you have any question, please, talk to me. I'm seriously interested about knowing you're experiente.
See ya folks!
Originally posted at https://ricardocampos.blog/post/english-gold-tips/ on Jun 21, 2020, 10:43:35 PM
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