Make The Transition To Actually Being Able To Speak English With Listening Practice
The best way to learn to speak English is through listening to English speakers, English comprehension, and more English listening practice. Today, we look at the problems with traditional language classes, and why learning a new language is not what it should be. Most language learning programs are so old-fashioned they should wear top hats and carry walking sticks. Our approach to language learning is a much better way.
Learning to speaking English is not nearly as easy as it should be. The way most people currently learn English as a foreign language is essentially you listen to a teacher talking, then practice using what youâve learnt in a classroom environment. The problem with this approach is that itâs very slow, and limited - going to a class once a week for few hours can only help you improve so much. Most language students wonât learn to speak English at all, let alone fluently, using this approach.
What if there was a better way? What if you could learn from real life conversations where you donât have to concentrate on speaking, but can just listen and learn? English as a second language doesnât have to be slow and difficult. Imagine if instead of learning a new language from the teacher lecturing at the front of your classroom, you could learn, all day long, from listening to native speakers who talk naturally and freely about their own lives.
We teach people how to improve their conversational English listening and speaking, through listening to native English speakers. Itâs the best and fastest way of learning to speaking English. Our way of learning to speak a new language is popular and gets results. We help you with listening and comprehension with high quality, free English lessons. Lots and lots of repeated listening is the most important skill when you want to speak a new language and we give you everything you need.
Be sure to subscribe to our Podcast for learning English through listening. Adept English Podcast will help you understand what are the most important listening skills you need to succeed in English that are not taught in traditional language classrooms.
Most Unusual Words:
Foreign
Embarrassment
Lecturing
Bizarre
Humiliation
Ritual
Brilliant
Most common 3 word phrases:
| Phrase | Count |
|---|---|
| Your Language Learning | 2 |
| The Teacher Would | 2 |
| The Most Common | 2 |
| A New Language | 2 |
| Right At The | 2 |
Listen To The Audio Lesson Now
The mp3 audio and pdf transcript for this lesson is now part of the Adept English back catalogue . You can still download and listen to this lesson as part of one of our podcast bundles.Transcript: How To Move From Understanding English To Speaking English With Listening Practice
Hi there and welcome to this podcast from Adept English.
Learning languages in school â beginning
So did you start your English language learning when you were at school? If you did, itâs quite likely that at the start of each lesson, your teacher would ask you to get out your books. And then the teacher would go through the lesson, writing quite a lot of things on the board.
Whether that was a blackboard, or whiteboard probably depends on your age! And maybe, when youâre right at the beginning, right at the start of learning a language, this traditional âreading and writingâ approach â maybe itâs OK. It perhaps felt reassuring to learn how the most common verbs and the common vocabulary was written.
Vocabulary like âHelloâ and âHow are you?â and âMy name is Hilaryâ â and it was perhaps helpful to have the words written down to help you remember them. And if youâre learning a new language where the script, the way of writing the language down is different to your own, then paying attention to writing is probably a good idea.
Even if the script is familiar, this focus on written words can be a sort of anchor early in your language learning. And itâs really quite hard going at the start of a new language if youâre âstarting from scratchâ as we say. Progress can feel slow because thereâs just such a lot to learn. So in traditional learning, how itâs taught in schools, quite a lot of classroom time is taken up with learning to spell and learning to read new words.
Youâll learn conjugations â you may even say them out loud with your class mates âI am, you are, he, she or it is, we are, they areâ. For me, it was âich bin, du bis, er ist, sie ist, es ist, wir sind, ihr seid, sie sind, Sie sindâ or âje suis, tu es, il est, elle est, nous sommes, vous etes, ils sont, elles sontâ. These basics need to become unforgettable. And youâll learn lists of vocabulary â common nouns like dog, cat, house, man, woman, common adjectives like the colours, big, small.
How languages were taught in my school!
So thereâs this whole process to go through to get familiar with the basics and some of the mechanics of the language. You could call this âstage oneâ of learning a language. Now, beyond this stage, your language learning could go in one of two directions. Letâs talk about the most common direction first - as this is what most people experience, this is what happens in most schools and colleges. You continue to learn English in the exact same way.
When I was at school, I learned languages this way too. So even beyond the basics, language learning continued very book-based. The teacher would begin the lesson âOpen your textbooks at page 155â and the focus would be very much on reading and spelling, consciously learning grammar rules and lists of vocabulary, possibly for a test the next week.
It may sound bizarre â but when I was learning languages at school, I donât remember having the sense that actual French or German people used these grammatical constructs, used this grammar every day. It felt like language was academic, something that belonged in the classroom. It wasnât as though we did no speaking at all in language lessons. But the way that this happened wasnât ideal.
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A photograph of a teacher at a white board. We teach you English with podcasts helping you learn to understand and speak it by listening to real conversations you care about
Right at the end of the lesson, perhaps 10 minutes before the end, would come the part that we all dreaded. There would be what we call âquick-fire questionsâ. The teacher would fire questions at us in the language we were trying to learn â âHilary, quel sâappelle ta mere?â or âHilary, wie alt bis du?â and weâd all be terrified at the prospect of not understanding the teacher or at being expected to speak the language correctly, in front of our friends and our enemies.
The possibility of shame was never far away! And we were terrified of speaking the language because we didnât get much practice at this. With 30 children in the class, you were one of the unlucky ones if the teacherâs eyes landed on you, so it wasnât like we got much practice. And when we did, it didnât make us feel good. Most of us, even adults, try to avoid doing things that donât make us feel good. And to a bunch of teenagers in secondary school, this practice at speaking a language felt more like a âritual humiliationâ than learning! The relief when the bell went at the end of the lesson! Phew!
The problems with the teaching of foreign languages in schools
And when it came to exams and tests in school â most of those were written too. And this was what weâd been preparing for â largely written work for largely written exams. Itâs still the same in the UK. Thousands of students pass their GCSEs every year and many students may get a grade A or even a grade A (star) in their languages. But can they and are they willing to hold a conversation in that language? Not usually. And itâs the same with A level.
The understanding of students whoâve got an A level in a language is a bit better, but not much. The problem with learning language in this way â well, it doesnât make you fluent. It doesnât help you cope in situations where youâre hearing the language and you need to understand it quickly enough to make a response.
What most schools do is teach you to be OK at reading and writing the language. And the language exams that students do at this level? Theyâre mostly written. But even where thereâs an oral â a spoken part to the exam â well, itâs not exactly a fluent conversation. What happens instead is that students learn the answers to a limited range of questions that they know theyâre going to be asked. And thereâs a hope that on the day of the exam, they can âtrot this outâ, like a parrot!
If the teacher were to deviate, were to ask the questions in a slightly different way â like might happen in a real conversation â the students wouldnât know what to say! I know this, because Iâve passed exams that were like this!
Foreign language school exchanges are good though!
The one thing that schools and colleges sometimes do that makes a big difference in the ability to speak with fluency? Well, thatâs when they offer exchange visits. Those whoâve spent time in the country where the language theyâre learning is spoken â and those who havenât? Thereâs a big difference.
If youâre a student on exchange, staying with a family in a foreign country, itâs a bit scary â but youâve no choice but to use your language. And guess what? Your speaking and listening improves so much more if you do this. If you have this opportunity, it can really make a difference and you come out with some fluency.
I did two exchange visits to Germany and the effect of this lasted for many years. Even though I gave preference to learning French as an adult, because part of my family live in France., for many, many years, German was still the language that wanted to come out of my mouth when I tried to speak French. I think that was because of those exchange visits!
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And when you speak your foreign language abroad, your ego takes a hit
So this is the usual state of language learning in schools â and anyone whoâs tried to learn a language below degree level, will be familiar with all of this. And familiar of course, with that terror, that extreme fear and embarrassment, if you ever try to put your âclassroom-basedâ language skills to the test.
If youâre in a shop, on holiday and you try to communicate with someone who speaks the language â itâs often a disaster. And you say to yourself âNever again!â and âItâs me. I must just be terrible at languagesâ. So this way of language learning isnât effective and it certainly isnât good for your ego.
Listen to learn approaches
So thatâs one way to try to learn a language! The other way? The other direction you could go in, rather than traditional language learning? Well, itâs what youâre doing here. Youâre spending time listening to a native speaker speaking English. Thereâs no pressure on you to speak, thereâs no pressure on you to read or to write. Itâs just listening. Itâs not uncomfortable or difficult or embarrassing.
In fact, the worst that can happen is that the English Iâm using is a bit difficult and you have to look up some words and listen again. But when you listen again, you understand more, you make progress. Your learning carries on privately, quietly, at your own pace. No embarrassment, you might even enjoy the podcasts that we do!
By listening, youâre working on your vocabulary and youâre working really hard on your grammar and the way that English is structured. Itâs just it doesnât feel like that â you donât really know that youâre doing that. Whatâs brilliant is that with listening, so much of your learning is unconscious. And when youâre introduced to a new word as youâre listening, the correct pronunciation is automatic. You only recognise the word through hearing it, so itâs harder to get that pronunciation wrong. You remember it from the start.
From listening to speaking
So by this method, little by little, you acquire the language. And your brain gets more and more used to listening, hearing and understanding. You may find that you then get to the stage where your mouth wants to repeat little words and phrases that I say. You have the urge to mimic me. âTo mimicâ, MIMIC â thatâs a nice word â try saying that one! If you âmimicâ someone, you copy their voice or their expression. Feel free to do that with me. And your pronunciation and your speaking ability will start to improve.
Download The Podcast Audio & Transcript
You do have to actively work at speaking, at speaking English when youâre ready. But if youâve done enough listening and your understanding is good, this phase is more of a linking up process in your brain. Itâs rather like being able to read script in a language â and youâve now got to write it.
Writing is slightly more difficult than reading â but itâs not âclimbing a mountainâ if you can read. Itâs a shorter step, and itâs the same with speaking, if youâve got good understanding. You achieve it through practice. And if youâre understanding of English is good, itâs a much, much shorter step to speaking English.
Check out The Seven Rules of Adept English for more tips
If youâve never done our course, The Seven Rules of Adept English Course â then sign up for that too, if you want to hear more tips and advice on effective language learning. And whatâs even better â we give you this course for free! So free yourself up and make progress with your language learning â youâll be really pleased you did!
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Goodbye
Enough for now. Have a lovely day. Speak to you again soon. Goodbye.
