Christine'Do English

At the moment, I am spending the majority of my working time teaching English online. I have been doing so for the last four years. I have met over 5,000 people, mostly adult professionals, from over 60 countries all around the world. From Brazil, Chile, and Mexico to Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, and even places like Tahiti, Bolivia, and Afghanistan. Everyone is online to learn English because English has become the Lingua Franca of the world. This means that English has become the uniting or connecting language, which you can use to expand and globalize your business, travel on holiday, or participate in global academic research and discussions.

Mostly, I try to provide my students with a perspective shift to consider as they move forward in their language journey. So here, consider this perspective and see if it can benefit you positively.

I believe that your speaking ability is not in your head, but instead, it is in your muscle memory. Your mouth is full of muscles and your tongue is also a muscle. You need to teach your muscles how to say every word that you want to speak.

I know that this is a different idea, but I think everyone will be able to relate, as I elaborate. I think everyone has two types of vocabulary inside them: active vocabulary and passive vocabulary.

Passive Vocabulary: These are the words that you have memorized in your brain. You understand their meaning when you see them, hear them, or read them.
Active Vocabulary: These are the words that you can use when you speak and have a conversation. These words are memorized in your muscle memory.

Your passive vocabulary is much larger than your active vocabulary, and this is true for every person in every language they know. Even in your native language, there will be hundreds if not thousands of words that you understand when you hear or read them, but you never use them. When you have a conversation about a topic that you do not speak about often, you might find yourself at a place where the word is at the tip of your tongue, and you know the word, but your mouth can’t remember the word in the moment when you want to use it. I believe that happens when you are trying to use passive vocabulary.

So, the entire perspective shift I want to create within your language learning is to try and encourage you to always learn actively, with your muscles, instead of with your head.

There are many analogies that I can use to explain this. For example, if you can drive and have a license, then usually, first you take a theoretical exam or a written exam. This information is learned from a book, and you can memorize it into your brain. Even if you get 100% on your written exam, when you get into the car to learn how to drive, you still have no idea what to do or how to do it because your body has never practiced the action. Then, when you start learning how to drive, your brain is super involved with everything that you do. Constantly thinking and considering what to do, where your feet should go, and what your arms need to do. Probably, even by the time you take your exam, you still don’t really have any confidence. Once you practice the movements over and over again, and the muscles learn the action with time, your body starts to drive automatically.

In Japan, they call someone with a driver’s license but who has never really practiced driving, a ‘paper driver’. I think it is such a fitting name, and I think that the education systems in most countries tend to create ‘paper English speakers’. Many adult ESL students have learned a lot of the English theory like grammar, vocabulary, comprehension, and how to read, etc., but even if you get 100% on your English exam, it does not help you to be able to speak. If you learn a grammar rule and know exactly what you are supposed to do, it will not help you to apply the rule when you are speaking in a conversation. The only way to learn to apply the knowledge that you already know, and to use the vocabulary that you think of saying before you open your mouth to speak, is to practice actively, to train your mouth to use and say and apply your theoretical knowledge.

I know this sounds basic, like yes, of course—practice more, that is totally rational. But I want to encourage you to train your mouth like you are at the English gym. Exercise your English-speaking muscle memory in the same way you would exercise any other muscles in your body. By this, I mean focus on the individual movements and words, do many repetitions, attend regularly and consistently, and ALWAYS learn actively, moving your mouth and speaking out loud.

If I watch a yoga video and my body does not do the yoga, I am not gaining the practical experience, and I am not improving my physical ability. I will also never become a great chef by watching MasterChef on TV. Experience is gained in the kitchen, and one has to put in the physical work and effort to teach your muscles how to perform the actions of absolutely anything that you may want to learn.

When it comes to English practice, the equivalent to doing the yoga poses or chopping the onions is to make your mouth move in English in any way possible. You can do something as simple as saying new words aloud repetitively, reading vocabulary or a news article out loud, or making a difficult new sound over and over. I can elaborate so much more, but I don’t want to talk the ears off your head. I will, however, leave a list of potential practice resources and techniques below. Please, if you have any good practice materials, applications, websites, podcasts, or YouTube channels, leave a comment, and I can potentially add them to the list as well.

Of course, this whole muscle memory idea is just what I gather from my years of experience as an English second/foreign language teacher. I have discussed the idea with many different people, including many non-native English teachers from around the world. They immediately resonate and agree with what I am saying. The crazy thing is that the non-native school English teachers’ knowledge of the grammar rules is much better than mine because they teach the grammar rules all day every day. But even with all of that vocabulary and grammar knowledge, they still join classes online to learn how to speak better.

Actual practice will always outweigh theoretical knowledge in value, and that can apply to every level of life. Doing something will always be more valuable than simply knowing it. We all know what is good for us and what is bad for us, but actually living in a way that is good for us is the real challenge.

That could become a whole other discussion on its own for those who know me well, but that is also a nice lead-up to sharing what you might expect in 1-on-1 classes with me. I believe in using CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) when it comes to learning English. That means that I will help you to speak better and activate your vocabulary while learning about personal development and life improvement. Anyone interested in understanding better, improving, or practicing 1-on-1, you are welcome to contact me

With or without 1-on-1 classes, I would encourage you to go and build yourself a small but consistent daily habit of speaking aloud. Don’t put a big expectation on yourself, because it can be demotivating when you don’t find time. Showing up is more important than the duration of time you put in. Consistency is the key. Just find a small space in your routine when you can dedicate 5 minutes to your practice, and then build a regular habit.

Techniques, Tips, and Resources

Having a tutor is like having a personal trainer at the 'English Gym'. Using a platform like Cambly or Preply is a great way to increase your confidence and to practice those new activated vocabulary words. You also have the opportunity to speak to many different people and accents from around the world, so you can practice your listening skills as wel.
Cambly
Preply

Reading Aloud

When it comes to reading aloud, there are a few things that you need to remember:

Reading aloud will make it very difficult for you to follow along with what the article is trying to say. This happens because when you read out loud, your brain has to focus on how to pronounce the words that you want to say, especially those passive vocabulary words. So your brain cannot focus on the context of the article.
Remember that your purpose with reading aloud is to speak the words and not to understand the meaning of the article. It is a speaking test and not a comprehension test. Just focus on speaking and repeating one sentence at a time. If you don’t understand, just take note of all the words you don’t know, check the missing words in the dictionary, and then come back and read it aloud again.
Always remember that you would not only do one push-up at the gym, so allow these muscles plenty of repetition as well. It would be a bigger benefit to you to choose an article and read it aloud 5 times than to read 5 different articles only once.

I recommend that you use ChatGPT for reading materials. For example, you can request, "Give me something short to practice reading aloud about civil engineering/surgery/programming, at an intermediate level of English" and ChatGPT will write an article specifically for your practice. Once you have read it a few times, you can ask ChatGPT to increase the difficulty, giving you new vocabulary and more difficult grammar and expressions to practice. You can also ask for definitions or questions to help you understand the material better.

For reading practice, I also recommend checking out Engoo's daily news, which releases daily short news articles about a variety of topics at various English levels. It's a great resource to improve your reading skills and expand your vocabulary.

Shadowing

This technique was made famous by a professor named Alexander Arguelles. You can find a lot of his videos online. Shadowing is very useful for training your listening and your speaking skills

If you want to practice to original technique, you can find explanations on youtube, but personally I have adjusted the technique to make it easier to get into. Here is how you do it.

Find an audio file and its transcript in English. You can use anything like YouTube, TED Talks, or podcasts. Here is a great website I have found, focusing shadowing practice - www.voicetube.com I would recommend choosing something short, like a 1-2 minute video.
Listen to one sentence at a time, and listen to the same sentence again and again until you can hear it clearly.
Once you are comfortable, pause and try to copy and imitate the speaker, almost like you are making fun of the way they are speaking. Copy everything, including the sound, accent, intonation, emphasis and everything that you hear from the video. replay and pause and copy and replay and pause and copy
You can even record your voice to listen and compare how you are speaking the sentence and what you need to adjust.
Final challenge is play the audio again and try to repeat what the speaker is saying as soon as you hear it. Match the speaker’s pace, rhythm, and intonation as closely as possible.

Shadowing is extremely effective, and is is so effective in fact that I had a student from Brazil who said that he first learned how to speak English when he was in high school. He started shadowing and copying the characters from the video game he was playing. Unfortunately for him, the characters in his video game were all Russian, so now he can speak in a Russian English accent. Keep this in mind when you choose what or who to shadow. Make sure it is a good English accent.

Pronunciation
If you are struggling with pronunciation, learning about the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) chart can be very useful. It helps you understand how to make every possible sound and correctly position your mouth.
Phonics is crucial for pronunciation. Many people apply sounds from their native language to English, causing errors. Common issues include sounds like TH, R/L, W/V, and V/B., just to mention a couple. To identify your mistakes, you can search on YouTube for “Common pronunciation errors that Italian/Indian/Chinese/Turkish people make when speaking English” to find relevant mistakes in your culture.
You can also try the ‘Elsa English’ app for pronunciation training or visit Baruch College Tools to Go for excellent phonics tools.
For American English pronunciation, Rachel’s English on YouTube is highly recommended. For British English, BBC Learning has a great pronunciation guide.

Singing

English Karaoke is another great way to practice shadowing. Your brain will automatically try to shadow the singer. Choose something that is not too fast and keep the lyrics on the screen. You can search for any song with lyrics and find a video on YouTube. I recommend Disney songs as they tend to be good sing-along songs, but of course, you are welcome to find something that suits your style or musical preference. Take it slow, learn one verse at a time. Give yourself a month to learn a song and practice a little bit each day. By the end of the year, you could have 12 songs that you couldn’t sing before, and your English will be better.

Here are some of my personal favorite Disney sing-along songs:

So in conclusion Improving your English speaking skills takes time, dedication, and the right strategies. By incorporating muscle memory exercises, active learning, and consistent practice, you'll see significant progress. Remember, it's not just about knowing the rules but about activating them. So, start today—whether it's reading aloud, practicing pronunciation, shadowing, or singing your favorite English songs. Make a commitment to practice regularly and watch your confidence grow.

For personalized guidance and support, consider joining my 1-on-1 classes where we can focus on your specific needs and goals. Feel free to contact me for more information - cvreyart@gmail.com

Don't wait—begin your journey to improving your English speaking ability now!

The Way of Christine

Search This Blog