English speaking skills || English Spoken Practice || English Listening Practice

Introduction

Hello friends, welcome to the Learn with Lucy YouTube channel. I hope you are all doing well. Today in this video, I'm going to tell you about the best topics to learn English. You can improve your listening skills and enhance your pronunciation skills. Learning English is a big journey, and we can improve our English with such beautiful topics. Let's listen to these tips and advice; they will improve your English speaking skills unprecedentedly. Here is a list of tips and advice for learning English with English story rooms. Just listen!

First of all, you don't really have to do much more than just listen to the episodes. I realized some time ago that many students of English that I met at school in London didn’t listen to enough authentic English. They were willing to spend money and travel across the world in order to improve their English, yet most of them, for some reason, were not prepared to take a bit of time every day to listen to something in English.

Why? I think partly this is because they didn’t know what to listen to. A lot of people watch TV and movies in English, which is fine, but honestly, that might not be the best way to improve your English. Films are very visual. A lot of what you understand from a movie is the visual storytelling. It's important to just focus on the audio and the language. So, many students didn’t know what to listen to. They thought they didn’t have much choice. Actually, there’s plenty of choice out there. The BBC has plenty of podcasts, and there are loads of podcasts on different topics on iTunes, but they are made for native speakers. They’re too difficult to listen to and ultimately that’s not motivating. There are some podcasts out there which are made for learners of English; however, many of them are just focused on language learning at the expense of entertainment. They are useful but can be dull.

This is less the case now because having started this podcast, there are more interesting things out there for learners of English, including my podcast. So, I decided that I’d try and create something for learners of English to listen to that they would actually want to listen to beyond just learning English. Ultimately, I think to listen to English for extended periods of time, you have to have an interest in what is being talked about or you have to find it entertaining. Otherwise, it’s hard to really sustain your concentration, and it becomes like a chore.

There is real value in listening to English for extended periods of time, but it’s difficult to achieve because you get put off by not understanding things or because the recording is a bit patronizing and dull. I don’t want to blow my own trumpet here too much because I’m sure that my podcast is not always as entertaining or as engaging as it could be, but I think the only way to get people to keep listening is to try and make it entertaining as well as informative about English. So, I record this podcast with you in mind, but I try to keep it as authentic as possible. I try to avoid being simplistic and not to grade my English too much. I know it might be challenging for you sometimes, but I attempt to hold your attention by talking in an enthusiastic way about subjects which I personally find interesting. Hopefully, the result is that you keep listening and that you feel personally involved in it somehow. Then by exposing yourself to lots of English in this way, you are able to acquire the language and pick it up in a variety of ways.

Steven Krashen and Language Acquisition Theory

Let me now refer to the language acquisition theory of Steven Krashen. This theory is very well known among language learning theorists and it underpins a lot of what we know about learning and teaching English. Krashen believed that there are two ways to develop our language learning skills. One is through language acquisition, and the other is through language learning. Language acquisition means that it is possible for adults and children to learn language in a subconscious way, meaning in a kind of passive way, by simply engaging with the language. The important thing is that you focus on the message in a bit of language. So, when listening to the Learn with Lucy, this means focusing exactly on what I really mean rather than just on the specific items of language I’m using. The primary focus is to just understand what I mean, hopefully at a fairly deep level, in order to laugh at something I’ve said or feel moved by it, and then you kind of pick up the language as a result of that. You might not be immediately aware that you’ve learned some new language in this way. In fact, this kind of acquisition probably informs your past knowledge of the language.

According to Krashen, another type of language development is language learning. This is when you focus on learning specific forms like studying grammar rules, for example. It involves having some instruction by a teacher, perhaps in the form of error correction or from a grammar book which explains the rules of English. The downside of this kind of learning is that it is rather dogmatic, can be boring, complex, and abstract. It doesn’t necessarily replicate the organic way in which we pick up language as children and doesn't quite allow the subconscious acquisition of language that occurs from just engaging with a language in order to understand a message being communicated.

Alright, so how does this apply to the way you can learn English? Well, I think it’s pretty important to get both aspects of language learning into your life. This is what I call having a balanced diet. You shouldn’t just study the grammar rules in a dogmatic way, although that is undeniably important. You should also attempt to just engage with the language as it is used in natural, authentic, and meaningful situations. How can you do that? Ideally, this would mean going out into the world and doing things in English. In fact, this might be the best way to improve your English. If you get a job that requires you to use English all day, you will improve quickly. It’ll be really hard, but you’d be forced to improve. That’s like a boot camp for language acquisition because you’re not really studying the language; you’re just attempting to survive in it. You’re really focusing on the communicative acts you’re trying to achieve. You’re really focusing on meaningful messages, and you naturally learn the most direct and effective way to understand and communicate meaningful messages.

You might not be able to do that in your life. You might not have access to native speakers in that way. So, my podcast can be a substitute. It’s not really the same as attempting to work in an English-speaking environment, but the key point is that you can replicate aspects of that experience by just attempting to follow and keep up with what I’m saying. Do that regularly over long periods of time, and you’ll pick up massive amounts of English. So just listen, try to follow everything I’m saying, try to enjoy it and engage with it. Listen regularly, listen for extended periods. This will all contribute to your acquisition of English as described by Steven Krashen. That's language acquisition, but you can also do more traditional language learning alongside the Learn with Lucy podcast.

First of all, outside of listening to the episodes, you can do your formalized language studying from a book or in class and use it as a companion to that study. Study the language and then try to notice aspects of the language that you’ve studied in episodes of the podcast. For example, if you’ve studied verb tenses, you can listen to a story I’ve told on the podcast and try to notice those verb tenses, how I’m using them, how I’m pronouncing them, and so on. It can back up, confirm, or clarify the language study you’ve been doing. You should always refer to authentic language usage as a way of checking the language that you’ve studied.

Also, you can study the things I say in the podcast more directly. The podcast can be a study tool. Here are some ways you can do some active language study with a podcast:

• Use transcripts: You could read a transcript and check new words in a dictionary as you find them. Pay attention to the way I use the words, including the grammatical context, collocations between words, and pronunciation. Any new words or structures you find, make a note of them and practice using them yourself.
• Write your own transcripts: This reveals a great deal about the gap between the English you know and the English that I use in the podcast. Try transcribing a section of one episode. You could do an episode that has already been transcribed. Listen carefully to it and try to write down every single word. There may be certain utterances that you just can't identify; mark them with question marks. Listen again and again. You could just focus on a specific 5-minute section of an episode. Keep listening until you've done your best. Now check the proper transcript for that section and compare it to what you wrote. What are the differences? Now you can identify the gap between what you understand and what I say. Try to close that gap. Check the words you didn't know and identify why you missed the pronunciation of something. Think about how I say these words and phrases and their definitions. Then you can start working them into your English when you speak.

Note on Transcripts

You may be aware that a lot of my episodes have transcripts which can really help you to study the language, although you shouldn't read them all the time. But you can also contribute transcriptions to my channel. If you fancy transcribing a few minutes of an episode, please send it to me and I'll be able to correct it and publish it on my channel. I have a transcript collaboration going on using Google documents. You might already know about this because I did an episode on that subject a couple of months ago. You can go to my channel and click transcripts to find out more. Basically, writing transcripts of my episodes is not only a great way to use the podcast to improve your English but it also helps me to provide an even better service to my listeners. So, the English spoken Stories podcast is best consumed as part of a balanced diet. Listen freely and just try to enjoy and understand what I'm saying and let your mind naturally acquire the language. But also mix this with more formalized language study to get the full 360° effect.

You might think the formalized language study part of that is boring and time-consuming. That's fine. You don't have to do any of that. But as a compromise, what you can do is just be mindful when you're listening. Your first aim is to focus on the message, but you can also try to notice specific aspects of the language too. Try to identify words, phrases, and grammatical structures. You don't have to formally study them; just notice them as you hear them. For example, if you hear, "He’s saying depend on,” so it must be "depend on" in English, not "depend of," things like that. Just be mindful when listening.

I record different types of episodes here. My main aim is to engage you and keep you interested while presenting English to you in an authentic way. In some episodes, I try to draw your attention to the language more specifically. For example, I might teach, explain, and demonstrate vocabulary items referring to a topic or bring your attention to an aspect of pronunciation. In those episodes, you can just chill out and follow what I'm saying, but you can be more active and make notes of the vocabulary. Try to remember phrases, listen again, and pause the recording to test your memory. Listen in comfort and enjoy the experience.

Krashen also writes about the effective filter hypothesis. This relates to the conditions in which learning takes place and how these can have a big effect on the successful acquisition of language.

Basically, good learning conditions are:

• Motivation: The listener really wants to hear what's being said and is keen to learn the language.
• High self-esteem and relaxation: These things allow the flow of acquisition to move freely without being blocked.

Mental blocks occur when the learner is stressed, anxious, or feeling bad about themselves. This creates a mental block to the acquisition of language. This might relate to one of those situations in which you're in an unhappy language class. You feel stressed because of pressure from the teacher or from the judgment of your classmates. You feel low self-confidence because you don't get any positive reinforcement from taking part in a communicative exchange, and you're just not enjoying the experience of being there in the classroom. As a result, there is a kind of mental barrier which really prevents you from learning anything. In fact, it might even make it worse because you associate learning English with painful or boring classroom situations.

The advantage of the English-spoken stories English podcast is that the emphasis is on fun a lot of the time. You have nothing to fear or worry about when you listen to this. In fact, it can be an extremely pleasurable experience. I'm not just bigging myself up here. I know what it's like to listen to your favorite podcast: it's quite a personal experience. I listen to Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's film review podcast on my way to work, and I can't begin to explain the joy of listening to it. They're like my friends, and I'm sharing a really nice conversation with them. I listen to their voices in private through headphones while I'm sitting on a smelly underground train with miserable people all around me, but I'm in my comfort zone. In fact, sometimes I'm disappointed when I reach my metro station because I just want to keep listening to the podcast. Hopefully, listening to English spoken stories English podcast is a similar experience for you; that's certainly the idea. This should be a personal and enjoyable experience for you, and I invite you to just enjoy being part of the podcast community. Remember that all around the world, there are other people like you, listening to me ramble on about stuff. There's no chance of the effective filter giving you a mental block in this situation because you should be in your comfort zone. That's the advantage of podcasting. You really can listen to this whenever and wherever you want, and you are free to get as comfortable as you please.

As I've said before, feel free to listen to this in the bath, on the L, or as you softly and slowly drift off to sleep at night. Of course, you can also listen at your desk with a pen in your hand, or while typing, in order to make notes or write transcripts. You can also sit up and read transcripts. It's up to you. The main thing is to just enjoy yourself and let the English go into your head. Just imagine that my voice is bouncing around inside your mind, and lots of the words and sounds are sticking in there. You should certainly listen to episodes more than once. In fact, if you're interested in really learning English from this podcast, I think it's vital to listen several times. Once is not enough. In fact, you might only scratch the surface if you listen just once. Listening again and again will allow you to get really familiar with what's being said. You'll notice and remember things that you didn't catch the first time. Repetition is really important as a way of helping your brain notice patterns. After a couple of listens, you'll remember certain phrases, bits of intonation, or responses, and they will be reinforced when you listen again. It might be asking too much of you, but you could even start to remember and repeat some of the things you've heard on the Learn with Lucy channel.

I don't necessarily expect you to repeat everything I say, but perhaps you could memorize the lines of a comedy sketch that I present to you and then repeat the lines to yourself or your friends, or just while you're listening again. I'm a bit of a geek and I love Star Wars. When I was a kid, I used to watch Star Wars on heavy rotation. I'd watch it again and again. Now I can remember all the lines from the film. In fact, I don't just remember the lines; I remember the bits of music and sound effects too as they occur in the film. It's the same with Monty Python films and sketches; I've watched them so many times that I can repeat a lot of the script from memory. In fact, some phrases from those movies have found their way into my vocabulary. You can do that too by listening to episodes more than once and listening to some comedy sketches which I present to you many times.

Soon I'll be doing an episode about Monty Python. For some reason, Monty Python sketches are very memorable. In fact, there are several generations of people in the UK and America who grew up watching Monty Python films and who are able to recite whole sketches to each other. Again, you can do the same thing; realize that there are some terrifically funny things in English and use that as a way to pick up language. There are a number of different areas to focus on with English: four skills, listening, reading, writing, speaking, and language systems, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, discourse.

Listening

I've already talked a lot about the benefits of just listening for fun or listening in a more active way. I did mention that it's good to be comfortable when listening. I should add too that I think it's important to try and listen to things that you don't completely understand. It's fine to listen to things that you don't understand completely, and the general opinion on this seems to be that you should push yourself when you listen and don't get put off if there are things you don't understand. It's in that challenging experience that your brain is really piecing things together. For example, if you struggle to understand my conversation with Daniel Bert, that's fine. In fact, that struggle is good. Listen again and keep trying. Don't give up; push through those moments when you don't understand. Keep going; don't let confusion stop you. Also, try to identify subtle differences between accents. You may only notice little differences at first, but eventually, you'll be more and more aware of the differences between accents. Eventually, you'll be able to say, "This guy is from the north of England,” "This one's from Australia,” or whatever.

Reading

Read transcripts on my channel. Outside of the podcast, read a variety of texts. Again, try to find things that you enjoy. You should also be aware of your purpose for learning the language. What are you going to use English for in the future? You may need to read emails or business reports. It may be worth reading articles that talk about business trends. Otherwise, just reading any well-written text for enjoyment is a really good way to improve your literacy. I must add, a lot of videos on my channel come with recommendations for reading. There's loads of reading you can do: blogs, newspapers, but also books which you can download for free online. I haven't done it yet, but I'm planning to give you a list of some good things to read.

Writing

Again, this is not one of the things that I focus on a lot on the Learn with Lucy podcast. The focus is mainly on spoken English. However, transcribing podcast episodes can be good for your writing. You could also write your own blog which contains your opinions or your outlook on a topic. Feel free to write a response to episodes of my podcast in the comment section. You should aim to concisely express your opinion in a structured way using the most appropriate words you can find, perhaps including some words you've picked up from that episode of the podcast. Think about the person reading the comment. Make it easy and enjoyable for them to read, and focus on stating very clearly and efficiently exactly what it is you want to say. Considering those ideas can help you to make your writing more effective.

If, however, you need to practice writing for the IELTS test, you will need to do more specifically focused Writing Practice, probably using an IELTS preparation book or following an IELTS course of some kind