Englsh Learning From Sina Blog

Whatis the most important English skill? What skill must you have tocommunicate well?
Obviously, number 1 is Fluency. What is fluency? Fluency is the ability to speak (and understand) Englishquickly and easily… WITHOUT translation. Fluency means you can talkeasily with native speakers – they easily understand you, and youeasily understand them. In fact, you speak and understandinstantly.
Fluency is your most important English goal.
The research is clear – there is only ONE way to get fluency. Youdo not get fluency by reading text-books. You do not get fluency bygoing to English schools. You do not get fluency by studyinggrammar rules.

Listening Is TheKey

Toget English fluency, you must have a lot of understandablerepetitive listening.  That is the ONLYway. To be a FANTASTIC English speaker, you must learn English withyour ears, not with your eyes. In other words, you must listen.Your ears are the key to excellent speaking.
What kind of listening is best?  Well, itmust be understandable and must berepetitive.  Both of those words areimportant - Understandable and Repetitive.

Ifyou don’t understand, you learn nothing. You will not improve.  That’s why listeningto English TV does not help you. You don’t understand most of it.It is too difficult. It is too fast.

Itsobvious right?  If you do not understand,you will not improve.  So, the bestlistening material is EASY.  That’s right,you should listen mostly to easy English. Most students listen to English that is much toodifficult.  They don’t understand enough,and so they learn slowly.  Listen to easierEnglish, and your speaking will improve faster!
 
Understanding is Only Half The Formula.
Understanding is not enough.  You must alsohave a lot of repetition.  If you hear a new word onlyonce, you will soon forget it. If you hear it 5 times, you willstill probably forget it!
You must hear new words and new grammar many times before you willunderstand them instantly.

Howmany times is necessary?  Most people musthear a new word 30 times to remember it forever. To know a word andinstantly understand it, you probably need to hear it 50-100times!
That’s why I tell my students to listen to all of my lessons manytimes.  I tell them to listen to theMini-Stories, the Vocab Lessons, The Point-of-View Stories, and theAudio articles everyday.  I recommend thatthey listen to each lesson a total of 30 times (forexample,  2 times a day for twoweeks).

So,the two most important points are:  listento easier English and listen to each thing many times.

Suggestions ForPowerful Listening and Excellent Speaking

1.Practice “Narrow Listening”

“Narrow listening”means listening to many things about the sametopic.  This method is more powerful thantrying to listen to many different kinds ofthings.  Students who listen to similarthings learn faster and speak better than students who listen todifferent kinds of things.
For example, you can choose one speaker and find many things byhim.  Listen to all of his podcasts, audiobooks, and speeches. This is powerful because all speakers havefavorite vocabulary and grammar.  Theynaturally repeat these many times.  Bylistening to many things by the same person, you automatically geta lot of vocabulary repetition.  You learnfaster and deeper!
Another example is to choose one topic to focuson.  For example, you could read an easybook, listen to the same audio book, listen to a podcast about thebook, and watch the movie.
 
I did this with my class in San Francisco. We read “Charlie and the ChocolateFactory”.  Then we listened to the audiobook.  Then we watched (and listened to)the movie.  Then we listened to interviewswith actors in the movie.  My studentslearned a lot of vocabulary in a short time, and their speakingimproved very quickly.
2. Divide Your Listening Time

Which isbetter:  to listen for two hours without abreak, or to divide that time during theday?  Well,dividing your listening time isbest.

Bydividing your time throughout the day, you remember more and learnfaster.  So its much better to listen 30minutes in the morning, then 30 minutes in the car or train, then30 minutes coming home from work, then 30 minutes before sleep. Infact, this is the exact schedule I recommend to mystudents!

3.Use an iPod or MP3 Player

iPods arefantastic.  You can put a big listeninglibrary on one.  Then you can carry yourEnglish lessons everywhere. You can learn English while walking,while shopping, in the car, in a train, while cooking, … …
With an iPod or MP3 player, you don’t have to worry aboutCDs.  Also, you can find a lot of Englishlistening on the internet. You can find lessons, stories, podcasts,TV shows, interviews, and audio books. Simply download the audio, put it on your iPod.. and learn Englishanywhere!
4. Listen To Movies

Movies are greatfor learning English BUT you must use themcorrectly.  Don’t watch all of an Englishmovie.  You will not understand it, andtherefore you will not learn anything.
Only watch one scene or segment per week (maybe 2-3minutes).  Follow this method:

(a)First, watch the scene with subtitles in yourlanguage.  This will help you understandthe general meaning.
(b) Second, watch the scene with Englishsubtitles.  Pause. Use a dictionary to findnew words you don’t understand.  Write thenew sentences in a notebook.
(c) Listen to the scene a few times, with Englishsubtitles.  Do not pause.
(d) Listen to the scene a few times, without subtitles.
(e) Repeat a) – d) everyday for one week.
 
On the second week, go to the next scene/segment and repeatagain.  It will take you a long time tofinish a movie. That’s OK, because you will improve your listeningand speaking VERY FAST.  This method ispowerful– use it!

5.Read and Listen at the Same Time

Listening andReading together are verypowerful.   Whileyou listen to something, also read it. This will improve your pronunciation.

Reading whilelistening also helps you understand more difficultmaterial.  Read and listen to learnfaster.   After youdo this a few times, put away the text and justlisten.  You will understand a lot more andyou will improvefaster.   Always try to find both audio and text materials.

Tostart, you can read my blog and listen to my podcast at:
Text  – http://www.EffortlessEnglishClub.blogspot.com

Audio –http://www.EffortlessEnglish.libsyn.com

Another great ideais to get both a book and its audio book (ie. the above example of“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”).

6Months To Excellent English Speaking

Follow the abovesuggestions (and the 7 Rules in my email course) and you will speakexcellent English.
 
I have been teaching over 10 years.  Everystudent who follows these methods succeeds. Always!
The Effortless English method is the key to speaking excellentEnglish.  It is the key tofluency.

Youonly need 6 months – 6 months and you will speak easily to nativespeakers.  6 months and you will speakquickly andnaturally.   6months and you feel relaxed when you speak English.
You have tried the old ways.  You triedtextbooks.  You triedschools.  You tried grammarstudy.

Itis time to try something new!

Goodluck.  I wish you success with your Englishlearning!

A.J.Hoge
Director
Effortless English
The 7 Rules For Excellent English

RULE1: Always Study and Review Phrases, Not Individual Words.
RULE 2: Don’t Study Grammar.
RULE 3: The Most Important Rule -  ListenFirst.
RULE 4: Slow, Deep Learning Is Best, learn every word& phrase DEEPLY.
RULE 5: Use Point Of View Mini-Stories.
RULE 6: Only Use Real English Lessons &Materials.
RULE 7: Listen and Answer, not Listen and Repeat.

 

Listening& Learning Resources On The Internet

 7Rules of Effortless English (Free EmailCourse)  必读必听！
http://www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com/free.html

 TheEffortless English Podcast (Listening)
http://www.EffortlessEnglish.libsyn.com

 TheEffortless English Blog (Text for Audio)
http://www.EffortlessEnglishClub.blogspot.com

 EffortlessEnglish Lessons  (Listening andText)
http://www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com

 FlowEnglish Lessons (Listening and Text)
http://www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com/flowenglish.html

 LingQ(Listening and Tutors)
http://www.lingq.com

 ELLLO(Listening)
http://www.elllo.org

KanTalk (InternetChats and Conversation)
http://www.kantalk.com

 VOANews (Listening)
http://www.voanews.com/english/podcasts.cfm

 BusinessEnglish Pod (Listening)
http://www.voanews.com/english/podcasts.cfm

 ESLPod (Listening)
http://www.eslpod.com

 JustVocabulary (Listening)
http://justvocabulary.libsyn.com/