Day 26 Three Steps For Learning New Expressions

Hi, I’m Vanessa from speakenglishwithvanessa.com. Today, I’m going to tell you about three stages that you need to go through to learn new expressions. Let’s get started.

Have you ever learned a new expression and you feel like you just can’t remember it when you want to use it. Well, don’t worry, maybe you are not on the final stage yet for learning expressions. Let me tell you about the first step. The first step is to recognize a new word or a new expression. This means when you hear it, when you read the new expression that you already learned, you recognized it. You maybe don’t remember what it means, but you can say “oh, yes, I remember learning this expression”. I don’t remember exactly what it means, but I can recognize it. For example, the expression “in one ear and out the other”. It’s the expression that I talked about in the course “the 30 days of English.” And this expression maybe you recognize it when you hear it, when you see it. I remember I learned this expression, but I can’t remember exactly what it means. This means that you probably can’t use it yourself yet, but it’s OK. You are only on the first step. You can recognize the new expression when you hear it, or when someone else uses it. So, if you recognize a new expression, this is great. It means you are on the path to using it yourself. Let’s talk about the second step.

The second step for learning a new expression or a new word is understanding the new word or the new expression. Understanding it. And this doesn’t mean using it yourself yet. This means when you hear it, when you see it, you will recognize it and understand. You will remember the meaning. This is very useful when you are having conversations with someone else because maybe they are talking and talking and they are using the expression that you learned but maybe you can’t use it yourself yet but you can understand it. This is great. You are using it in context in your mind. You can understand it in context. This is great because it’s the second step. You are closer and closer to using it yourself.

Now some language experts say you need to hear an expression 10 times, 20 times and 30 times before you can naturally use it yourself. But if you focus on expression and try to use it I think you can use it earlier than 30 times. So that is going on to the third step. The first one is recognize, then understand it. And let’s talk about the third one.

The third step is using the word or expression yourself. The first you need to simply recognize it, maybe you don’t understand it. Secondly you need to understand the meaning in context. And the third one is you need to use the word yourself. Now, at first when you learned a new expression, you’re going to need to use it intentionally. This means on purpose. Maybe if you learned a new expression in one year and out the other. When you have a English conversation, you need to think about how you can use the expression. You can try to use it in the conversation. So this is not 100 percent natural because you are trying to find a way to use the new expression. But if you can use it intentionally, then in the future, the more and more you use it, you can use it unintentionally, naturally, without thinking. So the goal is to use it as many times as possible.

I want to encourage you that if you only recognize the expression that you just learned, don’t worry, that’s the first step. It means that you are closer and closer to using it yourself. So I have a question for you “What are some tips that you have for other English learners for how they can learn new expressions?” These three steps are my tips for you. But you are an English learner, you have being learning expressions and grammars and vocabulary for a while, so I would like you to share your tips and your ideas with other English learners. We can all benefits together as a community. Thanks so much and I’ll talk to you again at next time. Goodbye.

intentionally 有意地，故意地

context 上下文，环境