Hello my dear friends and welcome back to the Easy English Podcast.
So today I want to look at some common reasons why people feel like they are not improving with their English.
This is going to be a fairly quick episode today and I want to cover a bunch of different points because I get this question a lot, or at least I hear from a lot of people that they feel like they aren't improving.
They're not getting better.
Maybe that they're stuck or we would use the word plateaued.
So they're not seeing big improvements.
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Um, if you see, in the description below there is a link and there you can click it and get a free english slang lesson or a presentation, which is totally free.
It's like a little booklet with some slang words and exercises um, and in doing that you will sign up for free the easy English newsletter.
I'm planning to send free English content every week to your email and some vocabulary and little tips and stories and latest news as well about this project.
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It's in the link below.
It's completely free for you.
So So many people have been learning English and they feel stuck and it might sometimes maybe for you, feel like no matter how much you study, you're not improving.
Then this episode is definitely for you and we'll look at how to fix this feeling.
Number one I would say is that, in general, in your day to day routine, you're only consuming content and not producing English.
So, for example, if you're listening to this podcast, of course, it's great.
It helps.
I think that you should do it every week.
But you know, if you listen to podcasts, watch movies read, when was the last time you actually used your English?
The last time you created something with your English, like that you wrote something or spoke something.
This is just as important as consuming.
So the real problem here that I can identify is that if you're only listening and reading, you're improving your passive skills, but your speaking and your writing won't necessarily improve unless you practice.
And you can fix this so easily.
Start speaking out loud every day.
Copy the words that I'm saying in this podcast.
Answer the questions that I ask in the podcast as well.
Just a few examples.
You can talk about your day as well.
You can maybe keep a diary.
Record yourself speaking and play it back.
And do activities or resources which require you to actually create something, so to make sentences, to speak, to write, that type of thing.
It's important to have a balance.
Don't just consume, also create.
So, a challenge.
I want you to pause this episode right now and say something in English.
For example, describe what you did today or what you're going to do if it's the morning, in three sentences.
Maximum four.
Okay, go.
So if you've done that, welcome back.
We're going to go to the second reason why you might not be improving as well as you would like in English.
And that is that you could be stuck in your comfort zone.
I have a separate episode on this, so I'm not going to talk about it.
You can go down and watch that.
But in short, if you just keep sticking to the same routines, the same words, the same phrases and topics, you're not challenging yourself.
So try to step out of your comfort zone.
Point three, this is so important, and so many people do not do this.
I see this with students all the time.
And that is that you're not reviewing what you learn.
So some people say they learn new words every day, but then they forget them.
And the problem is learning a word once isn't enough.
Learning a piece of grammar once is not enough.
Your brain needs repetition in order to remember it and put it into your long-term memory.
So the best fix for this is to review if you're using vocabulary or sorry, vocabulary learning apps.
Make sure that you're reviewing those old lessons or old vocabulary and that you're going back to what you learned a month ago or a couple of weeks ago and strengthen those memories.
Take what you've learned and use them going forward.
If you've got new words, put them in sentences.
Try to use them when you're speaking the next day, for example.
OK, so the next one is that you're learning passively instead of actively.
So some people say to me I watch Netflix and English, but I still don't really understand anything, or everything.
And the problem is that sometimes people are watching or listening without engaging.
So you need to actively focus on the content that you're consuming.
It's okay to sometimes have passive audio.
For example, to put this podcast on in the background.
But I can guarantee that there are quite a few of you listening to this episode, maybe while driving or while doing something else, and you're not actually taking in or fully listening to each word that I'm saying.
And that's fine.
But in general, when you're doing focused learning, you need to make sure that you're actively trying to learn, that you're pausing and maybe repeating interesting sentences, that you're listening for new words and that you're writing them down or taking a note of them, and that you're trying to understand as many words as possible.
Learning passively and sort of listening and stuff is fine.
It's great, but don't do it all the time.
You need to make sure that you mix in some active learning too.
Okay.
The next reason that I think that people feel like they're not improving and that they're stuck with where they are in English, is that they actually don't have a goal.
They don't have... a point of improvement that they want to get to.
You know, there's a vague goal that a lot of people have, which is I want to be fluent.
But this doesn't help because fluency is not a destination.
It's a process.
It's a skill that you develop.
You won't just reach a point one day where you go, oh, wow, I'm fluent.
I've reached it.
It's a gradual step-by-step process.
So you need to look at your English skills, identify the weak areas, identify areas that you want to improve and what you want to improve them to.
And make those specific targets.
You don't need to think exactly, for example, that you want to...
I mean, this is a hard one, right?
Because let's take speaking, for example.
Instead of saying I want to be fluent, you could set a goal, like I want to be able to have a conversation for 20 minutes.
In my eyes, that's basically fluent, right?
But then of course you want to be able to have conversations for longer and on different topics, etc.
So choose a goal that's relevant to you.
Maybe you just want to be able to meet new people in English and speak freely to get to know them.
Maybe you want to have more academic or complicated conversations.
These are all relevant goals.
So great, that is an important one.
The next point and I think this is very important, I've talked about this a little bit before, but not very much and that is comparing your progress to others.
So we all have those friends and maybe fellow students that speak English amazingly, fantastically.
You might even say um, and you might think wow, how do they do it?
But comparing yourself to other learners or even native speakers can make you feel quite bad about your progress and maybe make you feel like you're developing slower than you actually are.
So again, I say this all the time.
It's important.
Look at how far you've come.
The fact you're even listening to me right now is amazing.
And you're probably understanding a good bit of what I'm saying, which is fantastic.
And just look at your progress.
Let's say, you know, even two years ago, can you say more words than two years ago?
Can you understand more than two years ago?
Probably yes.
Every little step that you're taking over these two years is giving you more progress.
Your english will improve if you just look at these points or just look at your own learning process and try to improve.
That's the thing.
It's continual improvement, continual development, looking at our skills, appreciating them and seeing what we can do better.
Just keep it up.
Keep the consistent learning.
Keep listening to this podcast.
Keep watching things in English.
Keep creating things in English.
So sentences, writing, speaking, and you will improve.
You're not going to get worse from practicing and from learning.
So don't worry.
Consistency and confidence is the key.
So before you go, I have a quick challenge for you.
I want you to write a comment.
So, on this podcast, if you're on Spotify or on YouTube or anywhere else that you can leave a comment,
Leave a comment what your goal is for English.
Why are you learning it?
Maybe where do you want to get to with it?
Let me know.
I want to know your English goal.
Thank you so much for listening.
As always, I hope you enjoyed it.
If you want that free slang lesson, click the link in the description and you can sign up for free for the Easy English newsletter.
I will speak to you soon and I hope you are having an amazing week.
Goodbye.
