Have you ever wished you had a secret weapon that could just instantly make your English speaking flow better?
It's not about learning a million new words or finally getting all those tricky grammar rules down.
What if I told you there's a skill so simple, so invisible, that you might not even know you're missing it? and that that skill is the real key to sounding more natural in English conversations.
If you've ever felt that super frustrating feeling of, I can understand everything, but when I try to speak, my brain just freezes. then this video is absolutely for you.
I'm gonna uncover this secret with you. And I'm going to show you how to finally bridge that gap between understanding English and speaking it.
This will make your English feel much more effortless, confident, and natural.
Let's get started. Hey there, how's it going?
Thiago here and welcome to another episode of the podcast.
In case you're new here, this podcast is designed to help intermediate and advanced learners of English Communicate with more confidence, more accuracy, more clarity and more awareness.
If this sounds like something you want for yourself and your English, go ahead and subscribe.
That way you won't miss a single new episode.
Before I get started with today's content here, I want to announce that group two is of my Speaking Accelerator program is officially open and accepting registrations.
I ran group one in July and it was amazing.
People had a blast. And now I'm gonna be running group two in September.
The Speaking Accelerator program is a three-week program designed to boost your English speaking skills. and at your own pace.
It's a perfect program for people who are very busy, who don't have time for formal private classes or courses, but who still want to improve their speaking skills with my guidance and feedback.
The bulk of the program is about you and I interacting on Telegram daily for three weeks, via audio messages.
You're going to be practicing talking about specific topics And I'm going to be listening to your messages and giving you personalized feedback. on your English pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and speaking skills as a whole.
Plus, you're gonna get to learn tons and tons of new words and expressions about a specific topic.
The topic for the first group was learning and growing.
For three weeks, we discussed all about learning and growing.
Now for group two, the topic is art and entertainment.
So for three weeks in September, we're going to be talking about movies, TV series, music, and books.
Isn't that cool? So you're going to practice speaking about these topics.
You're going to learn tons of vocabulary, specific. to talk about those topics, and it's just going to be a great time, all right?
So I'm going to leave the link here in the description of the video for you to learn more about the speaking accelerator program. go to the page, read all the information there, and if it makes sense to you, join.
It's going to be great to have you as a student for three weeks now in September.
Let's talk about movies, TV series, music and books together. and you're gonna improve a lot, you'll see.
So let's talk about this invisible skill that by not knowing or not being aware of is destroying your English fluency.
Have you ever understood everything in English but found your brain freezing when it's time to speak?
This presentation reveals the invisible skill that bridges the gap between understanding English and speaking it fluently.
So here's a common scenario for you. Imagine you are chatting with a native speaker.
You hear and recognize every word. You think you're following along perfectly, but then...
Something happens. The person stops speaking and then your mind goes completely blank.
Thank you. All you can manage is a hesitant, oh, really?
Or, hmm, that's interesting. What happened there?
Your brain just froze. Now, the real problem here is that the words went in. but they didn't sink in to a deeper level.
You heard the sounds, you heard the words, but the meaning slipped away.
I call this common problem the echo chamber of misunderstanding. words are constantly coming in, but it's very hard for you to make sense of them, to actually grasp the meaning behind them, turn them into something concrete, so that you can ask a follow-up question, share a thought, an opinion or an idea.
When your listening isn't working fast enough, you experience the fluency freeze.
Here are three common symptoms of the fluency freeze.
See if you have ever experienced them. The first one, slow replies.
You need extra time to think. to translate or even understand what was said.
That creates that awkward, weird, silent moment in our conversations.
Have you experienced that before? What about the second symptom?
Repeating yourself with your comfort phrases let's say.
You use the same say phrases all the time.
For example, yeah, right, I see. If you use them, many learners just freeze altogether and...
They can't even say those. But if that is not you, do you see yourself constantly using the same phrases in conversation because you are really struggling, to come up with new novel ideas to share with your speaking partner.
This happens because your brain hasn't created a fresh, specific answer.
And here's the third symptom, stuck conversations.
That's what you experience. You have stuck conversations with people.
You can't easily ask questions. or sharp thoughts because you are still processing what was just said.
In other words, Fluency freeze happens because your processing speed isn't fast enough.
Now here's the real issue for intermediate learners.
If you are an intermediate or upper intermediate learner, the problem here isn't about knowing more vocabulary or learning more grammar rules.
Because by now, you likely already have many of the words and grammar you need.
By now, you've already been studying and learning English for a while.
So you have... a good arsenal of vocabulary and grammar at your disposal.
The real issue here is the speed and depth of your comprehension.
In other words, how quickly your brain turns sounds into meaning that you can then use to speak.
Think about it like a traffic jam in your brain.
And then you have all these roadblocks in our brain as you are engaging in conversation.
That makes your speaking stagnant. So what is the solution for this?
The solution is this invisible skill that you need to develop, which I call deep listening for meaning.
It's more than just hearing words. It's about recognizing and understanding the story behind those words the feelings are being expressed and the reasons and intentions from the speaker.
So as you are listening to me right now, for example, Don't just hear my words, but try to get the story that I'm telling you here behind my words.
Try to get the feeling that I'm expressing by sharing these words with you now. and also try to get what my real reasons and intentions are. in this conversation you and I are having.
So here's why this works. traditional listening practice often focuses only on general understanding.
It's about getting the main idea of what you hear.
That is good. That definitely has its place.
But it's not enough for you to speak fluently with real people in real life in the real world, you need your detective brain to work faster and deeper. catching every nuance, every small detail and feeling.
When you master deep listening, your brain isn't just receiving sounds.
It's actively building meaning, like a puzzle being assembled instantly.
You see, it's all about the speed. This eliminates the processing delay that causes the fluency freeze.
Let me give you now three powerful techniques, three powerful exercises you can start implementing today In order to develop more of this deep listening for meaning, and increasing your processing speed when you speak English with people in conversations.
We have just discussed the problem. I introduce the solution.
Now, let me get to the practical steps here.
The first technique you can try is what I call the clarifier method.
This trains your brain to immediately rephrase what you've heard in your own words.
Here's how to do it. As we're having a conversation with a person, In your head, try to quickly summarize or rephrase the speaker's last sentence or main idea. then out loud, when appropriate, You can say something like this.
So if I'm getting this right, blah, blah, blah.
For example, imagine you're having a conversation with a native speaker, a friend native speaker, And then this friend of yours says something like, I am completely beat today because I spent all day yesterday Tidying up my room and I'm just drained. then you can go like this.
Oh. So if I'm getting this right, you'll clean it all day and now you're super tired?
And then your friend is going to go, oh, yeah, that's absolutely true.
And then the conversation continues. You see, this is you rephrasing or paraphrasing what the person has just told you.
I find this incredibly useful. Every time I'm speaking to a person, Sometimes I understand the meaning, or I think I understand what the person is saying, But I just want to be thorough.
I just want to double check to ensure that I really understood the person's point.
So I'm going to paraphrase that. Well, let me get this straight, and then I paraphrase.
Or, if I understand you correctly, Blah, blah, blah.
Or if I'm getting this right, and then you paraphrase.
Why does this work? Because it forces your brain to process the meaning of what the person is saying, not just hearing the words.
I mean think about it, you can't rephrase something if you haven't truly understood it.
So this helps you elucidate, in other words, make clear the meaning for yourself.
You see, you are focused on getting the meaning, not necessarily word for word decoding.
Here's technique two. I call it thought ahead listening.
You can try to guess what the speaker might say next based on what they have just said.
And if you think about it, this is something you already do in your first language, naturally, organically.
You might not even realize it, but you do that all the time. the person is speaking to you and you are able already, as the person is speaking, you are able to anticipate possible directions the conversation could go. what the person might say next.
So here's how to do it. Listen to the current statement.
Imagine your friend is telling you in a conversation, I had a really strange experience on my way to work this morning because...
You see, as you are listening to this, inner brain try to predict possible continuations here.
Maybe your friend might say, because the bus was late, or because I saw something weird. or because my car broke down.
At first it's gonna be a challenge, but as you increase your processing speed, You're going to start doing that in a matter of milliseconds.
And without even realizing. Then, it's about getting ready for a response.
Your brain is prepared for various directions the conversation might take.
This trains your brain to anticipate or predict where the conversation is going.
It's just like playing chess. When you are playing chess, usually you want to think a few moves ahead of your opponent.
In conversation, that is very similar. You want to be one or two steps ahead and anticipate what's going to come next.
And here is technique three, replay and respond.
This is a mental gym workout for your brain, even when you are alone, and that's the main point.
You don't have to practice this only when you are having a real conversation with a real person.
You can practice that alone at home. yourself, only with the input you already get from movies, TV series, podcasts.
Here's a step-by-step. First of all, listen.
Imagine you are listening to some English content at home, like... a podcast episode, a TV show, a movie.
Then you're going to pause after someone makes a point. then you're going to respond.
You're going to quickly come up with a relevant response or follow up question.
And then you can think about what they might say next.
So just recapping here, I'm watching a movie in English.
The main character says something. I'm going to pause, and then I'm going to think of a follow-up question or statement I could tell that person right now.
And then after that, I can think about what that character is going to say next.
You see, it's the anticipation, trying to predict.
Here's an example of the replay and respond in action.
Imagine you're watching a movie, and then you hear the character saying, I finally quit my job.
So you pause the video, and then you can think of some follow-up statements here.
For example, wow. Why did you do that? Or, ooh, what are you going to do now?
Or how do you feel about it? You sing? Now, why this works?
Because it builds your mental repertoire. your collection of prepared responses for common conversation patterns.
He prepares you for real-time conversations making it easier to jump in when it's her turn to speak.
So if you haven't been doing that, I highly recommend you try that. at home alone.
You heard something in a movie, in a video clip, pause, and ask follow-up questions.
Imagine you are talking to that person you are listening to. and then also try to predict where the conversation is going to go.
This is a clear example of... what I always talk about related to rehearsing and performing.
Think of a rock band that is about to perform at a huge concert in a soccer stadium to 30,000 people. that band, before going for that performance or going to that performance, that band is going to rehearse a lot before.
They're gonna go to a studio, to a room, and they're gonna rehearse the set then when it's time to perform, they're going to perform.
Think about it like that. You can rehearse these... conversation practices at home.
You can rehearse anticipating asking follow-up questions at home, so that when it's time for you to finally perform in real life, in a real situation, you are more ready.
You are quicker to respond to people, ask questions, keep the conversation going.
I promise you, if you do that, if you start focusing more on getting the meaning of what is being told to you or what you're hearing and improving your processing speed when it comes to your listening skills first You're going to experience more confidence.
You're going to feel much more ready and less nervous in conversations. you're also going to feel less anxiety because that fear of the fluency freeze will slowly disappear. and you're going to start enjoying conversations because English will become a real tool for connecting with people, not just a difficult subject.
All right? So remember, by regularly using these deep listening techniques, you're training your brain to become a more agile and confident English speaker.
Again, it's not necessarily about knowing more vocabulary or more grammar.
It's about training your brain to be quicker in responses and in conversations.
So, remember, the key inside here is it's no longer mainly about knowing more.
It's about processing faster. Let me say that again.
If you are an intermediate or upper intermediate level speaker of English already, It's no longer mainly about knowing more language, but about processing faster. the language you already know you already possess.
Think about that. Okay, so here is your weekly challenge.
I would like you to pick one technique that I presented to you today choose either the clarifier, the thought I had listening, or replay or respond with a movie or TV series, at home, then practice daily.
Just five to ten minutes a day is already enough. and use that technique the next conversation you have in real life. apply this technique in our next few English interactions.
If you have the chance to regularly join meetups, talk to people regularly, Be intentional about that, okay?
The next time, I talk to people, I'm going to use this technique.
Remember, here are some final words. You already have what you need.
You already know many words. You understand a lot of the grammar.
So now it's time to unlock the speed and depth of your understanding.
Deep listening is the invisible skill that transforms passive knowledge into active fluency.
So here's a question for you. Which technique will you try first?
Let me know in the comment section below.
I am curious to know which one of these techniques you're going to try first.
And there you have it. I hope you found this episode useful and informative.
Try these techniques and let me know later. how they helped you.
Don't forget to like this video, share this video with a friend who's also learning English.
Subscribe to the channel here on YouTube.
That helps me a lot. And if you're listening on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, follow the show over there. and also leave me a five-star review on those platforms.
Don't forget to learn more about my Speaking Accelerator program.
It's going to start now on September 15th.
And I think it's going to be a great opportunity for you to practice your speaking skills in English. while having my personal feedback on your English, right?
So learn more about it. The link is here in the description of the video, also in the pin comment below on YouTube. or in the show notes if you are on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Thank you so much for hanging out with me today.
I'm Chiago. I'm signing off and I'll be talking to you very soon.
In the upcoming episode. Bye bye.
