You're listening to Luke's English Podcast.
For more information visit Hello, listeners.
Welcome to this new episode.
This one is called How to Learn English with My Podcast.
People keep asking how they can learn English with my podcast.
I've done episodes about this before, but this time...
In this episode.
My aim is just to answer that question properly and keep this as simple as possible.
I will give the best advice I can here without wasting any time and without doing any rambling about other things.
Now, if you like the rambling in my episodes, then don't worry, because there will be more rambling on the podcast soon in other episodes coming soon.
But my aim here is just to get the advice across to you as quickly and simply as possible.
How can you learn English?
And how can you learn English with my podcast?
Now I understand that when you are faced with this task of improving your English, it can seem a bit too big and difficult.
So my first tip is just to start today and don't worry about finding the perfect method.
Just start practising, start using English to express yourself, find ways to work on areas of English which are difficult for you and eventually you will find your own rhythm and method which works for you.
And I'm going to get specific during the episode.
But be willing to try different things, different types of practice.
Be prepared to be creative, but use English regularly and enjoy it.
Before we continue, let me just give you a little bit of information about me, so you know who you're listening to.
So I've been teaching English to adults from around the world for about 25 years and I've met thousands and thousands of learners of English, helped them, learned from them as well and seen what works and what doesn't work.
I've been doing this podcast for about 16 years and have had lots of responses from listeners who've told me their stories.
I'm from England and English is my first language.
I live in France these days and I speak some French.
If I actually took my own advice...
The advice I'm going to give you here.
My French would be much better, but it is improving little by little.
I do spend a lot of my time speaking English and teaching English.
But anyway.
In this episode, I'm going to talk about these aspects of English.
So, first of all, the four skills of listening speaking, reading and writing, and then also your ability to control these language systems of grammar vocabulary, pronunciation and discourse management.
That means basically the way that you organise your ideas together to produce speaking or writing which is understandable.
OK, so that's beyond just a sentence level.
That's the other ways that you organise your English to make it clear and easy to follow.
OK, so my first advice actually is simply to listen to Luke's English podcast every day, of course every day, or at least as often as you can.
So first, this is a podcast.
And so to improve your English with this, just listen to it.
Just listen to my episodes regularly.
When a new episode comes out, listen to it.
Listen to the entire thing from start to finish.
If you can't listen to it in one go, just pause and listen to more later.
But do finish the episode.
Listen to at least one episode a week, okay?
Listen at least once a week or listen to at least one episode a week.
Is that clear?
But the more you listen, the better.
So if you listen for an hour a day, that's fantastic.
You can find more episodes in my episode archive at teacherluke.co.uk slash episodes.
Get a podcast app on your phone and subscribe to my podcast there, free.
For links or links for different podcast apps, go to teacherluke.co.uk slash links.
You might already have a podcast app on your phone.
Listen long term right.
Just one episode isn't enough.
Just 10 episodes isn't really enough.
You need to make listening a regular part of your life for a long time, And the effects happen gradually and with time.
OK, so expect results after a longer period of time.
You might see people talking about getting fluent in three months or something like that.
It's very unlikely, in fact, in reality, that anyone can really get genuine fluency in English in such a short time.
I mean, you can apply yourself.
If you apply yourself to learning English, and only that all day long for three months, maybe you can get somewhere.
But in reality, don't think about it in terms of it being a three-month thing or six-month thing.
In fact, don't think of learning English as a thing with an end point.
In fact, there is no such thing as learning English, if that makes sense.
Because you never, you will never at any point go, right, well, that's it.
I've learned English now.
I suppose I can start using it.
It's not really the right way to think.
Learning English is a long-term process that never really has an end point.
It's just something that you have to keep doing to maintain your English level and also to make slow incremental, gradual improvements.
Sometimes those improvements are not obvious to you, but they are happening.
So it's a long-term process.
So in terms of listening to this podcast, listen long-term.
The effects happen gradually and with time.
If you don't understand everything when you listen to this, don't worry about it.
Just keep listening and in time you will find that you understand more and more.
I've had comments, lots of comments, and emails from listeners in the past who tell me that they couldn't really understand very much when they started to listen.
They could even only understand about 20, but they persevered, they kept going and surprise surprise, amazingly enough, they were able to understand more and more and in fact this gave them a sort of foundation which they were able to use to make similar gains and similar progress in other areas of their English.
It's amazing.
It's amazing to me that those people did that, that they continued listening even if they didn't really understand.
But they were motivated and they kept going and it paid off.
So keep listening and in time you will find that you understand more and more.
But that's it.
Just listen and try to follow what i'm saying.
You can listen while you're doing something else.
You know if you're using a podcast app.
But the more focused you are and the more sort of involved you are in what I'm saying, the better.
Right.
So the more emotionally or intellectually engaged involved you are, the better, okay.
So it makes sense, if you really think about what you're listening to, really pay attention to what you're listening to okay, But that's it.
Just listen.
Listen regularly.
Listen long term.
Listen for longer periods of time.
Now I could go into the reasons why this is good for your English, but I'm trying to be quick here, so I won't do that today.
Instead, I will just say, trust me.
OK?
Listening a lot is great for your English.
Most of the learners of English I've met in my career have not done enough listening.
In fact, most of them didn't listen to anything, really.
I've met so many learners of English in my career.
I've met a lot of them who didn't really, whose level of English wasn't that great, and they've come to me, they've ended up in my classroom and after talking to them and finding out about their habits in their life, then it's no surprise really that they aren't able to speak English very well because they never actually listen to it or even read it very much.
They maybe studied it a little bit at school.
You know, but that's no basis really for developing really good operational fluent English.
So, yeah, listen a lot, read a lot.
So yeah, going back to these learners of English, they just turned up to class and hoped that that would be enough.
They sort of, in their minds, they were like, OK, Luke, I've paid my money.
Now fill me with English.
But it doesn't really work like that.
So don't be one of those people.
Do plenty of listening.
Because how else do you expect to learn how to understand and ultimately use this language if you don't really know what it sounds like when people speak it?
So it's pretty obvious, isn't it?
Listen to it a lot.
So, yes, the five L's.
OK, the five L's.
Listening, listening, listening, listening and listening.
Right.
So there are other more direct methods, of course.
So OK, let's say you want to apply yourself to this, to learning English in a more direct way, beyond just listening to a podcast.
So here are some other ways you can work on your English.
I mentioned the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Let's divide those things into two categories.
So you've got receptive skills, that's listening and reading.
And you have productive skills.
That's speaking and writing.
OK, now practice.
My main advice for working on all of these things, all of these skills is basically practice.
OK, so the five P's we talk about the five P's.
Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice.
Going back to listening again.
So for listening, I have talked about it.
Listen a lot.
But diversify the things you're listening to.
Yes, listen to my podcast.
I try to keep it diverse, with different guests and different topics and different types of episode, but also listen to other kinds of things news reports, films and TV for dialogue.
But understand that those films and TV can be very difficult to understand.
That's another episode for another time.
But don't worry if you don't really understand the TV and films. that you watch and listen to.
Even if everyone says, oh, you want to improve your English, just watch Netflix.
I'm not entirely sure.
If you only do that, you might be shocked to discover that Netflix shows and movies these days are very difficult to understand.
So they might not be the best thing to listen to or to start with.
Of course, I would recommend podcasts first.
But anyway, you could include films and TV in your listening habits because, as I'm saying, diversity is very important.
Also, audiobooks, TED talks, which tend to be more sort of non-fiction based things, documentaries.
Basically, try to hear different types of English in different situations.
A question you might have is this Luke, should I have subtitles switched on or off when I'm, let's say, watching something on the internet?
The first point about this is don't put subtitles in your first language.
That's what some people do.
They'll watch it in English with subtitles in their first language.
Don't do that.
You're just practicing reading in your first language.
So don't do that.
Unless you are very low level, but even then I think it's not really advisable.
So forget about that.
But subtitles in English are good, but not always.
So you can watch your show in English with English subtitles. but not all the time, okay?
So listen and watch with subtitles sometimes and sometimes without.
Watching with subtitles helps you to understand what you're watching and it helps you to connect the spoken and written versions of English.
It helps you to put those two things together and it also can help you to spot new vocabulary and grammar, because it's easier to identify new language when you see it.
Those are reasons why having subtitles can be good.
But listening without subtitles helps you to develop genuine listening skills, because there are no subtitles in the real world.
So if you get used to listening with subtitles and listening and reading all the time, then you're not really developing genuine listening skills.
So don't rely on subtitles too much.
Make sure that you do plenty of practice, without subtitles, reading what you're hearing, in order to train your ears right.
Now you can always think outside the box and be creative with your practice.
For example, watch something with subtitles, then watch it again without, and then watch it again, but just listen to it.
For example, don't look at the screen, just close your eyes.
You see?
So with subtitles, without subtitles, and then just listening.
You know, this works for podcasts as well, because of course you can...
Listen to podcasts.
You can read the transcripts if they're available.
If you're watching your podcast on YouTube, you can listen with the subtitles on, listen with the subtitles off and then listen to the episode again in your podcast app with no visuals.
Okay, so you can mix it up a bit.
Doing unconventional things like this can definitely help.
So don't be afraid to experiment.
Focus on what you enjoy in English.
My final tip for this section is motivation is vital.
So focus on what you enjoy.
Watch and listen to what you enjoy.
Don't force yourself.
I mean, you know, don't just like listen to the news because you feel like you should.
Is the news really the thing that you're interested in?
Or is it too complicated and a bit sort of depressing?
There are plenty of other things that you could listen to.
If you're listening to English...
This is the most important thing.
And, if you think about it, the news, the English that you get in the news, is not necessarily the English that you can immediately apply to your conversations in the real world, right?
It's not like...
We actually talk like that in normal life.
On the news, they speak like this all the time.
Everything's a bit strange and a bit formal, and this is the language of journalism.
But in normal life, we don't talk to each other like that.
How are you, Steve?
I'm fine.
Here's the weather.
You know, would you like a coffee?
No one actually talks like that.
So the news might not be the normal thing to listen to.
And you know people just assume they think learning English use the news.
That's what the assumption is.
But, I mean, if it's interesting to you, then yes, go ahead.
Focus on what you enjoy and think about what you enjoy.
There's no reason why you can't just consume your content in English and enjoy it.
It doesn't have to be like boring homework.
So don't force yourself to do something you don't really like.
Keep it fun and enjoyable, because if you're not enjoying it, you won't keep doing it and you will develop negative feelings towards English.
So try different things until you find what you really like.
I'll just you know basically, without you having to think about it too much, it's Luke's English podcast.
Okay.
And then just listen to that as much as you can.
So let's move on to reading.
For reading, it's the same advice as for listening, basically.
Do plenty of reading, but diversify what you read.
So read books.
That's fiction and nonfiction.
Read newspaper articles.
Read articles about things you're interested in.
Read blog posts, emails, anything and everything.
There are.
You know, if you are a lower level learner, then you could try graded readers.
Okay, graded readers are books which have been adapted for lower levels so you can read some classic english stories, but they are adapted for, let's say intermediate, upper intermediate and c1 levels, let's say, and they allow you to get the enjoyment and pleasure of reading and finishing a book in english without it being too much of a struggle for you.
So you could just Google graded readers in English and you'll no doubt find some different ways to get hold of some of those things.
Read different kinds of texts, particularly fiction and non-fiction, because you should be familiar with slightly different styles of English.
Reading fiction all the time is great, but understand that things will be presented in a literary style.
That means...
The descriptions are very sort of expressive and florid in their style, whereas non-fiction reflects the type of English that you're probably more likely to write yourself, especially if you use English at work.
It's a bit more factual and deals with straightforward plain English as it applies to the real world.
So a mix of fiction and nonfiction.
But again, go for what you like.
But try and mix it up.
You know to be familiar with slightly different styles of English.
Going back to the main point of this, which is how to learn English with my podcast and How do you practice your reading with this podcast.
Well, a lot of my episodes have transcripts and you could read them either before, during or after you listen to the podcast.
So you could.
You could choose to read the podcast before you listen to it, then listen to it and maybe read at the same time, or not up to you.
Or maybe you listen and then you read what you've heard later in order to like just check things, or to just reinforce your English and turn it into a reading exercise.
So that's something.
You can check the episode pages in the episode archive on my website.
That's where, if there's any reading content, like a PDF transcript or just notes or stuff, you'll find that on the episode pages in the episode archive that's teacherlukecouk slash episodes or in the show notes for every single episode you'll find a link to its relevant episode page where you might find some reading content.
So basically, it's a question of the five R's here.
Reading, reading, reading, reading and reading.
Yeah.
Another question you might have is this.
Should I write words down?
Should I check words in a dictionary when I meet them?
So at this point, you might be wondering about writing things down or checking them in a dictionary.
Actually, I will come to that in a moment when I get to vocabulary and grammar.
So that's another question for later.
Now the productive skills then, speaking and writing.
Let's start with speaking.
So first of all, listening helps your speaking.
Listening actually helps you to improve your speaking.
Now, this episode is all about how to improve your English with this podcast, so naturally this suits listening because it's an audio podcast.
And yeah, listening a lot can help your speaking because it gives you a template to follow and makes you familiar with spoken English, which should make it easier to reproduce in your own speaking.
So listening actually feeds your speaking.
You start to become automatically familiar with pronunciation in English, how words are pronounced, but also how sentences are pronounced, with normal features of English pronunciation, which is very different to how English looks when it's written on a page right.
So listening to English regularly helps you become more familiar in this other version of English, which is the audio version of it.
I mean you become familiar with stress patterns, intonation patterns and weak forms of some words, meaning how they get squashed and sound different.
So you learn the rhythm of English by listening to it a lot.
Also connected speech, how words get joined together.
You can pick this up from listening a lot.
So listening helps your speaking.
But you definitely need to do plenty of actual speaking in order to improve this skill properly.
So how can you speak more?
Here are some speaking tips.
Either on your own or with some kind of speaking partner.
So speaking on your own.
And yes, you can do this on your own and you should do this on your own.
Speak on your own.
How?
Well, one idea is shadowing.
I talked about it on the podcast recently.
Shadowing is basically where you repeat what you are hearing, and you can just try and repeat exactly what I am saying to you right now.
Just a moment after I'm saying it, I demonstrated it on the podcast.
You just repeat what you're hearing.
OK, another idea is to speak out loud while listening and respond to any question I ask.
So I'm here talking to you.
In some episodes, I address you directly with questions.
I ask you questions.
You can just reply to me.
Imagine you're having a conversation with me and speak out loud in response to things I'm saying during the episode, or pause the podcast and just give your responses out loud.
Hopefully you will be mentally engaged while listening to the episode and you will have thoughts coming into your head.
Pause the podcast and express those thoughts in English.
It is the perfect opportunity to put those words to good use.
There is academic research behind this which says that when you are sort of you're engaged with what you're listening to, especially in another language this is a key moment for doing some practice and learning.
When you're in that zone where you're listening to me or whatever it is you're listening to and you're fully engaged and you're actually having thoughts and responding like a normal human.
You're not just studying it because you have to, but you're actually kind of involved and interested in what you're listening to and you're having ideas and thoughts, press pause on the podcast and actually express those thoughts out loud.
It's a really important moment for developing that English muscle which you have inside you.
Use it to actually express Real ideas.
The more real they are, the more you actually feel what you're saying.
Actually, the more long-lasting the effect is on your English.
So speak out loud while listening and respond to any questions I ask.
Or at the end of an episode, you can summarise what you've heard.
It doesn't even have to be perfect, but you can just talk about some of the things that you heard me say in the episode, repeat some of the points I made, and you may well even use some of the bits of English that I've used.
You don't have to use them all, but just some bits will stick with you.
Say them, express them, use them, because if you don't use it you lose it.
Respond to what you've heard, adding your own opinions or experiences.
So not just summing up the things I said, but then expanding on what I've said and personalizing it.
And also, you could talk to yourself regularly, right?
This is even separate from the podcast.
You can just, in your daily life, you can actually talk to yourself.
Just comment on what you're doing.
Express your thoughts out loud in English.
So, I'm...
So, right, it's time to cook.
Let's see.
Let's make some rice.
Where's the rice?
It's in this drawer.
Let's see.
How much rice should I pour into here?
Well, it's about one cup should be enough.
So let's just pour the, you know, even stuff like that.
This is interesting, isn't it?
Oh, isn't it?
Isn't this fascinating doing a podcast about making rice.
How brilliant is this?
This is amazing.
Just whatever nonsense comes into your mind, let it run out of your mouth.
Speaking speaking, speaking.
So that's speaking on your own.
Let's talk about speaking with AI, artificial intelligence.
Of course, you can pick your chat bot of choice, chat GPT, Google Gemini, whatever it is.
So you could do all the things I mentioned above just now, but you could let AI listen to you, because a lot of these AIs have like voice mode where you can just chat to them.
So let AI listen to you and either respond or continue the conversation, or ask it to give you feedback on any area of your English.
It's particularly good at correcting grammatical and vocabulary errors.
Do role plays with AI.
Ask it to be a certain person in a certain situation and then do a role play and then ask for feedback.
I did this on the podcast recently.
And I'd like to do it again.
Practice scenarios you will need, for example, job interviews or presentations at work, or maybe upcoming conversations you're going to have.
You can practice them with AI meetings, social chit chat and small talk.
Get AI to focus on certain situations and ask for feedback.
Use any questions or content that I've provided as the basis of your conversations or discussions.
You could input notes, vocabulary lists into AI and say, ask me some questions.
Let's have some conversation.
I want to practice this vocab and let it go help you.
And then thirdly, with speaking partners or teachers.
So this is wow, with actual human beings.
Yes, remember that, practicing your english with other humans.
Here are some things you can do with speaking partners or teachers.
So basically, do all the things I just mentioned, but with another human person.
It's just more natural and less weird to do them with a human than on your own or with AI.
If you do those things with a teacher, get your teacher to give you feedback and guide you towards improving all aspects of your speaking.
So if you're doing it with a teacher, obviously you would need to find a teacher and probably give them some money in order to get them to help you.
I'll give you some suggestions for that in a moment.
So that's all I have to say actually about speaking.
Of course there are many different speaking skills and it's complicated, but I'm just trying to keep it simple in this episode.
That's all I have to say.
Of course, it's harder to work directly on your speaking with my podcast, right?
It's harder to convert that to speaking practice.
But you can use my podcast as a starting point and find ways to be inspired by it to do speaking practice.
And you can find qualified teachers and speaking partners on a platform like italki.com.
That's I-T-A-L-K-I.
Check out teacherluke.co.uk slash talk.
Okay, and get started.
You can find different teachers there, different conversation partners and, you know, shop around until you find someone who you like and who's on the same wavelength as you, and then book some sessions where you talk to that person.
You can ask them to help you in certain ways and that can be a great idea.
What about Duolingo, you might be asking yourself?
What about Duolingo?
Well, my quick answer to that is don't bother.
Don't bother with Duolingo.
I think it's not the best, in my opinion.
I think you should try instead to practice actually speaking to other people, communicating in real time with your mouth and getting feedback on it, rather than constructing sentences out of context on an app.
I say the same for other similar apps.
I'm not just singling out Duolingo there.
Although that green owl is particularly annoying, especially the way it tries to guilt trip you through emails if you're not practicing your English on it.
And it says, I'm worried about your English.
Oh, go away.
Just stop harassing me.
I have nightmares about that green owl.
What is it?
Oh, it's the green owl again.
I thought I'd unsubscribed.
Anyway, apps like Duolingo are good to an extent.
Don't get me wrong.
There is some use and usefulness because anything is better than nothing, really.
But I think you need real English practice in a wider context of a real conversation environment.
You know, to work on that discourse management I mentioned earlier.
Another tip Cambridge exam tasks.
Cambridge exams like FCE for B2 level, CAE for C1 level, CPE for C2 level and IELTS, which kind of works across all the different levels.
Cambridge exam tasks.
So, for more inspiration for your speaking, consider using Cambridge exam speaking tasks as the basis for your practice.
This should ensure that you're working on a variety of speaking skills.
Get your teacher to help you.
Preparing for a Cambridge exam with a good course can help you work on all your skills.
Actually I would recommend a course with a real teacher rather than just like an online course thing or computer based.
You are genuinely improving your skills, not just improving test skills.
Right, let's move on to writing then.
So for writing, it's actually the same thing as with speaking.
Do plenty of practice writing different types of text.
At the very least, you should try to write on a very regular basis.
Simply, the act of writing in English regularly is tremendously important.
And for this, it doesn't matter so much what you are writing, in fact.
It's just important to express yourself in English and practice constructing different sentences and paragraphs in English.
So, write a diary in English.
Every day, write a few lines about what you did, what you thought, and how you felt.
Okay?
It's very, very important to produce a lot of English.
So, write, write, write.
In fact, write, write, write, write, write.
Find your voice.
It's like speaking, and it's like a lot of other things.
Practice a lot.
You need to work on...
Being able to write formal and informal emails, you know the different tone, the different style of language and the different organization, the structure.
So that's formal and informal emails, reports at work, proposals at work, stories, articles, essays.
Think about this.
What kinds of things do you write in your first language?
Generally, when you write in your first language, what is it that you're writing?
You probably will need to write similar things in English.
OK, so it's probably going to be emails, isn't it?
Maybe the other things I mentioned, but it's probably emails.
So practice writing emails in English.
Now, you might need to get creative. to think of things.
Or, again, use Cambridge exam tasks.
Do the writing tasks.
They will test your real world writing skills.
Or you can ask Al, I mean AI, to give you writing tasks and then ask it to give you feedback.
By the way, for Cambridge exams, you can find sample papers with sample tasks, answers and model answers which you can compare yours with.
So you can find everything you need.
On the Cambridge English website.
So I'm talking about preparation sample tests and you can find sample tasks in there.
So check the PDF for this episode.
You'll find links for that cambridgeenglishorg, and then preparation materials for the different tests.
You'll find links there.
So for all those tests, use the speaking and writing tasks as the basis of some practice.
Also, use AI again.
AI can help you a lot with your writing.
Ask it to give you different writing tasks and ask it to correct you and give you feedback.
When your work has been corrected, do it again.
Okay?
See if you can produce something closer to the correct version without reading it. right?
You can input Cambridge exam tasks, writing and speaking into AI and ask it to test you on it.
You can also just basically ask AI to have an email conversation with you and ask it to give you feedback your emails.
Okay, so those are the four skills.
Basically practice a lot and get feedback and keep going right.
Regular real-world practice is important.
So, if possible, make friends with people in English and And just spend time in your life in English and make English part of your life.
Don't be shy.
Give it a try.
And don't be afraid to start now.
But if you don't have access to English speaking people, you know, you've got the other option.
Speak to yourself.
Use AI or pay someone to talk to you on italki, for example.
Let's move on to language systems, right?
Let's talk about those language systems I mentioned before.
Grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and discourse management.
So I'm trying to be super fast and efficient here.
I could go into insane levels of detail on these things, but I will just try to give my best tips and keep them short and sweet here.
So starting with grammar.
Knowing grammar is definitely important, so study it.
It can be boring, but try to make it interesting for yourself by noticing examples in the English you're listening to and reading.
So when you're listening to me or whoever...
Sometimes you can kind of put your grammar hat on, if that makes sense, and just sort of think I'm going to listen to this and I'm just going to notice the grammar that's being used.
Also, remember that grammar isn't the most important thing.
It is important, but it's not necessarily the most important, despite what maybe you were led to believe at school.
Making a connection and being communicative.
Those things are actually more important than just knowing specific grammar points.
So don't worry too much if you make mistakes.
Just make sure you learn from them.
OK, making mistakes is all part of the process.
You just have to make sure you learn from them.
I make that point because some people their fear of making mistakes, which is completely natural, especially if you've gone through a school system that really prioritised accuracy, with red pen and all that stuff.
It's like the girls from All Ears English say, it's about connection, not perfection.
And this is true.
Don't wait until you feel that your English is proficient and then start using it.
Just start using it. and, you know, learn from the errors that you make along the way, okay?
Going back to the original question in the title of this episode how can you learn English with this podcast or with my podcast?
Well, to learn grammar specifically with this podcast, you could do these things.
So first of all, you could listen to the episodes I've done about different aspects of grammar.
Actually a lot of my episodes are about grammar, so find these episodes, listen to them and do any exercises which I present on the episode pages on my website.
Remember, you can always find links in the episode descriptions, alright?
So here are the episodes I've done about grammar or which feature grammar teaching.
There might be more than these, but these are the ones I can think of.
So episode two about Easter, there was a language focus on adverbials.
Episode five about the actor Joaquin Phoenix, there was a focus on modal verbs for speculation.
Episode 19 is about passive verb forms.
Episode 29 is about narrative tenses.
Episode 44 is about a variety of different structures that we use when we're telling stories.
Episode 176 was a verb tense review.
Episode 224 was about pronunciation of verb tenses and connected speech, but that included quite a lot of grammar.
Episode 239 is about prepositions and verb collocations with prepositions.
Episode 263 another chance to look at the way we talk about past, present and future in English, with lots of verb tenses.
Episode 406 had a focus on past continuous tense.
Episode 450 included a variety of questions about grammar.
Episode 518 was about present perfect, continuous and future continuous plus the language of newspaper headlines.
That was a funny episode.
Episode number 795 was a short story which included lots of different grammar.
Now, there are others, but I can't remember them right now.
Also sign up to LEP Premium and listen to the episodes I've done there, including ones about articles present perfect tense, modal verbs and more teacherlukecouk slash premium.
In premium episodes i always focus specifically on teaching you english, and that includes grammar and vocab and pronunciation work.
There are other ways to practice your grammar, of course.
For other ways to work on your grammar, try doing some good old-fashioned grammar practice.
There is room for this in your English learning routine.
First, try to work out where your weaknesses are in grammar.
Which areas are you okay at and you don't need to practice and which areas do you need to improve?
A good start would be to do the study guide at the back of the book English Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy.
My copy is really, really old because, you know, I've been teaching English for bloody ages.
And so my copy of English Grammar in Use is from ages ago.
But anyway, there are new editions.
Maybe the fifth edition is currently out.
So I've got a copy of the second edition here.
But it's basically the same as it used to be.
It's just a new cover.
Anyway, English Grammar in Use.
You know it?
The blue grammar book.
You know that one?
English Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy.
It's one of the biggest selling books of all time alongside Harry Potter and the Bible.
Um...
Anyway, at the back of that book there is a test which is designed to help you identify which areas of grammar you need to work on.
It's a sort of diagnostic test.
It's called the study guide.
But yeah, it works as a diagnostic test to show you your weak spots in English grammar.
Now, if you don't have a copy of the book, you can probably download it as a PDF these days.
You could just download it from the internet.
Now, I wouldn't want you to do anything illegal, though.
For example... downloading a PDF of a book that you haven't actually paid for, right?
So if you don't want to illegally download the PDF of English Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy, definitely don't do a Google search for English Grammar in Use PDF.
Don't do a Google search for that if you don't want to download it.
Is that clear?
Now, I did that accidentally, and I found loads of free PDF downloads for the book.
Remember, the study guide is at the back of the book, around page 300 and something.
Do the study guide and then work on the grammar points that you don't know, all right?
Also, get plenty of input.
Of course, listening and reading are important, because input is a vital way to develop your sense of what is correct or incorrect in English.
Notice grammar when you're reading or listening.
Be mindful.
And ask yourself things like, why is this particular form being used here?
And accept certain things as being normal and make a conscious effort to make your English the same, even if it doesn't feel completely natural.
Because English, surprise, surprise, has a slightly different structure to your language.
Keep a notebook of grammatical structures that you've noticed.
Even if this is just good sentences that you like or structures which seem to be good or new to you, note them down.
Record grammar in this way.
It's a great way to remember and absorb real-world English.
Practice producing your own sentences.
Don't be satisfied with grammar until you can actually do it yourself.
Make this a part of your learning.
It's not done until you can do it yourself.
Always personalise whatever aspect of English you're using and try to make new sentences about yourself or your opinions using the new structure you're working on.
Just focus on one small point at a time.
OK, one bit at a time.
Don't worry about overdoing it.
Just make little incremental steps bit by bit.
It's more effective that way.
So slow and easy, slow and steady wins the race when it comes to learning grammar.
Bit by bit, how do you eat an elephant?
You eat it one spoon at a time.
It's the same with English grammar.
Learn little bit by little bit and build slowly.
Get feedback from someone, ideally a teacher.
Get corrections and encouraging positive feedback.
Use that as the basis for more and more practice and more and more trial and error work, where you try things out and make mistakes, learn from them.
Watch out for the mistakes you often make.
Watch out for your frequent mistakes and try to iron them out consciously until it becomes second nature.
Don't be too hard on yourself and do keep using English.
Be patient.
Remember, it's about what you can do.
It's not just about what you know, right?
So focus on being able to do it.
But yes, be patient as well.
Yes, I will make that point again.
You're not finished until you can use the grammar yourself in your own conversations or in your own writing.
So make that your sort of end goal.
Can I just produce this stuff myself?
OK, right.
Let's move on to the next language system, which is vocabulary.
How long have I been talking?
A little bit longer than I expected, but it's not bad.
I've been going for what?
40 minutes or something.
For about 40 minutes, let's have a little water break and then i'll talk to you about vocabulary.
Okay, how are you doing listeners?
How are you getting on?
Is this a useful episode?
I'd love to know your thoughts as well and your feedback and your comments.
What has worked for you?
Can you tell me, can you think of a specific thing that you've done that's helped you with your English, or a specific thing that you do that has helped you with your English?
I don't need the master plan.
Okay, we're not looking for the ideal master plan, you know, that always works all the time.
But just one habit or one thing that you've done or one thing that you've used that has helped you with your English.
Maybe that's just listening to Luke's English podcast, but is there something else that you do beyond just listening?
Tell us what it is.
Share your thoughts in the comments section.
I'm now going to have a little drink of water and then talk about learning vocabulary.
So vocabulary now I've done entire episodes before about vocabulary, particularly one episode called how to really learn vocabulary and not just stare at word lists, which you could listen to.
But here is a summary of the main points I made during that episode.
So at this point I'm just gonna basically restate the main points I made in that episode about how to learn vocab.
So the key principles in the episode were surprise surprise, read and listen a lot, because constant exposure to English is essential.
But also notice new words in context.
Pay attention while reading or listening.
Don't just memorise isolated terms because a lot of people do that.
I've seen that many times over the years.
Students of mine staring at lists of words.
And it's just the English, the new English words on the left and then a translation on the right.
And all the student is doing is just reading through the list.
It doesn't work like that.
Record words effectively.
Don't just write translations.
Include more details definitions collocations examples, pronunciation notes, grammar notes synonyms antonyms, any other details, like whether it's formal or informal, anything else that you need.
Fill up a page. with details about the word.
So it's not just how many words can I put on this one page in a list, but how much detail can I add for each word?
Common mistakes, relying only on translations.
That's a common mistake, going...
English word on the left, translation on the right.
They don't always work like that.
Also, writing isolated word lists without context.
That is a mistake in my opinion.
Not including grammar usage or pronunciation details. especially example sentences.
You want to include new vocabulary in the context of a sentence.
It's really the meaning of the whole sentence that will help you Understand and remember that word, and also you've got to remember how the word fits into a sentence.
Is it followed by a certain preposition?
Does it tend to go with an ing or an infinitive form?
Things like that.
And another mistake is never testing yourself or trying to use the words.
Your goal when you're learning vocabulary is recall, okay?
Recall.
This is what you should be practicing.
This is how you learn new words.
You practice retrieving them actively from the depths of your brain, the dark depths, a black hole that is your brain.
You've got to somehow get those words out and get them out of your mouth.
It's no good just looking at a list going.
Yeah, I remember that from the last time I looked at this list.
You actually have to try and get that word out of your brain and into some sort of coherent sentence.
So what you should be giving yourself are little prompts, little memory prompts.
Okay, little clues to help you go, ah, I remember that word.
Ah, here's the word.
And look, here's a sentence.
In fact, here's a sentence about me.
Here's a sentence about a thing that I did once.
Right.
That's really important.
So remembering words, meaningful context, learn words inside real sentences with meaning.
Spaced repetition is really important.
So this means reviewing words and increasing intervals.
So you've just learned a new word.
You quickly revise it.
You quickly test yourself on it then and there.
But instantly right, by covering it up and seeing if you can remember what it is.
And then, maybe 10 minutes later, you do it again, or an hour later, you do it again, or maybe a day later, you do it again.
A week later, two weeks later, at increasing intervals, increasingly long intervals, you review those words.
So this sense of spaced repetition, going back and reviewing words at increasingly long intervals.
It might be like a day later and then a week later, and then two weeks later.
This is a really important scientifically backed up principle for remembering things.
So spaced repetition.
And there are apps that you can use, like Anki A-N-K-I, which is essentially a sort of flashcard app that will automatically allow you to check.
So any words that you instantly remember.
So you've got a little memory prompt and if you get it right, then it puts those words at the back of the list.
And it takes longer for you to be reminded of those words.
The ones you couldn't remember, it instantly reminds you.
When you get them right, they go to the back of the list.
And then you get reminded of them maybe a day later or something.
So you can just like...
Work with your word lists, your piles of flashcards, and just constantly be working on them.
They prompt you to remember words.
You come up with a word, maybe in a sentence.
If you do it right, great.
You'll be reminded of that word and asked to remember that word sometime later.
And this system is called spaced repetition.
Anki is an app.
Quizlet is another app you can use.
Active recall.
I've said it before.
I'll say it again.
Test yourself.
Force your brain to produce the word.
Don't just recognize words when you see them.
Actually come up with a word yourself.
Mnemonics and associations.
So you can use vivid images, personal or emotional connections or anything, any little tricks that you can think of, to make some sort of connection with a new word.
Okay, if that word sounds like something that you already know, if it sounds like something else, make a connection with that thing somehow.
Controlled practice and free practice.
So first get the form of the word right, practice putting that word into sentences just to get the spelling and the form right, and then try to use it more spontaneously later.
Speak out loud when you're practising.
Don't just study silently.
Actually say things out loud with your mouth as well as writing them down.
Some useful tools that you can use.
Of course, there are online dictionaries Longman Oxford Cambridge, flashcard apps I've mentioned.
AI tools, the usual ones like ChatGPT for examples, questions, corrections.
YouGlish.com to hear authentic usage in different accents.
LukeGlish.com.
If you want to check if I've ever used those words, LukeGlish.com is a great resource.
Word lists as well the Oxford 3000 and Oxford 5000 word lists, word lists which basically can give you a starting point if you want to learn the most important frequently used words in English.
So a summary of my advice then expose yourself to a lot of English notice, collect and study vocab in detail.
Practice recalling words actively.
Use vivid personal strategies to fix words in your memory.
Apply vocabulary in writing and speaking.
Stay positive and adapt methods to your own style.
And, of course, sign up to luke's english podcast premium to get all of this stuff packaged and put on a plate for you.
Okay, this you know.
I kind of apply all of this stuff to the way I design my premium episodes.
So you can just you know, I prepare it all in PDFs for you and then put it all on a plate for you.
Teacherlukecouk slash premium.
We're getting closer to the end.
Will I be able to do all of this within the hour?
Let's see.
Hello, this is Luke from the future, just interrupting here and extending the length of this episode slightly.
I've just realised that I didn't answer the question from earlier on, which was, if you remember, should I check words in a dictionary when I discover them while I am reading?
Should I check those words in a dictionary?
Should I write those words down?
How many words should I check?
Should I check them at all?
Or should I just keep reading?
What should I do?
Right, so should you check words in a dictionary while you are reading?
Well, not always and not always immediately.
If you stop for every unknown word, you'll lose the flow of the text and you'll get frustrated.
I want you to prioritise when you're reading something, you should prioritise the actual reading of it and prioritise getting as much English into your head through reading as possible.
And if you stop all the time to check words or write them down, then you lose the flow of what you're reading and potentially it stops you reading.
What I don't want you to do is start reading a book and get distracted by noting things down and checking a dictionary all the time.
Because what will end up happening is you'll just do a few pages of the book and that'll be it, and you'll stop.
And you'll put the book down and you'll never go back to it.
All over the world there are English books which have got a few notes on the first few pages and then nothing else ever happened to them.
Don't contribute.
Don't make another sad story like that.
So I would like you to focus on actually reading books and trying to get a lot of English in through reading.
But of course, there will be times when you just don't understand what's going on.
And there will be times also when you keep noticing new words and you really feel you need to know what they mean.
So by all means, in those cases, yes, check them.
And if you really want to record them because you feel like you want to use them again later, then you can start noting them down.
But first, when you discover something that you don't know, try to guess what it means.
Try and work it out from context.
Often you can get the meaning just from how it's used.
And that's probably the most efficient way because that allows you to then keep carrying on reading.
So just try and, you know, practice that skill of just kind of guessing and managing to continue.
But then check some words.
So look up words in dictionaries such as Cambridge and Oxford's online dictionaries.
If you think that they are important for the overall meaning...
If you think these are key words which are perhaps preventing you from being able to enjoy the story.
So if they're important for the overall meaning, then yes, check them.
If they are repeated over and over again, or repeated a few times, you might need to check them, or any words that you feel will be useful in your own speaking or writing.
So words or phrases that jump out at you. that you think, ah, that's a good one.
I'd like to keep that one and use it myself.
Now, of course, there is nothing wrong with just checking words also, just simply because you're curious about them.
And obviously, it's really important to be curious about English as you're consuming it.
But be selective about what you note down and try to focus on just letting the story flow so that you keep turning the pages and ultimately read as much as possible.
Secondly, should you write words down?
Should you note them down?
Yes, you should sometimes, but with a purpose.
Don't write everything down, just write some things, so be selective.
Writing things down does actually help you remember them, but don't just make endless lists.
Instead, you should try to write the sentence that you saw the word in.
So don't just write the word, but write the whole sentence because context is key.
Add your own example sentence as well at some point.
Note any other details, like make notes of pronunciation and word family if relevant, and you can find out that information by looking up those words in a good online dictionary.
And review your notes regularly and try to use the new words in speech or writing.
So just to recap this little interruption about discovering words when you're reading.
Read for meaning first.
Try to guess new words when you meet them.
Check only the important or interesting words, write them down with context and examples and use them actively so they actually become part of your vocabulary.
But don't let new vocabulary stop your reading flow or stop your overall enjoyment of what you're reading.
Don't forget the simple value of extensive reading.
So that's my answer to those questions.
Let's carry on.
So pronunciation, again, listen a lot.
Have I said that enough that you should listen a lot?
Now it's vital to simply get plenty of exposure to spoken English for your pronunciation and to become accustomed to hearing the sounds, rhythms and features of english, but also copy what you hear.
So do, listen and repeat.
Practice and shadowing, as i mentioned before.
Now i could get more specific about that, but really it's just a case of repeating what you hear and trying to copy it.
But also, to be more specific, you can study the English phonemes, understand the sound system of English.
This can be a bit like hard work, but it can be a really good idea to understand the different options, different sounds that we actually use as the basis for our pronunciation.
And that includes all the different sounds, but also other features, like the ways that, as I've said before, words connect together, the way that certain words get stressed in certain ways, intonation patterns and so on.
But certainly study the English phonemes.
Learn the phonemic script practice transcribing things into phonemes and then check in an online dictionary and also transcribing from phonemes into normal spelling.
There are various different tools you can use to help you do this.
Transcribe sentences into phonemic script.
You can use the phonemic script typewriter to help if you're doing this on a computer.
There's basically a phonemic typewriter opens up on your on the website and you can type things out in phonemes, copy paste them into other documents.
So if you don't know how to get the phonemes, you can actually use the phonemic script typewriter, e-langcouk or just Google phonemic script typewriter, and you'll find it.
Here are some other useful tools that will definitely help you to learn the phonemic script.
There's ipachart.com.
It's an interactive IPA chart.
That's the International Phonemic Alphabet.
You can click on any IPA symbol to hear its pronunciation and explore what it means.
That's basically a way to just practice, you know, checking the sounds of all those phonemes.
IPA chart dot com.
There's IPA chart app.
A focus on English-specific phonemes.
You can click symbols to listen.
You can view sample words and get pronunciation tips.
It offers a user-friendly layout for vowels, diphthongs and consonants.
That's the IPA chart.
Pronunciation Studio's English IPA chart.
This includes audio mouth position visuals and explanations of the 44 phonemes in English, plus distinctions between phonemic and phonetic transcription.
That is Pronunciation Studio.
English with Lucy.
She has a phonemic chart.
This is a British English chart with clickable symbols.
Example words and audio for each sound.
This is great for context-based learning, and you know it's in a British English accent.
That's on English with Lucy's phonemic chart on her website.
Okay.
Cambridge's online phonemic chart.
There are other things you can check on the... on the PDF for this.
Let's skip forward to other tools.
Pronunciation playback from IPA text.
This is where you can write something in IPA and it will play the sounds out to you.
So you can check IPA to speech tools.
Itinerarium's phoneme synthesis tool reads IPA phonetically.
You can find the link on my page, on the PDF for this.
And there are other things that basically allow you to input IPA symbols and have them read out to you, which is important for when you're essentially learning the phonemic chart by transcribing things into phonemes and then transcribing back into English.
That's how I learned the phonemes.
And it's important for learning the soundboard of English, let's say.
And there are other sources, other resources that you can use, all listed on the PDF, to help you do that.
Again, my premium subscription always features episodes designed to make it easy for you to repeat lines after me.
But anyway, there you go.
There are tips about pronunciation.
Finally, we're going to talk about discourse management.
So again, discourse management, let me define that.
This basically relates to how you organise the things you say and write in order to make them more clear and logical.
The other stuff we've talked about.
The other language systems have all been very much focused on, let's say, word by word or language sentence-by-sentence constructions.
But discourse management refers to the way that we deal with English on a larger level, in terms of how we construct, Like whole paragraphs of text or whole pages of text, or how we construct speeches or extended bits of speaking.
How we deal with conversations, how we manage the English that we are actually producing at a larger level.
OK, so remember that everything you write and say needs to be nicely packaged for the person you're communicating.
Here are some key features of good discourse management.
So you've got range and development of ideas.
So extending your answers beyond just yes or no.
Giving explanations reasons examples opinions, developing your points organisation, logical sequencing of the things you're saying a beginning, a middle and an end, clear topic sentences, clear transitions from one point to the next and clear conclusions.
A lot of this is about signposting what you are saying while you are saying it.
Okay, making everything very clear and simple.
Imagine you are a tour guide on a tour bus and you are essentially explaining where you are, what's happening, what's coming next, you know.
You have to package everything up nice and neatly and clearly for everyone.
Cohesion and coherence are two words very relevant for having a good level of English.
Cohesion means making things logical, making things nicely connected, so ideas are logical from one to the next.
And coherence means it's clear and easy to understand.
It's not just some random series of crazy ideas all jumbled together, but it's clear and easy to understand.
So this refers to using linking words and phrases like however, or on the other hand, or as a result, referring back to previous points, like saying as I said before, or going back to my main idea, right.
Another idea, appropriacy.
This means choosing the right style or the right register for the right situation.
So we think of formal and informal English.
Fluency in interaction.
So, in speaking, this means responding smoothly, taking turns, naturally keeping the conversation going active, listening as well as speaking.
Here are some tips on how to improve discourse management.
So first of all, extend your answers.
So avoid the short, minimal replies.
Always add reasons, examples and details.
For example, I like travelling.
That's the end.
You should say I like travelling, especially to big cities, because I enjoy exploring new cultures and meeting people.
For example, last year I went to Berlin.
Now obviously you shouldn't go on and on and on.
But you can see we've just got several ways that we are adding a bit more information rather than just I like travelling stop.
Use linking devices connectors like, first of all.
I would probably say as well as that, maybe something like that.
First of all also, and furthermore no furthermore, and moreover, in spoken English sound a bit formal.
Try to include at least two to three connectors in every extended answer.
So basically connect your ideas up together.
Organise your talk, think in chunks.
So introduction, what's the main point you're trying to make?
The body, this is where you develop, you introduce points and then develop them.
And then conclusion, this is where you round off with a final thought.
That's how you would structure a piece of writing, but it's also how you might have to structure a piece of speaking as well.
Even in a short answer, like in 30 to 60 seconds, that kind of structure works.
Practice storytelling.
Telling anecdotes helps with sequencing and cohesion.
Use time markers like first, then, after that, finally.
Add details that bring the story alive.
To practice all these things, you can record yourself.
Choose a question from a Cambridge exam, for example.
Record your answer for one to two minutes.
Listen back.
How would you rate your response?
Did you extend your ideas?
Did you use linking words?
Was it organised?
If you struggled, what specifically was it that you struggled with? and try to practice that.
Learn discourse markers for interactions.
So in discussions, use phrases to manage turn-taking.
That's a good point, but I'd like to add this.
I would say that.
I see what you mean, but what do you think about that?
Because when you're talking to someone, you are both interacting together to essentially develop the same conversation.
You're not just waiting for the other person to stop so you can say something unrelated.
Listen, read and listen to good models.
So notice how people actually talk in podcasts, in TED Talks or in interviews.
Pay attention to how speakers move from one idea to the next and take.
You know, take bits of useful English that allow them to do those things.
So, in short, discourse management means managing your ideas clearly, logically and appropriately in longer stretches of language.
To improve.
You can extend your answers, use linking words, practice organising your ideas and train with recordings and models.
For an episode, a specific episode full of good advice.
You could listen to the one I did with communication expert Matt Abrahams.
It was episode 879.
It was called think fast, talk smart communication techniques for spontaneous speaking with matt abrahams.
It is full of top tips for developing your discourse management in your speaking.
So that's the end of the episode.
I didn't manage to keep it less than an hour, but I think it's okay.
So that's the end of the episode, right?
That brings us to the end of this episode, in which I have honestly tried to give you a detailed yet efficient answer to the question of how can I improve my English with your podcast.
Admittedly, quite a lot of my advice doesn't actually involve the podcast beyond just listening to it a lot.
But I still think that listening to my show regularly is a really good basis and from there you can do all sorts of other practice to make sure your English develops properly.
Here's a quick summary of the advice I've given in this episode.
Listen, make it a habit, listen regularly, listen long term and listen to diverse sources, sometimes with subtitles, sometimes without.
Focus on what you enjoy so that you'll keep doing.
So you'll keep doing it.
Read, read widely.
So fiction, nonfiction articles, transcripts.
Exposure to different styles develops your vocab, your grammar awareness and your discourse sense.
Speak.
Use what you hear as a model.
Shadow, summarize, and respond out loud.
Practice with AI, with teachers or partners, or on your own, I should add.
Focus on real communication and get feedback.
Write.
Write regularly a diary.
Experiment with different styles.
Use exam tasks or AI prompts for practice and correction.
Grammar, notice it in context.
Practice producing it yourself.
Use diagnostic tests like the one in English grammar in use to find your weak spots.
Learn from your mistakes, but don't obsess about it.
Communication comes first.
Vocabulary, notice words in context, record them with details, Review them with spaced repetition and use them actively in speaking and writing.
For pronunciation, listen and copy.
Practice stress, intonation, connected speech and those other features.
Learn the phonemic script and use online tools to practice.
And finally, discourse management.
Extend your answers.
Organise ideas clearly.
Use linking words and practise storytelling.
Notice how good speakers structure their talk. and try and do the same thing.
And also mindset, motivation, and enjoyment are vital.
Keep it fun, be patient, practice a lot, seek feedback, so look for feedback and make English part of your life.
Remember, I want your advice too.
There are many ways to learn English and you have to choose what really works for you.
I would love to get your comments on this episode, so please tell us in as much detail as possible which specific things have helped you to improve your English.
Have a little think. which experiences, methods, resources, have really helped you, do you think?
Can you suggest one method habit, resource or tip that has helped you improve your English across any of the areas I've mentioned?
Listening speaking reading writing grammar vocabulary pronunciation discourse, management or communicative competence.
Your comments may be enormously helpful for other listeners.
And I'm very curious to read what you have to say as well.
But now that's the end of this episode.
Thank you for listening and have a great afternoon evening, morning or night, wherever you are in the world.
And I will speak to you next time.
But for now, it's just time to say goodbye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to Luke's English Podcast.
I'll see you next time.
You will be directly supporting my work and making this whole podcast project possible.
For more information about Luke's English Podcast Premium, go to teacherluke.co.uk premium info.
