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Shadowing practice: Don't Waste Your Time Learning English Like This

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  1. How can you really learn to speak English confidently?0:00
  2. Let me help you speed up the process by telling you in 10 minutes what I learned in 10 years.0:04
  3. Hello, it's Keith from the Keith Speaking Academy and the YouTube channel English Speaking Success here to help you become a more confident English speaker.0:21
  4. Now then, I've spent over 10 years, actually no, over 20 years.0:31
  5. I should change the title over 20 years learning languages like French, Chinese, Spanish, and I feel like I'm a confident speaker of those languages.0:38
  6. However, what most people don't know is that I've also tried to learn Italian, Malay, and Japanese, and I was less successful.0:49
  7. Why was I successful in some of them and unsuccessful in others?1:01
  8. What is it that worked and that didn't work?1:07
  9. And how can I help you become a more confident speaker of English?1:10
  10. In this video, I'm going to tell you five things that work and will help you learn English more effectively.1:14
  11. These are five things that are based on linguistic research, but also on my personal experience.1:22
  12. So it's kind of mixing a bit of science and a bit of anecdote.1:29
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  1. I'll tell you five things that work and the opposite that doesn't work.1:33
  2. And all of this will help you become that confident English speaker.1:37
  3. Ready?1:43
  4. Let's dive in.1:43
  5. Right, number one, to effectively learn English and become confident, you must be focused.1:48
  6. In English, we say to put the blinkers on or to have your blinkers on.1:54
  7. If you've ever watched horse racing, you see the horses have these things on their eyes, right?1:59
  8. So they cannot see.2:04
  9. These are blinkers.2:05
  10. So to put your blinkers on is to be very focused and only see one thing, because otherwise you're going to get distracted and you're not going to study.2:07
  11. Okay, you're going to be really, really focused.2:18
  12. My experience in Italy, did you know I actually lived in Italy and taught the Italian police?2:20
  13. I was working for the Italian police as their English teacher.2:28
  14. There are some interesting stories there, maybe for another day.2:32
  15. The thing is, through those months I was there, I was there for two months, I picked up some Italian, right, getting by in the coffees and in the shops2:36
  16. and restaurants.2:45
  17. And for about a week or two when I got home, I carried on practicing.2:46
  18. But then I didn't have time, I was too busy.2:51
  19. And it just didn't happen.2:54
  20. I wasn't focused.2:56
  21. It wasn't a priority.2:58
  22. And this is an important lesson I learned, you have to make things a priority.3:00
  23. Otherwise, something else will come up and you won't do it.3:06
  24. Oh, I've got my English class.3:09
  25. No, but I've got this to do and that to do.3:11
  26. I haven't got time.3:13
  27. The biggest lesson I learned then was never to say I don't have time.3:15
  28. Because what that really means is I choose not to do this.3:21
  29. And I learned to change that.3:27
  30. Whenever I said, no, I don't have time for this.3:29
  31. No, no, no, I choose not to do this.3:32
  32. That's the reality.3:35
  33. Because you have time.3:37
  34. If you don't do your English class, in that hour, you'll do something else.3:38
  35. Right?3:43
  36. You're not going to stop breathing for an hour.3:43
  37. You'll do something else.3:45
  38. You choose not to do the English study.3:47
  39. Always, right?3:50
  40. So be clear about being focused, making it a priority and saying I choose to do it or I choose not to.3:52
  41. But it's your choice.4:00
  42. Always.4:02
  43. Number two, be persistent.4:07
  44. What a lovely word.4:10
  45. Persistent.4:12
  46. Persistent.4:14
  47. And it means to continue or to keep going.4:15
  48. I often tell my students that learning English is not a sprint.4:18
  49. It's not 100 meters.4:22
  50. It's a marathon.4:24
  51. And you need to keep going.4:25
  52. Right?4:27
  53. Be persistent.4:27
  54. The thing is, if you go on social media, a lot of influencers will tell you you can get fluent in three months.4:29
  55. You can learn English in with these five words in 10 minutes.4:40
  56. The thing is, right?4:45
  57. As people on social media, we've always got one eye on the views and one eye on the education.4:47
  58. And there's always a balance.4:56
  59. And so a lot of influencers will try and convince you that it's easy.4:58
  60. You can do it in three months.5:04
  61. You can become fluent.5:06
  62. It's not true.5:08
  63. It takes time.5:09
  64. If you go to the Cambridge English website, it'll tell you to move up a band, like a B1 to a B2.5:10
  65. It will typically take 200 hours of guided study and learning.5:19
  66. And the higher up you go, the more time it takes.5:25
  67. So very often schools and courses will run for one year or nine months to move up a level.5:29
  68. Taking into account, you know, space repetition and all of that, nine months for a level.5:36
  69. That's more realistic.5:42
  70. It does take time.5:43
  71. So you must be persistent.5:45
  72. And the trick here is if you enjoy your study, you're going to be persistent.5:47
  73. You're that are engaging.6:01
  74. And that's going to help you a lot.6:03
  75. Let's move on.6:05
  76. Okay.6:10
  77. Number three is find your mojo.6:11
  78. Mojo.6:14
  79. What I mean really is mojo, motivation, right?6:15
  80. Find your motivation because you need to be motivated to learn another language like English.6:20
  81. One way to harness your motivation, I mean to get motivated is to have specific and realistic goals and ones that you can measure, I think, smart goals, right?6:28
  82. But specific and realistic.6:41
  83. So sometimes, and I look at the comments in my video chat and sometimes students say, well, I'm a beginner now and I want to be fluent in English.6:44
  84. Okay.6:53
  85. It's a nice ambition.6:54
  86. I'm a beginner now.6:56
  87. I want to be fluent in English.6:57
  88. It's not very specific.6:58
  89. What do you mean by fluent and when?7:00
  90. How long?7:03
  91. And it's just, it's too big, I think, and it's too far away.7:04
  92. Like the stars make it more specific and realistic.7:08
  93. A much better goal would be I'm a beginner now and I want to be able to speak and communicate my ideas on some common topics in the next six7:12
  94. months.7:25
  95. Something like that is much more specific.7:27
  96. You could even say which topics and a teacher will come and say, that's great.7:30
  97. We'll take you from A2 to B1 in six months.7:35
  98. That's basically it.7:38
  99. And it's something you can measure, especially if you identify the topics.7:40
  100. That's something it's more specific.7:45
  101. It's realistic and it's measurable as well.7:48
  102. So all of that can really, really help.7:51
  103. Now, the thing with motivation is you need to feed your motivation.7:53
  104. Like your dog or your cat, if you have one, if you don't feed your pet, they will become lazy and tired.7:57
  105. They'll have no energy.8:06
  106. And ultimately, I'm afraid they'll die.8:07
  107. Like your motivation, it'll disappear.8:10
  108. So you must feed your motivation.8:12
  109. Right?8:15
  110. What do you give your motivation?8:15
  111. The best thing you can do is remind yourself why you're doing this.8:17
  112. Why am I learning English?8:23
  113. And maybe it's because, well, because you want to travel and speak to other people.8:26
  114. If you're studying IELTS, actually, your goal is not IELTS, right?8:30
  115. Your goal is the reason why, because I want to study abroad.8:35
  116. I want to actually work and live abroad or take my family abroad and have a better life.8:39
  117. That's the why.8:46
  118. And so in those difficult moments, when your motivation is down, remember the why.8:47
  119. Another thing you can do, and I did this when learning Spanish, I was living in Spain.8:56
  120. I was there for about a year.9:01
  121. I was there for a long time.9:03
  122. But after a year, I decided to join some classes.9:05
  123. And my roommate said, what, why are you doing classes?9:09
  124. I mean, we live in Madrid.9:14
  125. Just go on the street and talk to people.9:15
  126. And I said, yeah, I know I do, but I just I always say the same things.9:18
  127. And, you know, I don't really know many people.9:22
  128. When I went to the class, oh, it was just my level went up because I was learning much wider language, vocabulary, grammar.9:26
  129. But I was also connecting with people.9:37
  130. I was making friends.9:39
  131. I was talking to people in the same boat as me.9:41
  132. We weren't in a boat idiomatically.9:44
  133. We were in the same situation.9:47
  134. And it was just it was great to connect with others.9:48
  135. And when when my motivation was lagging, we could cheer each other up and say, you know, keep going, connect to others.9:51
  136. It was invaluable.9:59
  137. The best thing I ever did, even though I was living in Spain at the time, joined a Spanish course.10:01
  138. And finally, I think a nice thing to do is to reward yourself.10:07
  139. When you reach a goal or part of a goal, just give yourself a pat on the back.10:11
  140. I can't reach, but reward yourself.10:17
  141. Say, great, I've done it.10:21
  142. I've done a month study.10:22
  143. I've studied every day.10:24
  144. I've learned to speak about this, this and this.10:25
  145. Great.10:28
  146. Go to the cinema.10:29
  147. Go and buy yourself a book.10:31
  148. Give yourself a little reward.10:33
  149. Keep the motivation going.10:35
  150. Feed your motivation.10:37
  151. Let me feed you with some more ideas.10:40
  152. Moving on to number four.10:42
  153. Number four is big goal, small steps.10:48
  154. Now this is related to the motivation, but so having a big goal is great.10:52
  155. Breaking it down into small steps is really important.10:58
  156. What you're going to do step by step.11:02
  157. If you've ever been walking in the mountains, if you like rambling, right, sometimes you say you go out rambling, you say, right, we're going to go in a big11:04
  158. circle for 10 kilometers and you go, it's going to take ages.11:13
  159. That isn't great.11:21
  160. What's much better is to say, well, okay, we'll do a circle, but first we go to that peak, then we'll go to that lake, then we'll go down the11:23
  161. valley to the village and then we'll come round.11:31
  162. There are steps, small steps and you think, oh, yeah, that's doable.11:34
  163. Little things you'll achieve on the way.11:39
  164. That's great.11:42
  165. So when I arrived in China many years ago, I knew that I wanted to speak Chinese and I really wanted to speak to a very high level.11:43
  166. I was a bit like, I'm a beginner, I want to be fluent in Chinese, but I also realized that's not going to work.11:55
  167. So I broke it down.12:02
  168. I thought, right, what am I going to do the first year I'm here, I want to be able to communicate with family and friends.12:03
  169. That was key.12:11
  170. Second, I wanted to be able to have daily conversations with people on the street, in the shops.12:12
  171. Thirdly, I actually wanted to be able to work in Chinese, to function in Chinese.12:19
  172. So I broke that down into three goals, each one a year.12:26
  173. And the first one, I remember every day for about eight months, I went for an hour or an hour and a half to class before work, eight o 'clock12:31
  174. in the morning, boom, to class an hour and a half, and then go to work and did that for eight months.12:42
  175. And that took me up to like an A2 level.12:49
  176. And I was able to talk to family and friends, very simple, like pass me the sugar and I like this, things like that.12:52
  177. The key was big goal, small steps.13:01
  178. You see, the small steps help you focus on the present moment on the now.13:06
  179. When you've got big goals, you start thinking, oh, God, it's so much, it's too much, it's overwhelming.13:14
  180. The more you think, the less you are present.13:20
  181. You're lost in your thoughts.13:24
  182. To avoid that, to be present, small steps, because the small step helps you focus in the present moment.13:26
  183. And it works much, much better.13:34
  184. So if you've got your goal of getting, let's say a band seven in IELTS, think about small steps, first three months, the next three months, the next three months,13:37
  185. what are you going to do, how are you going to reach it?13:47
  186. Big goal, small steps, let's move on.13:50
  187. Number five, practice lots.13:58
  188. You see, the big mistake a lot of students make, and I did as well, although I'm going to blame my teacher at school with French, is we studied too14:01
  189. much.14:11
  190. We just studied.14:12
  191. And by study, I mean reading and reading, learning the rules, learning the grammar, reading, reading, a bit of listening, it was all passive.14:13
  192. It was study.14:22
  193. We weren't actually practicing.14:24
  194. We weren't speaking, writing, very little, right?14:27
  195. And that's what happened at French.14:32
  196. And so, you know, I got to the age of 18, having studied French for 10 years, and I couldn't speak.14:34
  197. That's ridiculous.14:40
  198. So, it's so important, practice lots.14:41
  199. Wherever you are now, and as you're studying, whether it's with videos, my videos, or with a book, as you study, practice at the same time, you can practice speaking14:46
  200. out, practice making phrases, changing phrases, you can use the speaking success system that you can learn from my videos.14:56
  201. You can practice in the real world, you can practice online with classmates or students or teachers.15:05
  202. Online is the real world as well, right?15:12
  203. Or face to face.15:14
  204. It doesn't matter.15:16
  205. But as you're studying, practice as much as you study.15:17
  206. And that will help you become a more effective learner and a more confident speaker of English.15:23
  207. Next.15:30
  208. Right.15:34
  209. Point number six.15:35
  210. Hang on, Keith, you said five.15:36
  211. I did, I know.15:40
  212. All right, you can call this a bonus if you like, or point number six.15:41
  213. And that is review.15:45
  214. And I couldn't leave you without telling you how important it is to review, to become an effective learner and speaker of English.15:47
  215. Review because, well, there's a lot of science and theory behind this.15:56
  216. Do you remember teachers will probably know Ebbing House, Herman Ebbing House and his learning curve or his, well, his memory curve.16:01
  217. Some call it a forgetting curve.16:10
  218. But after a certain number of hours, a lot of people say 24 hours, you will forget 70 % of what you've studied if you don't review.16:12
  219. And then several days later, you need to review again or the learning, your learning goes down.16:24
  220. There's a lot of mythology around this.16:30
  221. And even, you know, Ebbing House, he was the researcher and he was the, the person undergoing the research, he was the candidate, if you like.16:32
  222. So I think there's a lot of flaws.16:44
  223. But the general idea that if you don't review within a day and within a week, you are going to forget a large amount.16:46
  224. There's also spaced repetition theory, right?16:55
  225. This is what most of the apps like Duo Lingo work with, that you learn some words.16:58
  226. And then the next day, they come back again, few days later, they come back again, that spaced repetition.17:02
  227. And it is, it does work.17:08
  228. It's very, very important.17:11
  229. So I think it's essential to review.17:12
  230. What I do with my classes learning French or Spanish now is after the class, I review after a few hours, the notes I've taken.17:14
  231. And then a day or two later, I don't review the notes, but I listen or watch something on the same topic.17:24
  232. So if I've been watching something about weather, I'll listen to the weather report or I'll watch a film about weather or I'll do something on a similar topic.17:31
  233. So there's a recycling of language, reviewing and recycling, basically hugely important, very valuable, quite easy to do.17:40
  234. Just find time.17:51
  235. Remember, don't say I don't have time.17:53
  236. It's I don't choose to do it.17:56
  237. Or I choose to do it.17:58
  238. The choice is in your hands.18:01
  239. Okay, so there you have it, five or six different ways to help you become a more confident speaker.18:04
  240. Now I realize I am mixing research and anecdote here, right?18:10
  241. And, you know, that's what I did to build my online course, I out speaking gold course.18:16
  242. It's a mixture.18:22
  243. I mean, it's based on research I did in my master's degree on digital education, which I did very, very late in life.18:23
  244. But also anecdote, my own learning experience.18:30
  245. In fact, the speaking success system is based on my own experience of learning languages.18:33
  246. You can watch a video about that, actually straight after this one, if you like.18:39
  247. You can find out about the course, more details on how that might be able to help you in the links below in the description and the comments.18:44
  248. That's it for today.18:52
  249. Listen, thank you so much for taking the time to be with me.18:54
  250. If you've liked it, you know what to do.18:57
  251. If you subscribe, you know what to do.18:59
  252. And listen, I can't wait to see you in the next video.19:02
  253. Keep going, be focused, persistent, motivated, and all the rest of it.19:06
  254. Take care, my friend.19:12
  255. Bye -bye.19:13

British English Pronunciation Practice with a B1 Interview at 173 Words per Minute

This clip gives you british english pronunciation practice from a real teacher, not an actor reading lines. Keith, from the channel English Speaking Success, talks straight to camera about how he learned five languages, at a measured 173 words per minute that leaves space between words instead of rushing them together. The clip sits at B1, so most of the vocabulary is everyday, with a few harder words like "measurable" and "linguistic" dropped in as he explains his method.

Across 267 lines he moves from a personal story about teaching English to the Italian police into a numbered list of five things that help you speak English more confidently. That shape, a hook, then short numbered points, gives you complete sentences to repeat one at a time instead of fast overlapping chat.

English Listening Practice: The Language Keith Uses in This Line

Listen closely to the opening line, "How can you really learn to speak English confidently?" It is a full question spoken at a pace that suits english listening practice, with clear stress landing on "really" and "confidently", the two words carrying his whole argument.

  • "Let me help you speed up the process by telling you in 10 minutes what I learned in 10 years." Notice the contrast built into the sentence itself, ten minutes against ten years, and how both numbers get equal weight when he says them.
  • "In English, we say to put the blinkers on or to have your blinkers on." A British idiom introduced in one breath, useful for hearing how a phrase gets explained the moment it is used.
  • "I picked up some Italian, right, getting by in the coffees and in the shops." A casual, unscripted aside with "right" dropped in mid sentence, worth noticing even though this recording has no marked reduced forms to lean on.

How to Shadow This Line for English Speaking Practice, Step by Step

Work through the clip in the order Keith gives it, since the five point structure builds on itself rather than standing as separate clips.

Repeating short, complete sentences like these, out loud and more than once, is a direct way to improve your english accent without stopping to study grammar rules.

  • Start at line 1, "How can you really learn to speak English confidently?" Say it three times, matching the rise on "confidently" before you move on.
  • Shadow line 18, "In English, we say to put the blinkers on or to have your blinkers on", until the idiom comes out as one unit rather than word by word.
  • Take line 22, "So to put your blinkers on is to be very focused and only see one thing, because otherwise you're going to get distracted and you're not going to study", and read it straight through without pausing at the commas, the way he does.
  • Finish with line 27, "I picked up some Italian, right, getting by in the coffees and in the shops", a longer and less scripted line, good for daily practice once the shorter ones feel automatic.
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