Fluent in English: The TRUTH about Fluency

If you've been learning English for years, watching a lot of video lessons, reading books and magazines in English, taking online courses and having classes with private teachers, and you are still not fluent, this video is definitely for you. Hi English learners! I'm super excited that you are watching this video now. My name is Kate and I'm here to help you improve your English fluency. In this video, I will tell you how to become fluent in English step by step. Fluency is the ability to speak a foreign language quickly and easily. To be fluent means to feel comfortable with the language, to speak smoothly and reply without pauses and hesitation. If you've been studying English for years and you are still not fluent, I have great news for you. You can improve your English. You can be a fluent English speaker. I've made a pyramid of fluency to show you what are the main component parts of the way to reaching fluency. So the pyramid of fluency is a triangle divided into 7 parts. The first part is awareness. When we are aware of something, that means that we know it very well. Awareness and learning English is a deep understanding why you need to learn the language. It's highly important to know your main reasons why you need to study English. Maybe you want to travel around the world, meet people from different countries, or you want to live and work in an English-speaking country. No matter what reason you have, you should set your learning goal. Some people study English without having any obvious reasons for it, just because they love the language. But it's essential to identify your personal goals and be aware of them. When you have a certain purpose, you put more effort to the learning process. Set a big goal and create small daily goals. As for me, I always write my daily learning goals every day and track them during the day. So, awareness of your learning goals is vital and you should write down your plan for reaching a big goal and identify the small steps towards this goal. The second part is the right mindset. Have you ever been disappointed about your progress in learning English? Have you ever felt frustrated by struggles when speaking? I've been there. When I talked to a native speaker of English for the first time, I didn't understand anything, and I didn't know what to reply to him. I felt embarrassed and I couldn't remember key words when I needed them, so it was a really awkward situation. And the only thing I could say was – excuse me for my English. And I was really frustrated and after that I asked myself – I've spent so much time studying English, but I still can't speak, what am I doing wrong? There were a lot of frustrating negative thoughts about myself and my speaking, but one day I realized that those thoughts didn't help me improve. When we tell people my English is bad or sorry for my English, we start believing it and this is the biggest mistake. And the answer is – we need to have the right mindset. Positive thinking is the key to the learning process. Mindset is all about the way you think, the way you think about yourself and your English. The right mindset is a deep belief that we are able to improve our skills, we are able to grow and become better speakers than we were before. Try to change the negative thought with a positive one. For example, instead of thinking – my English is bad, tell yourself – my English is not perfect, but it's getting better and better day by day. Do you feel the difference? Be positive about yourself and enjoy the process of learning. Don't think about mistakes and fails, stop those negative thoughts in your head. You can do it! The next step is hard work. A lot of students ask me – what is the best English course to take to become fluent? Can you tell me what to do to become a confident English speaker? Can you tell me how to understand English movies and TV shows without subtitles? And when I suggest taking a native speaker's course, they respond that it's too expensive. When I suggest recording themselves, they respond that it feels funny and stupid. When I suggest preparing reports for speaking, they respond that it takes too much time and they have no time for doing it. So they have so many reasons why they can't work on their English. I think it's obvious that no one would help you to become fluent but you. You can improve every single day by doing hard work. Learning a language is always hard work. Fluency is not something that happens overnight, it's not something that happens fast and easily. It takes time and it takes a lot of efforts. When we're working hard, we're growing. We're making progress only if we're working hard. When we overcome struggles in learning English, we definitely improve our language skills. Struggles with listening and understanding, struggles with conversation in English, struggles with grammar points that we don't have in our native language. And now I have a question for you. What are your main struggles in learning English? Please share your story in the comments. So the important part of moving towards fluency is hard work. You have to invest your time and your energy in the learning process. Your efforts in regular practice will certainly help make you fluent over time. The next part is consistency. Consistency is very important if you wish to get great results and become fluent in English. Consistency creates discipline. So after setting your study goals and creating the right mindset, you should make your schedule for studying. Making a schedule is an extremely helpful thing because when you start following it, you are more efficient with your time. Practice on a daily basis. For example, on Monday, you listen to podcasts and read the transcripts, working on your vocabulary. On Tuesday, you read a book in English and try to retell the story from the book. On Wednesday, you watch video lessons and repeat words and phrases to work on your pronunciation. And so on. One hour, two hours, three hours per week is not enough. If you really want to become fluent in English, you should practice every single day, no matter where you are. Also, consistency helps you to stay highly motivated and be focused on your goals all the time. The next part is confidence. Being confident is a powerful state of mind. That means we feel worthy and value ourselves. We trust in our abilities and qualities. When we believe that something's possible, we can get great results in any field and, of course, in learning English. And it's essential for an English learner to speak with confidence and sound confident. I'm telling you this because over the past few years, I have developed my own confidence. I remember the time when I was literally shaken with fear when I started speaking in English. And I had a strong fear of public speaking because I was too afraid to make mistakes. And when I made them, I thought it's probably something wrong with me. It's really difficult to remember all the vocabulary and verb tenses when speaking. And sometimes we can make mistakes. Mistakes are part of our life. Everyone makes them. Making mistakes is the best way to learn. If you've made a mistake, just correct yourself and move on. Don't worry about it. Another important thing is that the more we get experienced in something, the more our confidence grows, especially when it comes to learning a language. But there is always someone more advanced than we are. So don't compare yourself with others. Comparison is just a waste of time. Focus on your goals, do your best and believe in yourself. Be kind to yourself. The next part is interaction. Interacting with other people is the most effective way to start speaking fluently because when we communicate with each other, we have the opportunity to use English successfully. We can share our thoughts and express our ideas. So to speak fluently, we should practice that particular set of skills. I mean social skills, effective verbal communication. The important social skills we need to interact with each other are active listening, turn-taking, correct reacting and polite disagreements. Through the process of interaction, you learn to share your ideas and being able to solve problems. Use any opportunity to talk to people. You don't have to practice your English with native speakers only. You should also have face-to-face interaction and communication with other students who are non-native speakers. Because it will be more comfortable and you can use simpler vocabulary, speak more slowly and use simpler grammatical structures. In this way, the interaction process makes possible both understanding as well as learning. There are so many online English classes and you can interact with your teacher and other students using your phone or laptop. So find the classes which are appropriate for you and interact with students from all over the world. And the top of our pyramid is fluency. The result of awareness, right mindset, hard work, consistency, confidence and interaction. Now you see that fluency requires a lot of practice. So believe in yourself and don't give up. That's it for today. Please leave a comment below. I'm so curious to find out about you and your experience of learning English. Thank you for watching. If you found my video useful, please subscribe to the channel and click the bell, so you don't miss any of my lessons. And also be sure to give this video the thumbs up. Bye!