Englsh Grammar

Lecture Details

07 reasons - Why your English speaking isnt improving

Do you feel like youre becoming better at speaking English? We at Lets Talk Institute often get emails from our subscribers saying something like this

"I need help. Ive been studying English for a long time, but I dont feel like Im improving. What do you suggest?"

Here are some of the most common reasons that I think people "get stuck" and dont improve.

Reason #1 You dont spend enough time on it.

Improving your English ability requires a lot of time. To keep improving, you need to spend at least one hour every day practicing. If you have a busy life and only study on the weekend, its going to take a very, very long time to become fluent. Youve got to do it every day. Even spending ten minutes a day is better than nothing.

Reason #2 Youre too passive.

When I was a kid, I used to think I could learn in my sleep. I read a book in which a character became a genius by listening to lessons while he slept. I thought that was a great method! Unfortunately, learning doesnt work that way. You dont learn much just by sitting back and passively absorbing language. You have to actively work on it.
Speaking is one form of active learning. But there are ways to be active even if you dont have anyone to speak with Try to guess how someones going to finish a sentence.
Remember new words that you hear and look up their meanings.Talk to yourself...and so on.

Reason #3 You dont review.

This is a big one. A lot of people dont review enough.When you review something before youve forgotten it, it sends a signal to your brain that says "This is important! Remember it!" So when you have a choice to learn something new or remember something that youve almost forgotten, go for the review!

Reason #4 You rely on your native language too much.

Explanations of English written in your native language can be fun to read. They allow you to easily understand things that would be too complicated to have explained for you in English.But a translation or an explanation in your native language only gives you knowledge about English. It doesnt give you practice. Imagine that youre trying to create strong connections between different pieces of English. Putting your native language in between them just gets in the way.

Reason #5 Youre focused on "mistakes".

A lot of English learners want to know when theyve made a mistake. The thinking goes that if you can fix all of the mistakes, whats left will be perfect.But here are some reasons why you shouldnt focus on mistakesThere are a lot more wrong ways to say something wrong than right ones.Focusing on mistakes makes you feel shy, which makes you speak less.
Some of the mistakes people point out arent really mistakes.

Reason #6 You dont put things in context.

When you learn a new word, the first thing you should find out is not "What does it mean?" but rather "When can I use it?" Context is super important. Thats why every letstalkpodcast lesson starts by describing a situation. Thats also why I suggest learning phrases rather than words you need to know how words fit together with each other as well as what they mean.


Reason #7 Youre too advanced.

When you first started learning English, you probably improved very quickly. Thats because its easy to learn the most common English words and grammatical structures. In fact, 75% of spoken English is made up of less than 400 words. As you improve, you start to move on to less common words and expressions. Unfortunately, there are a lot of them. Learning them all is a slow process.In other words, its natural to feel like youre slowing down. Thats a sign that youre really getting good!