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HOW TO ACHIEVE
FLUENCY IN ENGLISH
LEARNING SKILLS LESSON

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1 Don't expect miracles!

My first tip is possibly the most important one. It is do not

expect miracles. There are a lot of products out there at the
moment that promote becoming fluent in 30 days. I even saw
a video the other day promising fluency in a week. You've got
to be realistic. Before you do anything else, before you progress
with your fluency journey, get that idea out of your head.
Fluency is a marathon, not a sprint. It's absolutely fine to sprint
towards certain goals, but make sure they are achievable goals.
Otherwise, you're just setting yourself up for failure. Having
learned two foreign languages myself, I can understand
completely how frustrating it is and how much pressure there
is to get to a certain level quickly or to pass a certain exam
before a certain date. Not everyone out there is a language
genius. Try and understand your own abilities and your own
pace of learning and set realistic goals around that.

I ended up learning Spanish really quickly because I had the

golden opportunity of going over there and living with a
Spanish family and having a Spanish partner. When I went to
learn Italian afterwards I was disappointed because I learnt it
much more slowly and I didn't find it easy to get to a high level.
I had to realise it's not me. It's my situation. So I set realistic
goals around it and I ended up doing really well in my Italian
modules at university.

2 Learn Efficiently
Tip number two is learn efficiently and this tip comes as
thanks to the sponsor of today's video, Lingoda. Now,
whenever I speak to somebody who is picking up a new
language, I always hear them say, "Yeah, I've downloaded

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loads of language apps. It's going really well," but they never
seem to carry it on that far. I think that language apps are a
great way of passing your time and picking up certain things
and making a small amount of progress. But I do not think
that they are anywhere near the most efficient way of
achieving fluency in a language.

This is where Lingoda comes in. They are an online language

school and they teach English, business English, French,
German, and Spanish. They provide live online classes with
amazing qualified teachers in intimate little groups so you get
lots of attention and lots of feedback and prices start at just
€8 per 60-minute small group class. The lessons are available
24/7 so you can always fit them around your busy work
schedule or your personal life. Fairly often, I check into the
Lingoda platform and attend some classes just to keep up to
date with the school and see how everything's going and I
always have so much fun. Their class booking tool is so simple
to use and the learning materials are amazing and you have
access to them all. You can use all of them at any time and
that is an insane resource.

If you want to boost your fluency with regular structured

classes then Lingoda for yourself. Check out their monthly
subscription because they've got some amazing package
deals. You can sign up for a seven-day free trial by clicking on
the link http://bit.ly/LucyxLingoda_June2021 and using my
code LUCY30 to get 30% off your first paid month.

3 Make fluency a lifestyle choice!

This Let's move on to tip number three. Now it's often said
that in order to achieve fluency, you have to focus on
immersion. You have to immerse yourself in the language.
That's not always an option for many people in the world.
Instead, I like to think of it as make fluency a lifestyle choice.
Do as much as you can to immerse yourself in the language,
but also accept that it's not always possible especially in a
pandemic to travel over to a country, give up your work, leave
your family and spend two months there to get fluent.

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It's easy to compare yourself with other people. For example, I

always tell the story about how I learned Spanish and it's
frustrating for other people to hear, "Oh, you got fluent
because you lived in Spain. So, of course, you did, but what am
I going to do?" The reality is that before going to Spain I
completely immersed myself in Spanish whilst living in
England. It was my lifestyle change. I was so passionate about
learning the language that I thought about it a lot of the time.
Spanish music, I listened to music, I watched TV shows, films, I
tried to speak with other speakers of Spanish, I tried to meet
as many Spanish people as I possibly could, and I spoke to
them via WhatsApp, via Voice Notes. I did everything I could
to immerse myself remotely.

One thing that I really like to get my students to focus on is

trying to think in English. Take some time each day to really
talk to yourself out loud or in your head in that language, no
translating. Stop translating in your head. Think in English or
at least try. For me, that was really the key to becoming fluent.
You may even find yourself developing an additional
personality in that second language. This happened to me in
Spanish. I've got English Lucy in my head and I've got Spanish
Lucy in my head. We have different senses of humour, we play
with words and language in different ways, and I am so happy
with that. It's really cool to discover that new part of yourself,
but you can only do that by really trying to make it part of
your lifestyle.

4 Examine unique characteristics!

Tip number four is examine unique characteristics of the

language you're learning, English. It's fairly easy to learn the
basics especially if you can translate to and from your mother
tongue. However, what really makes the difference when it
comes to achieving fluency is learning things like phrasal
verbs, idioms, humour, really try and focus on those parts of
the language. Admittedly, they're the most difficult parts to
learn and that's why many people don't achieve fluency.

Phrasal verbs and idioms are particularly difficult because

there are no real rules. You have to learn them as you go.

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The best technique I can think of is learning them in context.

If you are interested in improving your phrasal verbs in
English, I could always look into developing something to
help you so let me know if you'd be interested in that. In the
meantime, I have got lots and lots of videos on phrasal verbs
and on idioms as well. I have a place in my heart for idioms. I
absolutely love them in both English and other languages.

5 Focus on pronunciation!

My last tip is focus on pronunciation and, in particular, I

would say, focus on pronunciation over grammar. I'm a
pronunciation nerd. I've never had too much time for
grammar.

This is my personal view. I'm sure lots of teachers may not

agree with this but I think one of the most important things is
being able to be understood. It's not about losing your accent.
It's about pronouncing each sound correctly so that it's clear.
That's why in all of my vocabulary videos, I always add the
phonetic transcription. If you do not know how to use the
phonetic transcription, I really recommend that you
familiarise yourself with it.

I have created a tool on my website. It's free to use,

www.englishwithlucy.co.uk. I've created the phonemic chart.
It's got all of the sounds that we use in modern RP and you
can click on each phoneme and hear me pronounce it, and
I've also got some words containing each phoneme and you
can click on those too and hear me say them.

Learn how to use these IPA transcriptions because they will

transform the way you learn pronunciation. Once you have
mastered each sound in English, you'll be able to put them
together and pronounce things in a much clearer way. If
you're really interested in learning how to produce each
sound, then I also have my pronunciation course, all the
information for that is in the description box, but it's very
thorough.

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VOCABULARY
1 at the moment
currently, at present

2 to set yourself up for failure

to do a task even though there is no chance of
success

3 frustrating
annoying, irritating

4 golden opportunity
a fantastic, rare opportunity

5 picking up
aquiring

6 This is where X comes in...

This is the moment at which X will be useful
or important!

7 a lifestyle choice
the way you choose to live your daily life

8 remotely
from a distance, without being in the local area

9 the key
the solution, the answer

10 play with words

to use words that sound similar or that have several

different meanings especially in a clever or funny
way

11 admittedly
used to express a concession or recognition that
something is the case

12 nerd
a person who is extremely interested in one
subject

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