Two vocabularies - that is very true. Great piece! I am restacking! ✊🏻
At a risk of sounding as a retrograde in the world where “raw memorization” has been branded as something almost criminal, I would say… may be not “raw”, but it is important to encourage students to practice, drill, repeat chunks of text: collocations, sayings, idioms, various expressions. They need to figure out “thought groups” and practice building them first by repeating what and how others say stuff.
Thanks so much for the comment and the restack, really appreciated! Not retrograde at all. Chunks are how the brain actually stores language. You don't retrieve "would you mind" word by word. You pull it out whole. That's just how it works.
Repeating collocations and thought groups until they're automatic makes complete sense. It's actually why I love Glossika. It doesn't drill isolated words or grammar rules. It puts natural sentences in front of you and has you repeat them in context, over and over, until the patterns start to feel automatic. The chunk goes in whole and comes out whole. That's not the old method. That's just smart.
Thank you for your response. As a non-native speaker myself, I heavily rely on the methods that helped me and people I know, and memorization of texts in chuncks and grammar drill were a big part of it.
That is why I always get confused and disappointed when they say, “Oh, no!! No memorization needed. No grammar exercises. Only fun, fun, FUN!! They will learn everything just TALKING TO EACH OTHER!!”
Really insightful. I've started practicing these a week ago and I've already started seeing a few improvements. I wasn't expecting any change overnight to be honest. I know it takes time, you have to be patient and have trust in the process, however, I wanted to ask is there any way that I can overcome the fear of judgement?? Stop thinking more about myself and direct the consciousness towards the listeners?? I want to become someone who makes people feel seen and heard. I want to speak without and fear and doubt lurking in my mind and I want to stop analyzing and hyperfocusing every minute detail during conversations. Suppose, I use a word in the wrong context, God forbid a human makes mistake, my mind does not let that pass, it keeps going back to it, it keeps attacking me with it "how could you make such a naive mistake?" "was that awkward?" "how must have I sounded?. I think english is just a language and a medium of communication and it cannot possibly be a measure of your communication skills, neverthless I am working on improving my English, I'm practicing retrieval, imitation and also I talk to myself a lot. A little to much I believe, sometimes it makes me wanna believe that Im going nuts. I keep contradicting my own thoughts and all of that chaos in my head In english too. I am pretty young as of now and I am certain that with time my english proficiency will Improve. Thanks for the beautiful piece of advice. I look forward to learning with you.
Thank you so much for this. A week in and already noticing changes is a great start. You're right about patience too. Progress with a language builds slowly, and then one day you realise you're saying things you couldn't say before.
About the fear of judgement, a lot of my students have found this helpful. The listener is almost never thinking about your mistakes. They're focused on what you're saying, and often on how they sound themselves. That wrong word you keep replaying? Most people forgot it before you finished the sentence. You're the only one still carrying it around.
When your mind starts the replay, try answering it the way you'd answer a friend. If a friend used a word in the wrong place, would you call them naive? You probably wouldn't even notice. Give yourself the same kindness. The thought might still show up. You just don't have to agree with it.
Turning your attention towards the listener gets easier with curiosity. Go into a conversation wanting to learn one thing about the other person. Ask a question and really listen to the answer. When your attention is on them, there's less room left for watching yourself. This is also what makes people feel seen and heard. The fact that you want that already tells me you'll be good at it.
As for talking to yourself, you're not going nuts. It's one of the best ways to practise. Thinking in English, arguing with yourself in English, even the chaos in English, all of it shows the language is settling into your mind. That's a very good sign.
You have time on your side and you're clearly putting in the work. I'm glad you're here, and I look forward to learning with you too.
Two vocabularies - that is very true. Great piece! I am restacking! ✊🏻
At a risk of sounding as a retrograde in the world where “raw memorization” has been branded as something almost criminal, I would say… may be not “raw”, but it is important to encourage students to practice, drill, repeat chunks of text: collocations, sayings, idioms, various expressions. They need to figure out “thought groups” and practice building them first by repeating what and how others say stuff.
Thanks so much for the comment and the restack, really appreciated! Not retrograde at all. Chunks are how the brain actually stores language. You don't retrieve "would you mind" word by word. You pull it out whole. That's just how it works.
Repeating collocations and thought groups until they're automatic makes complete sense. It's actually why I love Glossika. It doesn't drill isolated words or grammar rules. It puts natural sentences in front of you and has you repeat them in context, over and over, until the patterns start to feel automatic. The chunk goes in whole and comes out whole. That's not the old method. That's just smart.
Thank you for your response. As a non-native speaker myself, I heavily rely on the methods that helped me and people I know, and memorization of texts in chuncks and grammar drill were a big part of it.
That is why I always get confused and disappointed when they say, “Oh, no!! No memorization needed. No grammar exercises. Only fun, fun, FUN!! They will learn everything just TALKING TO EACH OTHER!!”
Thanks for explaining the problem of not speaking fluently even though the writing and understanding are done without any efforts.
I will definitely try your suggested excercise.
I hope the suggestions help Mahesh, let me know how it goes for you
how to speak english with articulate the words in our mind .
Really insightful. I've started practicing these a week ago and I've already started seeing a few improvements. I wasn't expecting any change overnight to be honest. I know it takes time, you have to be patient and have trust in the process, however, I wanted to ask is there any way that I can overcome the fear of judgement?? Stop thinking more about myself and direct the consciousness towards the listeners?? I want to become someone who makes people feel seen and heard. I want to speak without and fear and doubt lurking in my mind and I want to stop analyzing and hyperfocusing every minute detail during conversations. Suppose, I use a word in the wrong context, God forbid a human makes mistake, my mind does not let that pass, it keeps going back to it, it keeps attacking me with it "how could you make such a naive mistake?" "was that awkward?" "how must have I sounded?. I think english is just a language and a medium of communication and it cannot possibly be a measure of your communication skills, neverthless I am working on improving my English, I'm practicing retrieval, imitation and also I talk to myself a lot. A little to much I believe, sometimes it makes me wanna believe that Im going nuts. I keep contradicting my own thoughts and all of that chaos in my head In english too. I am pretty young as of now and I am certain that with time my english proficiency will Improve. Thanks for the beautiful piece of advice. I look forward to learning with you.
Thank you so much for this. A week in and already noticing changes is a great start. You're right about patience too. Progress with a language builds slowly, and then one day you realise you're saying things you couldn't say before.
About the fear of judgement, a lot of my students have found this helpful. The listener is almost never thinking about your mistakes. They're focused on what you're saying, and often on how they sound themselves. That wrong word you keep replaying? Most people forgot it before you finished the sentence. You're the only one still carrying it around.
When your mind starts the replay, try answering it the way you'd answer a friend. If a friend used a word in the wrong place, would you call them naive? You probably wouldn't even notice. Give yourself the same kindness. The thought might still show up. You just don't have to agree with it.
Turning your attention towards the listener gets easier with curiosity. Go into a conversation wanting to learn one thing about the other person. Ask a question and really listen to the answer. When your attention is on them, there's less room left for watching yourself. This is also what makes people feel seen and heard. The fact that you want that already tells me you'll be good at it.
As for talking to yourself, you're not going nuts. It's one of the best ways to practise. Thinking in English, arguing with yourself in English, even the chaos in English, all of it shows the language is settling into your mind. That's a very good sign.
You have time on your side and you're clearly putting in the work. I'm glad you're here, and I look forward to learning with you too.