8 Keys to Real Fluency

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2 8 Keys to Real Fluency What is Real Fluency? To have Real Fluency means to be able to understand and speak Real English that native speakers use in Real Life. Did you learn English in school when you were young? Maybe you took a class when you got older? Or have you learned on your own as an adult from books or television? For many people the English they learned was more formal, more likely to be used in written language than everyday speaking. Most people were also taught with traditional learning methods, including listening to people speaking English very slowly and clearly. This gives people a good foundation in English, but it doesn t help you very much when listening to native speakers talking at a normal speed and using many informal expressions not taught in school Does this sound like you? Is it difficult for you to understand what native speakers are saying when they are talking to each other? Is it hard for you to speak in English and have native speakers understand what you are saying? If so, I can help you! Below are the 8 keys you need to develop Real Fluency they will unlock Real English so you will be able to understand native speakers and to be understood by them when you speak:

3 1) Persevere, don t give up improving your English! Learning a new language is something that takes a long time so it is important that you never give up trying. And like everything else in life, the surest way to fail at something is to quit. You also need to be as consistent in studying as you can. Try to study at least a little bit every day, or if you are really busy schedule a larger block of time every week to at least review so you don t lose what you ve already learned. You may find yourself stuck on an intermediate level plateau and it may not feel like you are progressing. When you find yourself in this position remind yourself that you are still learning and improving even if it doesn t feel like it sometimes. Once you become a member of the Real Fluency Family you can log into the site anytime to get extra encouragement and help with motivation. 2) Overcome your fear of mistakes. It is important to not let your fear of making a mistake keep you from practicing speaking and writing English. Remember: Speak and make mistakes! Yes you read that correctly! The way our brains work is that we learn and remember things more easily if they are associated with something different, interesting or emotional. You almost can t learn a new language without practicing speaking out loud and making mistakes!

4 I know this can be difficult to practice speaking out loud and not feel afraid or embarrassed. It will get better over time, your English will improve and it won t bother you as much to try speaking out loud. Mistakes are how we learn! Let me share a story with you: I have been studying Mandarin for some time now. When I was in China with my daughter and she was 2 years old a lot of people asked me how old she was. Automatically I said er sui/ 二岁 : two years. But in Mandarin sometimes you don t use er/ 二, like when talking about someone s age, instead you have to use the word liang/ 两 which roughly translates to couple in English. I knew that, but I automatically said it wrong without thinking, probably because of interference from English. So people corrected me, telling me I should say liang sui/ 两. I felt kind of silly because I knew better. It just always came out wrong. And I didn t do it just once, I made that same mistake a few times on the same day! Even after being corrected the first time! But after a few more times of making that mistake I finally remembered and automatically would say liang sui/ 两岁. Now I never make that mistake, I automatically say it right! If I had been too shy to answer at all, or only answered in English I wouldn t have learned anything that day. The importance of trying and making mistakes can t be underestimated! And you might even do better than me and remember the first time someone corrects you instead of making the same mistake over and over the same day like I did!

5 3) Schedule time to practice reading. Try to read a little bit in English every day, or set aside time at least once a week to read. Reading will help you increase your vocabulary and internalize grammar. If books for adults are too difficult for you, try books for kids like Magic Tree house or Harry Potter books. Or search for materials online that you can read for free. 4) Strengthen your writing skills Writing is an important way to get used to expressing yourself in English. You can find websites that will allow you to practice writing and get feedback online. You can also come to the Real Fluency Now forum and practice writing and get personal feedback and advice. 5) Improve your pronunciation English has more vowel sounds than many other languages and pronouncing these sounds correctly can be a big hurdle for English learners. Learning to distinguish between the vowel sounds in pairs of words like these is very important: seat cat sit cut English also has some consonant and consonant blends that can be difficult for learners.

6 I recommend taking a course to learn or review all the phonemes in English. This doesn t mean that you need to speak without an accent. That can be near impossible to adult learners and isn t necessary. The goal is for you pronunciation to be good enough to be understood by native speakers. In English a lot of information is also communicated using stress, rhythm and pitch. Stressed syllables and words are pronounced both louder and longer and sometimes with a different pitch. The syllables in some words need to be stressed correctly for native speakers to be able to understand what you are trying to say. For example, the syllables below that are bigger, bolder and underlined should be spoken louder and longer: teacher today energy Placing the stress on different words in a sentence can even change the meaning of a sentence completely by emphasizing one word over the others. Even if you make individual sounds clear and correct you may not be understood if your sentence stress and rhythm are off. Sometimes when correcting someone or if we want to emphasize something new or different we change which word in a sentence gets more stress. For example: No, that s not right. I didn t order decaffeinated coffee. (Meaning: you ordered regular coffee, with caffeine) No, that s not right. I didn t order decaffeinated coffee. (Meaning: you didn t order coffee at all, maybe you ordered tea.) To improve your pronunciation try listening to native speakers, either in person or on recordings and try to copy exactly how they are speaking as best as you can.

7 6) Build an extensive vocabulary A large vocabulary is important for communicating with native speakers. Native English speakers frequently use words and phrases that you may have not been taught in school and may make it next to impossible to understand what we are saying when talking with each other. Contractions, phrasal verbs, slang and euphemisms are used frequently to help communicate with a different tone or mood. Native speakers use them all the time and being familiar with them is essential to understanding native speech. If you can use them, you will also sound more like a native speaker. Some examples: I m tired Sounds more relaxed and less formal than: I am tired Instead of saying: The firemen extinguished the fire before the house burned down. A native speaker would be more likely to say: The firemen put out the fire before the house burned down. A good way to learn and review new vocabulary is to use flash card systems with SRS (spaced repetition software) built in.

8 7) Listen to English as much as possible Native speakers of any language when talking with other native speakers will talk fast and run words together. Have you ever listened to native speakers talking and been completely lost? When Americans talk we tend to connect some of our words together resulting in some changes to the sounds of the words. In addition, sometimes sounds are left out and sometimes others are added. Some examples are: stop it sounds more like sto pit best time sounds like bestime The word sandwich can sound like sanwich or even samwich. When someone says go on sometimes you can hear and extra w sound added, like they are saying gowon.

9 If you find it difficult to follow what people are saying, find English audio files with transcripts that you can follow along with. This will help train your ear to understand English better. In the Real Fluency Now Core Course, The Red Scarf, I include transcripts of each lesson s dialogue that you can follow along with if you need to. 8) Engage in conversation Use every opportunity to speak in English! Even if there is no one around to talk with practice speaking by yourself. Some of the techniques you can use to help your speaking include repeating and shadowing. For example, in the Real Fluency Now Core Course, The Red Scarf, I include mp3 s of the dialogues, both with and without pauses after each line. You can use these to repeat back what you heard or try shadowing the dialogue by speaking along with the characters. This is great way to improve your speaking skills and will help with your pronunciation and listening skills also. If you are lucky enough to know native speakers you can practice talking with, that is even better! Don t waste these opportunities! The practice you get, the faster your English will improve. Now that you know the 8 keys to Real Fluency, what are the next steps you need to take? Next steps to Real Fluency: 1) Sign up to get this ebook. Done! 2) Please introduce yourself and tell me your biggest challenge with learning English. You

10 can either me, or you can visit the Real Fluency Now forum: 3) Join Real Fluency Now to become a member of the Real Fluency Family! As a member you can take my new course and all future courses, make friends with other English learners, have access to the full forum to ask questions and practice, take quizzes to test your progress and much more! Goodbye for now! I will get in touch with you again soon through my updates! Remember with Hope anything is possible! Trisha Real Fluency Now - Real Hope for Real Fluency!