How to Study English Effectively

My name is A. J. Hoge. I have a Masters degree in Teaching English (TESOL) and over 12 years teaching experience.

During the past 12 years, I have used Effortless English to help many students speak English– easily. I have successfully taught students to speak English at Universities in The United States (Lanier Technical College), Thailand (Thammasat University), and Japan (Hirodai University).

Now I will help you.

What is the most important English skill? What skill must you have to communicate well?

Obviously, number 1 is Fluency. What is fluency? Fluency is the ability to speak (and understand)

English quickly and easily... WITHOUT translation. Fluency means you can talk easily with native

speakers-- they easily understand you, and you easily understand them. In fact, you speak and

understand instantly.

Fluency is your most important English goal.

The research is clear-- there is only ONE way to get fluency. You do not get fluency by reading text-

books. You do not get fluency by going to English schools. You do not get fluency by studying

grammar rules.

Listening Is The Key

To get English fluency, you must have a lot of understandable repetitive listening. That is the

ONLY way. To be a FANTASTIC English speaker, you must learn English with your ears, not with

your eyes. In other words, you must listen. Your ears are the key to excellent speaking.

What kind of listening is best? Well, it must be understandable and must be repetitive. Both of

those words are important-- Understandable and Repetitive.

If you don't understand, you learn nothing. You will not improve. That's why listening to English TV

does not help you. You don't understand most of it. It is too difficult. It is too fast.

Its obvious right? If you do not understand, you will not improve. So, the best listening material is

EASY. That's right, you should listen mostly to easy English. Most students listen to English that is

much too difficult. They don't understand enough, and so they learn slowly. Listen to easier English,

and your speaking will improve faster!

Understanding is Only Half The Formula.

Understanding is not enough. You must also have a lot of repetition. If you hear a new word only

once, you will soon forget it. If you hear it 5 times, you will still probably forget it!

You must hear new words and new grammar many times before you will understand them

instantly.

How many times is necessary? Most people must hear a new word 30 times to remember it forever.

To know a word and instantly understand it, you probably need to hear it 50-100 times!

The Key To Excellent Speaking

That's why I tell my students to listen to all of my lessons many times. I tell them to listen to the

Mini-Stories, the Vocab Lessons, The Point-of-View Stories, and the Audio articles everyday. I rec-

ommend that they listen to each lesson a total of 30 times (for example, 2 times a day for two

weeks).

So, the two most important points are: listen to easier English and listen to each thing many

times.

Suggestions For Powerful Listening and Excellent Speaking

1. Practice "Narrow Listening"

"Narrow listening" means listening to many things about the same topic. This method is more pow-

erful than trying to listen to many different kinds of things. Students who listen to similar things learn

faster and speak better than students who listen to different kinds of things.