Episode 135
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Full lesson
Read the Transcript
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Hello, everybody! I am Georgiana founder of SpeakEnglishPodcast.com. My mission is to help you to speak English fluently.
In this episode:
I’m going to talk about the relationship between reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
After that, I’m going to tell you a Point of View Story.
Ok, let’s get started!
As a language student, the main activities to learn a new language are: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. This is what we naturally do in our mother tongue.
One key aspect to keep in mind is that we can categorize these activities as input and output. As you may guess, listening and reading are input activities, and writing and speaking are output activities.
In other words, when you’re listening or reading, you are being exposed to the language, and when you’re writing and speaking, you are “producing” the language.
The traditional approach tells you that the more you write and speak, the better. That’s why language schools insist on writing a lot and “practicing” your speaking with other students, sometimes in groups.
This seems reasonable, but it’s not effective. There’s a lot of research that points out the contrary: Basically, to develop your English, you need to do input activities most of the time.
Why is that? Because you can’t produce the language if you haven’t previously learned it, and the only way to learn it is through comprehensible input, as simple as that.
But then...is speaking and writing a waste of time? No, I didn’t say that.
When you speak in a conversation, you can see what areas of the language you need to improve. Then, when you listen again, you will naturally pay more attention to those areas. For example, if you’re in a conversation, and you have to describe something in the past tense. When you try to do it, you see that you make some mistakes. The next day, when you listen to your materials again, I bet you’ll pay more attention to the past.
A good schedule may be listening for one hour a day (a course, a podcast, etc.) and practicing your speaking with a tutor or friend a couple of times a week. You will improve a lot.
Last but not least, there’s an interesting consequence when you listen and when you read:
Listening will naturally help you with your speaking.
Reading will naturally help you with your writing.
So, if you are interested in developing your speaking, your fluency, you need to listen a lot. Then you can practice with a friend or tutor. The same thing happens with reading and writing.
You can use this podcast to improve your listening comprehension and of course, your speaking. You have the text, and there’s no excuse not to listen a bit more every day!
Let’s move on to the point of view story.
Now, let’s practice.
Speaking Practice
POV Story: Grammar in Context
Notice how the verbs, pronouns, and time perspective change naturally.
First version
Past Tense
Here I’ll use the Point of View Technique. This kind of story will help you to improve your English grammar.
It's very simple. I tell you the same story more than once. Every time I change a grammatical aspect. So, you can see how grammar changes, and you can compare. You just have to listen.
Ok, let’s start:
Mary applied for a job, and soon she was working in London as a bartender. She didn’t know a word of English, so she made the customers point on the menu to know what they wanted. She got very frustrated because she thought she would never learn English.
The only thing she could do was to pay more attention to what customers and her colleagues said. In the first month, she didn’t see any improvement. However, after two months, she started to pick up isolated words, most of them related to food and drinks.
It was a small step, but she got excited and paid more and more attention to the conversations.
Soon, she could communicate with the customers by using very short sentences, all related to work.
She started to go out with some colleagues, and she could practice her listening even more. In a pleasant and relaxed environment, she could practice her limited conversation skills.
After one year, she was able to have meaningful conversations with customers, colleagues, and new friends. Little by little, she was getting used to English. She was thrilled with the results!
Second version
New Point of View
Mary applies for a job, and soon she is working in London as a bartender. She doesn’t know a word of English, so she makes the customers point on the menu to know what they want. She gets very frustrated because she thinks she will never learn English.
The only thing she can do is to pay more attention to what customers and her colleagues say. In the first month, she doesn’t see any improvement. However, after two months, she starts to pick up isolated words, most of them related to food and drinks.
It’s a small step, but she gets excited and pays more and more attention to the conversations.
Soon, she can communicate with the customers by using very short sentences, all related to work.
She starts to go out with some colleagues, and she can practice her listening even more. In a pleasant and relaxed environment, she can practice her limited conversation skills.
After one year, she can have meaningful conversations with customers, colleagues, and new friends. Little by little, she’s getting used to English. She’s happy with the results!
Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you in the next episode.
Review
Vocabulary from This Episode
Review useful words and expressions before listening again.
01 producing
an expression used in this episode.
02 practicing
an expression used in this episode.
03 writing
an important word connected with reading, writing, speaking, or listening?.
04 listening
an important word connected with reading, writing, speaking, or listening?.
05 language
an important word connected with reading, writing, speaking, or listening?.
06 reading
an important word connected with reading, writing, speaking, or listening?.
07 activities
an important word connected with reading, writing, speaking, or listening?.
08 listen
an important word connected with reading, writing, speaking, or listening?.
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