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13 tips for lifelong English fluency

What is the secret to achieving fluency in a language?

There are no absolute answers. There are millions of methods, tests and programs that try to guide us towards this goal, and as useful as they are in limited ways, most of them fail to reveal to us the essential ingredients for success.

There are certain ingredients to fluency, such as effective communication, grammatical competence, cultural awareness, and confidence, but at the end of the day, the recipe for fluency is unique to each student.

Today we are going to show you how to build your super effective recipe.

Finding your English learning path

1. Clarify WHY you want to learn: Ask yourself this important question. Do a good job of clarifying this and use your answer as inspiration and guide for the whole process. Do you really want to learn? Does the motivation come from you or what others expect? Until your WHY comes from within you, in a way that you can access and is part of your attitude, your path to fluency is likely to be difficult, unimaginative, and inefficient.

However, if your 'why' is strong and sincere, it will inspire and energize your entire process. The best language learners know why they are learning, not because they have to.

2. Organize your life, plan your process and set goals: research different learning methods, schools and programs. Be aware that high quality alternative options and learning opportunities are increasing every day. Do you want to study online, with a school or with a private teacher? Do you have a clear idea of what this will require of your life?

Talk to friends who have studied and who have had success, as well as several schools. Watch the classes to see which one you connect with best. And finally, set goals not only with your English (the end result), but also with your attitude and approach throughout the process.

3. Build a support network: Ask your family and friends for support. Look for mentors, past successes, teachers and friends in the real world, as well as virtual language learning communities.

The more successful language learners you surround yourself with, the more their attitudes, strategies, support and trust will rub off on you. Also, in times of confusion, these people can and will help you.

4. Effective Methods / Effective Learning Styles: There are universally effective learning methods and there are personal learning styles. Understanding your learning style would be recognizing how you, as an individual, learn. Are you more visual, auditory or kinesthetic? As a general rule, the things you enjoy doing are likely to be more in tune with your learning style. If you're a visual learner, perhaps TV shows and movies are your best bet, while if you're an auditory learner, podcasts and music can be helpful.

If you don't know how you learn, pay attention as you go along and try different strategies because it will teach you a lot about yourself. This is a big reason why people who learn a second language as adults find it much easier to learn a third. They are more aware of how they learn.

5. Take responsibility for your learning: just do it. Dive in head first. Learn to have fun. If you're not committed, don't give up, but take responsibility and find out what's going wrong. If you're not learning, ask yourself why not. There may be circumstances and other people that play a role in your learning process, but no one can learn the language for you.

You can't blame the lack of circumstances, time, money or opportunities. You have to want it enough to overcome external obstacles. Worthwhile achievements aren't easy, but if you enjoy the process, it's worth the reward. But also, sometimes, taking responsibility means having the courage to change things.

On the road to English fluency

6. Have the Right Attitude (Enjoy the Journey AND the Destiny): Constantly assess your attitude towards learning English. Learning a language is not like learning math or science. If this is how you learned English in high school, it's time to change your perspective.

Effective learning is engaging, interesting and something that brings the topic to life. Effective learning is about enjoying the process AND striving for the result. Think of an experience where you enjoyed learning, where time flew by and you always looked forward to it.

Accessing this kind of learning isn't easy, but if you follow the tips/steps above and have an idea of what it should be like, you can start to put together the attitudes, support networks, and resources to make it easier. It will bring you an enjoyable process as well as the achievement of your goals.

7. Dedicate Yourself Every Day/Create Routines: Be consistent, dedicated, and diligent with your efforts. Excellence is a daily habit, not a twice-weekly class. You must insert English into your life every day, or at least 5 or 6 days a week, as no one achieves excellence in anything without application. daily. You probably don't have to 'study' every day, but find convenient times in your life where you can create routines that allow you to play with English, have fun and learn in a relaxed way.

Some recommendations are Lifestyle English (covered in item 10), which includes music learning, TV shows, podcasts, as well as online communities and resources.

8. Don't accept mediocrity: Don't accept the mediocrity of yourself or the people you depend on for learning. To reiterate the point above about excellence, mediocrity is treating English like a twice-weekly hobby. Accept that you won't be 100% perfect on your path to fluency, but you can learn a lot at every step and don't have to settle for an attitude of mediocrity.

It's easy to sleepwalk through life with a mediocre attitude, a mediocre plan, a mediocre goal, a mediocre purpose, a mediocre school or teacher, or mediocrity on any of these 13 tips, but you get what you give, and fluency is not for the mediocre attitude. When you start expecting the best from yourself and others, really amazing things start to happen.

9. Relax, have fun and don't be so hard on yourself: try to make it as fun and interesting as possible. Imagine your English as a baby learning to walk. You need to give baby plenty of space, cushioning, support, and patience so he can fall down as he needs to, have fun, and learn to do it without being judged.

Your English is your baby and it needs your patience and love to develop.

10. Make English a way of life: connect English to what you already do and enjoy doing. This is called English for Life. Even if you have a hard time understanding what they're saying, just getting in touch with something you LIKE will help you slowly begin to understand.

If you like to listen to music in English, start by trying to understand the lyrics. If you enjoy watching TV shows, make a routine of watching them. Listen to online radio, music and podcasts and other native language sources when cooking at home. Set up your Facebook, mobile, email and other programs and devices in English. Use your imagination.

Lifetime English fluency

11. Understand that fluency is not perfection: People who don't speak English look at English speakers and think they speak perfectly. The truth is that very few non-native speakers speak perfectly (and even native speakers make mistakes). Even if they don't admit it to you or themselves, most fluent speakers make mistakes, have a significant accent of their native language, and struggle with their own issues.

The point is that fluency is not about perfection, which for non-native speakers is practically impossible. Fluency is about meaningful communication and the whole rich world of cultural and professional opportunities that go along with it.

12. Constantly review and renew your process: While patience is certainly an advantage for language learning, you can't be afraid to make changes and renew your process from time to time. What worked for you at an earlier stage in the process may not be working for you now, and it's important to keep each step of your path fresh and spontaneous.

This could mean changing resources, trying different learning strategies, or even switching schools or teachers. Our recommendation: Evaluate your progress every 4-6 months. Ask yourself how things are going. This requires a high degree of self-awareness and sometimes courage, but it is essential. You You may ask yourself: are you enjoying it? You are learning? Are you still inspired? If not, what's the problem?

Take control of your process.

13. Be proactive, create opportunities and use technology to your advantage: According to English For Life (covered in #10), to really get to a level where lifetime fluency is a real possibility, you need to be extremely proactive . English needs to be part of your everyday life. You need to be constantly creating opportunities where you can use English.

This can include a lifestyle that promotes travel to English-speaking countries, but it should definitely include an intimate understanding and use of certain strategies that get you in touch with the language anywhere in the world, such as podcasts, online radio, TV and movies. and local communities that organize face-to-face meetings in English, such as Couchsurfing.