How To Learn English With Luke's English Podcast - Luke's ENGLISH Podcast PDF

Luke's ENGLISH Podcast
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174. How to Learn English with Lukes English Podcast
Posted on 12/03/2014 | 14 Comments
This episode contains lots of ideas, advice and suggestions for ways of improving your
listening, reading, writing and speaking using Lukes English Podcast. A transcript is
available below.
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This should be a useful episode. Im going to go through a whole bunch of ways that you
can improve your English with Lukes English Podcast. Youll find a list of these points on my
website. Im going to expand on them here.
Ill be talking about key areas: listening, reading, writing, speaking, grammar, vocabulary,
pronunciation and discourse. Much of what Im saying is written on my website. Just find the
episode called How to Learn English with Lukes English Podcast. Ive written a lot of this
down because it contains lots of specific bits of information which I wanted to make sure I
included. I try not to do too many episodes in which I read things to you. I promise that the
next one will be unscripted. Anyway, Ill do my best to make this sound as natural as
possible, which is an art in itself. Actually, you could use this script to help you practise your
pronunciation, you could record yourself reading this too, and compare it to my version.
What are the differences in your version and mine? What can you learn from that? Record
yourself doing it again, and compare that to your first attempt. Its bound to sound a lot
better. In fact, I guarantee that youll sound more natural and convincing with each attempt.
More on that later.
For now, here is a list of tips and advice for learning English with LEP.
Just listen
First of all, you dont really have to do much more than just listen to the episodes. I realised
174. How to Learn English with Lukes English Podcast | Luke... http://teacherluke.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/174-how-to-lea...
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some time ago that a lot of the students of English that I met at school in London did not
listen to enough authentic English. They were willing to spend money and travel across the
world in order to improve their English, and yet most of them, for some reason, were not
prepared to take a bit of time every day to listen to something in English. Why? I think partly
this is because they didnt know what to listen to. A lot of people watch TV and movies in
English. Fine. But honestly, that might not be the best way to improve your English. Film is
very visual. A lot of what you understand from a movie is the visual storytelling. Its important
to just focus on the audio on the language. So, a lot of students didnt know what to listen
to. They thought that they didnt have much choice. Actually, theres plenty of choice out
there. The BBC has plenty of podcasts, there are loads of podcasts on different topics on
iTunes but theyre all made for native speakers. Theyre too difficult to listen to, and
ultimately, thats not motivating. There are some podcasts out there which are made for
learners of English, but a lot of them are just focused on language learning, at the expense
of entertainment. Theyre useful, but theyre a bit dull. This is less the case now, because 5
years after starting this podcast, there are more interesting things out there for learners of
English, including my podcast. So I decided that Id try and create something for learners of
English to listen to that they would actually want to listen to, beyond just learning English.
Ultimately, I think to listen to English for extended periods of time, you have to have an
interest in what is being talked about, or you have to find it entertaining. Otherwise, its hard
to really sustain your concentration and it becomes like a chore. There is real value in
listening to English for extended periods of time, but its difficult to achieve because you get
put off by not understanding things, or because the recording is a bit patronising and dull. I
dont want to blow my own trumpet here too much, because Im sure that my podcast is not
always as entertaining or as engaging as it could be, but I think the only way to get people to
keep listening, is to try and make it entertaining as well as informative about English. So, I
record this podcast with you in mind, but I try to keep it as authentic as possible. I try to
avoid being simplistic. I try not to grade my English too much. I know it might be challenging
for you sometimes but I attempt to hold your attention by talking in an enthusiastic way
about subjects which I personally find interesting. Hopefully, the result is that you keep
listening, and that you feel personally involved in it somehow. Then, by exposing yourself to
lots of English in this way, you are able to acquire the language to pick it up, in a variety of
ways.
Stephen Krashen & Language Acquisition Theory
Let me now refer to the language acquisition theory of Stephen Krashen. This theory is very
well known among language learning theorists, and it underpins a lot of what we know about
learning and teaching English. Krashen believed that there are two ways to develop our
language learning skills. One is through language acquisition and the other is through
language learning. Language acquisition means that it is possible for adults and children to
learn language in a subconscious way meaning, in a kind of passive way by simply
engaging with the language. The important thing is that you focus on the message in a bit of
language. So, when listening to Lukes English Podcast this means focusing exactly on
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what I really mean, rather than just on the specific items of language Im using. The primary
focus is to just understand what I mean (hopefully at a fairly deep level in order to laugh at
something Ive said, or feel moved by it) and then you kind of pick up the language as a
result of that. You might not be immediately aware that youve learned some new language
in this way. In fact, this kind of acquisition probably informs your passive knowledge of the
language. According to Krashen, another type of language development is language
learning. This is when you focus on learning specific forms - like studying grammar rules for
example. It involves having some instruction by a teacher, perhaps in the form of error
correction, or from a grammar book which explains the rules of English. The downside of
this kind of learning is that it is rather dogmatic, can be boring, complex and abstract. It
doesnt necessarily replicate the organic way in which we pick up language as children, and
doesnt quite allow the subconscious acquisition of language that occurs from just engaging
with the language in order to understand a message being communicated.
Alright, so how does this apply to the way you can learn English? Well, I think its pretty
important to get both aspects of language learning into your life. This is what I call having a
balanced diet. You shouldnt just study the grammar rules in a dogmatic way, although that
is undeniably important. You should also attempt to just engage with the language as it is
used in natural, authentic and meaningful situations. How can you do that? Ideally, this
would mean going out into the world and doing things in English. In fact, this might be the
best way to improve your English. If you get a job that requires you to use English all day
you will improve quickly. Itll be really hard, but youd be forced to improve. Thats like a boot
camp for language acquisition because youre not really studying the language, youre just
attempting to survive in it. Youre really focusing on the communicative acts you are trying to
achieve. Youre really focusing on meaningful messages, and you naturally learn the most
direct and effective way to understand and communicate meaningful messages. You might
not be able to do that in your life. You might not have access to native speakers in that way.
So, my podcast can be a substitute. Its not really the same as attempting to work in an
English speaking environment, but the key point is that you can replicate aspects of that
experience by just attempting to follow/keep up with what Im saying, and do that regularly,
over long periods of time, and youll pick up massive amounts of English.
So, just listen, try to follow everything Im saying, try to enjoy it and engage with it, listen
regularly, listen for extended periods. This will all contribute to your acquisition of English, as
described by Stephen Krashen.
Thats language acquisition, but you can also do more traditional language learning
alongside Lukes English Podcast. First of all, outside of listening to the episodes, you can
do your formalised language studying from a book or in class, and use LEP as a companion
to that. Study the language, and then try to notice aspects of the language that youve
studied in episodes of the podcast. For example, if youve studied verb tenses, you can
listen to a story Ive told on the podcast and try to notice those verb tenses, how Im using
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them, how Im pronouncing them, and so on. It can back up, confirm or clarify the language
study youve been doing. You should always refer to authentic language usage as a way of
checking language that youve studied.
Also, you can study the things I say in the podcast more directly. The podcast can be a
study tool. Here are some ways you can do some active language study with the podcast:
Use transcripts
You could read a transcript and check new words in a dictionary as you find them. Pay
attention to the way I use the words, including the grammatical context, collocations
between words and pronunciation. Any new words or structures you find, make a note of
them and practise using them yourself.
You could attempt to write your own transcripts. This reveals a great deal about the gap
between the English you know, and the English that I use in the podcast. Try transcribing a
section of one episode. You could do an episode that has already been transcribed. Listen
carefully to it, and try to write down every single word. There may be certain utterances that
you just cant identify. Mark them with question marks. Listen again and again. You could
just focus on a specific 5 minute section of an episode. Keep listening until youve done your
best. Now check the proper transcript for that section and compare it to what you wrote.
What are the differences? Now you can identify the gap between what you understand, and
what I said. Try to close that gap. Check the words you didnt know. Identify why you missed
the pronunciation of something. Think about how I say these words and phrases, and their
definitions. Then you can start working them into your English when you speak. Well look at
ways of developing your speaking in a few minutes.
A note on transcripts. You may be aware that a lot of my episodes have transcripts, which
can really help you to study the language (although you shouldnt read them all the time).
But you can also contribute transcriptions to my website. If you fancy transcribing a few
minutes of an episode, please send it to me and Ill be able to correct it and publish it on my
website. I have a transcript collaboration going on using Google documents. You might
already know about this because I did an episode on that subject a couple of months ago.
You can go to my website and click transcripts to find out more. Basically, writing
transcripts of my episodes is not only a great way to use the podcast to improve your
English, it also helps me to provide an even better service to my listeners.
So, Lukes English Podcast is best consumed as part of a balanced diet. Listen freely and
just try to enjoy and understand what Im saying, and let your mind naturally acquire the
language, but also mix this with more formalised language study to get the full 360 degree
effect.
You might think the formalised language study part of that is boring and time consuming.
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Thats fine. You dont have to do any of that, but as a compromise, what you can do is just
be mindful when youre listening. Your first aim is to focus on the message, but you can also
try to notice specific aspects of the language too. Try to identify words, phrases and
grammatical structures. You dont have to formally study them, just notice them as you hear
them. Like oh hes saying depend on so it must be depend on in English, not depend of.
Things like that. Just be mindful when listening.
I record different types of episode here. My main aim is to engage you and keep you
interested, while presenting English to you in an authentic way. In some episodes I try to
draw your attention to the language more specifically. For example, I teach/explain
/demonstrate vocabulary items referring to a topic, or bring your attention to an aspect of
pronunciation. In those episodes, you can just chill out and follow what Im saying, but you
can be more active, and make notes of the vocabulary, try to remember phrases, listen
again and pause the recording to test your memory.
Listen in comfort, and enjoy the experience. Krashen also writes about the affective filter
hypothesis. This relates to the conditions in which learning takes place, and how these can
have a big effect on the successful acquisition of language. Basically, good conditions for
learning are: motivation (the listener really wants to hear whats being said, and is keen to
learn the language), high self-esteem and relaxation. These things allow the flow of
acquisition to move freely, without being blocked. Mental blocks occur when the learner is
stressed, anxious or feeling bad about themselves. This creates a mental block to the
acquisition of language. I guess this relates to one of those situations in which youre in an
unhappy language class. You feel stressed because of pressure from the teacher or from
the judgement of your classmates, you feel low self-confidence because you dont get any
positive reinforcement from taking part in a communicative exchange and youre just not
enjoying the experience of being there in the classroom. As a result, there is a kind of
mental barrier which really prevents you learning anything. In fact, it might even make it
worse because you associate learning English with painful or boring classroom situations.
The advantage of Lukes English Podcast is that the emphasis is on fun, a lot of the time.
You have nothing to fear or worry about when you listen to this. In fact, it can be an
extremely pleasurable experience. Im not just bigging myself up here. I know what its like to
listen to your favourite podcast. Its quite a personal experience. I listen to Mark Kermode &
Simon Mayos Film Review Podcast on my way to work, and I cant begin to explain the joy
of listening to it. Theyre like my friends, and Im sharing a really nice conversation with
them. I listen to their voices in private, through headphones, while Im sitting on a smelly
underground train with miserable people all around me, but Im in my comfort zone. In fact,
sometimes Im disappointed when I reach my metro station, because I just want to keep
listening to the podcast. Hopefully, listening to Lukes English Podcast is a similar
experience for you. Thats certainly the idea. This should be a personal and enjoyable
experience for you, and I invite you to just enjoy being part of the podcast community, and
remember that all around the world there are other people like you, listening to me ramble
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on about stuff. Theres no chance of the affective filter giving you a mental block in this
situation because you should be in your comfort zone. Thats the advantage of podcasting.
You really can listen to this whenever and wherever you want, and you are free to get as
comfortable as you please. As Ive said before, feel free to listen to this in the bath, on the
loo, or as you softly and slowly drift off to sleep at night. Of course, you can also listen at
your desk, with a pen in your hand, or while typing, in order to make notes or write
transcripts. You can also sit up and read transcripts. Its up to you. The main thing is to just
enjoy yourself and let the English go into your head. Just imagine that my voice is bouncing
around inside your mind, and lots of the words, and sounds are sticking in there.
You should certainly listen to episodes more than once. In fact, if youre interested in really
learning English from this podcast, I think its vital to listen several times. Once is not
enough. In fact, you might only scratch the surface if you listen just once. Listening again
and again will allow you to get really familiar with whats being said. Youll notice and
remember things that you didnt catch the first time. Repetition is really important as a way of
helping your brain notice patterns. After a couple of listens, youll remember certain phrases,
bits of intonation or responses and they will be reinforced when you listen again. It might be
asking too much of you, but you could even start to remember and repeat some of the things
youve heard on Lukes English Podcast. I dont necessarily expect you to repeat everything
I say, but perhaps you could memorise the lines of a comedy sketch that I present to you,
and then repeat the lines to yourself or your friends, or just while youre listening again. Im a
bit of a geek and I love Star Wars. When I was a kid I used to watch Star Wars on heavy
rotation. Id watch it again and again. Now I can remember all the lines from the film. In fact,
I dont just remember the lines, I remember the bits of music and sound effects too, as they
occur in the film. Its the same with Monty Python films and sketches. Ive watched them so
many times that I can repeat a lot of the script from memory, and in fact some phrases from
those movies have found their way into my vocabulary. You can do that too, by listening to
episodes more than once, and listening to some comedy sketches which I present to you
many times. Soon Ill be doing an episode about Monty Python. For some reason, Monty
Pythons sketches are very memorable. In fact, there are several generations of people in
the UK and America who grew up watching Monty Python films and who are able to recite
whole sketches to each other. Again, you can do the same thing, realise that there are some
terrifically funny things in English, and use that as a way to pick up language.
There are a number of different areas to focus on with English.
4 skills:
Listening
Reading
Writing
Speaking
Language systems:
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Grammar
Vocabulary
Pronunciation
Discourse
Listening
Ive already talked a lot about the benefit of just listening for fun, or listening in a more active
way. I did mention that its good to be comfortable when listening. I should add too that I
think its important to try and listen to things that you dont completely understand. Its fine to
listen to things that you dont understand completely, and the general opinion on this seems
to be that you should push yourself when you listen, and dont get put off if there are things
you dont understand. Its in that challenging experience that your brain is really piecing
things together. For example, if you struggled to understand my conversation with Daniel
Burt, thats fine in fact, that struggle is good. Listen again, and keep trying. Dont give up.
Push through those moments when you dont understand. Keep going. Dont let confusion
stop you.
Also, try to identify subtle differences between accents. You may only notice little differences
at first, but eventually youll be more and more aware of the differences between accents.
Eventually, youll be able to say this guy is from the north of England, This ones from
Australia or whatever.
Reading
Reading transcripts on my webpage.
Outside of the podcast read a variety of texts. Again, try to find things that you enjoy. You
should also be aware of your purpose for learning the language. What are you going to use
English for in the future? You may need to read emails, or business reports. It may be worth
reading articles that talk about business trends. Otherwise, just reading any well-written text
for enjoyment is a really good way to improve your literacy. I must add a page on my website
with recommendations for reading. Theres loads of reading you can do blogs,
newspapers but also books which you can download free online. I havent done it yet, but
Im planning to give you a list of some good things to read.
Writing
Again, this is not one of the things that I focus on a lot on Lukes English Podcast. The focus
is mainly on spoken English. However, transcribing podcast episodes can be good for your
writing. You could also write your own blog which contains your opinions or your outlook on
a topic. Feel free to write a response to episodes of my podcast in the comments section.
You should aim to concisely express your opinion, in a structured way, using the most
appropriate words you can find (perhaps including some words youve picked up from that
episode of the podcast). Think about the person reading the comment make it easy and
enjoyable for them to read, and focus on stating very clearly and efficiently exactly what it is
you want to say. Considering those ideas can help you to make your writing more effective.
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If, however, you need to practise writing for the IELTS test, you will need to do more
specifically focused writing practice, probably using an IELTS preparation book, or following
an IELTS course of some kind. My podcast can help you with general skills (vocab, etc) but
for specific kinds of writing work, you should do some specific writing practice. Practice
practice practice. As I said before to get the best out of Lukes English Podcast, use it as
part of a balanced diet.
Speaking
Perhaps the best way to improve your speaking is to actually practise it in real-life situations.
The requirements of that situation will train you to say the right things at the right time, with
the right tone. You should certainly be aware of how intonation is important in affecting a
message. These are things you can learn from trying to enter into meaningful acts of
communication and learning from your mistakes. You might also need a teacher to actively
correct your errors. But, you can definitely use Lukes English Podcast to improve your
speaking too. Lets look at some ways to do that:
Just try to take some aspects of my speech and apply it to your speech. You could just add
some words or phrases youve heard from me, and use them yourself. Or you can pick up
some speech patterns, pronunciation from me and add that to your speech too. If you like,
you could use my speaking as a kind of model for your own speech.
More specifically, you could copy and repeat some of my sentences. Listen to a line I say,
and then repeat it and try to sound exactly like me. You could listen to phrasal verb
episodes, and whenever I present an example sentence, pause the episode and repeat it
after me. Keep doing that until you feel youre version is pretty similar to mine. So, just listen
and repeat until youve worked out how to make the same sounds as me. Think about vowel
& consonant sounds, combinations of consonants and how to make those sounds with your
mouth, think about connected speech what happens when words are pronounced fluently
together in a sentence they might get pronounced differently, certain sounds may be
dropped when words are linked, and some sounds may be added when words are linked
too. Pay attention to these aspects of pronunciation. I should do a whole episode on
connected speech, and its one Ive had in the back of my mind for ages.
Pick an extract from the podcast, with transcript, and record yourself saying it. Compare
your version with my version. Then, work on the transcript. Underline the stressed words,
add lines to represent pauses for emphasis, identify word links in pronunciation. Listen to me
saying that extract again, and check your sound scripted transcript. Now record yourself
doing it again, this time adding the intonation, pausing and sentence stress. Compare that to
the original. This can help you develop awareness, and control of speech patterns.
Record yourself just talking in response to one of my podcast episodes. If Ive talked about
UFOs for example (not yet, but I will!) then you could record yourself talking about UFOs
too. Try to include any words Ive presented to you on that topic. If you like you could leave
an audio comment on my Audioboo page, and let the world know how you feel about
something.
Or, you could start doing your own podcast, like Zdenek from Zdeneks English Podcast.
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Hes not a native speaker, but following a suggestion in one of my episodes he decided to
do his own podcast. He now has followers and listeners and hes really into it. Listening to
his episodes I get the sense that his confidence is developing and hes finding his own
voice. It must be very good for his English (which, of course, is already excellent). You could
do it too if you want.
The main thing is practice. Use as many opportunities to practise as you can. Join clubs to
meet English speakers. Use the internet. Find groups on Meetup.com in which people are
doing language exchanges. Put yourself outside your comfort zone. Dont be shy, give it a
try. Take the initiative. No-one can do the speaking for you. Theres no shame in making
mistakes. You have to be in it to win it, so open your mouth and get talking. Remember that
English is about what you can do, not just about what you know. Be active, find your voice in
English. If youre in a classroom dont be one of those quiet students. Its completely up to
you to start talking, and why not do it in the safety of a language class. Thats the whole
point! Speak up in class and use that as a safe place to experiment and make mistakes.
Experiment! Switch off your editor! Dont listen to the voice in your head which is telling you
to keep quiet, or telling you that you cant say something because it might be wrong. It does
not matter if youre wrong. Remember that you have to say something wrong about 5 times
before you get it right. Get through those 5 times nice and quick, and then youll be fine!
Sometimes, opening your mouth is the hardest thing to do, but once youve started speaking
it gets easier. Keep up the momentum. Keep your voice warm. Stay positive, enjoy
expressing yourself. Your teacher will love it if you are an active member of class. In fact,
you need to prove to your teacher that youre making an effort. We always like those
talkative and positive students. Use that to your advantage youll be more likely to get
good grades, and get levelled up. Be nice, be friendly, be talkative. But also listen to others
and help them too. Thats a recipe for success for any language learner!
Actually, I just sent Zdenek a message and asked him for his comments on the subject of
using LEP to improve your English (particularly speaking) and here are his comments, which
I agree with wholeheartedly. In fact, before I read his comments it may be necessary to
remind you that Zdenek is a well-qualified teacher of English from the Czech Republic who
lived in the UK for a number of years and who has got a masters degree in English
Language. So, he definitely knows what hes talking about. Im sure many of you listening to
this have similarly good advice and comments on this subject. I am very keen to encourage
you to share that information you can leave text or audio comments under this episode. So
here are Zdeneks comments:
How can listening to LEP improve your speaking skills? It can mainly improve the following
skills/subskills:
1) listening (obvious)
2) reading, spelling (reading scripts, additional notes)
3) writing, spelling (script, feedback or thanksgiving emails to Luke),
4) grammar (listening to grammar patterns as part of exposure theory)
5) vocabulary (learning new vocab also guided by the exposure theory),
6) pronunciation (passive listening)
As for the speaking, it is a different question. If you want to improve your speaking through
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LEP, you have to approach this actively. Not everyone is willing to do this. Some people tend
to be shy, have approach anxiety etcand prefer listening to the podcast as passive
recipients. That is fine. However, here are some suggestions on how you can actually
improve even your speaking skills.
1) Contact someone via LEP community. There are a lot of interesting people eager to learn
English from all around the world. Contact those who have a similar level as you this way
you can both benefit and learn from each other and no one will get bored. Ideally, have an
interest in common (sci-fi films, sport, you already have one important topic in common =
LEP)try to befriend these people, add them on facebook, start skype conversations with
them or something.
2) Record yourself speaking about a topic. Ask yourself questions related to LEP. Answer
these questions or just practice vocabulary Luke teaches you. Listen back to yourself. Try
correcting your errors. Re-record. Compare your recordings you made some time later to
see your improvements.
3) Record comments in Audioboo (max 3 minutes) why is everyone so shy? Is everyone
afraid that they will be judged? Who cares? Just be friendly and you should be accepted by
the community. Luke is a teacher. He deals with mistakes every day. We all make mistakes.
Never be afraid to make mistakes. A man who never made mistakes, never made anything.
Are you afraid to take on a challenge and face our greatest fear public humiliation? Well
dont be! If we fight it actively without fear, we can significantly improve our speaking skills
this way.
[I just want to add a couple of points here about making a fool of yourself, my experience of
speaking French, and of fear of public speaking]
4) Try running your own podcast. Most of you can do it. Again it is only about facing your
fears of making mistakes and exposing yourself to the public. This podcast can be just for
you and your friends. I make loads of mistakes in my podcast and I am a teacher. I feel
ashamed; I have to edit them out. But if you are not teachers, why worry? And even as
teachers? You shouldnt worry.
5) You can always speak to yourself in the mirror and go crazy. Become the next Hamlet.
Speaking is not about passivity so move your arse and find some interaction
Note: By following these tips, you will work on your English speaking skills, pronunciation
(actively), grammar, vocab (you can focus on trying to use expressions Luke has taught
you), listening skills (as you listen to your friends talking for example). There are so many
benefits to active speaking practice.
Thank you Zdenek. As I said before, I welcome your comments too. Lets share our thoughts
on this subject together. Its time for my LEP ninjas to come out of the shadows and deliver
some powerful advice! LEP NINJAS ASSEMBLE!!!
Regarding language systems, I have some things to say about grammar, vocabulary,
pronunciation and discourse.
To be honest, Ive already spoken enough about grammar & vocab. Let me just remind you
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of the theory of exposure. I have talked about this before. The idea is that by listening to
lots of English over extended periods, youre feeding your subconscious with all the patterns
of English usage. Your brain is hearing all these patterns of English, including frequent word
combinations (like prepositions), tenses, features of pronunciation etc. Ultimately, it all goes
into your head, and informs your sense of instinct for the language, so that when you come
to do a test in English, you feel the answer. You know that this particular preposition goes
with this particular verb, just because youve heard it a number of times before and so it
feels natural. Feed your head with English. Feel the English rather than knowing it. Use the
force young jedi, and remember, the force will be with you always. Oh, and dont forget
youre never too old for this. Language study is a great way to keep your mind fresh and
supple. My grandfather is over 90 years old and hes still really sharp. Perhaps this is
because hes still going to French and Spanish classes on a regular basis.
Regarding pronunciation a lot of the tips youve been given here will help with that. But, I
just want to add that improving your listening skills will naturally improve your pronunciation
skills too. The two things go hand in hand. The more youre able to understand natural
spoken English, the more you are able to decode the sounds used to make it.
Understanding this natural sound code can allow you to start using it too. There is a direct
connection between listening and pronunciation, but to fully reap the benefits, you need to
need to actively practise pronunciation. The methods Ive mentioned already in this episode
repeating, recording, re-recording, comparing, speaking in front of the mirror, etc theyre
all good approaches to practising and improving your pronunciation. Dont be shy, give it a
try. Youve got nothing to lose, just things to gain. Go for it!
As for discourse, this is really about how you structure your speaking. How do you link your
ideas up? When you listen, try to notice any specific phrases I use to link my ideas together,
move from one topic to another, deal with moments when I dont know what Im saying and
so on. What are the tools I use to perform certain functions. Can you identify these things
and take them on yourself? Try talking about a topic for 5 minutes. See how difficult it is to
talk on your feet. Do it again and again until you develop methods of thinking and talking at
the same time. Listen to discussions and focus on the ways in which people interrupt, agree,
disagree or whatever. Think about the way we use the language to be polite or indirect. How
is humour added to what we say? How does intonation affect the hidden meaning behind
our words? Explore these ideas when you listen, and then test them out in your speaking.
Thats it for this episode. I hope you have found it motivating, and inspiring. Leave your
comments, and I wish you all the very best of luck keeping up your English. Im sure youre
doing great. Well you must be, because youre already listening to Lukes English Podcast
and long may it continue.
BYE!
!
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11 de 15 26/04/14 19:16
14 RESPONSES TO 174. HOW TO LEARN ENGLISH WITH LUKES ENGLISH PODCAST
This entry was posted in Advice, Learning, Transcripts, Uncategorized and tagged discourse,
grammar, information, learning, listening, london, native, natural conversation, podcast,
pronunciation, reading, speaking, vocabulary, writing. Bookmark the permalink.
Cellerkoppe | 09/04/2014 at 5:36 PM | Reply
Your podcast are really exiting. I really enjoy to listen to your podcast. Your advise
is very good. Today before I listened to this podcast, I had a discussion in my
english class about a movie we saw. My fear of making mistakes prevented me to
speak in english. I really wanted to speak and express my opinions, but I couldnt
because my thoughts prevented me from doing it. From now thanks for your
beautiful podcast and advises, I will never let my fear hold back me from speaking
english. Thank you, Luke!!!
fgauger | 18/03/2014 at 6:20 PM | Reply
Hi Luke
I want to thank you again for your wonderful podcasts!
I want to realize your idea to write down parts of a lesson. It would be very helpful
to have the following two changes in the playing-system (I dont know the exact
English name but it is the possibility to start and stop the audio-playing at the top
of the page with the arrow in a blue circle ).
1) Is it possible to have a button with which you can go back lets say 10 or 20
seconds? That would help to repeat the last sentences to understand the
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12 de 15 26/04/14 19:16
meaning.
2) It is perhaps possible to freeze this playing-system on the top of the page?
That could help to read your remarks and stop and start the playing-system
without to roll up and down several pages.
Thank you very much.
Luke Thompson | 18/03/2014 at 6:26 PM | Reply
Youll have to download the episode and then use a media player on your
computer to do the things you mentioned.
Rodolfo | 16/03/2014 at 8:45 PM | Reply
Luke, thank you so much for your effort doing all this passionate work. I was
looking for real queen english podcast, as you said, and today I found yours.
Im studying english in Dublin now and I want to improve my level because I know
a lot of vocabulary, even I could understood 99% of what you said in this episode,
or when Im listening my teachers, but when I am trying to speak or write I could
get sttutered because I know the words, idioms etc but those just remain on the tip
of my tongue! I cant remember those when I need them, it is so frustrating!
Also, some times it is very difficult to me to understand the common Irish accent
and the way their talk so fast. Anyway, Ill keep learning and following your
advices and pulling out all the stops to achieve my goal. A million of thanks
again, and I wish you all the best of luck in your parisian experience! (not Luke, or
looks jeje you should see me trying to say it right, the same happens to me some
times with beer, bear, bird, birth)
XXOO
Pingback: How to learn English by Luke Thompson | Talk2learn.ch
Saki | 14/03/2014 at 8:37 AM | Reply
Hello, Luke, from Japan. Thank you for your wonderful Podcast.as always. Ive
never left a commented here but after listening to this episode, I felt I wanted to.
You encouraged me to study English more with this episode and Im sure your
advice will be a big help, especially for me, who is not good at speaking, Im pretty
shy and often hesitate to talk to English native speakers, being afraid of making
mistakes,but I will try some tips you mentioned. Thanks, keep doing great and
take care! Follow Follow
13 de 15 26/04/14 19:16
Luke Thompson | 14/03/2014 at 8:43 AM | Reply
Hi Saki native speakers will love it if youre being friendly and making an
effort to communicate in English. Dont worry about mistakes lifes too short,
and anyway, mistakes are a key part of the learning process. In fact, the worst
mistake is to say nothing.
Donald | 14/03/2014 at 6:58 AM | Reply
Priceless advice, Luke. Im green with envy as youve the possibility of eating the
baguette You lucky man! Sip a glass for me in Paris!!!
Gudu | 13/03/2014 at 4:57 PM | Reply
Hello Luke and Lukes Disciples,
I have just compleed this podcast. As usually, I am real fun of Luke. I came across
to Lukes English Podcast(LEP) on 15 December 2013. In short period of time, I
have listened all his podcasts. Now, I am listening second round and I am at 150th
podcast. I probablly listen all the podcasts three times. LEP is very comprehnsive,
funny, entertaining, educational, engaging and informative. The more you listen
the more you be able to acquire all the attributes of the language: different
expressions, idioms, phrasal verbs, satires, proverbs and ironies. LEP is full of
these components of the language. In fourth month time, LEP transformed my
English amazingly.
In language learning process all the four skill(reading, writing, listening and
speaking) do no usaully develop at the same time. I could say my listening and
speaking was not good but now with lots of listening it is completely transformed.
Adrezj, I like your comment and I agree in most of the ideas you mentioned. Your
level of writing is very good. It is easy to understand and very well structured.
Enjoy learning English. It is a fun experience.
Luke Thompson | 13/03/2014 at 5:05 PM | Reply
Lovely comment Gudu, thanks!
Pablo | 13/03/2014 at 2:50 PM | Reply
Great episode Luke! Ive enjoyed very much going down the stairs from the
terrace, and walking through your apartment while laughing and learning.
Thank you very much for this masterpiece
Andrzej | 13/03/2014 at 8:36 AM | Reply
Time. Our time is limited. Even if you are a teenager your time is limited although
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14 de 15 26/04/14 19:16
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you may not realise it yet, so always observe how efficient your methods of
learning are. There isnt one, perfect set of learning methods suitable for
everybody. You have to develop your own set and it should be a constant process.
Do not hesitate to throw something away from your set if you find it not effective
enough. We are all different. What is good for your friend might not be good for
you. My second experience relates to 4 skills. At the very beginning I didnt realise
that reading and writing are so different from listening and speaking and that that
difference is so massive. Reading and writing are abilities of your mind but
listening and speaking are functions of your body. Mastering listening and
speaking is more like practising sport than studying something so, it is not only a
question of your effort but its a question of your time and training program. In
order to achieve something in sport you have to sacrifice lots of time and
constantly change training methods because your body gets accustomed to fixed
training and your progress slows down. I started with time and Id like to finish with
it. Native speakers acquire language by listening to other native speakers
throughout their childhood. It means years of constant listening. It means time you
dont have. You cant bridge this gap by being more diligent, increasing the effort
or doing more exercises. The only way to do this is speaking as often as you can,
repeating after native speakers like a parrot but first and foremost listening all the
time because, by my experience, listening is the hardest skill of the four. This is
why Ive been so addicted to Lukes English Podcast since I realised these facts. If
my comment sounds patronising for you then Im very sorry. It wasnt my intention.
My English is still too poor to allow me to take full control over it.
Luke Thompson | 13/03/2014 at 11:30 AM | Reply
Great comments. Thanks for your input!
Adalberto | 12/03/2014 at 10:30 PM | Reply
Excellent summa didactica. Now waiting for podcasts on connected speech and
Monty Pythons. Thank you, Luke.
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