why you need to

8/13/2019 Why you need to

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Why you need to take charge ofyour English learning

by Tomasz P. Szynalski

Before you can start speaking and writing in English, you have to learn how

things are saidin English. You do this by getting input reading and

listening to the correct English sentences of other people (ideally, native

speakers).

Most English learners get their input fro English classes. !n this article, !

will arguethat English classes siply do not give you enough input to speak

English fluently, and that you need to get English input outside of the

classroo if you want to be fluent. ! will also give two other reasons to take

things into your own handsand get English input on your own.

Amount of input". ". #hat do ! ean byfluency$ ! ean being able to write and speak alost as easily and

alost as correctly as in your native language. %o be fluent, you don&t need to speak with anative'like accent and you don&t need to always choose the ost natural way to say soething.

. . Bypages, ! ean typical pages in a paperback book.

. . By hours of audio, ! ean hours of non-stop talking, as in a radio interview.

%o speak English fluently", you need a lot of input.Ineeded about

",***,*** sentences over years on average, +** sentences per week

to get fro basic reading skills and very poor speaking-writing skills to

fluency. %hat&s the euivalent of+* pagesand + hours of audioper week.

!f you want to becoe fluent, the uestion you need to ask yourself is/ can

English classes give me 60 pages and 6 hours of input per week$ 0

typical English course consists of lessons a week, ".1 hours each. But let&s

assue you have the tie and oney to attend an intensivecourse

ties a week, ".1 hours each.
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!n such a course, you spend + hours per week in class. 2ow uch input are

you getting$ 3et&s see/

". %eachers providelittle input. Most of the try to keep uiet and let the

students talk. (%his is supposed to help students speak sooner, but has the

opposite effect.) #hen they speak, they speak uite slowly, with freuent

pauses. "* inutes of listening to a teacher gives you perhaps 1 inutes of

4non'stop5 input. !n addition, soe teachers like to switch to their native

language instead of speaking English.

. 6ther students also providelittle input because they talk even ore

slowly than the teacher and they often ake istakes.

. 0 lot of tie is wasted on e7ercises that give you alost no input, for

e7aple/ 4divide these ad8ectives into two groups5, 4rearrange the words

to ake a sentence5 or 4answer these uestions about the te7t above5.

%here are also breaks, during which nothing happens.

. !f a te7t is read in class, it is typically very short (9 pages). !f a

recording is played, it is short as well (9 "* inutes).

!f you consider all of the above, it becoes obvious that no ore than "- of

the total lesson tie is spent listening to correct English sentences. %his

includes recordings played by the teacher and correct sentences spoken by

the teacher and other students. #hat about reading$ %he average aount of

te7t that you read in an English class is probably no ore than pages per

1'inute lesson (including te7ts in the te7tbook and teacher handouts).

!f you do the ath, an intensive English course gives you no ore than

hours of spoken input and pages of written input per week. %hat&s about

,*** sentences per week. %his eans that it would take : years (with no

breaks;) of intensive English courses to get ",***,*** sentences. (#ith

noral, twice'a'week courses it would take "< years.)


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Rate of input

=oe of you ay be thinking/ 4>reat; =o ! will 8ust take intensive courses for

: years and becoe fluent in English;5 ?ot so fast. You see, the

total amountof input is not everything. You also need the right rateof input.

0 "**'eter walk is not the sae as a "**'eter dash.

#hy can&t you get your input slowly$ Because of forgetting. 2ere&s how it

works/

". #hen you learn a new word, it stays in your eory for soe tie

(usually "'* days) and then you forget it. @or e7aple, let&s say the word

is genuine and it will stay in your eory for " days.

. 2ow can you reeber the word for ore than " days$ You need to

review it. !f you see another sentence with the word genuinein the ne7t "

days, your eory of the word will becoe stronger and you will

reeber it for a uch longer tie.

. #hat is the chance that you will see another sentence with the

word genuine in the ne7t " days$ !t depends on how any English

sentences you will see in that period. !f you get ,*** sentences (intensive

English course), the chance of coing acrossgenuine is about ties

saller than if you get ",*** sentences.

. %herefore, with less input, you are aking it uch ore likely that the

new word will be gone after "'* days.

=o if youre getting your input slowly, you are hurting yourprogress in two completely separate ways/

". You&re learning new things ore slowly.

. You&re accelerating forgetting. You&re losing 4old things5 ore uickly

because you&re not reviewing the often enough.


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%hat is why a learner who gets ",***,*** sentences over : years will achieve

uch lessthan a learner who gets ",***,*** sentences over years. %he

first learner will keep forgettinga large part of his knowledge because

of insufficient reviews. %he second learner will be getting ore freuent

reviews, so he will be losing less knowledge.

%hebotto lineis that English courses even intensive ones siply give

you input too slowly to achievefluency in a reasonable tie(if at all). !f you

want to speak fluent English, you have to take things into your own

handsand ierse yourself ininput podcasts and audio books, videos

and ovies, websites and books.

Fun

0s !&ve e7plained above, ! believe that getting input outside of the classroo

is the only road to fluency. But there are reasons to get input on your own

even if fluency is not your goal.

6ne such reason is fun. #hen you choose your own sources of input, you can

choose things that you really care about. !nstead of reading soe randoarticle in your English te7tbook, you can read aHarry Potterbook, an e'

ail essage fro a friend, an !nternet foru with relationshipadvice, or

perhaps news about your favorite football club. !nstead of listening to a

boring recording in class, you can watch your favorite %A series or a video

podcast about coputer technology.

?ow, of course, fun is good in itself but it also hasbeneficialeffects/

!f your input is fun, you get it uch orewillinglyand spend more

time on it. !n fact, once you get a taste ofall the aaCingcontentyou can

get in English, it ay be difficult to tear yourself away;

@un leads to stronger eories. #hen you see or hear soething that

attersto you, you can remember much more. @or e7aple, if you&re


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reading soe article that your teacher gave you, you usually want to read it

uickly andbe done with it. But suppose you&re reading the lyrics of a new

song by your favorite band.You are uch ore likely torepeat the to

yourself and keep the in your eory together with all the graar

and vocabulary;

Authenticity

%he final and the least iportant reason to take charge ofyour English

learning is authenticity. ! believe it is iportant to learn fro real 0erican

and British contentinstead of resources prepared especially for English

learners. !f you hear soething in a podcast or read it on a blog, you know

it is really usedin the English'speaking world.

By contrast, te7tbooks used in English classes often try to teach 4proper5

English, stripped ofany inforal e7pressions, such as crap, sucksor stuff.

%heir authors probably disapprove of such phrases and believe that learners

don&t need the. But ost learners would choose rela7ed, natural language

the language of regular educated 0ericans and Britons over the

artificial language of English te7tbooks.

0 related proble is that English teaching is doinated by British English

(at least here in Europe), while the real world is doinated by 0erican

English. 0lthough in recent years British te7tbooks (and teachers) have

started teaching 0erican vocabulary, they still treat 0erican English as

a second'class citiCen. !f you want to get an accuratepicture of the language

used in the English'speaking world, you will need to go beyond English

classes and start getting real'life input on your own.

why you need to

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