Filed Under: Speaking English

Why do I lose my words when speaking English in stressful situations?

July 9, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

Yes, in a high-pressure, stressful situation, it will be harder to find your words when speaking in English.

In a way, you should think of how you perform in English when speaking in these stressful situations as your base level.

Watch the full video here:




What you need to overcome is your fear of actually speaking English. The more you get into high-pressure situations, the more you’re going to learn to deal with them. The less you’re going to get stressed, the less you will panic.

One of the big mistakes that people make when learning English is learning in comfortable situations. Things like, for example, language exchange conversations or talking with a trained teacher. You become very comfortable in that situation and there’s no stress involved.

Then when you go out in the real world, doing real things, stress is applied because it’s not comfortable anymore and your performance ability drops to almost nothing. You suddenly think “oh my god I’m no good” but actually it’s that you learned in a situation that’s kind of like a game on cheat mode when you’re practising.

So what you need to do is stop learning in comfortable situations and learn in high-pressure, stressful situations instead.

If you need some help in doing this, you can start with the one-hour free training that I created. You’ll learn the 5 key changes my best clients make to improve their English as higher-level English learners. You can go to this link if this interests you.

Hope that helps.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: Learning Vocabulary

What is the best way to learn vocabulary?

July 8, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

First of all, I don’t recommend making vocabulary your “primary” focus. This depends on your goal, but for most people, it won’t help that much.

Here’s an extract:




If your goal is to speak well in a conversation in general, you’re better off focusing on larger blocks of English or “chunks”, because these are what will help you sound fluent and natural when you speak.

I won’t bother talking too much about chunking here, but if you’re interested I’ve got a free training course that teaches about this (go here).

This said, if your goal is to get good at a very specific topic, then yes, you might need to focus on vocabulary.

For example, say you need to buy some bike parts or accessories in a bike shop. You’re not going to be able to talk about all this if you don’t know the specific language (e.g. “pannier”, “chainstay”, etc.).

So the point is, vocabulary learning is definitely better done in specific topics.

Now, as for the how to:

Whether you’re learning chunks for conversation or specific vocabulary, the best way is to learn from context. Find high-quality samples of English (whether good materials that someone has designed for English learners or “real” English) and learn what you see (this is often called “data-driven learning” – i.e. learning from real data and mimicking that, rather than learning from lists and trying to create sentences yourself). Avoid memorising from lists, as this is pretty much useless for actually remembering what you learned.

As well as chunking, there’s a section in the free training I mentioned about what the best materials to use are (and what to avoid).

Hope that helps.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: English confidence

Fear is the mind-killer

May 20, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

― Frank Herbert, Dune

The best English in the world means nothing if fear stops you from using it.

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” — maybe, maybe not. I’ll leave that for the philosophers to decide. But what I do know is that a good idea left unsaid because you’re too afraid to make a sound (i.e. to speak up in your next meeting) helps nobody. Least of all you.

The topic of fear comes up a lot in member coaching calls.

Recently, one of my EES members asked, “How can I stop feeling afraid before I have an English meeting?”.

Here’s an extract:




Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: Getting English Done, Learning English

Are you really too busy for English… or are you making excuses?

May 17, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

One of my MEFAers made an interesting comment:

I always ask myself: am I looking for a way or an excuse?

For example, I registered MEFA almost at the end of the enrolment time. I have a two-month-old baby, who is a sleeping-time killer. And because of that I almost decided to register in the next season instead of this month. But then I asked myself if I didn’t spend the time to study, would I use it wisely? I then realised the baby is just an excuse.

Small children are a real-time killer.

Believe me.

I know.

And there are plenty of other time killers (for example, the last week I’ve lost huge amounts of time to train a new member of staff; frustrating in the short term, but an excellent investment long term).

But GaDii is very, very right:

The time that you DO have available is going to get used somehow, so the real question is… are you using it wisely, or are you wasting it?

My son was born, I went from having all the time in the world to do things to having very little time. But in truth, I got MORE done than ever before. Because now I was forced to prioritise, focus and use time wisely. No more, “I’ll do it later” because later baby would be awake and crying.

I’m not saying you must prioritise English.

But I am saying if English is important to you, and especially if your English is causing you pain and frustration… you’d be rather silly not to prioritise it.

I can help:

https://www.doingenglish.com/mefa/

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: Chunking, English learning

Hymes’ fourth parameter of situational competence

April 14, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

Last few days I’ve been revising one of my research papers for publication.

And I pulled out this of the introduction:

“Hymes’ (1972) fourth parameter of situational competence, which states language in the real world should be performed—or put more simply, language should be ‘done’—not just be possible, well-formed, or appropriate (the first three of Hymes’ parameters). As Skehan puts it, “learners who restrict themselves to item-and-rule approaches to language will be forever marked as non-members of the speech community they aspire to” (1998, p. 39)”

What this means is, being “grammatical” in English isn’t enough.

Success in conversation comes from speaking in fluent, natural and well organised “chunks” of English.

And a focus on grammar and vocabulary only, ironically, often leads to someone sounding less natural, and more like a second-language speaker. NOT more natural like people believe.

You’ll see from the references that even as far back as the 70’s people have been talking about this stuff. Yet I bet there are almost no English teachers that have ever heard of Hymes, or his Four Parameters of Situational Competence.

To my eyes, this is a problem.

We know so much from science: yet it’s ignored by everyone other than scientists.

I’ve made it a mission to change this via the courses I run (i.e. MEFA), via the weekly lessons I publish in EES, and in the near future via the very expensive ‘advanced topics’ print books I’ll publish.

This brings us to the next steps:

Which is to join us in the next MEFA group, if – and only if – you’re the kind of person willing to invest a bit of time and hard work into transforming their English.

Info and enrolment are here:

https://www.doingenglish.com/MEFA/

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook

Filed Under: Learning English

The English Diagnosis Problem

April 8, 2021 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

Asking random people on the internet how to level up your English is about as useful as asking your aunt on Facebook why you’re sick.

It’s unlikely to fix your problem and you’ll end up frustrated with all the conflicting advice that doesn’t match you personally.




To get help that is actually customised to you and your situation, consider joining the next available MEFA group.

The place to go is here:

https://www.doingenglish.com/mefa

Or if you’re not sure if the course is right for you, send me an email (julian@doinglish.com) and I’ll tell you.

Best,
Dr Julian Northbrook