The Ultimate Guide to How to Learn English

You are a good person – kind, caring, friendly, smart, fun – and you want a better life. You want access to a better career. You want better opportunities. You want more international friendships with fun and interesting people.

But…

You know that becoming fluent in English is one of the keys you need to open these doors of opportunity.

You have tried learning English in all the usual conventional ways.

But…

Nothing really worked for you.

Why don’t conventional methods of learning English work?

These things didn’t work for you because they weren’t interesting, compelling, or fun enough. Conventional methods are too boring to work.

Conventional English teachers don't teach you to communicate in English. 

They teach you about English. 

They break English into individual phonics sounds, vocabulary words, and isolated grammar points.

They try to teach you these fragments of English one at a time.

They force you to practice, study, memorize, and speak before you know how to.

All this can make you feel anxious. All this can make learning English difficult and stressful.

As a result, you have to try to remember linguistics rules and translate in your head as you speak and write. Your English sounds broken. It makes you feel unhappy and embarrassed.

No wonder learning English has been so difficult.

It’s frustrating, but it’s not your fault. The conventional method of learning English has failure  built into it.

It does not have to be this way. In fact, it should not  be this way.

You are an interesting, intelligent person. You need an interesting, intelligent way to learn English.

Tell me more about this interesting, intelligent way to learn English.

Learning a language isn't  like learning other things, like how to solve an equation or how to build a website.

Language is a complex, dynamic web of meaning.

You learn a language by experiencing it.

You need to encounter  vocabulary and sentence structures in a variety of contexts.

Your brain will automatically triangulate meaning  and build your Mental Model of English.

What is a Mental Model of English?

Your Mental Model of English is a pattern recognition device  in your brain.

It is what allows you to understand, speak, read, and write English naturally, easily, and correctly. It does this without you having to think about it.

There are a lot of metaphors we can use to describe your Mental Model of English.

How can I develop my Mental Model of English?

Your brain has already built a perfect Mental Model of your first language. Your brilliant brain can do it again.

Fill your brain with comprehensible input in English. Internalize English sounds, intonations, and sentence structures.

Eventually, correct English will spontaneously emerge on its own without you thinking about it.

What is Comprehensible Input?

Comprehensible input is the raw material of a language.

Comprehensible input is input you can comprehend. “Input” includes things you hear and things you see. In second language acquisition, “input” refers to listening and reading. “Output” refers to speaking and writing.

Comprehensible input means listening and reading to things you can mostly understand.

Comprehensible input is the way you learned your first language. Your family spoke to you about the things around you. They pointed to the things that they talked about to help you understand.

Experiencing comprehensible input is the way you learn to communicate. You can learn all languages the same way.

How can I get comprehensible input? Should I just watch videos online?

There are a lot of things online to listen to and read in English. In fact, most of the internet is in English. The problem is that most  of it is intended for native speakers. This means that most  of it is too fast and too complicated for beginners to comprehend.

There are also a lot of things online intended for  people who are learning English. Unfortunately, most of it is useless. It does not give you the experience  of English.

The biggest  problem for beginners is finding material that is both interesting and  comprehensible.

I solved this problem with English Studio International.

In English Studio International courses, I supply you with comprehensible input. I speak slowly to help you understand. I show you what the words mean with stories, drawings, gestures, and things from real life. If you listen and watch carefully, you can comprehend.

If you simply watch and listen, you can learn English the natural way.

What is is like to learn English the natural way?

When you learn a language the natural way, you learn different things at different times. First, you learn to listen and understand.

When you listen a lot, it will be easy to speak English correctly. It will be easy to say anything you want to say.

After you can listen, understand, and speak, it will be easy for you to learn to read in English. After you learn to read in English, it will be easy for you to learn to write in English.

Your brain will do all this for you if you feed your brain lots and lots of English. I help you to see and hear a lot of comprehensible English in my courses. I use stories, activities, games, and songs so that you encounter plenty of English. When you hear and see a lot of English, your brain learns how to use English.

Memorizing and studying  English are different processes than learning how to use English. In English Studio International courses, you will not memorize or study. You will watch and listen and try to understand.

Each person learns differently. Some of us learned to walk when we were very young, and some of us learned to walk when we were a little older. Some of us learned to talk when we were very young, and some of us learned to talk when we were a little older. Some of us learned to read when we were very young, and some of us learned to read when we were a little older.

It is normal to learn at your own speed. It is the same with English. You can relax. 

Being relaxed and paying attention is the most important thing to do.

Listen first...and keep listening.

When you begin to learn English, don’t try to speak. Don’t try to read. Don’t try to write. Instead, listen to as much comprehensible English as you can, every day.

Flood your brain with things you enjoy watching and listening to...but...do these things in English. Choose things that you can mostly understand.

You can watch:

You can listen to:

Listening to comprehensible input will improve your ability to understand English. It will improve your speaking. It will improve your grammar. It will improve your vocabulary.

Listen to the same comprehensible input many, many times. Repetition is powerful. With so much repetition, you will experience deep learning.

With more comprehensible input, your English abilities will improve, automatically.

Your brain will naturally discover patterns and try to make sense out of what you see and hear. It will put all these pieces together to create your Mental Model of English.

BIG WARNING

Don’t compare what you hear to sounds in your native language. If you make these kinds of comparisons, you will create faulty links in your mind. Instead, keep watching and listening to comprehensible input. English will appear in your head naturally all by itself when it is ready. Don’t force it.

What about speaking?

You may think it’s okay to start trying to speak.

You may think it’s good to “practice” speaking. Research shows that “speaking practice” is detrimental. You can only learn to speak by listening to plenty of English.

Unlike the rest of the world, most Americans do not speak a second language. Many Americans are not accustomed to listening to people with a foreign accent. If you have a foreign accent, some Americans might have trouble understanding you.

If your native language is very different from English, you might not be able to make certain English sounds at all.  If you try to speak too early, you will have a heavy accent. Native speakers might not be able to understand you at all.

You may think that it is “good enough” to speak with a heavy accent. However, there are some advantages to sounding like a native speaker.

Remember, your Mental Model of English is like the blueprint of your house. If you try to speak too early, it is like trying to build a house with only a few lines.

Your Mental Model of English is like a machine. If you try to speak too early, it’s like trying to make your machine work when too many gears are missing.

Your Mental Model of English is like a bucket of water. If you try to speak too early, it’s like trying to put out a fire with just a few drops of water.

Your Mental Model of English is a complex web of sounds and structures. If you try to speak before yours is ready to use, you are forced to use what you do have -- your own language’s sounds. You will use your own language's sentence structures. You will use your own language's grammar. Using aspects of your own language makes it impossible for some people to understand you.

If you keep trying to use your Mental Model before it is ready, speaking broken English may become a habit. This bad habit can become difficult to break. We call this “fossilization.” Fossilization means your incorrect English has turned into a fossil. Fossilized grammar and pronunciation problems can be very difficult to fix. It’s better to learn the right way than to try to fix your broken English later.

Avoid speaking for the first several hundred hours of comprehensible input. The flower of speaking correctly will emerge from the seed of listening on its own when it’s ready. You will know you have had enough listening when you spontaneously speak English. Be patient with yourself through the process.

Do not interfere with your brain’s process of acquiring what it needs to build your Mental Model of English. Do not force yourself to speak.

But my teacher forces me to speak.

Most English teachers insist that you start speaking on the very first day.

It feels like a trap.

Your teacher knows  you don’t know how to speak yet, and yet your teacher is telling you to speak. 

Does your teacher think you are a miracle worker? Does your teacher think you can conjure up the correct sounds from nothing?

You know you are going to say the words wrong.

You know your teacher is going to correct you.

You feel anxious. You feel embarrassed.

You’re smart in your own language, but having to speak in a new language makes you feel dumb.

In other words, if it makes you feel bad, it is not helping you learn English.

Effective learning is a result of enjoyable learning.

Many people have been accustomed to “the school way” of learning languages. School wants you to believe that the only way you can learn anything is by going to school and reading textbooks.

Not true.

Your years of schooling make it feel routine to try to speak when your teacher tells you to speak. Your years of schooling make it feel normal to repeat what the teacher tells you to repeat. Your years of schooling make it feel ordinary to obey, even when the teacher is wrong.

If you are accustomed to obedience, you may not realize that you are pushing yourself to speak. You may not realize that you are repeating incorrectly. You may not realize that you are learning English wrong.

You should stop trying to speak English immediately if:

Instead, keep listening to comprehensible English.

Once you fill your brain with enough English, you will be able to speak when you feel like speaking. Your English will sound natural. You will link words together correctly, like natives do. You will speak with correct rhythms, correct stresses, and correct intonations. You will use correct grammar. Everyone will be able to understand you. It will feel comfortable. Don’t force it. Trust that your marvelous brain will build a Mental Model of English for you. Trust that you will speak naturally when you are ready.

What will it be life to speak naturally?

At first, you’ll hear yourself say simple things that you’ve heard many, many times. You'll likely hear yourself greet people and answer simple yes-or-no questions.

Later, you’ll find yourself making simple sentences of two or three words.

Eventually, you will hear yourself suddenly speaking longer sentences. You will even speak sentences you have never heard before.

This is called the Speaking Threshold.

How long does it take to cross the Speaking Threshold?

How many hours of comprehensible input will it take to start spontaneously speaking correct English?

It depends on how similar your native language is to English. For example, if you speak a language that is similar to English, like Danish, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, or Swahili, it could take about 300 hours.

If you speak a language that is very different from English, like Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, or Korean, it could take 800 to 1000 hours.

If you speak a language that's somewhere between those two extremes, it could take between 300 and 800 hours of comprehensible input to start speaking correct English spontaneously.

What about silently repeating words in my head?

Saying or repeating English in your head has the same effect as speaking aloud. You will still develop pronunciation problems.

Remember:

What about reading?

In phonetic languages, there is a direct relationship between how a word is spelled and how it is pronounced. You can look at a word and know how to pronounce it. You can hear a word and know how to spell it.

English is not a 100% phonetic language. Here are a few examples:

The oo  in good  does not sound like the oo in food. Good  and food do not rhyme.

The o  in go does not sound like the o  in do. Go  and do  do not rhyme.

The oe  in toe  sounds like the ow  in tow. Toe  and tow are homonyms.

Mail  and male  sound the same. They are homonyms. Same with to, too, and two.

Read  has two pronunciations.

-oug-  has six or seven pronunciations, depending on your accent. Look at this:

Through, tough, thorough, and thought  all have different sounds for -oug-.

The -oug-  in through  sounds like the oo  in food.

The -oug-  in tough sounds like u  in but.

The -oug-  in thorough sounds like o  in no.

The -oug-  in thought sounds like o  in hot.

If we wrote "It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though." phonetically, it might look like this: "It can be understood throo tuff thorow thot, thow."

Because English is not a 100% phonetic language, you should avoid reading until after you’ve internalized English sounds.

Most people speak in their heads when reading. If you can’t make the correct sounds, speaking in your head causes problems.

Don’t push yourself to read early. It is not “more successful” to try to read early. Don't be fooled.

Wait until you’re speaking naturally before you try to read. Then, learn to connect English sounds to the text.

What if my native language uses almost the same alphabet as English?

The answer is still no. It is too easy to use the sounds, intonations, and rhythms from your language by mistake.

After you’ve acquired the English sounds in your Mental Model, you’ll be able to read using the correct sounds.

How do I learn to connect English sounds with English text?

Wait until you have internalized English sounds. Next, ask a native speaker to read to you while pointing at the words. You will make connections between how English sounds and how English looks.

If you don't have a native speaker who can help you, you can listen to the audio version of a text while looking at the text.

Another option is to take courses at English Studio International. I combine voice and text together in my courses to help your brain build strong connections.

What about writing?

Wait until you can read in English before trying to write in English. If you don't felt confident in your ability to write correctly in English, stop trying to write. If you agonize over appearing smart when you try to write, stop trying to write. Don’t force it.

Instead, keep reading. Keep experiencing what correct sentences look like. After you've internalize what correct sentences look like, you will be able to write when you feel like writing.

What about grammar?

If you try to learn English by studying grammar, you will think about grammar too much. When you’re ready to speak, you won’t have confidence in yourself to just speak. You will find yourself trying to “do grammar” in your head.

Don't study grammar. It is better to learn grammar implicitly, the way native speakers do.

How do native speakers learn grammar implicitly?

Native speakers learn grammar implicitly by listening to and experiencing English in context. Native speakers develop a “feel” for what “sounds right.”

You already do this for your native language. Comprehensible input helps you to develop this feeling in English too. You will never need to stumble over grammar thoughts in your head.

What about translating and memorizing vocabulary?

The problem with translation is that every translation is an interpretation. Your translation app or site may give you the wrong interpretation, and therefore, the wrong meaning.

A particular English word or phrase may have many different meanings and uses. For example, let’s consider “get off.”

Get off  can mean:

In fact, you can combine these meanings in a variety of ways:

There is another problem. Different words and phrases may have the same meaning. For example, let’s consider some of the ways we can tell a person to “relax.”

You can tell a person to relax by saying:

There is still another problem. Phrases can have different meanings depending on the context or tone of voice.

Yeah, right  can mean “Yes, I understand the point you are making.”

Yeah, right  can mean “I don’t believe you.”

Here is a more nuanced example:

You want to go to the store?  can mean “Would you like to go to the store?”

You want to go to the store?  can mean “I always go to the store. This time, I think you should go instead.”

You want to go to the store?  can mean “You ate the rest of my peanut butter. You need to go buy me some more.”

If you simply translate English into your language and memorize the translations, you have two problems.

Comprehensible input allows your brain to create links of meaning. These links become the complex web of your Mental Model of English.

Your Mental Model of English connects related words and experiences in a variety of context. It becomes part of your nuanced understanding of English. All this is built in your long-term memory.

This is how native speakers learned their language, and it is how you should learn too.

What about studying and practicing?

Many people have been taught that the only way to learn a language is to study and practice.

Not true.

It is difficult to learn English by studying  it. Most teachers, schools, English programs, and textbooks don’t actually teach English. They don't teach you how to communicate  in English. They teach you ABOUT English. They try to force linguistics, grammar explanations, and translations into your head.

If you try to study before you have had enough comprehensible input, then:

Don't "study" and "practice" English. Instead, expose yourself to lots of comprehensible input. Become accustomed to English’s sounds and usages.

What about corrections?

Let’s take a closer look at what’s happening when you make a mistake.

The only way to make a mistake is if you try to use Mental Model of English before it is ready.

You’ll know that you are using it before it’s ready if you have to try  to think of the right words and right grammar.

You’ll know your Mental Model is ready when the correct words and grammar come out of your mouth without  you having to try.

If you do make grammar and pronunciation mistakes, your teacher might correct you. Perhaps you even ask people to correct you. But guess what? Very few people enjoy correcting someone else’s grammar and pronunciation. Most people would rather have a conversation about something interesting.

But it’s gets worse. Correction has a “fragile effect,” which means that the correction only lasts for a short time. In other words, correction isn’t effective.

There is no need for correction if you internalize English before trying to read or speak. Learn the right way from the beginning: watch and listen.

What if I didn't start learning English as a child? Is it too late for me?

Many people believe that it is easier for children to learn languages. Many people assume that as you grow older, you “lose” this “special ability” that children have.

Actually, it’s not quite so simple. There are other factors involved.

When people speak to children, they use simple language. They speak to children about the things around them that they can see, hear, and touch. This makes it easy for children to create a mental link between the words they hear and the things they see. In other word, the input is comprehensible.

When people speak to adults, they tend to talk about abstract things or things that are not present. Because the things adults talk about are not present, adults cannot link what they hear to what they see. In other words, the input is not comprehensible.

But it gets worse. You didn't "lose” a child’s “special ability” to learn a language. You gained special abilities that young children do not have: the ability to read, write, and study. Adults use these abilities to try to learn their new language. Adults try to speak and try to read before they have integrated the sounds of English into their minds. They translate vocabulary and try to memorize it instead of acquiring it in context. They try to analyze new grammar rules instead of internalizing sentence structures.

Dr. J. Marvin Brown is the author of Learning Languages Like Children, the developer of Automatic Language Growth, and the founder of the AUA language center in Bangkok. At the AUA language center students are actively discouraged from speaking. This long silent period helps students to avoid developing grammar and pronunciation problems. By listening for so long, students also avoid developing a foreign accent.

How can you can reclaim your ability to learn a language like a child? Stop using your adult abilities. 

Instead, use the child’s abilities:

Okay, okay, okay. Speaking too early is bad. Repeating words is bad. Saying words in my head is bad. Reading and writing too early is bad. Studying grammar is bad. Memorizing vocabulary is bad. So, what do I do?

What is the best way to build my Mental Model of English? What is the best way to get comprehensible input?

You don’t need yet another conventional English teacher, program, or school. You don’t need more grammar books, drills, and study materials.

What do you need are interesting, comprehensible stories  in English.

Why stories?

Every culture uses stories to educate, to inform, to entertain. Stories are as old as humankind.

There are four reasons why stories are so compelling:

Stories capture our attention because they give our minds something interesting to do. Stories tell us about interesting people doing interesting things. Stories invite us to notice new things. Stories ask us to participate in solving the character’s problems.

Stories feel real. Stories can have the same effects in our minds as real-life experiences. Your mind builds strong connections as you try to solve the problems in the story.

Our brains find stories more interesting and easier to remember than any other kind of text. Psychologists say that stories are “psychologically privileged.” This means that our brains treat stories differently than other types of materials. 

Stories are engaging. Stories make you feel emotions. Stories activate your imagination. Stories open up your mind.

But did you realize...

... All without study, memorization, or effort.

Creating, reading, and writing comprehensible stories in English is the best way to build your Mental Model of English.

Introducing English Studio Workshop

I teach English to by co-creating stories with you, based on your own ideas.

I begin each story by asking questions. I draw the ideas to help make them understandable. We discuss different ideas. Sometimes we vote on what should happen in our stories. I write the story as it develops. I begin each workshop by reading what we wrote last time.

Our stories are interesting and hilarious. You experience heightened emotions. These feelings drive English into your Mental Model.

Sure, my method isn't what you're used to. It's not like school.

It's like magic.

And it works.

I call it English Studio Workshop.

Why is English Studio Workshop a Good Fit for You?

English Studio Workshop is

But Wait! There's More!

Additional Benefits of Using English Studio Workshop

The most important thing about my method is that it is based on how people actually learn languages. Your child will become fluent and literate in English. Here are a few other reasons why you might want to use English Studio Workshop:

What's Next?

I hope this has helped you learn how people really learn languages. You now know enough to make a decision about how to become fluent and literate in English. 

Are you highly motivated to transform your life?

Do you want to open the doors to better opportunities as soon as possible?

Do you want a shortcut on your journey to becoming fluent and literate in English

I can help.

About Me

Hello, my name is Katy Purviance.

I am a professional English as an Additional Language teacher.

I have also participated in over 200 hours of improvisational story creation training at six different theatres in Portland, Oregon:

I have combined second language acquisition research and improvisational story creation training. I have developed and refined methods that work. I put it all together in my English Studio Workshop.

I wrote this for you because I wanted to share these ideas with as many people as possible.

I love helping all kinds of people become fluent in English. Why? People who want to learn another language are intelligent and interesting. People who make the effort to learn another language are really special. People who learn another language contribute to making a better world for everybody. I am grateful for you.

Katy Purviance

Still here?

Do you like to read about second language acquisition?

I do. Here is some of the research I read to help me become a better English teacher.