- Hello everyone and welcome back to English With Lucy.

Today I am going to talk to you about the four things

that you need to study every single day if you want

to improve your english quickly, in a short period of time.

Now I have made quite a few videos about how you can

incorporate and integrate english into your daily life.

But this video is going to take it a step further.

Throughout this video, I'm going to answer loads of the most

popular questions that you put underneath all of my videos.

Questions like, how do I know which vocabulary

I should learn?

Or how can I know where to start with grammar?

What order do I go in?

There are so many YouTube videos out there,

but I don't know which order to follow.

Or questions like, how often should I schedule

classes with teachers?

Or another really important question, what's more important,

grammar or pronunciation?

Should I learn grammar first and then perfect

my pronunciation?

Or should I speak english with perfect pronunciation

and bad grammar?

Which should I do first?

I'm going to be discussing all of that with you today,

so let's get started.

The first thing that you should study every single day

if you want to become fluent quickly, it's pronunciation.

With pronunciation, practise makes perfect which is why

I'm asking you to do it every single day.

And my honest, professional opinion is that pronunciation

should be studied from the very, very beginning.

I'm not sure about your experience with english teachers.

Please comment down below if you've had a good

or a bad experience.

But I've seen many teachers put too little emphasis

on pronunciation and too much emphasis on grammar.

I taught in Spain and I saw students leave school with great

grammar, sometimes better than my own, but I couldn't

understand what they were saying because their pronunciation

was so bad.

And by then, they had spent so long speaking with bad

pronunciation that it was really hard for them

to make a change.

So what I'm saying to you is don't learn grammar first

and then introduce pronunciation at a later date,

start with pronunciation.

The best thing to do is just to study them both at the same

time, but really, really make an emphasis on pronunciation

because grammar is a strict set of rules,

but pronunciation is a lot harder, there's an art to it.

Correct pronunciation helps with so much more

than just sounding like you know how to speak english.

Knowing correct pronunciation will transform

how you understand other people.

Once you know how a word is pronounced,

you will understand it when somebody says it to you.

Students always ask me why their listening skills

are so bad, and I tell them it's probably

because your pronunciation skills are lacking.

You don't know how to say the word, so how will you

understand when someone else says it to you?

So how can we improve our pronunciation?

Will obviously this lesson is far too short to teach you

absolutely everything, but I would say that the best place

to start is the IPA, the international phonetic alphabet.

Please let me know down below in the comments if you would

like me to do a series on the IPA because I have been

considering it for some time.

Now in complicated terms, the IPA is an alphabetic system

of phonetic notion based on the Latin language.

But in simple terms, it's a tool that will help you

understand phonetic transcriptions.

Those little squiggly, weird words that I often put

in my pronunciation videos.

Once you understand how to read and comprehend

transcriptions, you'll be able to understand any word

you read in a dictionary.

I have put a link in the description box to my absolute

favourite interactive IPA chart.

You click on each element and somebody says it for you.

It's brilliant.

If you dedicate yourself to learning one phoneme

or one diphthong each day, within two months you will

know the whole thing.

So practise everyday.

Other ways that you can improve your pronunciation,

listen to how natives speak, that's a given.

And also, do some research on the differences

between english accents.

For example, British english, RP receive pronunciation

and general American.

Once you understand the differences, you'll be more in tune

to the general pronunciation of english.

Alright, point number two, lessons with teachers.

This part of the video is sponsored by Lingoda,

but I'm going to give you highly, highly relevant

information on how to improve your language skills

on a daily basis.

Yes, that's right.

How often should you schedule in a lesson with a teacher?

If you want the absolute best you can get,

you need to do it every single day.

Now normally, this isn't really an option for people,

but listen to what I have to say 'cause I think

it might surprise you.

This video is about what you can study everyday to improve

your language skills.

Five minutes on a language vocabulary app each day will

help, but it won't be enough on its own.

Weekly lessons at a walk-in language school will help,

but again, progress will be very slow.

The Lingoda Language Marathon is the perfect way to study

every single day and make a massive, massive impact

on your fluency.

Over 10 thousand students have participated in the previous

four Language Marathons over the past few years

and for many, it's transformed their lives.

It's helped some get a new job, it's helped some make new

friends, and it's helped others study

and work in other countries.

Many of them have shared their experiences with all of us

and there's a link down below to where you can read about it

on the Lingoda website.

You can also have a look at Lingoda's Instagram page

to see more inspiring stories.

So what is the Lingoda Language Marathon?

Well it's basically a really motivating study challenge.

You study everyday, unless you take the half marathon

where you study slightly less.

And if you complete the marathon successfully,

you get a 100% refund or a 50% refund if you do

the half marathon.

That is such a great incentive that will really stop

you from procrastinating.

The marathon starts on the 27th of May, 2019 and goes on

until the 24th of August 2019.

You can take one class per day, everyday.

That's 30 classes for the full marathon and 15 classes

for the half marathon per month.

You can join the marathon in english, french, spanish,

german, and business english.

And it's suitable for every level, beginner to advanced.

So how do you participate?

Well you need to sign up to the marathon

before the 13th of May.

After paying the five euro entry fee,

which secures your spot in the marathon,

you'll automatically be enrolled

into a three month subscription.

Now I have special discount code for you and that means

that you don't have to pay the entry fee.

Just click on the link in the description box and sign up

with my code speak1 and it will be discounted for you.

Now as if studying very single day for three months

wasn't good enough, don't forget that Lingoda will refund

your marathon fee in full when you attend that agreed number

of classes each month.

You'll need to show up on time and you will need to actively

participate in the classes.

If you book a class and miss it or fail to book a class

at all, you can still continue on with the marathon,

but you won't qualify for the refund.

Places in the marathon are limited,

so sign up now to avoid disappointment.

Also, make sure you familiarise yourself

with the terms and conditions.

Previous marathon graduates have said that this is the key

to achieving the refund.

The marathon is an incredible opportunity to take

your english to the next level quickly and effectively.

So many students would jump at the chance to take an English

lesson with a native, qualified teacher every single day

for three months.

And the fact that you can get your money back is an extra

motivational incentive, it's the icing on the cake.

Alternatively, if you don't think that the Language Marathon

is for you, you can check out Lingoda's flexible

subscription packages and book a free trial class.

If you do decide to go ahead with the marathon,

please let me know how it goes.

I wish you the absolute best of luck.

Point number three, grammar.

I receive so many questions about grammar, people seem to be

so confused about where to start.

People want me to number my videos and put them in order,

but I have to tell you, sometimes following a strict order

isn't the best way to learn a language.

Now you know that my saying is don't wait for someone

else to educate you, educate yourself.

Well, I'm goin to say the same thing again.

You need to test yourself.

You need to find out where you're lacking in grammar skills

and then you need to fill in the blanks.

The order in which you need to study grammar will be very

different to the order in which your friend needs

to study grammar.

I've linked a really good website down below.

If I were you, I would go through every single english level

from A2 onwards, or maybe even A1.

And if you get a question wrong, or if you get multiple

questions wrong, you need to review that grammar topic.

If you don't feel completely confident with the grammar,

you need to revise it.

You shouldn't think ugh, well the present simple

was the first lesson we ever had when I was 10 years old,

so I don't need to do that again, I need to learn

the conditionals and the subjunctive.

Like a house, you need to have strong foundations.

This is all about identifying your weak spots

and making them strong spots.

How can you study effectively if you don't know

where you're lacking?

It just doesn't make sense, but it always surprises me

how few students take this approach to learning grammar.

So, you know what you need to do now.

Click on the link in the description box, test yourself at

every single level, and then write down all the topics

that you need to do.

And then study them in order of level and that is the order

in which you need to study grammar.

Simple.

Alright, on to the last topic,

and possibly the biggest topic.

It is vocabulary.

Lots of students ask me what vocabulary they should learn.

Well it all depends on what your goal is

with learning english.

If you're learning english simply to pass an exam,

if that's your priority, then your priority should be

learning the exam vocabulary.

Most exam boards will have a full list of all

of the vocabulary that you need to know

up to a certain level.

Make sure you have that list, cross out every single word

that you immediately recognise, and the condense the list

of unrecognised words, and study from that.

Now words that are not on your curriculum are likely

to pop up and appear in exams.

This is why you need to read around the subject.

Exams usually have set topics.

You might have to talk about holidays, you might have

to talk about weather, you might have to talk about business

growth, who knows?

Every single day you need to choose a topic and you need

to read an article around it.

That will really help you build

your topic specific vocabulary.

Now what if you were learning english because you want

to become fluent, not because you want to take an exam?

In that case, the most sensible option for you is to learn

vocabulary that you come across in your daily life.