I need to learn English faster. So what can I do? You know, this is likely one of the top questions every English learner has in mind. I want to learn English fast.

I mean, wouldn't it be great if you could simply download a program into your brain and boom, you'd be fluent? I've mentioned Neo and the Matrix before, but if you haven't seen that movie yet, then find a way to watch the movie.

At least to the point of where Neo begins to learn martial arts. It's amazing, and it's likely every English learner's dream. Plug it in, press a button, and download a program and you're done.

But sadly, that's not how it works, is it? But are there ways that will help you accelerate your English learning? Well, my friend, I've got good news for you.

In a roundabout way, yes, I think there are ways that everyday, normal, introverted English students can move ahead faster with their language skills. Let's talk about two practical ideas that will make a big difference in how quickly you develop your English skills. Sound good?

Then let's get started. Foreign. Hello there and welcome to another edition of the Speak English Fearlessly podcast.

This is the podcast for motivated English learners who want to speak English fearlessly and learn practical tips and strategies to conquer the CELPIP exam.

I also love to feature encouraging interviews with regular people, people just like you, who are working towards becoming fluent in English so we can learn from their experiences together. Who am I?

Well, my name is Aaron Nelson and I've been an English teacher for over 17 years, and I now help students prepare for the CELPIP exam through online classes. In last week's podcast, I referenced a blog post by Ben Knight, who is the Director of ELT Research at Cambridge University.

In that post, Knight uses this phrase and I quote, for motivated adult learners, they typically need between 100 and 200 hours of guided learning to get from one CFIR level to the next.

I'm going to be linking to that blog post in my show notes today in case you want to check it out, but the words that stuck out to me were motivated adult learners and I got curious about it. What does it mean to be a motivated learner?

I did some digging in the study that Knight references in his post, and I wanted to share two behaviors that I think motivated learners engage in that have a powerful and positive effect on their language learning effectiveness and as a result, their speed. The first one that I wanted to point you towards is this Motivated English learners shorten the time between practice sessions.

This Means they work on increasing the frequency of opportunities they have to actually use their English, whatever level of English they have.

So instead of waiting for opportunities to come to them later, like say, through an English class, they are actively creating opportunities for themselves to use English. And they do it often. Increasing the frequency of your practice times is vital in order to help combat something called the forgetting curve.

The forgetting curve. Yeah, I hear you. The forgetting curve was a new idea for me too, but it's an important one.

Keep in mind the forgetting curve is a well researched phenomenon that says the longer the gap between your practice times, the more you forget what you've learned. In other words, the longer you wait to practice, the more you forget. Ah, now that makes a lot of sense to me. How about you?

So if you want to see your English skills grow faster, you need to find ways to shorten the space between when you practice. The more you practice, the more you'll remember what you've been learning. Like new vocabulary words, for example, or ways of expressing your ideas.

I'm sure that you've experienced this in other areas of your life, right? For me, I. I'm learning how to be better with remembering people's names. Oh man, that is such a hard one for me.

And in my work where I need to be meeting people and remembering names all the time, this is especially a challenge for me.

I've learned that if I use a person's name that I'm just learning multiple times during the same conversation and during the same day I learned it, I remember it far easier. In contrast, if I don't use their name frequently, then I frequently will forget it. Does that ever happen to you? I hope so.

I hope I'm not the only one who struggles with remembering names, but for me, this is really challenging. So I need to really focus hard on repeating the person's name in conversation with that same person. Person.

Not in a weird robotic sort of way, but I try my best to use their name frequently so that I can learn it. And then I try to use it later on during the day, either talking to them or talking to myself.

Like remembering myself, who I talked with during the day. Like, oh, this morning I had a conversation with so and so and so and so said this and so and so lived here and so and so did this and in their work.

You see what I mean? Like I just keep repeating their name to myself so that the next time I see them I can say hi and then use their name.

But like I said before, if I don't reuse their name over and over again really quickly. After I learn it, I forget it. So that's the first behavior that I want to offer to you. Shorten the time between your practice sessions in English.

And by practice sessions, all I mean is the times when you actually use your English. Shorten the time between those opportunities that you create for yourself.

Don't let there be long spaces between the times when you practice, between the times that you use your English. Don't let there be spaces. Try to increase the frequency the amount of times during the day when you are actually using English to talk with someone.

The more you do this, the more you will remember about what you are learning about vocabulary and helpful phrases and grammar rules that you're trying to use as you're talking with someone. That's idea number one. Idea number two is this motivated English learners change their learning context.

In other words, they look to frequently expose themselves to different locations and situations where they need to use their language skills. That means for you, don't stick to the same places and people that you practice with.

The study by Cambridge University that Ben Knight references found that immersion students, students who are actually living in a foreign country trying to learn English by living in an English speaking country.

Well, that study found that those students who frequently changed homestay locations developed stronger English skills than those who stayed in one spot.

Isn't that interesting if they moved around more, if they changed where they were staying, if they changed the host family, for example, where they were staying again and again during the time of their stay, their skills got better versus the ones who stayed in the same home for the duration of their learning journey? Wow, that's unusual. That's unexpected. That made me get curious. Here's why I think that happened.

Have you ever walked into your kitchen, for example, and suddenly found yourself wanting to leave because something had gotten really stinky in your garbage? The whole room stinks. But there's something strange that happens.

The longer you stay in the same room with that awful smell, the less offensive it becomes to the point where you may not even notice it anymore unless you leave the room for a bit and then returned. This is actually called something. It's called olfactory fatigue. Olfactory meaning talking about your nose, your smell, your sense of smell.

So olfactory fatigue, your nose gets tired. I think you can experience something similar when you become familiar with people and environments where you practice your English.

The more familiar you become with them or with the environment that you're in, the less risk you will likely need to take to use Your English interactions will become more routine.

Exposure to new language might become lower than when it was at the very beginning because you get used to the people that you're with and the way they talk and the way they use English.

Exposure to new ways of using English might become lower than if you're consistently changing up where and with whom you practice, the study found, and I quote here.

Surprisingly, students who stayed with one homestay were more likely to have limited opportunities for practice compared with those who moved between different places and arrangements. So motivated English learners don't get stuck in one place and with the same people. Not that that's wrong.

It's not wrong to have friends that you enjoy spending time with, and it's not wrong to have places where you like to go when you are using English. There's nothing wrong with that.

No, but there is something that begins to happen when you become familiar with the people that you are interacting with.

What I'm wanting you to consider is, is that when you put yourself into a new situation with your English, you are far more likely to encounter new words and phrases because it's a different situation. Because it's different. People that you are using English with, they're going to talk differently.

They're going to use English in different ways than the people that you are used to. They use different words, for example, than the people you spend more time with.

So by changing where you are using your English skills, you will be forcing yourself to use your English in new ways to accomplish new things. For example, if you've never gone out to eat in a restaurant where they only speak English, give it a try.

You're going to be faced with having to use words and phrases that maybe you've not had to use before.

When you order something off the menu, or if you need to ask your server to explain what is in a certain dish that maybe you're not familiar with, all of that will require you to use words and phrases that you probably, I bet, I bet you've probably not used before.

So change where you use your English and you will need to use English in ways that you're not used to, which will help you to develop your vocabulary and your fluency as well as your confidence.

So that second idea, that second behavior that I think motivated English learners engage in on a frequent basis is changing up where and with whom they practice with. So that's it for today's episode. I want to leave you with those two things.

The first one, just as a quick review, is shorten the time between your practice sessions. Don't let there be a long space between the times when you use English and the next time you use English, reduce it.

Instead of there being two days, see if you can get it down to a day. Can you practice your English on a day to day basis? And during that same day, can you increase the number of times that you are using English?

Like don't wait for it just to be in the morning to use English. See if you can sprinkle it throughout your day by the things that you do.

And the second idea, make sure that you're changing up the people that you are speaking English with and the places where you go to actually use your English skills. Don't always go to the same restaurants, don't always go to the same places. Don't always spend time with the same people. Try to mix it up.

Variety will force you to use your English in a variety of new ways which will help you to develop skills. It will force you to learn new phrases, new words, new ways of saying things.

I hope that that helps you today to begin developing your English skills faster. Thank you so much for listening. I hope that you'll come back again next week. Have a great week and I hope to see you again next Tuesday. Bye. Bye.