5 Tips To Improve Your English Fluency With @BlackboardEnglish |#ShareTheMic

Hey everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. This week we have something a little different and special for you because this week I'm going to be sharing with you different voices of different teachers of English. If you've been following me for a while, you know that I've been talking about the importance of diversity in the English learning industry. And if you haven't been following me on Instagram, then what are you waiting for? We're having a lot of fun there. You can find me at Hadar Accents Way. Anyway, back to English. The reason why it is so important for English learners to be exposed to different teachers of English is because in the English learning industry, especially on YouTube, you are mainly exposed to one voice of English and usually one accent, whether it's the standard American or received pronunciation or Standard Australian. Now, the reason why it is so incredibly important to listen to different voices is because English is so incredibly versatile and diverse. And when we consume content from different teachers and different speakers who have the same accent and have the same voice, it doesn't reflect English as it is. And sometimes when you look at your feed or your subscription list, you may see that it doesn't have the diversity that English really does have. And as a non native speaker who has been struggling with stereotypes and and biases, I really think that we should bring more of these voices to the front. And this is why I'm so incredibly honored to invite different teachers to teach on my platform. So every day you will be getting a different lesson from a different teacher whom I admire. I hope you enjoy it.

Hello, fearless learner. It's Halima from Blackboard English. Today I want to share my top five tips to help you with your English journey. Before I get started, I want to tell you a little bit about myself. English is my second language. I'm from Somalia. I came to the UK when I was nine years old and I completely didn't know how to read or write in any other language. English is actually my third language, so I learnt Swahili, a dialect called Chimini. It's like a mixture of Arabic with Swahili and Arabic is my second language. And I also understand Somali, but I've never learned to speak Somali and I'm doing that right now, trying to learn it. So I live in the UK in London. London is such a cosmopolitan country. It's full of people from all over the world. You see people from all walks of life. That's enough about me. I want to know a little bit about you. Tell me why you're learning English and also tell me a little bit about yourself in the comments. So I'm gonna get started with the tips that now, starting with tip number one, don't learn everything the teacher tells you to learn. And the reason for that is because I want you to take ownership of the language. There's going to come a time where a te. A teacher teaches you a word that doesn't make sense, and you're like, I'm never going to use that word. Or this is a word that I don't even enjoy saying, saying, or using. So I'm giving you the permission, not that you need it, to look at that word and say, no, thank you, I'm not going to learn that word because it is not useful for me. So focus on learning language that is useful to you and that you are happy using. Tip number two is focus on quality rather than quantity. I hear students saying, how many words should I learn every day? Now, that depends on you. But I hear students using 50, 60 words trying to learn all of them. Not using. Trying to learn 50 or 60 words in one go or even in a week. I think that's too much. What I want you to do is focus on quality. So try to find four or five words a week and then expand on those four or five phrases or words and try to use them as much as you can. And so it's important that you select these properly. Like I said in tip number one is selecting the correct, not correct, the right vocabulary for you. Once you've done that, you are now able to manipulate it, find synonyms, find different contexts to use the same, same vocabulary. So trying to kill a million birds with one stone, basically. All right, tip number two is chunks. So make sure that whatever you're learning, you're not just learning one word. You have the word's best friend next to it. And this will help you sound natural when you try to use the word in context. When you're having a conversation and you're trying to learn the word, your brain actually finds it easier to recall words that are in groups rather than single words. It helps you sound natural when you're trying to use. Also allows the brain, you find it easier to retrieve the information. So make it easy for yourself and learn words in chunks. Now, if you can't find chunks, then you can learn sentences or words in context. So things like collocations, idioms, and phrasal verbs and sentence heads, all of these are amazing to focus on rather than focusing on singular. Tip number four is I want to say Your accent is amazing. There's nothing wrong with your accent. Please stop trying to change your accent to something else. Now, I know the resources online is. Is now that it's focused on American and British or Australian English or Canadian English, but what I want you to do is think when I do learn from a specific type of English, whatever comes out, when it comes out the way you say it. So if I say something, if I say tomato and somebody else says it differently, it.

If.

If it's the same way of saying it and somebody else can understand it, that's your job done. The idea is communication and improving your pronunciation and not changing your accent. This is something that you need to really think about, and it's something that I believe will change in the future. Accents are not going to be specific to one region. We're going to be able to learn English from many, many different places. Try to sound like you. Your accent is beautiful. You don't need to change it. All you need is to sound clear. And tip number five is grammar. So grammar. I love grammar. It's amazing. But I do believe that grammar hinders your learning ability. I've noticed with my students when they try to learn grammar, it doesn't help them. It hinders them from communicating. It prevents them from communicating. So if you're thinking about all the rules and the things that you have to remember, it stops you from communicating because you are scared to make a mistake. Okay? So focus on learning vocabulary rather than grammar. If you are at a beginner or you're at an intermediate level student, advanced students, go for it. If you're a teacher, go for it. But stay away from grammar. If you are somebody who's just starting to learn English and you don't yet feel comfortable communicating. All right, So I know I said I was going to give you five tips, but I'm going to give you one more. Perfection is a killer. Don't try and speak in a perfect way. It will stop you from perfect practicing. It will stop you from doing anything. And being afraid to make mistakes is the worst thing for your development. So mistakes are good. Keep making those mistakes. It means that you're developing and you're learning and you're changing. You're moving forward. All right, guys. Okay. I hope you liked those tips. Tell me which one you're going to use. Let me know in the comments. Thank you so much, Hadar, for having me here. And I will see you guys on the other side. Bye.