HOW TO SPEAK ENGLISH EFFORTLESSLY

Speaking English effortlessly doesn’t have to be so hard, no one is actually the master of a language, this is more of a reason this book summary is directed towards the psychological aspect of speaking effortlessly and the method deriving part of being a success in effortless English speaking.

There are two ways to overcome not speaking English fluently and effortlessly:

1) The Psychology
2) The Method

THE PSYCHOLOGY

Take these few questions…

Do you feel nervous or shy when you try to speak English?

Do you still struggle to understand what someone is saying to you despite years of study?

Are you embarrassed about your pronunciation or worried you speak too slowly?

Are you frustrated that despite all the time you’ve invested in learning English you still can’t speak it?

Most people get stressed and frustrated about their speaking ability but little did they know they’ve been taught using the wrong methods, well the ultimate goal of learning a language is communication.

Take Note of the problems and solutions

Problem 1: There’s a problem with Schools

English Trauma is a global epidemic.

There are questions pertaining to the problem which are:

What is the cause of all this misery and failure?

Why do so many people fail to speak English effortlessly despite years of study?

What is wrong with English education?

The first and most obvious problem I found with schools was the way in which they teach English. Most schools, everywhere in the world, use the grammar-translation method. As the name implies, the focus of this method is on grammar analysis and the memorization of translated vocabulary.

Schools like the grammar-translation method because it appears to be serious, academic, and complex.

Solution 1: Psychology Is more important than Grammar and Vocabulary

Most People have spent years memorizing grammatical rules and vocabulary lists.

They have spent years studying for English exams such as the WAEC, JAMB TOEFL, IELTS, or TOEIC.

Despite all this work and effort, most still find it difficult to speak English effortlessly — Many as much still struggle with even simple conversations despite success in these exams.

They have forgotten that spoken English is neither about grammar rules nor the long list of vocabulary.

The difference spoken English makes and the one we are being taught in school is that real conversations are fast, and it’s nearly impossible to do all of this thinking fast enough, especially when talking to a native speaker.

English is a language, not just a language but an almost universal language and it’s meant to be spoken powerfully, clearly, naturally, and effortlessly.

Problem 2: Speaking English is not a passive activity.

You must connect with other people.

You must constantly ask and answer questions.

You must communicate ideas, emotions, and descriptions.

You must be ready for the unexpected.

You must be spontaneous.

You must actively interact.

English is not something you passively study, it’s something you do.

Related to the problem of passivity is the issue of energy.

Sitting for a long time is a low-energy activity.

The longer you sit, the more your energy drops, and as your energy drops, so does your concentration.

What’s worse, we know that some learners need physical movement in order to learn effectively.

These people are called “kinesthetic learners.”

The truth is we are all “kinesthetic learners” to some degree because we all benefit from physical movement.

Schools stick us in chairs and drain our energy. Eventually, an inactive body is an inactive mind.

Solution 2: Change your beliefs about education and the way you learn English.

Most schools, most teachers, and most learners focus only on the method which is vocabulary and grammar — Schools primarily use the “grammar-translation” method, with some “communication activities” added.

Psychology is probably the most important element for success in English speaking.

When you think of your own English speaking, you’ll realize that your nervousness, lack of confidence, and frustration are major problems.

How do you change these?

Without an effective psychological system, you will struggle to find success with even the best language teaching method.

This is how learning English works.

- Traditional classes at universities
- Private lessons from language schools.
- Online or packaged software courses.
- Immersion programs that put you in the country where they speak the language you’re studying.

In other words, you’ve got a lot of different cars to choose from. Some may be better than others, some may be faster.

The right engine + the right fuel = Success

Obviously, the right engine would be the Method.

While the fuel is your psychology — the beliefs, emotions, and goals that power your learning.

Your fuel is your motivation, your confidence, your energy, and your enthusiasm.

The Psychological system called Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP will help in the right psychology — it was developed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder.

NLP is focused on the psychology of success, high performance, and motivation.

Sadly, most learners now have powerful negative anchors connected to their English speaking.

The good news is that negative anchors can be broken and reprogrammed.

Instead of feeling nervous, imagine if you suddenly and automatically felt powerful every time you spoke English.

What if you automatically felt more excited every time you learned English?

This change alone would improve your speaking because your beliefs determine your success.

Beliefs are our most powerful “brain programs.”

They guide our decisions, our feelings, and our thoughts.

They tell us what is possible and what is not.

They open us to success or limit us to failure.

We can put beliefs into two general categories:

Limiting beliefs

Empowering beliefs.

A limiting belief is typically a negative “program” that limits your potential and performance. In other words, limiting beliefs limit your success.

Beliefs are so important — they are the central programs in our brain that create feelings, decisions, and actions.

Problem 3: English is not a subject to be studied.

English is a skill to be performed or “played.”

Speaking is something you do, not something you analyze and think about.

Real English conversations are very fast and they are unpredictable.

The other person speaks quickly and you never know exactly what they will say.

You must be able to listen, understand, and respond almost instantly.

There simply is no time to think about grammar, translations, or anything else you learned in English class.

Solution 3: English is an exercise

English conversation is more like playing soccer (football)

A soccer player must act and react almost instantly.

The player must play the game intuitively.

Soccer players do not study physics formulas in order to play well.

They learn by doing.

They “play” soccer, but they don’t “study” it.

Studying grammar rules to speak English is much like a soccer player studying physics to play soccer.

It might be interesting (or not!), but it certainly won’t help performance.

Your job, therefore, is to stop “studying” English and start “playing”

Learning to play English, rather than study it, is a powerful way to develop strong psychology and go much faster on the road to fluency.

This is another excellent way to use your body while learning English.

- Take a short “energy break.”
- Play your favorite energetic music.
- Jump, shout, smile, cheer, and dance for a couple of minutes.
- Fully energize your body and create peak emotions.
- Then continue learning English.

Take these energy breaks every 20–30 minutes every time you learn English. I guarantee you will get better results.

THE METHOD

Method 1: Use big real-world goals to motivate yourself to success

Why, exactly, are you learning English?

Why do you want to speak English powerfully?

Goals are our brain’s targeting system.

Goals tell our brains what we want when we want it, and why we want it.

A powerful goal energizes, inspires, and motivates us to do more and be more.

A great goal can totally change your life.

Weak goals, on the other hand, produce weak results.

Develop stronger goals. But what makes a strong goal?

A strong goal is one that creates a positive obsession in your mind.

A strong goal is emotional.

A strong goal not only motivates you, but it also seems to pull you towards action and success.

To be powerful, a goal must be intensely emotional in a positive way.

This is why test score goals are so weak.

Who gets excited and inspired by tests?

In fact, for most people, tests are negative experiences that produce feelings of nervousness, fear, and stress.

That’s not very energizing or inspiring. No wonder so many people feel bad about English.

So how do you find and create truly powerful goals?

Begin by asking yourself power questions.

These are questions that help you find your deeper reason for speaking English.

As you go deeper, you will find more inspiring goals. And the best power question of all is simply, “why?”

Repeatedly asking ‘why?’ is an easy way to find your deeper purpose in English.

For example, you might first ask yourself,

“Why am I learning English?”

Maybe your first answer is:

“To get a high TOEFL score.”

That’s a weak external goal.

So you ask yourself again:

“Why do I want a high TOEFL score?”

Maybe you answer:

“To get a better job.”

Again you ask:

“Why do I want a better job?”

Now you are going deeper, finding your true purpose.
Maybe you answer:

“To make more money for my family.”

And then you ask:

“Why do I want to make more money for my family?”

And you might answer:

“Because I love them and want to provide an abundant and wonderful life for them.”

That way, you have found your big internal goal.

Such is the power of big and meaningful goals.

Why do you want to learn English?
What is the most exciting outcome you can imagine speaking English will bring you
What truly inspires you about learning English?

Think bigger. Dream bigger!

Do yourself a favor: Choose big, audacious, powerful goals for learning English. Ignite your passion!

Method 2: Program your brain for English success

The way we program our mind matters a lot even when it comes to vital things like learning — the problem for learners is not a lack of intelligence, nor a lack of willpower.

You are not “bad at English.”

What most people lack is control over their minds and emotions.

In fact, you have all the talent, intelligence, and power you need to master spoken English at the highest possible level.

You simply need to learn how to control your power and use it to change your emotions, beliefs, and actions in an instant, exactly as you want.

There’s a psychological technique called “mental movie programming.”

This can help you feel confident and powerful when speaking, and to do so, you must learn to control your internal movies — your internal movies are the programs you use to create feelings, beliefs, and goals.

You create these movies with your five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.

Your memories and your dreams are recorded in your mind as a combination of these senses.

These are the ingredients you use to write and direct your own internal movies.

These movies then create your emotions, thoughts, and actions.

When you want to change the results you get with learning English, you want to change two things:

- How you feel when speaking English
- How well you actually speak.

In other words, you want to feel confident while speaking and you want to speak skillfully.

The application of this mental movie programming will help you change two things:

- How you feel when speaking English

- How well you actually speak.

In other words:

You want to feel confident while speaking

You want to speak skillfully.

As you think about the movies you make in your mind, realize that there are two things you can choose:

What is in your movies

How that movie is made

Essentially, you are the movie director of your own mind.

The question is, will you control these movies and consciously direct them, or will you let them control you?

A good director controls the images, camera angles, sounds, etc.

In a movie, the director creates exactly the thoughts and feelings he or she wants the audience to experience.

As a director of your own mind, you can do the same.

Method 3: Take a life example from babies

In fact, babies and small children are the best English learners in the world!

They easily learn to speak as a native speaker, with excellent grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and pronunciation.

Instead of studying textbooks, perhaps we should look at babies and how they learn English.

When a baby first starts to learn English or any language, it mostly just listens.

In fact, for many months, the baby or child will only listen without any real speaking.

This period of listening is called the “silent period” by linguists.

During the silent period, the baby is learning to understand the language.

Of course, when a baby is silently learning the parents do not get worried.

They don’t teach the baby grammar.

They don’t get angry if the baby doesn’t speak.

What do the parents do?

They simply talk to the baby using very simple English.

They use actions while they talk.

For example, they point to Mom and say, “mama, mama,” over and over again every day.

Eventually, the baby realizes that “mama” is the word for his or her mother.

This is the natural way of learning English.

As you can see, it is very different from the way you learned in school.

The truth is, your brain is an incredible language-learning machine.

When you have strong psychology and an effective method, you learn English quickly.

Even better, when you follow a natural approach, you enjoy the process of learning because you are no longer fighting against nature and your own brain.

Method 4: Learn Phrases Not Words

Phrases are groups of words that are related, and focus on an idea.

Phrases are “natural chunks of language.”

Phrases give you a lot more information.

They give you much more information than you would get from a single word.

As a result, phrases are easier to remember, because they have a deeper meaning.

They present you with a kind of picture or story, especially when you get them from something you are listening to or reading.

Learning the Natural Way

This is actually how native speakers first learn English grammar.

It’s how you learned your own language.

When we’re children, we learn in phrases.

We learn in groups of words, for example:

- Give it to me.
- Walk across the street.
- He fell down.

The point is:

We learn groups of words, not just one word.

Word-by-word is slow and it doesn’t help with grammar.

But when you learn a whole phrase, you are getting extra information.

You’ll sound more natural.

The words will flow out more easily.

You’ll improve both pronunciation and fluency.

You’ll even learn grammar.

Method 5: Improve your pronunciation

So, how can you develop more natural English pronunciation?

One strategy I suggest is to play a little game with movies.

In this game, you try to become your favorite English-speaking actor or actress.

When you speak, pretend you are that actor.

Instead of worrying about your English, concentrate on speaking exactly the way the actor would.

Method 6: Don’t study Grammar

The problem with studying grammar is that instead of speaking English you focus on analyzing it.

You become like the soccer player who is studying physics in order to improve.

You learn a lot of information but your skill never seems to get much better.

In other words, you think about English instead of doing it.

You think about the past tense, the present tense, the future, the present perfect, and the past perfect.

Grammar is not bad for writing English, but it is bad for speaking it.

When you write English, you have time.

You can think about things slowly and take your time.

You can erase your mistakes.

It’s less of a problem.

You don’t need to write fast.

But when it comes to speaking, there’s no time.

You don’t have time to think about the rules for the present perfect tense in English when you are talking to people.

If someone asks you a question, you have to answer it immediately.

For example, many students who do well on grammar tests have terrible spoken grammar.

In school, you learn how people “should” speak English — but what you should actually be learning is how people actually DO speak English.

The truth about grammar is that people learn grammar intuitively.

Intuitive mastery of spoken grammar is based on a “feeling for correctness.”

It is a sense of commitment that identifies what sounds right.

Method 6: Learn with your ears, not with your eyes

This is how babies learn languages.

It’s such an easy thing to do that you have to wonder why most English classes don’t emphasize it more.

If you want to speak excellent English, you have to listen.

Listening, listening and more listening is the key to speaking excellent English.

If you listen a lot, you are going to learn vocabulary.

You will learn grammar.

You will do all of this in a more natural and enjoyable manner.

You will imitate the process that babies and small children use to learn a language.

Native speakers learned to speak English with their ears by listening, listening, listening, and that’s what you must do if you want to speak English quickly, automatically, and naturally just like a native speaker.

The most important factor for learning English is comprehensible/ understandable input.

This input refers to what is coming into your brain and you can get this English input in two ways:

Listening

Reading

Certain kinds of reading are very useful and beneficial. But, the most powerful kind of input for learning to speak is listening.

English speaking ability grows my listening ability and the most candid opinion about learning English is that English learning is an unconscious process — you learn the most from your unconsciousness than the deliberation.

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