[00:00:00] A lot of people can get to an intermediate level in a foreign or second language, but then find it really difficult to make that jump from intermediate to advanced or upper intermediate to advanced. So today I'm going through three tips on how to make that jump. Hopefully, you enjoy and find it useful.

[00:00:19] The first tip that I will give - is increasing your input. Now input means the inputting language. Now, you can do that in a few ways. The best way to do that is what is called the immersion technique or total immersion. Now, this is when you immerse yourself in the language. So it's like you're underwater. The word immersed means that you are completely underwater.

[00:00:44] In this sense, is you are completely covered in a language, almost. So imagine I want to learn Spanish. Well, living in Manchester, you don't hear too many people speak Spanish. You don't engage with Spanish that much. Everyone is speaking English. All the menus are in English. People greet you in English.

[00:01:02] You don't really engage with that much Spanish. And if I want to learn Spanish, I will have to purposefully go out my way to engage with Spanish. So I'll have to meet up with some Spanish people or people that speak Spanish; or have to watch some TV shows, or listen to some podcasts. Read some books. You get the idea.

[00:01:21] But, if I moved to Madrid, then I would hear a lot more Spanish. Menus would be in Spanish. This is probably the best way to increase your language, is just being surrounded by that language. Now, moving to a different country just to learn a language is quite difficult, so you can do this at home. Watch more TV.

[00:01:42] I'm sure everyone watching this watches TV series and watches films. Well, a lot of those TV series you watch are in English. So, why not make that switch? Stop watching it subbed. Stop watching with subtitles in your native language. Watch it in English audio with English subtitles. It might not be as relaxing as watching TV in your native language.

[00:02:05] But make the switch, and increasing your input like that will have a big effect on your language skills. There are other things - I think podcasts are great. Even if you don't understand everything, you can do other things while listening to podcasts. You can go for a walk. You can clean the dishes. You can exercise, and just having a lot more English go into your brain; I think you will benefit from it.

[00:02:27] Even if you don't understand everything you don't need to pause and search up every single word. It can be useful to do that, but it's not completely necessary. Just make sure that you choose some material that's a little bit more difficult than what you understand. So if you're listening to stuff, which is just really, really easy and you understand absolutely everything, you're not gonna get that much better just from increasing your inputs.

[00:02:55] But if you choose a podcast and you understand 80 percent of it, that's perfect. Around those numbers. That's not a science, but I think those numbers work out. So yeah, increase your input, read more books, read more articles, listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos, and watch TV. Speak to more people in that language.

[00:03:16] You know, find a conversation partner, just do more of it. And the thing with input is it can be quite passive. You don't need to be… actually like sat there speaking to someone. You don't need to write something. You literally can just be lying on a sofa, listening to a podcast. And that will, if you just do this more, your language skills will increase.

[00:03:36] Atop this is... listen, read, and watch things that you actually enjoy. Don't make learning language boring or a chore. There's no need. If you find… I'm sure you know what your hobbies and interests are. If you really like running or cycling or weightlifting or self-improvement or psychology. Read about those things, listen to those things, watch videos about those things, in English.

[00:04:01] Go on YouTube, there's so much stuff about so many different things. If you're learning English, it's probably the easiest language to learn in terms of accessible content and material, just because a lot of songs and films and TV series and books are written in English originally. So, yeah. Go out there, find something you enjoy, and make sure it's in English.

[00:05:38] The second way to increase your language skills is by finding out your weaknesses. So, I've had so many students over the years come to me with different weaknesses. I'll have an intermediate student who lacks vocabulary but their pronunciation is fine. I do exercises with them. I do reading exercises with them just to try and find more vocabulary and increase their comprehension.

[00:06:03] And we, I never, he hardly ever makes pronunciation mistakes. I usually create a list of different - usually I have like a vocabulary list and a pronunciation mistake list. And I haven't even made one for this student because his pronunciation is excellent. He lacks other things. He's not great at listening and he lacks vocabulary.

[00:06:25] These are his weaknesses. So together we focus on these weaknesses and we bring up his overall level. Usually a student at an intermediate/up intermediate level has one or two weaknesses. Sometimes it's grammar. They can't produce sentences soundly. A lot of the time it is pronunciation and accent because they're speaking English in their native In the way that they pronounce words in their native language, and sometimes that doesn't work too well. And yeah, so find out what your weakness. If it's pronunciation focus on pronunciation. If it's listening focus on listening more because there will be that one skill of writing, reading, listening, speaking, pronunciation, accent, confidence.

[00:07:07] This is a big one as well. Confidence. Find out which one is your weak point, or your weak points and bring them up. I'm sure you probably have a good idea of where your weak points are, but one way you can do this is working with a tutor. I'm not trying to say work with me. You don't need to work with me.

[00:07:25] There are tens of thousands of English tutors that you can find online. And they will be, if you just ask them, just have a conversation with them maybe have a few lessons with them, and ask them that you want a needs analysis that you kind of want someone to, you want them to identify your mistakes and your weaknesses, ask them to create a program around those weaknesses.

[00:07:48] So if you want to improve your pronunciation, make sure that at least half of the lesson is pronunciation work and try and bring out that weak point. The third tip is increasing your vocabulary. This is a basic and boring and pretty simple answer, but language is all about vocabulary. It's not in the sense that you need a big vocabulary to be an effective speaker.

[00:08:11] I hate it when people use overly complicated words just to try and show that they're smart. But sometimes there are words which are more suitable than other words. And you don't want to be, I have so many students that come to me and they, and they have this problem of, they can describe general things.

[00:08:29] They can communicate basic ideas. They can't be as precise as they are in their native language, understandably, because they lack those very specific words. So, imagine you said you went for a walk in the park, but you didn't want to just say “a walk.” Imagine you had a slow, leisurely walk, that you kind of weren't particularly in a hurry.

[00:08:51] You were just enjoying yourself. You could say, I went for a stroll in the park. Now you could just say a walk in the park and the person you're speaking to get to the idea, but maybe you want to be a bit more precise. So increasing your vocabulary is a better way to be more precise with… kind of putting your thoughts and feelings into actual language to communicate.

[00:09:15] Obviously an increased vocabulary helps with listening as well, because we all hate it when someone speaks to you in a, in a foreign language and you don't understand a word in there or two words in there. And that means you don't understand the sentence at all. So improving your vocabulary really helps with listening.

[00:09:33] And if you're like me, when I was living in Spain and learning Spanish, then once that you kind of lose track of the conversation - like - you get stuck in a conversation, jit's really hard to continue the conversation because you're kind of like thinking about that word and trying to work it out. And because you were thinking about it, you missed the next few words and that's it.

[00:09:53] You've zoned out. You start thinking, then you get anxious and you think you're a bad Spanish speaker or whatever, and then your confidence gets affected. And then the next conversation you have is bad as well. So confidence is a big one and not beating yourself up about mistakes is also an extra tip as well.

[00:10:10] But those are my three tips on how to improve your language skills, especially from an intermediate to an upper intermediate or advanced.