How to review your English progress and check by yourself

stream my name is alicia and in this

week’s live lesson we are going to talk

about how to review your progress and

check yourself so how do you know when

you’ve moved forward in your language

learning how do you know if you achieved

your language learning goals how do you

know when it’s time to move to the next

topic so this is what we’re going to

focus on

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today’s lesson okay so as i said before

today’s lesson

is about how to review your progress and

check yourself okay so i’m going to like

and share this video

and then start today’s lesson okay so

let’s get into uh today’s uh topics

i’ll show you today’s lesson boards then

yeah today’s lesson boards look like

this so we’re going to talk about review

a lot today we’re going to talk about

how to review to check yourself

we’re going to review the concept of can

i or can do questions and we’re going to

finish by talking about how to know what

to study next so this is kind of i i

hope a good way to end the year

let’s get started okay so the first uh

part one for today i want to just talk

about how to review

in order to understand your progress so

i talk a lot about reviewing right

reviewing old

study topics to make sure you understand

and remember the topics but today i want

to talk about reviewing

to check your progress so how do you do

that so

how to check your study progress review

first point is to check your previous

study topics so that means vocabulary uh

so like flash cards check your grammar

textbook or like a speaking textbook

whatever textbook you have

you can practice old listening exercises

so check the things you studied before

so when i say before or

previous study topics

i don’t mean like yesterday’s study

topics i mean for example last month or

maybe three months ago so this doesn’t

mean

like do this every day to check your

progress that’s really difficult to

measure every day right

but i mean check last month’s study

topics or check three months ago so i

usually i like to try to check students

progress every about every three months

that for me that’s usually when they

finish like a course they finish their

textbook or so so for me the guideline

is about three months maybe for your

course and your level it’s different but

that’s kind of the guideline that i like

to use

so check your previous study topics and

look for this question so can you

understand them now so can you

understand them now or

are they easier okay so for example with

vocabulary flashcards this is really

easy to understand when you look at a

new flashcard the first time you don’t

know the vocabulary word or you don’t

know the phrase right but if you review

like three months later you’re like oh i

know this word now great okay so you

understand it now or it’s easier right

for your textbook

you can do the same thing with for

example a grammar point so the first

time you see a grammar point maybe you

don’t know how to use it right it’s new

but after practicing you know a month or

three months then you understand how to

use the grammar point right so when you

review that grammar point you think oh

yeah no problem i can make a sentence

with this grammar or i can read the

example sentences in my textbook and

it’s perfect no problem i understand so

check your understanding do you

understand those topics now or not

so this is one way to check your

progress to check and see if you learned

something

okay

all right

uh happy indie says i guess my listening

level is good because i can understand

all that you’re saying so that’s another

thing that you can do absolutely i have

listening exercises here so if you like

to watch uh like my videos for example

then you can go back to a past video a

video you watched like three months ago

and check do i understand this one but

remember to do that you have to study it

right

so don’t watch just one time or don’t

listen just one time listen a few times

right

okay cool so this is part one

uh part two here

is about reviewing

the things you created right so these

parts are about like your textbooks

they’re reviewing your input items right

the things that you listen to or new

vocabulary or grammar points but i also

talk on this channel a lot about uh

making things yourself right so speaking

practice or writing practice these kinds

of things

so i’ve talked before about recording

yourself right recording yourself with

video or doing an audio recording just

with your phone

so check video and audio recordings of

your practice sessions and check your

writing samples check your writing

samples do you see mistakes now or do

you notice improvements so this is

something i like to do not just with

language but with other things i’m

studying like with music for example so

i like to record like the end of my

practice session for the week or the end

of my practice session for the day

and then i can check that later yeah and

i see the progress so

for example if you do an audio recording

like you pick up your phone and you say

i don’t know one minute of conversation

you practice your study topics for the

day in like a speaking practice session

then you can check that in a week or in

a month and you can hear the difference

between now and that practice session in

the past so these are super super good

ways to check your progress

and you might realize like in one month

one month later like oh my gosh i made a

mistake there or oh my pronunciation was

really bad

maybe i need to work on that or i fixed

it you notice some improvements that

means you’re growing when you can find

those mistakes in your audio and your

video recordings of your own practice

sessions when you can see your own

mistakes that’s how you know that’s one

way to know you made some progress okay

so use these two things audio and video

recordings to help yourself understand

and see and hear your own progress okay

all right and the last one here is

writing sample so i know some of you

have social media accounts for your

english studies for your language

studies that’s super awesome

or you have maybe a journal or some

other thing that you use

to practice writing this is another

thing you can check so you can check

your writing samples and look like did i

make any mistakes like did i use new

vocabulary words is there a different

way i know to say this now so you can

look at your old writing samples

and think about

how you made progress

okay

all right can you change your voice this

is my voice

no i can’t this is my voice

all right uh

let’s see i’m looking for other

questions is they’re possible to have

episodes about job interviews yes there

are some videos on the channel about job

interviews just do a search do a search

for if you’re on facebook uh maybe check

our youtube channel the english class

101 youtube channel okay

all right so that is the end of part one

let’s go to a quick break and then we’ll

go to part two so if you missed it there

is a level check for anybody who wants

to check out their level uh this banner

at the bottom of the screen says test

your level now test your leveled out so

if you check the link below the video on

youtube or above the video on facebook

you will find this link

if you have an account at

englishclass101.com

you can take our level check test if you

do not have an account you can make one

for free so check this out

and take the test if you want to get

some recommendations for some courses to

take so i hope that helps people lots of

people ask about how to know

their

level so that’s one way to do it okay

cool so let’s head on let’s continue

then to part two

okay

uh let’s go to part two in part two

we’re going to talk about uh something

called can do questions i’ve talked

about this before so uh this is also

something you will find on our website

too if you take our can do

courses check that out

okay so let’s take a look so i’ve talked

about this many times this concept of

can i questions this is a super super

great way to check your level and to

understand your next study topic so

we’re going to focus on this uh for part

two and part three of today’s lesson

okay so what is a can what are these

questions i’m talking about so i

recommended at the beginning of the year

and at other times throughout the year

to make a list for yourself of can i

questions so

review your list of questions

so these can i questions are for example

let’s say three months ago you said okay

can i introduce myself and when you

answer these questions you have three

options you can say yes i can introduce

myself or it’s difficult maybe a little

and no i cannot do it at all no

review the list of questions that you

made for yourself or if you have never

asked yourself these kinds of questions

you can start now anyone can start

anytime

so review your answers to these

questions so let’s say three months ago

you said can i introduce myself yes no

problem okay

then can i talk about my hobbies you

said maybe

it’s difficult i can do it a little

and can i talk about my work or can i

talk about my studies maybe you said no

i can’t do this at all

review your list of course this is only

three questions what uh can i a list

sorry your list of questions should be

pretty long yeah maybe like 20 or 30

questions at least so

how do we use this to review to check

our progress

look for the questions that were

difficult for you before so which

questions did you say

it’s a little bit difficult but i can do

it for example here can i talk about my

hobbies it’s difficult

yes a little bit it’s difficult look for

those

then ask yourself can you do those

things now can you do those things now

so that means three months ago you said

this topic was difficult for you okay

now think about it can you do that now

if your answer is yes great so that

means you made progress so maybe now

today you think yeah i can talk about my

hobbies

okay so that means

you made progress on this item right

that’s one way to know you moved forward

okay

then

second point

which questions were no

before so which questions did you mark

as no i cannot do this thing at all

then can you do them a little

now so for example three months ago you

said can i talk about my work can i talk

about my studies and maybe you said no i

can’t i don’t know how but maybe now

after three months you know a little bit

you can do it a little bit but it’s

difficult so

you might say okay well now i feel it’s

difficult so this point really is look

at your list of questions if you don’t

have a list of questions there are some

you can find some can do ones can do

questions on google

or or you can take a look at the

items we have on our website too

so make a list for yourself

so you can check your answers to these

questions every few months because these

questions

will help you to track your progress

help you understand which parts you

moved forward on like which topics you

moved forward on and which topics maybe

you’re already finished with right for

example the another reason this is

really good is if you like look at this

one where you said yes i can introduce

myself if you keep spending time doing

self-introductions that’s not a very

good use of your time right you already

know how to do something go on to the

next topic right so these lists are

really helpful

for making sure you’re efficient with

your study time

okay so these are a couple ways that you

can use these questions to

understand your progress and to start to

go to the next level that’s for part

three okay

all right i don’t see any questions so

we’ll continue on to part three so my

key point here get yourself if you don’t

have one i’ve talked about this many

times this year if you’ve never done

this if you’ve never done this uh list

of question answering try it out it’s

really helpful to understand clearly

which parts uh or which topics you

should study next

okay cool so that is part two for

today’s lesson

uh we’ll take one more quick break and

then we’ll go to part three how do you

know what you should study next okay so

if you missed it uh today’s lesson is

about understanding your study progress

how to know what to do basically in your

studies

but if you want a little extra boost if

you want a little extra help you can

take the level check test that is on the

english class 101.com website so check

that out there is a link below the video

on youtube or above the video on

facebook it is free you just need your

name and email address to make a free

account on our website so please check

that out

okay cool so let’s go to the last part

of today’s lesson also if you haven’t

please please please make sure to hit

the like button and share this video so

that other people can find today’s

lesson okay so let’s finish today part

three then what should i study next what

should i study next okay so

continuing from part two we talked about

these can i style questions right so

check your updated list of questions so

when i say your updated list of

questions i mean you checked your list

you checked your list of questions and

you wrote new answers yes i can do this

no i can’t do that this is a little

difficult for me okay so check your list

of updated questions then

look for the can i questions that you

marked difficult

so which ones did you say um this is

difficult for me and then

breakdown why

why is that topic difficult for you so

for example if you say

can i talk about my work or can i talk

about my studies maybe you say

it’s difficult it’s not no

but it’s not it’s not easy okay so why

is it vocabulary is it grammar is it

pronunciation

listening speaking reading writing then

think about the reason

so if there’s more than one that’s okay

that’s no problem so if there’s more

than one that’s fine but think about why

okay so can i talk about my work and can

i talk about my studies it’s difficult

why maybe i need more vocabulary words

and better speaking skills so that tells

you okay those are the next things for

you to work on so study next vocabulary

for work or vocabulary for your studies

right and practice speaking out loud

right so

you can use these questions

to find your weak point one like oh it’s

difficult so it’s it’s not impossible

but it’s your weak point maybe it’s your

weak point right now and then you look

at why is this weak for me why is this

hard for me and then focus your

attention focus your energy

on those topics so in this case

vocabulary for work or speaking out loud

and so on so you can do this

with all of the questions on your list

but to save time as i said when you

check your list look for the ones that

you marked difficult that’s a good way

to start

so you don’t want to spend more and more

and more time practicing the topics you

already know right you need to move to

the next topic so look for the questions

that you said um this is difficult for

me that’s a good place to start

okay

cool all right

i’m looking for your questions now in

the chat

aware it says how to practice speaking

yeah good question lots of people ask

about that one so for some ways to

practice speaking out loud there are a

few first you can try reading out loud

so if you have a textbook if you have

news articles if you have

something edited so edited means

someone checked the text to make sure

it’s correct so social media maybe is

okay but we make mistakes in social

media that might be a little bit

different so use a textbook or something

that has been checked

you can read that out loud you can do

shadowing practice so that means

repeating quickly after something you

hear so if you listen to podcasts for

example or maybe even some of my videos

you can repeat quickly after me or after

the person that you’re listening to so

that’s speaking practice if you have a

conversation partner of course that’s

another place to practice speaking out

loud for sure too so those are three

ideas okay

uh yeah chris 91 says you can speak to

yourself of course that’s another great

idea just in your house what are you

doing

okay

all right so uh these are some ways that

you can practice speaking and uh you can

get creative too uh with these with

these things but break basically break

down the reason why sometimes people say

well everything well of course like we

need all of these skills to speak a

language and to be able to communicate

sure but try to break down

uh what like the weakest part is there

like you don’t know the vocabulary maybe

there’s something else confidence is

another one lots of people say i don’t

have confidence that’s a different skill

here a different skill here but that’s

definitely also something you can work

on you can work on your confidence you

can work on improving yourself to

differ from building a language skill

but very important okay

cool all right i think i don’t see any