5 Mistakes To Avoid As An English Learner

you are an English Learner but there are

five mistakes that you must avoid and

today I’m gonna tell you what they are

welcome to speak English with Tiffany I

am teacher Tiffany let’s jump right in

mistake number one alright the first

mistake is cramming this involves

basically trying to do too much in a

short period of time when you do this

you eventually feel burned out and I’ll

explain what that means in other words

your desire to study English slowly goes

away now let’s look at feel burned out

in a little bit more detail you see this

means to feel worn out or extremely

exhausted and you’ll see some examples

at the bottom of your screen

it’s exhaustion of physical or emotional

strength or motivation usually as a

result of prolonged or extended stress

or frustration so for example you can

feel burned out because of a group

project or maybe you’re a stay-at-home

mom and you’re very tired or it may be

overtime work at your office is making

you very tired or even high school

teachers get tired and maybe you are a

speaker at a conference you can feel

burned out in these situations okay so

let’s see some examples the man has been

working long hours at the restaurant so

he is feeling burned out again tired now

what about this picture shows us this

well working long hours well look at his

eyes his eyes look very tired and what

about the restaurant idea well this is

possibly kitchen equipment on the left

side of your screen or on the right side

it could be a large kitchen okay so

again the sentence is the man has been

working long hours at the restaurant so

he is feeling burned out or maybe this

one

the fashion designer was on the phone

with the client but it was easy to tell

by her body language that she was burned

out okay so looking at this pick

well fashion designer it looks like this

woman likes fashion her jean jacket

seems fashionable and her body language

well she looks stressed with her hands

on her face so again the fashion

designer was on the phone with the

client but it was easy to tell by her

body language that she was burned out

okay and this one the runner was totally

burned out after completing her

month-long training for the marathon

again burned out being tired okay so

runner

well her pants they look like running

pants and then training it looks like

she has on a training sweater so once

again the runner was totally burned out

after completing her month-long training

for the marathon

all right so feel burned out so mistake

number one is cramming this will cause

you to feel burned out or tired and

exhausted quickly when you study English

all right so let’s move on you can avoid

making this mistake by studying in

chunks instead of trying to do

everything at one time and I’ll explain

to you what chunks are look at the

amount of time you have and see how much

information you can study and comprehend

in that time period

all right so chunks a chunk is a large

part or portion of something so example

number one she decided to read her books

in chunks instead of all at one time so

example on the right side she decided to

read five chapters a day instead of the

entire book in one day so she did chunks

of five chapters all right number two

three hours is quite a chunk out of my

workday so let’s say you have an

eight-hour workday on the right of your

screen you’ll see that this is divided

into eight sections

well three hours removes three of those

sections okay that’s a large chunk out

of my workday and number three I see a

large chunk

of cheese on the table in the kitchen

you’ll see the picture of the cheese on

the right side of your screen the

drawing that’s a chunk a large part or

portion of cheese okay all right so

let’s think about your study habits now

this is representing your English study

time what happens is for this mistake

sometimes as a student you try to cram

or put everything in at one time but

instead of doing that you should break

out your English study into chunks so we

have vocabulary grammar listening

writing and speaking so there are

different types of chunks you’ll notice

on your screen that I’m showing you

visually how to break it down based on

time or based on days now you can choose

the specific chunk for each day all

right so let’s say we’re looking at

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

Friday and Saturday

you can choose vocabulary for Sunday

grammar for Monday listening for Tuesday

and then a review day on Wednesday and

Thursday and Friday have different

chunks as well and then you can rest on

one day out of the week okay now at the

top where I have it broken down in

minutes if you decide to have 15-minute

chunks that means you will do 15 minutes

for cab you Larry 15 minutes for grammar

15 minutes for listening 15 minutes for

writing and 15 minutes for speaking and

the same across the board for 30 minutes

45 minutes or 60 minutes remember the

length of time for each chunk is up to

you okay this is a way you can study to

balance your learning okay all right so

again you can avoid making the mistake

of cramming by studying English in

chunks all right very good so now let’s

move on to mistake number two all right

this involves basically trying to look

up every single vocabulary word you see

in here a lot of my students did this in

the past and I had to give them its

advice so that they could avoid this

mistake you see when you do this you

eventually stop using the

capillary words you already know and

become discouraged in addition you

hinder and I’ll explain this word your

ability to learn English through context

alright so let’s look at this word

hinder hinder means to hold back or to

make difficult to accomplish now we have

three examples underneath okay number

one the power outage hindered his

ability to get his research done so look

at the sketch on the right side you’ll

see that he’s trying to do some research

or a study but because there’s no power

that means the lights aren’t working so

he can’t study he can’t do research so

it hindered his ability to do the

research alright number two if you do

not rest enough you will actually hinder

your workout progress so again looking

at the sketch on the right side the man

looks very very tired so because he

didn’t get enough rest he can’t do his

workout because he’s so tired alright

alright number three an ankle injury

will greatly hinder your ability to

exercise again remember hinder means to

hold back or make it difficult to

accomplish well on the right side with

the sketch if you’ve hurt your ankle

then you can’t move easily to exercise

alright so again hinder alright so let’s

look at some visual examples her injury

is hindering her from playing to the

best of her ability now looking at this

picture injury well we see her knee and

we see that someone is spraying her knee

so something happened some injury

happened and then plane well she has her

cleats on okay cleats are the shoes you

wear when you play soccer or for some

country’s football and also other sports

on turf or on actual grass okay alright

so listen to the next one his fear of

heights is hindering him from even

attempting to climb the big mountain

okay so we see this man standing right

here so fear of heights

well this mountain looks very big and

very high

okay he’s staring at the big mountain

but he’s not moving and then climbed the

big mountain well if we look at his

backpack we see he has gear on his

backpack okay again so his fear of

heights is hindering him from even

attempting to climb the big mountain all

right and next his addictions are

hindering him from getting a job so

looking at this picture

addictions well this man is holding some

alcohol and a cigarette he is drinking

and smoking at the same time so he has

an addiction and getting a job well we

see he is looking out for help so we

made the sentence his addictions are

hindering him from getting a job okay so

mistake number two is looking up every

word this will actually hinder or make

difficult to achieve your ability to

understand English

based on situations okay alright so

again vocabulary words are important but

not looking up every word is also

important okay all right

mistake number two how you can avoid it

you can avoid making this mistake by

using the focus method using this method

your first goal is to listen for or

redefined the main focus topic and then

the supporting information or details

about the topic let’s see what this

looks like so the focus method first

you’re gonna find the main idea in other

words the focus or subject then you’re

gonna look for supporting points you can

listen for the five W’s the who what

when where why or you can listen for

other details alright so let’s look at

this actual in an actual example alright

so on the left side of your screen

you’ll see an actual article now this

article comes from the speak English

with Tiffany Academy they’re updated

every month so if you’re not a part of

it yet you want to join right now

there’s so many students there and don’t

wait okay so this article on the left is

called talking through teens growing

pains now they’re gonna be many words

you don’t know in this article but again

the focus method says find the main idea

so the title is about teens and their

difficulties the word teen or teenager

is all throughout the article and the

overall feel of the article is there are

difficulties and how to relate to them

so without even looking up the difficult

words you were able to find the main

idea then look for supporting points

parents have a hard time communicating

with them this point is seen in the

article then difficulty with their peers

or friends and also spending time with

parents these are the points that are

mentioned in the article now even

without knowing for example at the

bottom I highlighted some words that may

be difficult or expressions like utter

about wince or manipulate now you can

look those up after the video but these

are words that when you first read the

article you may not know but you can

still find the main idea and look for

supporting points ok and next this one

is a conversation this is for listening

so the main idea as you’re listening to

this conversation ah

Sarah’s biology class and her difficult

professor that’s the main idea those are

the two points right and what are the

supporting points Michael took his class

before the professor’s class so he can

help and Sarah is happy now you may not

know what the word lifesaver means but

you have the general idea of the

conversation that is why the focus

method is so important okay so you can

avoid making the mistake of looking up

every single word by using the focus

method understand the most important

parts first now again remember I’m not

saying never to look up vocabulary words

but I’m saying first find the important

information alright okay so let’s move

on to mistake number three mistake

number three this involves basically

trying to see how good or bad you are in

English based on another English

learners capability or ability that’s

why the mistake is called compare

yourself when you do this you actually

can discourage yourself from trying

harder to learn English okay so you can

avoid making this mistake by placing

more focus on your own English learning

journey on a daily weekly or monthly

basis you can write down where you

improved and where you need to improve

okay so let me explain a little bit more

what on a daily weekly or monthly basis

actually means this refers to how often

something happens or is done in other

words it refers to the frequency of an

action so for example in the pictures

you’ll see how often you hang out with

your friends how often you eat out or

how often you go to work these are

actions that happen on a regular basis

okay so let’s go to the first example I

work with a great team of coders on a

daily basis so again in this picture

what do we see well work well we see

this man sitting at his computer and he

is very focused on his task and then

coders well we see code on her screen so

coders refers to computer programmers

who actually work with code ok so again

I work with the great team of coders on

a daily basis usually we work every day

of the week ok

all right next I eat out with my family

on a weekly basis ok so eat out well

we’re looking at this picture and he has

a suit on and is eating a big juicy

burger so he’s probably eating out all

right ok and this one my friends and I

try to hang out with each other on a

monthly basis well hang out with each

other in this picture it looks like

they’re all sitting together and

enjoying each other’s company so they

are together but maybe this doesn’t

happen every day so we say my friends

and I try to hang out with each other on

a monthly basis alright let’s move

forward now

again you can avoid making the mistake

of comparing yourself by writing down

and checking your personal progress on a

daily weekly or monthly basis regularly

basically so don’t compare yourself just

check your own progress okay all right

mistake number four now this mistake is

not making a schedule this involves

basically studying English with no plans

or goals plans and goals are so

important when you do this it actually

becomes harder for you to stay motivated

to continue studying English alright so

you can avoid making this mistake by

creating a simple study schedule your

schedule can be based on a daily weekly

or monthly plan but my advice is to

focus on making a weekly schedule first

so that you can get in the habit of

studying now let me explain get in the

habit of okay this just means to begin

doing something regularly or often okay

so for example reading a good book or

having a cup of coffee sometimes people

do that every day on a regular basis or

going for a jog these are habits that

people have alright so for example she

got in the habit of going to Starbucks

every morning when she was in university

okay

so Starbucks well we can tell by the cup

the Starbucks logo on the cup and she

was in university well she has on a

backpack okay

alright so again she got in the habit of

going to Starbucks

every morning when she was in university

all right next one

the man and the woman got in the habit

of jogging together after they learned

the health benefits of exercising well

okay we see the man and the woman

they’re jogging together they look like

they are talking to each other

alright so they have a habit of jogging

okay all right and Barbara got in the

habit of reading one book a week after

she

the biography of Martin Luther King okay

well reading one book we can see that

she’s sitting there she is focused on

her book so again Barbara got in the

habit of reading one book a week after

she read the biography of Martin Luther

King all right so get in the habit of

you can avoid making the mistake of not

making a schedule by getting in the

habit of or to start doing regularly

planning out your English study time it

can be days times or even by topic but

plan out your study time okay all right

mistake number five this involves

basically studying only one aspect of

English for a long period of time that

is why the mistake is called studying

only one aspect for example only

studying grammar and neglecting don’t

worry I’ll explain this word listening

speaking writing and vocabulary by

studying only one for a long period of

time you inevitably or unavoidably

become weaker in all of the other

aspects so let’s look at neglecting this

means a fail to care for properly or to

not pay proper attention to or disregard

so the first example my friends told me

to stop neglecting my boyfriend so on

the sketch on the right side you see

it’s kind of like the guy is trying to

hug her but the woman is actually

ignoring him or neglecting him okay

number two the boss neglected his

employees and they got upset well in

this sketch you will see there’s a man

in front but he looks a little bit

worried because of the people behind him

he neglected them didn’t pay attention

to them for a long period of time and

number three

both parents were found guilty of

neglect and their child was taken away

from them so again we see in the picture

the baby is screaming and crying because

the parents did not take care or give

proper attention to the baby okay so we

say neglecting now this is what happens

if you only focus

on one aspect let’s say you focus only

on vocabulary your vocabulary is strong

but everything else is weak or you focus

on grammar and everything else but

capillary listening writing and speaking

get weaker the same is true no matter

what aspect you focus on if you put too

much focus on it it’ll make the other

aspects get very weak all right so

mistake number five is studying only one

aspect this will cause you to neglect

the other aspects remember to balance

your study time all right so you can

avoid making this mistake by allotted

time for each aspect and again a lot of

time for I’ll explain in other words you

can create a schedule that includes all

aspects of English by doing this your

English ability will improve in a

balanced way all right a lot time for

okay this means to divide distribute or

set aside an amount of time for a

specific purpose or task so look at the

bottom you see for example time to send

messages or time to talk to friends time

to plan or time to work or time to read

we always a lot or set aside a specific

amount of time for certain parts of our

day or our life okay so for example did

they a lot time for the project this

month well looking at this picture

project well we’ll see that what’s

happening he is looking at some diagrams

so he’s working on a project so again

did they a lot time for the project this

month next picture my boss told me that

he allotted three hours for the

interviews on his schedule this

afternoon so looking at this picture

interviews well he is dressed

professionally and the two of them are

talking so it’s possibly an interview so

once again my boss told me that he

allotted three hours for the interviews

on his schedule this afternoon and then

we have this one Michael allotted a

specific amount of time for studying

today because he had

a big exam next week while we see

studying right here and we’re looking

and we see this man sitting at the table

right and then we also see a big exam

being the focus so the man he is focused

and then we also see that he has a lot

of books so he’s studying for a big exam

so once again Michael allotted a

specific amount of time for studying

today because he has a big exam next

week all right

so you can avoid making the mistake of

studying only one aspect by allotting a

specific amount of time or setting aside

time for each aspect okay all right now

if you want to keep studying with me and

you haven’t joined the speak English

Tiffany Academy yet you need to join now

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