How to Learn English by Yourself at Home

everybody welcome back to our weekly

live stream my name is alicia and today

we are going to talk about

how to study english alone so

in this week’s lesson i’m going to talk

a lot about

goal setting uh so that if you are

studying

by yourself uh you can find new

things uh new ways to approach your

studies and

new ways to kind of move forward too so

uh we are going to start in just a

couple of minutes i’m also going to

cover uh in today’s lesson some ideas

for some resources too in case you’re

kind of feeling

stuck uh in your studies or maybe you

feel a little bit bored

as sometimes happens so should be a good

one i hope uh today my goal for you for

today’s lesson

is to uh help you find a new goal even a

small goal

uh so that you have something like to do

over the weekend or over the next week

so uh as you join as you join live

please make sure to like and share this

video of course uh

so that other people can find today’s

lesson also a couple

of announcements while we wait i will

take the title away

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announcement number two is as

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questions

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vocabulary something related to culture

whatever your little questions you can

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so that is all for announcements let’s

have a look at the chat hello youtube hi

everybody on youtube

welcome welcome uh i see pradeep radhana

hello rebecca

sane khanwalji hi everybody thanks very

much for joining us

awesome thanks very much okay i see lots

of people are here

so i’m going to get started i’m going to

show you

today’s lesson boards real quick so

these are the topics we are going to

study well all of these these are all

the same topic

how to study alone uh but uh today we’re

going to cover

one how to understand your strong and

weak points

that’s over here second we’re going to

talk about

setting good goals this is really really

important and in step two today you are

going to

find your next goal finally step three

how to study alone

study resources i’m going to talk about

some

ideas uh some different ways that you

can study some um

hopefully maybe give you some ideas if

you’re feeling bored with your studies

recently

okay so with that let’s get started

with today’s lesson okay i see a lot of

people in the chat hi

okay let’s get started with today’s

lesson then so the first thing i want to

talk about today

is understanding your strong and weak

points

understanding or strong and weak points

so i’ve written strong and weak points

here

more naturally we call these our

strengths

and our weaknesses our strengths and our

weaknesses

so i’m going to begin today with this

part

uh you need to know your strong points

and your weak points so that you can

understand

what the next thing is you need to study

why is this important well if you always

study just the things you’re good at you

never

improve the things you’re not so good at

so it’s important to know your strong

points

and your weak points so this means

for yourself please think about your

grammar

your vocabulary your writing skills your

speaking skills your listening skills

pronunciation all of these different

points there are many small things

that go into that are inside a language

so think about all of these points for

yourself

what am i strong at what am i weak at

and so i know a lot of people usually

say oh i’m bad at everything i’m bad

this part right here i’m bad at

everything

my weak point is everything so don’t say

i’m bad at everything

okay so each person has strengths

and weaknesses unique to their

experiences each person has strengths

and weaknesses

unique to their experiences this means

everybody is different

everybody uh has a personal strong point

and a personal

weak point i do you do too

uh it’s your job first to find those if

you’re studying alone

so i know for many people you say i

really

don’t know like i really don’t know what

i’m weak at here like i feel like i’m

weak

with everything but i don’t know exactly

what so

if you’re not sure if you think like i

really

don’t know you can try this

asking yourself ask yourself some can i

style

questions so the reason that you ask

like these

can i style questions is because there’s

an

easy yes or no answer

so for example uh oh let’s just go the

next point the next major point is about

can i style questions okay so

use can i questions to find the things

you need to study so if you don’t know

how to make

a can i question i have three examples

here you can

google a list uh just use your google

skills like

you can find like a can they’re often

called can do lists

for english learners so if you don’t

know how to make these for yourself

google a list of these so for example

ask yourself

can i introduce myself so in english can

i introduce myself

in english if your answer is yes great

if your answer is no okay if your answer

is

yes a little but it’s kind of difficult

that’s fine too so ask yourself

questions like these

and be honest can i do it is it easy

no like i can’t do it it’s really hard

or i can do it a little bit

think of those kind of three answers

another example

can i understand the news can i

understand the news so when you listen

to the news

can you understand it yes no or

it’s a little difficult or one more can

i write a business email

so again these all depend on your goals

so these are just three examples

so think about uh your your own like

life

think about the things you do in your

life then too

like uh talking on the phone or ordering

something

or going to the supermarket and talking

to the staff there

whatever think of even those small

things and make a question like a can i

style question and answer it for

yourself can i do that

yes or no so when you do this

focus on things that are a little

difficult for you and think

why are they hard so for example

if it’s like okay can i understand the

news if my question is can i understand

the news

and my answer is a little bit i guess

then think about why why is it

hard for me to understand the news like

i can understand a little

but why is it hard for me so go back

here is it a grammar problem

is it a vocabulary problem is it a

listening skills problem they’re

speaking too quickly

so think about these different things

inside your can i style

questions so and then go um

i think i don’t have enough vocabulary

maybe

okay so then you know i need to study

some vocabulary about

like this news topic for example or um

i think it’s my listening skill so then

you can look for

uh like audio or podcast lessons uh

that help you practice your listening

skills so that’s why these

kinds of steps are really important to

understand

which parts are weak for you and which

parts are strong for you

yeah because if if you say i can

introduce myself but if you practice

just introducing yourself for years and

years and years

you don’t improve so you need to try to

do you

you have to do the things that are

challenging for you

as well so this is step one for today

understand your strong and weak points

and this is a way to understand kind of

like a way to test yourself many of you

write me like what’s my level what’s my

level

you can find what you need to study next

like it’s hard to say you’re level one

or you’re level four

to like the world everyone has a

different level scale right

so this is a way to understand uh

your next step or the step you uh you’re

at

now as well too okay so

this is part one for today’s lesson good

good good good all right i’m checking

your comments i don’t see any questions

yet but if you have a question please

feel free to send it

in the chat okay i will go to

a quick break and then we’ll go to part

two for today’s

lesson okay uh so if you missed it

earlier

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some of you are saying uh on youtube is

watching videos

good uh yes it can it can be so i’m

going to talk about resources at the

in part three of this lesson so if you

are just joining please make sure to

like and share

this video too uh so that other people

can find

today’s lesson all right uh so i will

show you

again today’s lesson boards real quick

you can take a picture if you like

but um okay so we just talked about how

to study alone

understanding your strong and weak

points this was part one

now we’re going to go to part two so

part two

includes your homework for this live

stream lesson at the bottom

uh you need to make a goal for yourself

this is your homework and then finally

last today i’m going to cover

i’m going to talk about some study

resources in part three so if you are

asking questions about that

i will talk about that at the end of

today’s lesson

okie dokie let’s go to

part two how to study alone

setting good goals i have talked about

this many times

on this channel so if you have been

watching me for a long time you are

probably

uh ready to review so how to study alone

set good goals this is a very big

problem i see

for many people please don’t flood the

chat please do not fluffy flooding the

chat means sending the same message many

times uh

set good goal so today i’m going to

review

what is called smart you can see here

s-m-a-r-t

smart goals smart goal settings

so what is a smart goal and why do we

need it

we need to set good goals because if we

choose a goal

that’s too big or too open we don’t know

what to do like what’s the next step

so a good system or a good

rule for you when you make goals

is to make smart goals

so what is a smart goal a smart goal is

something

i’m going to talk about each point

specific

measurable achievable

realistic and time

based so what do these things mean okay

specific

first of all a specific goal is a

clear narrow goal so clear

narrow so narrow means like it’s kind of

small it’s like pinpointed

not a big goal not like a huge thing

so like let’s get world peace that’s a

really really big goal like how do we do

it

choosing a small thing inside the goal

that’s a narrow goal

okay measurable so maybe you can see the

root here is

measure so that means we can know we

know when we finish the goal we can

check

did i finish this or not it’s like

when you’re playing a video game or when

you’re running in a race or something

did you finish the game or did you

finish

the race yes or no we know if we did it

or if we didn’t do it so measurable you

know

when you’re finished achievable is the

next point achievable

so achieve plus able that means

is your goal possible to do is it

possible

to do your goal sometimes people make

these really really big crazy goals that

are just

a little too much so make sure your goal

is

achievable it is possible to do

can’t see the blue letters sorry i’m

reading them out loud sorry i wrote

these a little too small

i’ll read them clearly uh realistic

realistic so a realistic goal is this a

good goal for you right now so maybe

you make a goal that’s good with all of

these points

but like it’s too much time for you like

for your schedule right now or

it’s just it’s just too much so make

sure this goal is

realistic so something that is good for

you personally as well

finally time based time based so that

means you need to

make a deadline make a deadline make an

end point for your goal make a deadline

so not just i want to be fluent but

i want to do something by a certain

point in time

so let’s look at some bad goals well

they’re not

bad let’s look at some goals that need

some improvement

and let’s look at some examples of good

goals

first example i just said it my goal is

to be fluent

this is not a great goal like i mean yes

it’s a google

but for your studies like of course we

all want to be fluent that’s why we

study

another language but for helping you

move forward

in your studies my goal is to be fluent

is not a great goal

why it’s not specific we don’t know like

the next step

how do we cannot measure this like we

can take a test

yes but that’s not a perfect measurement

of our fluency uh

achievable what how do we know when we

achieved

this goal like is it possible yes but

like what’s what’s the end we don’t

really have a clear end

uh is it realistic well yeah and time

based there’s no deadline here so this

is not a very good goal

here’s another really common one my goal

is to speak like a native

uh first of all native there are many

different types of

english and there are so many different

ways that we can learn how to speak my

way of speaking is one way

like i speak american english yes there

are many

other different types of english that

you can study so that’s one thing speak

like what kind of native

also like how do you how do you measure

your ability to speak like a native like

it’s okay

to speak like yourself so uh

but these are examples of goals that are

not so

great so let’s look at some goals that

are much better and that will help you

actually

move forward with your studies like help

you be more

targeted with your studies okay

first my goal is to learn 100

new vocabulary words by the end

of this month once more my goal is to

learn 100

new vocabulary words by the end of this

month this is a good goal

because it is specific vocabulary words

100

measurable i can check did i do it or

not

100 words did i get 100 yes good

is it achievable yes it’s reasonable

i can study 100 words in one month is it

realistic

for me personally a few words a day

great

is it time based there’s a deadline yes

end of this month so this is a good goal

that will move me forward so

one good example another one my goal is

to learn one

new grammar point a week one new grammar

point a week again

specific goal we can measure it we can

check

did i do it or not it’s good for me it’s

achievable it’s possible to do the goal

it’s reasonable

for my schedule and i have a deadline so

each week

one grammar point final one more example

my goal is to be able to order food for

delivery

on the phone by next week so this is a

really good goal

because it’s like an everyday life goal

so this is a great goal

if for example you live in the country

or you live in a place

where they speak the language you can

pick up the phone

and decide like this is a really clear

goal to measure too like did i get my

my food order or not like so this

is a really really great uh like

everyday life way

to measure your goal okay

uh someone johnny there i hope i said

that name right said

is watching youtube a goal what do you

think

is it is it challenging to push play on

a youtube month

on a youtube video is that hard

okay let’s talk a little bit i’ll talk

about resources later

but for now think about that uh let’s

talk about

uh goals inside goals then so i said

like this goal

my goal is to be fluent or my goal is to

speak like a native these aren’t great

goals

of course we want to be fluent in the

language that we’re studying yes

and of course we want to try to speak

naturally so

to do these sorts of things we need to

set small goals

inside our big goals so

for example a big goal maybe my goal my

big goal

is to give a business presentation this

year

okay good that’s a big goal and it’s a

smart goal

i have a business presentation this year

nice

uh someone is still writing lots of

messages in the chat

the same message at the same time again

i’m going to talk about resources at the

end of the lesson so some small goals

inside the business presentation goal so

what do i need to do

inside my big goal i need to learn some

vocabulary words

i need to learn presentation skills so i

need to practice giving a presentation

so think about a big goal and inside the

big goal think about the smaller goals

too

yeah i know this lesson is called how to

study alone but maybe just for teachers

i know there are um

teachers also who watch our lesson thank

you

for teachers you can do this for your

students so

like when you start a lesson or if

you’re teaching online these days you

can give a small goal like

to your students and if they’re like

little kids

what i did with my students we had

prizes

to if they achieve the goal so sometimes

that means

they can use the grammar they studied in

your lesson

and so on so this is something that you

can do with your students as well

so everybody’s homework for this section

is what’s your next language

goal what is your next language goal so

write a smart goal for yourself

you can put it in the chat i’ll read it

if you’re if you’re doing it live

so what is your next language goal

make it smart so for example my next

language goal

i don’t have it here my next language

goal i want to

finish reading a book i’m i’m

i’m forever studying japanese uh so

i want to finish a book i am reading

by the end of this summer so i guess

that’s like september-ish so it’s a

challenging book for me

and i read a couple pages well more than

a couple pages

a week so that is my goal so my goal is

specific i want to finish reading the

book

i can measure it i know did i finish the

book or not

it’s achievable for me this is a

reasonable goal

it’s realistic it’s a couple pages you

know a few pages every week

and it’s time based so by the end of the

summer

okay so someone said i don’t see

any goals in the chat nobody’s sending

me any goals

so everybody’s saying hello but please

send a goal

in the chat some of you are just sending

languages french

chinese okay well uh if you have a goal

please send it the idea the goal the

goal of this lesson is to help

you find a new goal there’s one roberto

says my next language goal is to be able

to understand

accents like asian accents like accents

of speakers

uh from different asian countries that’s

an interesting goal

gabrielle says i want to speak english

without any stress or mistakes that’s my

big issue

hold on i speak i make mistakes when i

speak english everybody makes mistakes

also how are you going to measure that

how do you know when you made a mistake

that’s a goal that’s something forever

so again everybody should make smart

goals if you missed it please review

this lesson this is to help

you move forward with your studies so

you don’t just

be frustrated forever uh

some of you are sending me goals no whoa

not related to

language okay fernan says gold

memorizing a song in english nice okay

do you already have your song

uh sir says my goal is to prepare a

letter weekly for my friends nice very

nice

okay um some of you are sending me some

really weird goals that are not related

to this lesson

okay um a

i 3x says i want to learn three words a

day at least

nice goal nice goal good example also

she says i’m going to finish

grammar in use textbook this year ah

okay good so yeah a textbook goal

nice one next one i’m going to talk

about resources at the end of the lesson

too

okay um some of you are saying my goal

is to understand this language my goal

is to understand this language

make a smaller goal that is the that is

the goal of this lesson to get you to

make a small goal

a small goal okay uh my goal

ah many of you are sending me very

weird goals uh i want ah

what oh my gosh the chat is going so

fast okay

uh oh my gosh i can’t read them

um okay lots of you are just asking me

about resources now a lot of you are

also talking about

test goals tests that’s a really really

good

deadline too a lot of you are saying i

want to get this score i want to get

that score too that’s great

but remember inside that inside your

test

study goals there are lots and lots of

small points you need to do

make your goals smaller that is my point

today make your goals

smaller small goals i know it sounds

like it’s

outside of like what you need to do but

you have to do the small things to

achieve the big things as well

it will help you i promise

eric says my goal is to eat tacos that’s

everyone’s goal

okay let’s take a break and then we’ll

talk about resources what you guys have

been badgering me about for the entire

live stream this week so

real quick a quick break if you missed

it uh if you

are interested our team has a 35 off

sale

at english class 101.com right now uh it

is for

premium and premium plus plans so if you

want to join one of our courses one of

our programs check it out

there is a link below the video on

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watching

on facebook so check it out

okay so with that let’s go to the last

part of today’s lesson

uh i’ll show you today’s lesson boards

once

more here they are okay so we just

talked about understanding your strong

points and weak points in part one

part two was setting good goals finally

what everybody is saying today study

resources we’re going to cover some

ideas at the end of today’s lesson which

is now so let’s get started on part

three

also if you have not please make sure to

like and share

this video all right study resources

here we go calmly

okay study resources some ideas so again

i started this lesson by saying

with step one today understand

your strong and weak points understand

your strong and weak points

so your steady resource

should match your weak point what is the

thing

you need to study choose something

that helps you with your weak point yeah

so like it can be your favorite method

of study but make sure that you are

choosing something that’s helping you to

improve okay so study resources

books and magazines books magazines

you know newspapers whatever stuff that

you can read

so as with everything on this list

everything is the same here make sure

that you do it

actively so when you read a book or a

magazine

or something read it then re-read it

so reread means read it again so come

back to it later

take notes also when you

choose things to read look for

for example when you choose a book to

read

uh choose things you can read like 80 to

90 percent of with no dictionary

for this i’m not talking about textbooks

i’m not talking about textbooks i mean

like just a book

a children’s book is fine if a

children’s book

is your level right now great that’s

okay

so choose things that you can read 80 to

90

of with no dictionary this is something

that can help you

to understand how to use vocabulary more

naturally

and to understand more natural uses of

grammar like how grammar like the

words connect to each other this is also

a good way to

naturally study prepositions like buy

two at in books and magazines

so a lot of you ask me what’s the best

book for my level

that’s something that you have to choose

i don’t know your level i don’t know

exactly what your vocabulary skills are

so

take some time like when i choose a new

book in japanese i go to the bookstore

and i take a long time i look at a few

different books i’m interested in and i

choose the book

that seems like the best match for my

level

at that time so please be an active

learner don’t wait for someone to tell

you which book to read

choose a book when you go to the

bookstore or when you’re reading online

that matches your level so this i

usually i try to choose books that are

about like this 80 to 90 percent uh

i don’t need a dictionary for that means

i don’t have to check a dictionary

constantly maybe there are like one or

two words or maybe three words on up on

one page i don’t

know if i have to stop every sentence

it’s too difficult

so check the book before you read it

okay

next thing podcasts podcasts so if you

don’t know podcasts podcasts are for

listening

uh it is audio so of course like

you can listen to an audio lesson or

like a language learning podcast

or you can listen to like just a regular

podcast people having a conversation or

someone telling a story

so again important listen more than once

some podcasts also have transcripts so

transcript means uh it’s a file you can

check the

the words the script so sometimes

podcasts have a transcript

like on our website there are lesson

audio lessons and you can read

the transcript as you listen so again

listen more than once and when you

listen listen

actively too like don’t just turn it on

in the background and

be like oh i’m studying like make sure

you listen actively

listen more than once uh pay attention

to new vocabulary words to certain

grammar structures and so on so please

be an

active learner next one which

so many of you have asked me about today

i hope you thought about it

movies tv youtube these kinds of things

people say ask is it good is it studying

it can be again watch actively

be an active participant so that means

like

maybe take notes sometimes oh this is a

new vocabulary word or use

your phone to look up a new word you saw

on tv

re-watch things so again be

active in what you’re doing be active

when you do these because yes

absolutely these can be and are great

tools

not just for language but for learning

culture points

so use these but please be

active so don’t just sit and sort of

watch but not think like make sure you

are

using your brain when you do these

things

okay uh textbooks

textbooks of course are are very very

important tools

for all of us who are studying anything

really

so study yes study but review

also i think many learners don’t review

you need to see

information more than once to remember

it

long term so a good tip this is

something i sometimes do

uh is to after after you study something

so like i use my textbook i study a new

grammar point

and then like the next week i want to

use it again

try to write your own grammar

explanation

like when you study try to explain it to

someone else

or try to write it in your own words so

explaining something that you’ve learned

will help you find your gaps actually

this is actually a really nice little

trick to use so

if you don’t know something completely

you can’t explain it to someone else

right so this is a really good way to

test

your understanding if you’re just using

a textbook and you’re by yourself

try to explain like you can just write

it down or you can just

say it out loud the explanation so again

use your active recall skills active

recall means actively remembering

so that means you’re trying to remember

something

without looking at it

uh others other points uh flashcards

flashcards are a great way if your

vocabulary is weak

if your vocabulary is weak flashcards

are a great way to practice

you can try spaced repetition flash

cards

to help you study more efficiently

i talk about spaced repetition uh every

once in a while here

so space repetition means you study

something there’s a small gap and then

you study again

and then you study again so there’s a

special gap

between your study sessions to help your

brain remember

the word more efficiently we have these

on our website there are many different

spaced repetition flash cards that you

can find online

too okay and finally online chat

so for example our youtube chat or

facebook chat

also other things like social media as

well

make sure you participate ask questions

don’t worry about making mistakes of

course

like you know try to be normal like

don’t be

don’t like spam messages like some

people do in our chat sometimes

so make sure you participate don’t worry

about like

oh did i write perfectly oh no like if

people know that you are learning

you’re a learner they’re going to

forgive your mistakes like they’re not

going to get angry with you

usually so please if you’re going to use

online chat

as a tool great just make sure you

participate again

be active in your language learning

don’t just sit there like a lot of

people will just turn

on like music and be like i’m studying

it’s like

well maybe maybe but you need to use

your brain

too yeah you don’t need to or you need

to not

not just sit there and take in you also

need to

create as well so keep a balance there

okay uh so some other points

yes the internet is a good resource uh

so there are many tools

everything i just talked about except

maybe textbooks you can find

online uh yes some people are talking

about flash cards yes flash cards are

useful

uh for studying grammar as well yeah

that’s true you can use flashcards to

study

grammar okay good good good good okay

well i think that that is everything for

today i will show you today’s lesson

boards one more time so that you can

take a look

so this is everything i talked about

understanding your strong and weak

points setting good goals and some

steady

resource ideas so this

is everything i talked about please

please please please please

please set good small goals for yourself

as we talked about in part two so don’t

just say i want to be fluent i want to

be fluent think about the small things

you need to do in order to

become fluent okay

so with that i will end today’s lesson

and next week i’ll be back

of course next week’s lesson here it is

next week’s lesson information is

here july 29th oh my gosh this year is

going by so quickly july 29th will be

the next lesson

i’m going to talk about basic discussion

expressions and questions so when i say

discussion

i mean kind of like debate so when you

have a discussion

you have to like ask people you know

about their opinions or you need to

challenge them or try to support your

opinion whatever

those kinds of things the back and forth

i’m going to cover some basic

parts uh for those kinds of

conversations next week so please join

me live

july 29th 10 p.m eastern standard time

that is new york

city time google it to find your local

time

uh so i’ll end today’s lesson there so

thank you very much

for joining me again this week that was

a super good

lesson i hope that you found a way to

make a new

goal this week so have a good week enjoy

the rest of your day

enjoy the rest of your week check out uh

the sale on our website

uh and thanks very much for liking

sharing the video and for sending

your awesome questions comments goals

and so on i will finish up there

and see you again soon