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
about uh english grammar english
vocabulary something related to culture
whatever your little questions you can
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class
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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
uh on screen right here this banner i’m
pointing to is a
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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
youtube or above the video if you are
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