A Brutally Honest Way to Improve Your English

hey everyone welcome to the monthly

review the monthly show on language

learning where you discover new learning

strategies motivational tips new study

tools and discover new resources by the

way you can download all the lessons and

bonuses you’re about to see right now on

the website so click the link in the

description to sign up for your free

lifetime account and start speaking in

minutes okay today’s topic is a brutally

honest way to improve your language

you’re going to learn one why tests are

actually crucial for language progress

into how you can put yourself to the

test so if you’re learning on your own

and feel like you’re not making any

learning progress it’s likely you’re

taking it too easy you’re not reaching

your full potential so an outside

motivator like a test can and will fire

you up and help you get better you’ll

discover how in just a second

but first listen up here are this

month’s new lessons and resources first

can you talk about your home with the

brand new my house PDF cheat sheet

you’ll be able to talk about your home

and everything inside furniture the

different kinds of rooms and much more

download it for free right now second if

you love travel then you’ll love this

the brand new travel words and phrases

PDF learn all the must know travel

phrases with this ebook download it for

free right now

3rd useful Bank vocabulary this

one-minute lesson gives you all the must

note bank vocabulary so you can start

talking about money in your target

language and 4th school vocabulary can

you talk about your school and the

degree you have this one-minute lesson

will teach you to do just that to get

these free resources click the link in

the description below right now okay

let’s jump into today’s topic a brutally

honest way to improve your language so

if you’re learning a language on your

own do you ever feel like you’re just

coasting through without making real

progress then it’s possible that you’re

taking it a bit too easy so what should

you do part 1 why tests are crucial for

language progress the quick answers are

1 tests give you an honest assessment of

your language skills and 2 motivation

but let’s break these down in full if

you’ve ever enrolled in a language

school or taken a language class you’ve

probably taken a placement test based on

your results the teachers place you into

an appropriate class so tests can help

you learn what’s appropriate for your

level tests also allow for ongoing

assessment through things like weekly

quizzes and tests every month so what’s

the big deal with tests and quizzes even

though some of us don’t like tests tests

can give you honest assessments of your

language skills and specific ways for

example if you fail the listening part

of a test you know your weakness is

there if you forget a grammar pattern

you know you need to practice it more

but if you’re learning alone you might

not get

many testing opportunities and you may

not be aware of mistakes you’re making

in your studies right now you don’t know

what pieces you might be missing tests

can give you opportunities to check your

actual language skills and sometimes

they give you a brutal reality check now

the second benefit of tests is

motivation think about it as a self

learner no one else is going to push you

to do your best and most people like to

take it easy so if you’re wondering why

you’re not fluent yet but you’ve been

coasting along learning words here and

there without actually testing your

limits consider that it might be because

you haven’t actually been testing and

pushing yourself at all tests can give

you that push that challenge that

urgency to improve that motivation

there’s a specific date and time for the

test

you have to be ready by that deadline

just think back to the night before it

test you felt the urgency back then you

were motivated to pass so this is

exactly why a lot of self learners take

proficiency tests it gives them

something to aim for something to be

motivated about something to achieve now

tests are not the complete answer to

language learning but they do give you a

way to assess yourself and they give you

a challenge so what can you do as a self

learner part 2 how you can put yourself

to the test before you worry about

failing recognize that it’s not about

passing or failing it’s about getting an

honest assessment of your progress the

first and most obvious thing you can do

is sign up for a language proficiency

test there are many kinds of proficiency

tests available so you can pick the

right one for you signing up will put

you under added pressure and give you

extra motivation to improve this is

something that’s hard to do on your own

second if you’re a Premium Plus member

on our website then you can get weekly

assignments that put you to the test

these assignments are graded and you get

feedback from your teacher so you know

what to do to improve and help the third

thing you can do is come back and review

once you’re done with a lesson our

pathway download the dialogue tracks and

review them at a later date see how much

you can understand this test your

listening plus your vocab and grammar

for speaking record yourself with our

voice recorder

tool and compare yourself to the native

pronunciation remember you can always

self-test by coming back and seeing how

much you understand the fourth thing you

can do is test yourself with a harder

lesson think of it as trying to lift a

heavier weight at the gym to see if you

can do it you can do this for reading

speaking and listening simply go to a

higher level like intermediate or

advanced and try a lesson with reading

you can also try our higher level

extensive reading books again remember

with all of this the goal here is not a

pass or fail result the goal is to get

an honest assessment of your language

skills what you know and what you don’t

know if you realize that you’re

mispronouncing a certain word you’ll

know how to correct it if you can

understand only 50% of a lesson well

that means you should review it until

you get to 100% if you don’t understand

the lesson dialogue at all which is

where most people get intimidated make

it a goal to master the dialogue give

yourself a goal to aim for and if you

can’t read as smoothly as you had hoped

all it means is that you should give it

a few more tries until you’re better

I’ll write everyone in the last monthly

review we asked you to submit a video or

audio file of yourself speaking the

language introducing yourself or talking

about your country in the language so

thank you to all of you that sentence

submissions you’ve all received a

Premium Plus subscription as a reward

now let’s take a look at some of the

submissions

okay so now I’m gonna listen to some

submissions that you have sent in for

this month I’m super excited let’s get

started hi Alicia

my name is rostislav and I’m from

Turkmenistan but now I’m starting in

Russia in sitacles Belgorod I’m 23 years

old and I’m studying English because of

if I like this language it’s a very

interesting language for me I can use it

to with my friends when I speak with my

friends and I can use this language all

around the world so I want to improve

English and thanks for your channel

thanks for your videos I can do it so

after watching your videos I open for

myself something new something

interesting and useful thank you very

much for your channel for your videos

thank you very much my bye wow that’s so

cool so he explained that he is using it

with his friends like he’s able to use

it when he used English when he talks

with his friends I think that’s really

cool and that he’s found something new

as a result of watching our channel that

was awesome thank you so much for

sharing and good luck with your

continued studies that’s so cool thank

you okay let’s go on to the next one

every whined hi Alicia hi I’m Vienna and

I’m from Malaysia see hi I have been

learning English since my schooling

years however I always felt that I

wasn’t very good at grammar oh well not

until I sign up for an English class

101.com

okay so thank you for making this

helpful videos and I can feel my

progression in learning grammar right

now cool thank you so much and I will

always be glad to learn more from you

thank you and bye bye wow that was such

a cheerful message that was awesome

thank you so much for sending this your

pronunciation was very clear and you

sounded so positive in your message

that’s great that you have that specific

goal of improving your grammar I think

that’s probably really helpful and it’s

really cool that you said that you can

tell you’re progressing and moving

forward so that’s awesome good luck I

hope that we can continue making more

stuff that can help you as you try to

work on improving your English thank you

for sending this that’s a really cool

all right

that’s everything that we have for this

month so that was awesome thank you to

everybody who sent messages this month

and I look forward as always to your

messages for next month too

so which entry did you like the best