Mistakes people make when learning English and how to avoid them

name is alicia and in this week’s lesson

we are going to talk about mistakes that

learners make with their studies and how

to avoid them i have chosen a bunch of

problems study and learning related

problems and we’re going to talk about

them in today’s lesson

we’re also going to talk about how to

avoid these problems too so i hope that

everybody gets some ideas for how to

study not just what to study okay so as

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today we are talking about how

to avoid some common mistakes how to

avoid some common mistakes uh and we’re

going to talk this is not grammar

mistakes but we’re going to talk about

study mistakes so problems people have

in their studies like studying in

different ways yeah okay so let’s take a

look at today’s lesson boards then yeah

okay so this is going to be the flow for

today’s lesson here we go so

we’re going to talk about goal setting

and reviewing active learning and

passive learning and study planning and

then we’re gonna talk about uh how often

you study and how much you study as well

so i hope that everybody gets kind of

some ideas of how they can improve their

study sessions to be more efficient okay

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okay cool

i’m done i will start the lesson now

okay let’s begin i’m i want to start

today with the

biggest problem well

i guess maybe it’s the biggest problem

but i see it as a big problem uh based

on your comments uh and feedback

so

uh let’s start with this one the

one of the biggest mistakes i see among

learners is

not setting good goals not setting good

goals so

uh

what does this mean

it means that people set goals that are

too big or they’re hard to understand or

it’s hard to know when you reached the

goal so those aren’t good goals

what you should do is set smart goals

smart goals i have talked about many

times on this channel but smart goals

are specific

s specific

measurable

m measurable so that means we can

measure

how much or how long we did something

they are achievable so we can achieve

them we can do them

they are realistic

so not a crazy goal

and they are time-bound so we have a

deadline for it yeah so we need to set

smart goals right okay

so what’s a really good example i see

this in youtube comments in the chat in

messages all the time people write to me

and they say my goal is to be fluent my

goal is to be fluent i want to be fluent

i want to

speak perfect english or something like

that of course like we all want that we

all have that language goal for our

studies

but

for a study goal this is a really hard

goal to understand why because how do

you know when you’re fluent how do you

know you reached that it’s really hard

to say i’m blue no

right so we need to set different goals

for example my goal is to learn 300

vocabulary words this month right so

this goal is good because it’s specific

300 vocabulary words

it’s measurable we can measure did i

finish this or not

it’s achievable we can do this in one

month it’s realistic not a crazy goal

and time bound it’s one month okay

so this is a good goal this goal my goal

is to be fluent this is not a good goal

so lots of you all some of you are

writing in the chat my goal is to be

fluent yes all of us want to be fluent

but for your studies this is not a good

goal to set for yourself because you

don’t know

if that’s your only goal that makes it

really really difficult for you to move

forward in your studies you need to set

lots and lots and lots of very small

goals to help yourself move forward okay

so

update your goals as you make progress

update your goals as you make progress

so that doesn’t mean you have one goal

forever

all right so you have like a weekly goal

or maybe a goal for your study session

or a goal for your month right so you

have lots and lots of different little

goals inside your big goal okay

so this is a really big mistake i see

people don’t set good goals for

themselves i want to be fluent is not a

good goal

honestly yes i underst i understand i

understand your goal of course you want

to be fluent

so but think about the steps you need to

take to get there

okay let’s go to the next mistake i see

the next mistake i see is not reviewing

not reviewing so that means i see people

for example when they use a textbook

they just go through the textbook but

they never go back to old topics they

learn and you should you you should

review reviewing is super important so

go back to old lessons go back to old

vocabulary study topics and so on and

review them so there are some um like

flashcards like on our website we have

uh flashcards that automatically review

they help you to review so that’s super

cool but if you use a textbook or if you

use video lessons or audio lessons make

sure you review that information every

once in a while you can’t watch

something or read something or listen to

it one time and remember forever right

so go back to old lessons go back to old

vocabulary make sure you review it

review it to refresh your mind yeah okay

and then another point check your

progress with old material you can see

your growth

you can see your growth so that means

you can see how far you leveled up right

if you go back to check old material you

can also find new spots to study so for

example if you

read a textbook or you read a book

a few months ago it was super super

difficult for you and then you studied

some grammar you studied some vocabulary

and now you go back and you read it and

you’re like oh i can read this now

that’s a marker so you know you leveled

up right you know you made some progress

review helps you to do that so by

reviewing something you understand oh i

learned something i improved so this can

be super super motivating

also when you review if you go back and

you think oh i still don’t know this

word or i still don’t understand this

grammar point that’s a new spot to study

so that shows you ah i have to study

this thing right here

okay so review is super super important

and it’s good for your motivation

final point give your brain the chance

to try to recall the information give

your brain the chance to try to recall

the information recall means like

remember you’re trying to like push your

brain to remember something

so this is really really helpful for

long-term learning so

make sure you have some time you study

once you have a little break and then

you study again right the same thing

that space having that space that gap is

really really good for long-term

learning and try to recall the

information if you’re wrong that’s okay

making a mistake is okay but trying to

force your brain trying to push your

brain to remember is extremely helpful

for long-term learning

so make sure you give yourself a chance

to do this by reviewing don’t forget

review i talk about this all the time

okay so review so the first two mistakes

are goals set good goals and review

review okay so this is part one for

today’s live lesson all right uh i’m

looking at your comments not so many

questions today but i’m checking your

comments people are writing useful tips

thanks okay great thanks ina on facebook

for writing that

uh okay so we’ll take a quick break and

then we’ll get to part two so if you

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the like button and share this video so

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okay

let’s go to part two part two mistakes

okay

the next one is very important for those

of you i think all of you who use

youtube facebook audio podcasts and so

on this next tip is maybe for you so the

next tip is or the next mistake rather

is no active learning no active learning

what does this mean let’s talk about

these two active learning and passive

learning so active learning is

practicing speaking writing in a diary

reading a book

focusing

on a video taking notes these very

active things we’re using our brain

we’re focusing our energy focusing our

attention on the topic yeah this is

active learning

passive learning on the other hand

passive learning for example is playing

music or videos or a podcast while you

do other things right so with passive

learning you’re not focusing your

attention on it it’s just there in the

background just playing somewhere so the

problem i see lots of people online seem

to use only passive learning they don’t

do active learning much a lot of people

write comments to say they listen to

like a long video on the youtube channel

in the background while they clean the

house or something or they play it while

they’re doing their homework that’s

passive learning yeah make sure you also

have active learning in your study plan

in your study schedule so you need to

make sure you’re using your brain to

create something you’re focusing your

attention on understanding and getting

new information so passive learning is

fun for sure like listening to music or

whatever passive learning is super fun

it’s great to do that

but make sure you also do active

learning too

okay

all right

okay i don’t see any questions yet just

lots of people saying hi so hello

everyone okay

let’s go uh to let’s go to the next

point then

uh so yes make sure to do active and

passive learning not just passive

so next point no study session plan no

study session plan this is a mistake

uh that i think all of us have

experienced sometimes for sure i do it

too you feel lazy you have no plan for

your studies so what does this mean

no study session plan means you think

okay i’m going to study now but

i don’t know what i’m going to study

i’ll just do a bunch of stuff

so of course like everybody i think has

had this experience what should you do

instead you should choose a goal for

your study session so start your studies

with a plan okay so for example this x

is something you should not do like

don’t start your study session and just

watch a bunch of random youtube videos

about language right don’t just sit

there and go okay i’ll watch this and

this and this okay i spent one hour

watching grammar videos great i studied

that’s not super great it’s better than

nothing it’s better than nothing but

instead watch youtube videos about your

study session topic yeah so if you make

a study plan assess a session study plan

you say okay today i’m going to focus on

i don’t know present perfect tense then

you can go watch youtube videos about

present perfect tense as part of your

study plan after that you make some

sentences with the grammar point you

practice speaking out loud with the

grammar point whatever so make your

study session plan and make a goal for

it so that way you have targeted

practice yeah so sit down with a plan

for your time for your studies okay

yeah it happens for sure we get

distracted easily on the internet right

there’s so much available but make a

plan for yourself what do i want to

achieve this goes back to problem number

one not setting good goals yeah make

sure you set a good goal for your study

session so you can achieve it and move

on

okay

jiren owari da on youtube says i have an

app which has a bunch of english

conversations i listen to them and pay

attention to every word is that an

effective way to learn english it’s one

way you say you’re listening right so

you are improving your listening skills

by doing that right that’s one skill you

have reading writing speaking listening

communication yeah we have lots of

skills to develop so you’re working on

one skill by doing that by listening

yeah make sure to work on the other

skills too

okay

[Music]

edwin says should we only speak with

phrasal verbs

no

you should use you should use the verb

that is best for the situation

don’t don’t speak only in phrasal verbs

i can’t imagine what that would be like

okay

all right cool so my my key point here

make a study session plan yeah for every

study session it doesn’t have to be huge

just pick a pic something to focus on

okay all right this is part two we are

finished yeah

someone on youtube says i always watch

random videos i know it happens right on

youtube or whatever we choose the next

thing you know all the time i completely

understand

okay let’s go now to part three we’ll

take a super quick break and go to part

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okay let’s get to part three and if you

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to part three part three is about study

schedules really okay so the first

problem i want to talk about here is

inconsistent study

inconsistent study so in this prefix

means not or no so consistent consistent

means regular yeah always at the same

time are always at the same place or

always in the same way that’s consistent

something that is consistent

inconsistent means not that so not

consistent

inconsistent study so for example maybe

studying for two hours twice a month

that’s it or watching youtube videos

sometimes when you feel like it

these are examples of inconsistent study

no good right

then

something that’s good to do make time

every day or every week for targeted

study so

of course everybody is different maybe

in my case a few years ago i like to do

15 minutes vocabulary study on my way to

work and on my way home from work so

that was for me 30 minutes a day five

days a week that was super super great

for my vocabulary building so for me

that was my consistent study strategy to

improve my vocabulary it was awesome for

me my vocabulary went

so

make sure you have a consistent study

schedule if you want to focus on grammar

maybe that means 30 minutes three times

a week you study grammar so make sure

you have a regular study schedule don’t

just say i’ll do it when i feel like it

right because it’s hard to find

motivation when we’re tired and busy

right

so

make sure you have a more consistent

study schedule okay

jaffar says how can i change my level

study you need to study and work to

improve it to change your level

okay cool so the last point then

the last point is related to this

actually this mistake

cramming cramming is a big mistake for

long-term learning what is cramming

cramming is for example the night before

a test

you

panic oh no i have a test and you study

study study study study like five hours

eight hours to get all the information

in your head and then take the test so

what’s the problem

so studying for five hours like once a

month before a test or maybe you have a

long intensive language lesson once a

week the problem with these is that

these strategies are helpful yeah in

short term thinking yeah so for the test

tomorrow great maybe you learn

everything you need to know with this

strategy

but long term this is not helpful

so

intensive study can be helpful

like an intensive language course if you

can take an intensive language course

that’s awesome that’s super great but

like just once a week maybe is i don’t

know if it’s the only thing you’re doing

maybe not so helpful so intensive study

can be helpful so intensive means super

super focused like many many hours

intensive study can be helpful but

cramming doesn’t help with long-term

learning you get the information in your

head for a short time only with cramming

yeah

so cramming can also lead to burnout

what is burnout so burnout is when you

lose motivation you feel tired you hate

it you quit yeah no good so you need to

pace yourself like here making a

consistent schedule pace yourself so you

don’t get burned out even if you’re

excited about something you can get

burned out just because you don’t make a

good plan for yourself so make sure

you’re good to yourself and make sure

you help yourself reach your goals

by creating a good study plan for

yourself that fits your life okay

so don’t cram don’t cram i saw

uh at this

some students at the school i used to

teach at they would come to the school

like just one day a week and spend the

whole day there and that was it that was

their only study

so i thought wow it would be better to

have of course it’s great to come to the

school to study and practice but make

sure you have time throughout your week

to do that as well right okay

so don’t burn out don’t run out so

cramming

cramming so don’t cram cramming is

putting all of that information into

your head at one time no good

you get tired and it’s hard to remember

it all we learn language our own

language over time as little kids right

by listening to other people and

learning patterns so you need to give

your brain time to do that too okay

all right good so those are a few

mistakes that i see uh learners make

with their studies of course all of us

struggle with these from time to time i

definitely do too but just think about

it just be aware of it so that you can

make a better study plan for yourself

okay i will study i will study i will

share uh the

lesson boards if you want to take a

screenshot do so now

all right so here are the topics we

discussed today we talked about not

setting good goals and not reviewing we

talked about active learning and passive

learning and setting a study session

plan we also talked about inconsistent

study and cramming okay so

i hope that everybody found something

they can maybe change a little bit in

their study session or thought oh i do

that

for me i’m definitely i’m very

inconsistent lately i study kind of

randomly my studies aren’t very good

lately so i need to i need to pick up my

motivation

okay so that is it for this week but i

will be back next week so next week’s

lesson information is right here oh my

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naturally yeah so this is what we’re

going to talk about next week okay so

i’ll wrap up today’s lesson there

um

let’s see i’m looking at your questions

i see lots of thanks and people talking

about their uh

their study plan that’s awesome so

thanks very much uh for joining me today

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goodbye for this week uh and i will see

you again next time okay so thanks very

much for joining me for this week’s

lesson uh have a good day have a good

week and i will see you again next time