How to Learn English for Beginners
Hi, I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
How can I learn English?
I’m a beginner.
Help!
Let’s talk about it.
Are you a beginner at English?
Wonderful.
Do you know someone who would like to begin
learning English?
Awesome.
Usually my English lessons are for intermediate
English learners, but today we’re going to
slow things down and talk about some essentials.
First, who is a beginner?
Did you learn English in elementary school?
And do you want to relearn?
Congratulations.
You’re a beginner.
Are you starting to learn English now?
Congratulations.
You are a beginner.
Being a beginner is great because you can
see fast progress.
One day you knew nothing about English and
the next day you know something.
Wonderful.
It’s progress.
La donna.
Oh, hi, Theo.
What are you doing?
Tu sei un ragazzo!
I’m learning Italian, Theo.
Thanks to the sponsor of today’s lesson, Duolingo,
I’m starting to learn Italian.
My great grandmother, Antoinette Manolfi (so
Italian!) and my great grandfather came from
the south of Italy.
So, it’s my job to learn Italian, right?
Even though I’m really busy with my family
and my job, I can find five to 10 minutes
to study a quick fun lesson on the app.
But really it doesn’t feel like studying because
you get points and rewards, which makes learning
a language feel like a game.
Because the app is completely free, anyone
around the world can use it.
I also have a special giveaway to 10 lucky
subscribers on my channel, but you’ll have
to wait until the end of the video to find
out!
Let’s talk about my top five tips for beginners
in English.
My first tip is #1 Learn Vocabulary.
Look around your house and put notes on items.
You can write just one word or a simple sentence
or a more complex sentence.
When you use the microwave, read the word
and sentence out loud.
You will remember the word microwave, the
sentence structure “this is” and the verb
“to heat up.”
Go crazy and put notes everywhere!
Let’s go to tip #2.
#2 Improve Listening.
Watch simple English videos, like this lesson,
and listen to simple English songs.
Don’t be worried about using English subtitles
or reading English lyrics to the songs.
You’re a beginner, so it’s okay to use this
extra help.
Subtitles and lyrics can help you a lot.
Make sure that you understand at least 70%.
If you watch a five minute video and you are
completely lost, stop.
It’s okay.
Find something easier.
When you understand the ideas, but not every
single word, this is great.
That means you’re on the right path.
A good way to improve your listening is with
simple songs.
What kind of music do you like?
The Beatles, Queen, Taylor Swift?
Whatever you like, choose one song, look up
the lyrics, and listen to the song again and
again with the lyrics.
You can sing, too.
Congratulations!
You are improving your listening skills right
now with this video.
All right, let’s go to tip #3.
Tip #3 is Practice Pronunciation.
If you know a lot of English vocabulary, but
other people can’t understand you easily when
you speak, that’s a sad situation.
So don’t forget to practice your pronunciation.
In tip #2, Improve Listening, I said you should
watch simple English videos and listened to
simple English songs.
Well, you can use these, too, to practice
your pronunciation.
Listen to real English and repeat directly
after it.
It’s important to hear your own voice using
English.
Every time you see an English sentence, say
it out loud.
“This is a microwave.”
Every time you hear an English sentence, say
it out loud.
“We are the champions, my friends, and we’ll
keep on fighting till the end!”
When you practice pronunciation, you are becoming
more and more confident when you speak.
I used to go to work every day.
I used to go to work every day.
I used to go to work every day.
Are you ready to practice pronunciation and
speak out loud?
All right, let’s do it during tip #4.
My tip #4 for beginners learning English is
to Grow Your Grammar skills.
This is the biggest mistake that a lot of
English learners make.
They study only grammar.
Don’t study tons and tons of grammar books.
You will feel tired, frustrated, and annoyed.
Not good.
I recommend studying basic sentence structure
and basic verb conjugations.
What is basic sentence structure?
Subject + verb+ object.
Vanessa is a teacher.
Can you say that with me?
Vanessa is a teacher.
Great work.
You just practiced your pronunciation.
Let’s go on to some simple verb tenses.
I recommend focusing on the simple past, the
present continuous, and the simple future.
Let’s take a look at some sentences and I
challenge you to speak out loud, imitate my
voice and say these sentences directly after
me.
Are you ready?
I watched this lesson.
It’s your turn.
Say it out loud.
Great work.
This is the simple past because it uses -ED
at the end.
I am watching this lesson.
Your turn.
Say it out loud.
Great.
This is the present continuous.
It’s happening right now.
I’m going to watch this lesson.
Say it out loud.
Go ahead.
Great.
This is the future.
I used “going to” and not “will” because
“going to” is more common in daily conversation.
Let’s look at some more examples.
I learned English.
Go ahead.
Say it out loud.
Excellent.
This is the simple past because it uses -ED
at the end.
I am a learning English.
Say it out loud.
Go ahead.
Excellent.
This is the present continuous.
It’s happening right now.
You are learning English.
I am going to learn English, say it out loud.
Excellent.
This is the future.
It’s something that is going to happen in
the future.
I ate breakfast.
Say it out loud.
Go ahead.
Excellent work.
This is the simple past, but do you see -ED?
Nope.
This is an irregular past tense verb.
There are a lot of them in English.
I am eating breakfast.
Now it’s your turn.
Go ahead.
Great.
This is the present continuous it’s happening
right now.
I’m going to eat breakfast.
Say it out loud.
Go ahead.
Excellent work.
This is the future.
And you’re also using a contraction.
“I am” becomes “I’m.”
So, great work imitating, practicing your
pronunciation, and also growing your simple
grammar skills.
Are you ready to learn vocabulary, improve
your listening, practice your pronunciation,
and grow your grammar skills at the same time?
Okay, let’s go to tip #5.
My fifth tip for beginners learning English
is to use Duolingo.
Duolingo is the world’s number one language
learning app.
It is perfect for beginners and it’s completely
free.
You can do all of the four skills I just talked
about.
Here I am learning Italian: learning vocabulary,
practicing pronunciation, improving listening,
growing my grammar skills.
Knowing English can give you so many benefits
in life, a better job, easier communication
with other people, and simply opening your
mind to another language.
On YouTube, I share these lessons with you
every week, 100% for free.
And I love that Duolingo shares the same mission:
Make education free and accessible to everyone!
I have only just started to learn Italian,
so I’m a beginner just like you.
But I know that if I continue the daily quick
lessons, my skills will grow every day.
This is my challenge for you.
Maintain a positive attitude and a lot of
determination and your English skills will
continue to improve lesson by lesson.
Because my subscribers are the best, I want
to offer 10 lucky subscribers, maybe you,
a free one year subscription to Duolingo Plus,
which is their ad free platform and you can
also download the lessons for offline use.
Of course, you can use the regular version
of Duolingo for free forever, which is awesome!
But if you would like to get the ad free version,
they’re offering it to 10 of my lucky subscribers.
To win a year free subscription to Duolingo
Plus, all you need to do is subscribe to my
YouTube channel, download the Duolingo app
with the link in the description box, and
number three is I want to know “Why do you
want to learn English?”
I love learning more about my subscribers,
learning more about you.
Tell me in the comments: Why do you want to
learn English?
In a couple of days, I will announce the winners
in the community tab of my channel.
Before we go, I want to tell you something.
You can do it.
I know learning English is a big task, but
it is rewarding and you’re not alone.
There are over 2 billion people who use English
around the world.
So welcome to the family: the very, very big
family!
Thanks so much for learning English with me.
And I’ll see you again next Friday for a new
lesson here on my YouTube channel.
Bye!
Did you enjoy this free lesson?
The next step is to subscribe to my YouTube
channel.
Don’t forget to write a comment to tell me
why do you want to learn English?
I can’t wait to read what you have to say.
Keep up the good work with English.
Bye.