Improve Fluency with Reading With Go Natural English Interview
hi i’m vanessa from speak english with
vanessa calm today i have a special
guest for you
it’s Gabby Wallace from go natural
English
she’s been an English teacher online for
a while and today she’s here to tell you
about an English skill that you might be
forgetting about it’s reading how can
reading help you improve your speaking
skills let’s see what she has to say hi
Gabby thanks so much for joining me
today
hey Vanessa I am so happy to be here yes
this is a great chance for English
learners just to have a chance to see
two English teachers who they probably
already know but maybe can learn
something more about yeah absolutely I
love talking with other English teachers
like you it’s such a pleasure yeah
that’s great and I think this is a good
chance for them to get to know some of
the new things you’ve been working on
but before we get into that can you tell
us a little bit more about yourself how
did you get into teaching English what
are you doing now tell us the details
sure so my name is Gabby from go natural
English and go natural English came
about several years ago when I was
teaching English in Japan so I had
gotten my masters in teaching English
and I wanted some adventure I wanted to
travel I wanted to see the world I
wanted to learn about another culture
and I got the opportunity to teach in
Japan and then I started making these
YouTube videos which became the go
natural English Channel and then they go
natural English website because I wanted
to help English learners more and I
realized my students were really busy
they’re also very independent and they
wanted to learn more and more and I
thought well YouTube is a really great
way to do that and I know you have a
great YouTube channel too and I know
that our learners are really happy to be
able to learn in this kind of fresh new
way
yeah this is a great way to motivate
yourself
that’s totally so I’m trying to think
you know you can ask me anything but in
a nutshell in a short story that’s
basically who I am what I’m doing how go
natural English came about yeah and it’s
great they threw this passion that
you’ve had you’ve been able to fulfill
what you want to do with your life -
you’re helping other people fulfill
their English passion but it’s also
something positive for you I think that
shows a lot in your your videos and the
way that you present yourself people
think oh yeah that’s positive thank you
and you know if your viewers want to
know more about my personal story I have
a TEDx talk that I did late last year
that explains my journey and how you
know I wanted to travel and how I
achieve the lifestyle where I can travel
and work by myself so if you search for
TEDx Gaby small steps to reach the world
is the name of the title wonderful I can
even put that link in the description
people can check out more about you
that’s so awesome that you got a chance
to give a TEDx talk and just go for it I
think a lot of people would feel nervous
speaking in front of so many people but
you didn’t totally see a success have ya
success that’s awesome and you’ve passed
that you’ve continued making more
English learning materials and I know
you’ve got something that has just come
out about a topic maybe English learners
haven’t thought about too much but is so
important yeah and that’s reading later
oh yes can you tell us a little bit
about why why should English learners be
interested in reading right well I think
first of all both of us have focused on
speaking and listening skills because
those can be the most challenging for
English language learners who are at the
intermediate level trying to go to
fluency and being able to understand and
speak fluently is is really important
for communication everyday communication
so why reading and that’s a really good
question I hesitated to do something on
reading skills just recently this is the
first material that I’ve made about
reading skills but I was getting a lot
of questions from my English Learner
audience about reading and about how to
become more fluent in English and
reading is a skill that’s going to help
you to become more fluent because it
helps your vocabulary it helps your
understanding of structure and it just
when you can read in English you have
more to talk about in English oh yes
it’s important for everyone I mean for
professionals for students obviously if
you’re going to take the TOEFL or the
IELTS or another English test you have
to be able to read and I remember a lot
of my students when I was teaching in a
university the hardest part of the TOEFL
or the IELTS was the reading part for
them so I wanted to make a resource to
help English learners to read faster
without the pain I know it can be really
painful to read when you you know you
try to read but maybe you forget what
you read or it’s hard to read for a long
time and to me it’s like it’s like
exercise you have to build up your your
stamina you have to build up your
strength little by little so inside the
e-book I offer some tips about how to
become a better reader I mean I’m sure
if you’ve taken any English course you
can read but the question is how well
are you reading right how fast or how
are you understanding or can you
remember what you read or are you just
looking at the words there’s a
difference yeah and are you actually
remembering that vocabulary that you
read so that you can use it in
conversation it’s a really great way to
learn new vocabulary and remember it
because you’re you’re seeing it you’re
not just hearing it and getting the
context you have to focus on each word
exactly yeah and I think that reading
skills I mean this is a book intended
for English language learners but so
many of the strategies are good for
speakers too to be honest because it’s a
skill that you have to learn how to do I
mean reading takes a lot of focus you
have to know like how to get the main
idea how to read for details they’re
different skills yeah for sure for sure
and I know recently I heard you were on
a podcast talking about a book that you
read a nonfiction book talking about
improving your your mornings I think
that’s what you’re talking about
and that’s a great way English learners
can learn English but they can learn
something else through English it’s not
just the language they’re learning a
huge topic that opens a new world for
them I agree I love that you know both
of us have this idea of learning English
through other things because it’s not
just about learning English for a test
or you know you’re not going to just
stop English is a life-long skill that
you can enjoy yes definitely and I think
it helps you to reach other people in
other countries and not just simply
understand what they’re saying but
understand their personality through
their writing or show their your own
personality as you write and read
different things so it’s all about not
showing yourself in that language and
what I love about reading more and more
is that it gives you interesting things
to talk about a lot of English learners
as well I can understand a lot but I
don’t know what to say
part of that might be because you need
to improve your fluency but part of that
might be
maybe you just need something
interesting to talk about so you know if
you can read more news articles or if
you read more books you can talk about
that like hey have you read blah blah
blah book you know have you read this
book about improving your mornings and
it’s a great way to make better
conversations yeah that’s a great way to
put it I think a lot of people feel shy
they don’t know what to say so this is
going to give a context for things that
you can talk about whether it’s you know
reading about different movies or
traveling or news that’s a great way to
enrich your English conversations
definitely and then
it does help you speak and and listen
better I think that that reading it’s so
important to read to enrich your
vocabulary and to you know practice
those new phrases that you read you can
you can incorporate them into your
conversations - yes yes so far you
mentioned it’s great for improving your
vocabulary good for improving
conversations and I know personally in
my experience reading books in French
usually I just read books about the
Harry Potter level I mean of our
elementary level but this was amazing
for improving my vocabulary and grammar
I think this really helped to see it not
just in a textbook but to see those
little conversations in the book to
understand how people actually use this
or maybe how they mix words in a
different way that I didn’t expect from
textbook learning before yeah that’s a
great way to improve absolutely and it’s
something you can do anywhere I mean if
you can read when you’re on your way to
work if you’re on the train not when
you’re driving but if you’re on the
train or a bus or you know if you’re
traveling you can read you can I don’t
know if you use a Kindle or another
mobile kind of reader it’s great great
for travel and audiobooks are great to
audiobooks are a little different you’re
not actually you know reading with your
eyes or reading with your ears but
there’s so much that you can do and so
much you can learn from books and from
readings so I just share like a quick
story I remember when I was teaching in
a university um one of my students he he
never really read much because it just
wasn’t it just wasn’t something that a
lot of people did where he was from and
then he discovered his joy of reading
this like passion for reading when he
was in the United States because he had
another teacher who was very passionate
about reading and he just fell in love
like literally you think about someone
who’s in love with another person this
is how he was feeling about books and it
was so beautiful to see that
just in his eyes when he talked about
books and it sounds strange but it’s not
I mean you can really fall in love with
reading and you can travel through books
you can have different experiences
through books you can find a mentor like
if you want to learn you know for
example everyone wants to learn about
making money and investing well you can
read well actually right now I’m
listening to an audiobook about Warren
Buffett so it’s like you can have these
people in your life even though you
might never meet Warren Buffett you can
you know meet these people through books
that’s a great way to learn about their
lives their strategies whether it’s
fiction nonfiction and I know you’ve
mentioned books a couple times I’m
curious do you think there’s a best
medium medium being type of reading
material like articles blogs magazines
books is there one you think is better
for English learners what’s your opinion
about that I would start with something
short that is just fun and easy and then
each day or maybe each week depending on
how much time you’re devoting to your to
your English Studies try to challenge
yourself a little more so maybe start
out with like a news article from Voice
of America new voanews.com and then
maybe next week look at a longer article
I mean a more challenging article would
be like a New York Times article those
are very long those are actually
challenging for a lot of native English
speakers I they take some time to read
but try to read something that you’re
interested in and if you want to
challenge yourself you could try reading
something totally different than you
normally read like for me maybe reading
something about well I like to read a
you know broad array of things but maybe
something in the sciences because I’m
usually reading about language and
culture and then yeah from there after
you’re comfortable with reading articles
get a book get a book that you enjoy
because books are a little longer
obviously it’s going to take more time
more patience more motivation I think
the worst thing you could do is try to
read
a huge book and then get frustrated and
just forget about it and never open it
again so just little by little make it
easy make it enjoyable one tip that I
want to share is you know set a timer
set a timer maybe four five minutes
starting out and during those five
minutes just focus on reading and then
the next day maybe set it for six
minutes and you know the next week maybe
fifteen minutes and maybe next month
you’re reading it for half an hour at a
time so you develop your your stamina
just like exercise yeah you know that
you’ve accomplished that goal for that
day and even if you just read one page
great you focused on the skill that
you’re trying to improve that’s a great
way to do it set a timer set a timer and
just tests yes oh no social media for
five minutes like hooks a book yes yes
and this seems this method you’re
talking about starting with something
small and going to something larger is
similar to improving your listening or
speaking skills instead of just watching
Star Wars in English you’re gonna go
back and watch short YouTube videos then
maybe TV shows and then you can get to
movies so it’s a good process yes I
completely agree because you want to
have a win you want to feel like you’ve
accomplished something just like you
said so you start with something small
you know you’ve done it you’ve
understood it you’ve finished it yeah
feels good and you actually have done
something too so you’re more motivated
to continue yeah I know I love those
tips we’re on the same page yes oh this
is one great expression for today on the
same page yes have the same mindset yes
we agree elephant thanks for sharing all
these reading tips I think this is a
good place to start but I know you’ve
got a lot more to share can you tell us
a little bit about your new reading book
what’s the name of it what can English
learners learn I’ll put the links in the
description here’s so much it’s called
fast forward reading because the idea is
to help you to read faster and get ahead
in your reading skills so you can find
the ebook and you can actually find
and all my products on the same page go
natural English comm / premium GN e or
if that’s you know a difficult link
there’s the link for the store on the
website I’m gonna show English comm but
yeah it’s an e-book right now and
shortly I’ll be releasing the audio
version so if you want to read and
listen along that’ll be an option as
well excellent so they can learn all of
these tips more details more resources
about how to have fast forward reading
exactly yes yes and there’s practice
exercises so you can see how you’re
doing so yeah yeah wonderful
thank you so much for making that
resource and for having this interview
conversations that write tips about
reading my pleasure it was really great
talking with you thank you so much oh my
pleasure I hope we can talk again soon
the next time see you later see you
later Vanessa bye thanks so much for
watching this interview with Gaby from
go natural English if you’d like to
learn more with her click on the link in
the description below and now I have a
question for you what kind of things do
you like to read or what kind of things
do you often read do you read news
articles books magazines maybe even
comments on social media what kind of
things do you read let me know and I’ll
talk to you later bye if you enjoyed
this video be sure to download my free
ebook where you can learn five steps to
becoming a confident English speaker you
can share it on Facebook upgrade the
listening audio version and don’t forget
to check your email to get the free
ebook let’s see what it is all right
here is the free ebook you can download
yours today just click on the link and
it will be in your email within a few
seconds thanks so much for learning with
me bye
you