Learn English Like a Native
Hi I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Would you like to learn English like a native
speaker?
Of course.
Let’s talk about it.
Would you like to see how my son, a native
English speaker is learning his native language?
Today we’re going to talk about three things
that happen naturally during conversations
with him that are helping him to learn to
speak English.
And I’m curious, as you watch this video think
about mothers, and fathers in your country.
Do they do these things as well?
I have a son who just turned one year old.
You’re going to meet him in this lesson, and
he already knows how to say a couple things
like mama, dada, kitty, fish.
Even though it sounds like ish, and ants even
though it sounds like nts.
But he’s learning a lot.
He can even understand more words than he
can say.
Maybe that’s similar to you.
Can you understand more than you can say?
He can understand words like milk, food, lets
go, give it to me, hurray.
You know all of those important words.
Over the next year he’s going to learn a lot
more words.
He’s going to learn how to say them, he’s
going to learn how to understand them, but
how is he actually going to learn them?
Well at the moment we read a lot of books
with him, I tell him stories as we walk through
the neighborhood, and he hears my husband
and I talking together a lot.
But these are things that a lot of you do.
Maybe you read stories, you listen to stories.
So what are some things that are unique to
babies?
Lets talk about three of those things today.
We’re going to watch a short clip where I’m
going for a walk around our lawn, and I’m
just talking to my son about things that are
happening.
We do this every morning, and in the video
it was 7:00 AM, he had just woken up, but
we were still having an interaction, a conversation
together.
Let’s watch this clip, and then we’re going
to break it down into those three elements.
Do you see the ants Theo?
Yeah, they’re on that tree.
They’re climbing up.
Where do you think they’re going?
Yeah, maybe their little home?
What happens when you pull on that tree Theo?
Oh, the leaf fell on the ground.
The whole branch moves huh?
Whoa.
That looks like fun.
Yeah, are you going to tell me about it?
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Okay.
Oh, I can’t let you eat that leaf.
I know it looks tasty.
It probably won’t feel too god inside of you.
Yeah, that one too.
Oh, it’s on the ground.
Maybe we can go eat some breakfast?
That’s something you can eat.
Would you like some breakfast?
Yeah?
Let’s go look over here.
There’s so many things to explore outside.
Do you want to touch this one?
Whoa.
You got some leaves off of that branch.
And then the gate.
What do you see?
Oh, do you hear that air conditioning over
there?
I know, I hear it too.
The first thing that people do when they’re
interacting with babies, and speaking with
them is they ask a lot of questions.
I’ve found myself doing this, and I’ve also
noticed other people I know when they interact
with my baby, if they’re a parent, if they’re
not a parent they ask questions.
And I wonder why we do this?
I think it’s maybe because he is curious,
and he is engaging with the world around him,
and we want to be part of that.
We want to engage, and be curious with him,
“What do you see?
Do you see that?
What’s that?
What are you doing?”
We’re engaging with him, and we’re using his
natural curiosity in order to learn more language.
So I think that you can use this as well as
an English learner.
Spark your curiosity about the things around
you.
Look at the room around you, look outside
if you’re outside at the moment, and try to
ask questions about things, “What’s that noise?
Oh, is that the air conditioning?”
And maybe you don’t know the word for air
conditioning in English, or you can’t pronounce
it well.
This is a good time to use that word, to practice,
and to engage yourself in the world around
you by asking questions about things that
are just natural in your world.
The second thing that adults often do when
they talk with babies is use baby talk.
And this means that your vowels are elongated,
and your pitch usually goes up.
Sometimes your emotions are just really obvious.
They’re even exaggerated, and we use this
for babies almost universally.
I think a lot of countries use baby talk when
talking with babies.
Let’s take a look at a quick clip so that
you can hear this in action, and then we’ll
talk about it.
Do you see the ants Theo?
Yeah, they’re on that tree.
They’re climbing up.
I said, “Yeah, they’re on that tree.
They’re climbing up.”
But I didn’t say it like that.
I said it in a little bit [inaudible 00:05:47]
higher pitch, and I elongated some vowels
naturally.
I wasn’t thinking, “I should elongate these
vowels so that my son can understand me clearly.”
No, this is just something that naturally
happens, “they’re on that tree.”
Those vowels are elongated to help him understand
more clearly.
And there was actually a study that showed
people who talk to babies in baby talk, those
babies understood their native language faster,
because they were spoken to clearly, and they
could hear those vowels, which are often the
most tricky parts of language.
So for you, how can this help you as an English
learner?
Should you listen to mothers speaking in baby
talk?
No, not necessarily.
But what this translates to for you is that
it’s best to start off with something that
you can understand.
So for example, this English lesson I hope
that you can understand the majority of what
I’m saying.
My speech just naturally is pretty clear,
and straightforward.
This means it’s easier to understand.
So start with this kind of speech.
Don’t jump right into an English TV show,
and then feel overwhelmed, and bored.
Instead start with something that you can
understand.
Babies start with baby talk, and then they
work up to more mature, adult-like speech.
So don’t feel bad starting with something
a little bit lower level, and then working
your way to eventually watching English movies.
The third thing that adults often do when
they’re speaking with babies is they interact
with them by talking back to them when they’re
babbling.
Babbling means when they’re just saying nonsense.
It’s just sounds.
Yaya, nana, mama, lala.
It means nothing, but adults are interacting
with them and saying, “Oh yeah, what are you
saying?”
Or they’re giving a toy, or they’re showing
that they’re listening.
And this is something that’s really valuable
to babies because it’s encouraging them to
speak even though it’s nothingness, it doesn’t
mean anything.
They’re learning step-by-step to speak.
Now let me just say it was really hard to
capture any of my sons sounds on camera, because
the moment he sees something new like my phone
he wants to grab it, and then he stops babbling.
So what we have in this clip is about as good
as it gets, but let’s take a look at it really
quick just to see that kind of sounds, more
like mmmm sounds that he’s making, and how
I’m interacting with him.
That looks like fun.
Yeah, are you going to tell me about it?
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Okay.
Having someone to talk to is so much more
fun than just speaking by yourself.
So I’d like to help you use this technique
as well.
Even if you’re just saying sounds like my
baby, it doesn’t mean anything.
I recommend checking out this video I recently
did about how to learn to speak English in
your home country without moving to another
place.
You can do it, check out that link so that
you can get a bunch of tips to help you start
speaking today.
And now I have a question for you.
Do mothers, and fathers in your country use
these techniques when they’re speaking with
babies?
Maybe your parents used this when you were
baby as well.
You can use them now.
Be curious, learn with information you can
understand, and speak.
Have that joyful confidence, that innocence
like a child, and use the language that you
know.
Thanks so much for learning with me, and I’ll
see you again next Friday for a new lesson
here on my YouTube channel.
Bye.
The next step is to download my free E-book
five steps to becoming a confident English
speaker.
You’ll learn what you need to do to speak
confidently, and fluently.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for more free lessons.
Thanks so much, bye.