Topic Talk | 3 strategies for overcoming a plateau in your language journey

Become a monthly subscriber for just $1.99 per month and receive an additional two to three episodes per week!https://app.redcircle.com/shows/9472af5c-8580-45e1-b0dd-ff211db08a90/exclusive-contentIn this episode of The A to Z English Podcast, Xochitl and Jack provide three good strategies for overcoming a plateau in your language learning journey.Transcript:00:00:00JackHey A-Z listeners, this is Jack here.00:00:03JackAnd if you would like to become a an exclusive subscriber to the show, you can hit the link in the description and that will take you to our Red Circle page, where for $1.99 a month you will get access to an extra two or three episodes each week.00:00:23JackAnd be careful, don't hit that donation button if you want to become an exclusive subscriber because the donation button is just a one time donation. However, the exclusive subscriber button will give you access to the extra two or three episodes.00:00:42JackEach week.00:00:44JackSo make sure you hit that exclusive subscriber button if you want access to the extra episodes.00:00:52JackNow let's get on with the show.00:00:56JackWelcome to the Ages English podcast. My name is Jack and I'm here with my co-host social. And today we are doing a topic talk episode and social the topic for today is I've I've pulled up three strategies for overcoming.00:01:13JackA plateau in language learning and a plateau just means that you reached a certain level and then you're not improving anymore. You're kind of stuck and you're you're kind of flatlined.00:01:25JackKnow.00:01:26JackAnd yeah, so I'll, I'll.00:01:27XochitlI'm.00:01:29JackI'll tell you the strategies.00:01:30JackAnd then you just, you know, tell me what you think about them and and and share your your your your view on on these.00:01:38JackSo the first one is.00:01:40JackDiversify your learning methods, which means changing the way you engage with the language can re energize your learning process. So incorporate different activities that target various skills, such as reading, listening, writing and speaking.00:02:00JackYou can for reading, you can choose a variety of materials such as books, articles and blogs to expand your vocabulary. You can listen to podcasts. You can follow YouTube channels and again that's right in our that's what we're doing here.00:02:18JackUM to listen to different accents and slang, and we do a lot of slang episodes. So the 80s, the English podcast is really a great way to improve your listening by writing, journaling, writing essays, or replying on online form.00:02:35JackThings. And by joining language exchange programs, finding a conversation partner or participating in speaking clubs. Or you could even join the world English Google meets class, which is something that I started with.00:02:56JackAnother another teacher here in Korea and students can for $10 a month, they can join and just have a one hour conversation. Actually, if you become a VIP, it sometimes students will talk for two or three hours a night.00:03:13JackEvery night. Every day. Yeah. So. And then there are multiple classes and what we have multiple teachers teaching different lessons as well. So you know. So there's a lot of things you can do. What what do you, how do you feel about this like?00:03:13발표자Yes.00:03:28JackDiversifying learning methods.00:03:31XochitlI think that's really good. I I actually was one of the first things I would have suggested right off the bat, especially with reading. It's really great to read varied content like you can try.00:03:44XochitlThing old English literature and you can try reading science articles and you can try reading the horoscope in a magazine or a celebrity news thing or and and you can try reading a fashion article just because you're gonna acquire a lot more different, diverse vocabulary that you don't see in every day and.00:03:53JackRight.00:04:04XochitlThat really helps be able to get you from just a proficient level to really a distinguished native speaker level.00:04:14JackI'm gonna throw. I'm gonna throw a plug for something I'm not related to it at all. I have no connection to it.00:04:21XochitlYeah, do it.00:04:21발표자But.00:04:22JackIt's called Breaking News English and what they do is they take an article and they kind of scale it down so that it's more understandable for second language learners.00:04:35JackAnd they put a new article up every single day, and you can read the article and answer some comprehension questions, some true or false questions, vocabulary matching. They've got lots of little exercises there, and I think that's just such a great.00:04:51JackWebsite I I've used it many times for my classes and I I love breaking news English. So if you're in, if you're looking for somebody to read and the articles are all different, you know it's a science article. It's a sports article. It's a news article. It's all just a bunch of different things. And like you said.00:05:10JackIf you read a variety of of material, you're gonna pick up a variety of vocabulary. If you stay in one specific area like sports only, you're gonna get a lot of sports lingo, but you may.00:05:24JackGet exposed to science or yeah.00:05:24XochitlYou'll be lacking in several social studies, sociology and all history, yeah.00:05:30발표자Right.00:05:33JackExactly, exactly. #2, the second one is set specific, achievable goals. Breaking down your learning into smaller manageable goals can help you stay motivated and measure progress.00:05:48발표자Yes.00:05:49JackHow do you feel about that one?00:05:51XochitlI think that was good. I mean for example, you could say your goal is to improve your pronunciation, but that's extremely vague. But for example, let's say that you struggle with pronouncing the R or R.00:06:06XochitlR sounds so which is really common. Then you could practice a few words that are L&R heavier that alternate between L&R within the same word.00:06:18XochitlAnd record yourself every day and you'll see your progress from the beginning of the month to the end of the month. And that will really inspire you to keep going and keep practicing and improving.00:06:30JackThat's right. That's right. I think students tend to like, try to bite off more than they can chew. You know, you you you set your goals as like I wanna. I wanna sound like a native speaker. What does that mean exactly? You wanna sound like a native speaker? Well, I mean, it's it's kind of like a a a child saying, you know, I want to be Michael Jordan.00:06:35XochitlYeah.00:06:44XochitlRight.00:06:50JackWell, there's a lot of steps that you have to take to get to that high. The highest level of of basketball or whatever sport you.00:06:50XochitlYeah.00:06:57JackMight be playing.00:06:59JackYou you have to, you know, set you small goals. Yeah. Yeah. Well, right.00:07:01XochitlPick an accent.00:07:05XochitlPick an accent for 1A neutral English or some kind. The easiest one that though, or the one that you like, or the one that you resonate the most with and there's just so many small goals from there. Just start with short words or the one you know, ones that you have a little bit of a hard time.00:07:22XochitlAnnouncing and then build up from there and gain your confidence, yeah.00:07:26JackAbsolutely.00:07:28JackAnd #3 is immerse yourself in language and immersion is one of the most effective ways to push through a plateau. And what does immersion mean?00:07:39XochitlImmersion means when you are fully surrounded by a language, in a lot of aspects. So when I was living in Korea, I was immersed in Korean because it's only foreign teacher. So all day, every day, all that I would hear were people speaking Korean around me. And I would say this is this. And patients were the biggest keys to my breakthrough and speaking Korean.00:08:00XochitlBecause at first when I got there and I would, I would hear a word and I'd.00:08:05XochitlI wouldn't know where a word began in another one and another began.00:08:08JackYes, that's a hard thing. You create a yeah, yes.00:08:11XochitlI was like, what's going on? Because so where is there so many it might be?00:08:16XochitlA sentence with only two or two words or three words, or even one word. But it has many syllables, so I was very confused. I was very confused and then with I said I said I'll never learn Korean. I'm I've gone crazy on. I don't know what I'm doing here with patients. Within a couple of weeks, I could. I could begin to distinguish where.00:08:36XochitlWords ended and and began.00:08:39XochitlAnd every month it just got better and better. And then I would feel like I hit a plateau of understanding, or sometimes I would even regress a little bit and then I would improve. And so it it's another thing is that learning of any type and especially language learning, it's not necessarily a linear improvement, is not going to be linear. You might do really well for a while, you might regress.00:08:59XochitlAfter a little bit and come back down. But overall the trend is going to be that you're improving. So you just have.00:09:04JackYes.00:09:05XochitlTo have faith, yes.00:09:06JackAbsolutely. It's a, it's a. It's a long process and it's very detailed and or tedious we say detailed.00:09:16JackAnd it takes a long time to to to grow your language skills. And yeah, I mean, like, So what social did what I did travel if possible. So that's one of the ways you can do just throw yourself right into the fire. You know, so that you have to use.00:09:29XochitlYes.00:09:35XochitlThanks.00:09:37JackThe target language you have to use English to survive. You know survival English, you know, right? But that's expensive and that's not available to everybody that that's not available. But you can do a version of that online like that. Google meets class that I was talking about.00:09:42XochitlSometimes people.00:09:53JackOn is a kind of a version of that where we have a number no native language rule. You have to speak English and so no matter what your skill level is, you've got to find a way to communicate some ideas and you just have to figure it out and you're there's no, there's no guide or anything necessarily.00:10:07XochitlYeah.00:10:13JackYou just, you know, you can ask questions, people will help you. But it's a great way to grow because it's a stress. It's putting stress on your.00:10:22JackOn on, on you and forcing you to perform.00:10:25JackForm.00:10:26JackAnd.00:10:27XochitlIn a real.00:10:27XochitlWorld environment that you don't. Only you wouldn't have access to otherwise. It's really like, OK, this is crunch time kind of behavior which I think really helps. And yeah, I would say that. So that's a great way. Jack. Sorry. Did I?00:10:41XochitlCut you off. Go ahead. I.00:10:42JackNo, no, that's it. I'm. I'm good. Yeah.00:10:45XochitlI was going to say that's really good.00:10:46XochitlAnd another way I know a lot of people learn another language is through playing video games with people that speak that language. As native speakers, you'll pick up things that they're saying, and you'll begin to understand things through that context.00:11:01XochitlAnother way to immerse yourself is by joining like a Facebook group for that. For a hobby that you like in English, or watching a YouTube channel in English, or listening to our podcast or watching Netflix or English movies.00:11:21XochitlI have a friend who moved from Brazil to the US when he was around 7 and he said the biggest way he learned English was through movies and I think that that was a really big help when I was trying to learn Korean is just a lot of listening.00:11:35XochitlThis and and sometimes I would watch something with subtitles and I would rewatch it without the subtitles, yeah.00:11:42JackYeah, that's that's the incremental element to it, right? Start with the easiest and then move a little bit more challenging, a little bit more challenging. That's the way you.00:11:50JackGrow so yeah.00:11:54JackRight on.00:11:55XochitlAll right, listeners, if you like these tips or if you're curious or have any English learning language tips of your own to overcome a plateau, make sure to leave a comment down below at A-Z englishpodcast.com shoot us an e-mail at AZ englishpodcast@gmail.com and join the WeChat and also groups to join the conversation.00:12:12XochitlAnd if you have $1.99 to spare, make sure you support Jack and I and our exclusive podcast content. It really helps us create more content for you guys and we really, really appreciate all the.00:12:22XochitlSupport so far.00:12:23XochitlThank you again and we'll see you guys next.00:12:24XochitlTime. Bye bye bye bye.00:12:25발표자Go back.Podcast Website:https://atozenglishpodcast.com/topic-talk-3-strategies-for-overcoming-a-plateau-in-your-language-journey/Social Media:WeChat: atozenglishpodcastFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/671098974684413/Tik Tok: @atozenglish1Instagram: @atozenglish22Twitter: @atozenglish22A to Z Facebook Page:https://www.facebook.com/theatozenglishpodcastCheck out our You Tube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCds7JR-5dbarBfas4Ve4h8ABecome a member of Podchaser and leave a positive review!https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-a-to-z-english-podcast-4779670Join our Whatsapp group: https://forms.gle/zKCS8y1t9jwv2KTn7Intro/Outro Music: Daybird by Broke for Freehttps://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Directionless_EP/Broke_For_Free_-_Directionless_EP_-_03_Day_Bird/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcodeSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-a-to-z-english-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy