034 ENG Tutorial

Today I’d like to dedicate a little time to giving you some advice on how to best take advantage of our videos. There are many possible strategies, and the ones you use depend on your own individual learning style. The most obvious tactic in learning here is the repetition and reviewing of the material. In just one single video there is a wealth of information: idiomatic expressions, phrasal verbs, vocabulary, grammatical structures, and so on. After becoming very familiar with one of the videos, for example, you could change some of the verbs, vocabulary, and tenses in the text to create your own new story, thereby actively using what you’ve learned to fit your own needs. This demonstrates real learning, and not just memorization. Learning a language is not “linear” in nature. When young children learn to speak their mother tongue, they don’t study grammar. They learn through a variety of experiences using a combination of senses. This is one reason why we dance and sing when we teach children. The same holds true for adults, who are just very big children after all! The more sensory experiences you have when learning, the greater the chances are that you’ll retain what you’ve learned, and the greater ability you’ll have to put that knowledge to practical use. These videos are not a panacea, but they are an important step. Other helpful advice is to watch small pieces of a film, or a TV show on DVD, or another format that allows you to switch subtitles on and off. Changing the audio back and forth between English and your own native language is also helpful. I’d like to mention here that on the website (www.engpods.com) and the YouTube channel (EngPodsTV), you can switch the subtitles on and off by clicking on “CC” in the lower right-hand corner of the video. This allows you to watch a video first in English (or your native language), and then to watch it in the other language to see how much you’ve understood. Try watching a video 2 or 3 times before consulting the text. In my experience with students, ...