By Robby
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= Video Transcript Below =
Hi guys and hello my dear fellow foreign English speakers!
It’s me, Robby from EnglishHarmony.com and welcome back to my video blog!
In today’s video I’m going to be telling you why exactly reading in English, listening to the radio in English and watching TV in English – basically I’m going to telling you why all that is important.
Why it’s necessary to expose yourself to the English language. And contrary to most people’s expectations it’s not important because it kind of makes you soak up all that knowledge, right?
But it’s quite the opposite. It’s important because you can refresh your vocabulary, your vocabulary that you’ve already learned by way of spoken English practice.
Again, I probably sound like a broken record but nonetheless I have to keep repeating this mantra in every video: “Practice your spoken English!”
And the reason being very simple – if you don’t practice your spoken English, you’re not going to develop your active vocabulary. You’re not going to be able to speak. So the way I see it, spoken English comes first, right?
You practice your spoken English and then when you expose yourself to English media, English literature and other sources of information, you constantly expose yourself to certain words and expressions that you might have already learned before. And that process prevents you from forgetting them. Okay?
Well, I won’t deny that you will learn a certain amount of new vocabulary and expressions just by being exposed to them. There’s no denying that if you throw something at the wall, something sticks, right?
So even being exposed to something without any active engagement whatsoever, you might retain some of that information and you might be able to produce it yourself at a later stage.
But to be effective, to get the biggest bang for the buck so to speak, you have to be exercising your spoken English yourself. Nobody else is going to do it for you. No one else can move your mouth other than yourself, right?
And basically that’s why I reckon reading in English is one of the best ways you can refresh all your active vocabulary. Say for instance I started reading recently again.
I had given up on it for about 6 months or so just because I’ve been mad busy. And then I was given a book on Father’s Day if I’m not mistaken by my daughters and I started reading it and obviously the moment I opened the first page I came across something that I had almost forgotten about, right?
As you may know there are certain types of words and expressions that you don’t come across every day and you don’t use on a daily basis yourself and after a while you might actually forget about them, right?
And the way I also deal with this problem is as you may know I engage in constant spoken English practicing with myself.
I talk about my daily routine, my plans, what happened to me the previous day and stuff like that and I constantly reuse everything that’s in my head, right? I don’t allow that to go down the drain, right?
I don’t allow all that active vocabulary to become my passive vocabulary which I wouldn’t be able to use in real life. Okay? But I have to admit that certain amount of vocabulary becomes passive over time I suppose.
So just like I told you before and again, I sound like a broken record, reading is essential if you want to refresh all that vocabulary and make sure that your spoken English skills stay sharp, right?
And obviously it goes without saying you have to be exercising your spoken English on top of that. Reading alone isn’t enough. And just the other day I got an e-mail from someone after I had mentioned reading in one of my previous blog posts, I got an email saying that “Robby, I see you’ve been reading loads and obviously it’s been helping your spoken English blah-blah-blah…” And that person again, was missing the point totally. I’ve never said that by reading you’re going to become a good speaker!
It’s quite the opposite actually. If you don’t engage in any spoken practice whatsoever and you just read, you will never become good in the spoken department, right?
So just like I told you a million times before, speak first, then read – and read in order to refresh all that vocabulary. Make sure that as much of that vocabulary retains in your active vocabulary compartment in your brain. All right?
So if you have any questions obviously or you want to share some stories with me, please feel free to use the comment section below this video. Chat to you soon my friends and bye bye!
Robby
P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!
P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!
P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out the English Harmony System HERE!