Are you a forward-looking person who knows English very well (or at least, reasonably well)? And does excellence in your career depend on a high degree of fluency in spoken English? Then you should understand one thing: Conventional English-teaching methods can’t make you truly fluent. No, they can’t. Of course, this may sound incredible at first. But this is a fact.
Can written English mastery bring you a high degree of fluency? Mind you, it can’t! No... • Nor can speech practice in classrooms. • Nor learning done thro’ your mother tongue. • Nor translation. • Nor e-learning. • Nor cassettes/CDs. • Nor videos. • Nor ready-made sentences.
As far as fluency building efforts are concerned, they’re all wrong methods. Yes, wrong — because they’re only language-learning tools. And not fluency-training tools. And mind you, methods that suit only beginners won’t suit you. Why? Because you’re now far beyond that stage. What you’re now trying to do is something advanced: You’re now trying to achieve fluency. Yes... So suggestions like “listen, learn, speak” cannot help you. No. For example, cassettes and CDs may help beginners... to a limited extent — to start learning English. Or more English. But no... they can’t bring you fluency. NO!
So this is the 1st truth: Learning English is one thing... And training to speak it fluently, quite another!
Simply this: Mastery of a group of specialized fluency strategies. That’s the secret. Nothing else. You have to master a group of ‘on-the-spot speech production strategies’. These are strategies that native speakers of English pick up naturally. As children. At their mother’s knee.
But how about people for whom English is neither their mother tongue — nor their first language? They needn’t worry at all. They can easily learn the fluency strategies. Yes. And with the right approach, this is not difficult at all. They can learn the fluency strategies thro’ a series of fluency immersion techniques. And thro’ specialized skill-building practice — using ‘fluency word clusters’.
Master these fluency strategies — and when you start speaking in English, your words start flowing out readily. Instead of just remaining on the tip of your tongue.
This is the 2nd truth.
And there’s only one way to master the fluency strategies. Only one way: Independent study — outside classrooms. Yes, outside. Teach yourself. Without a teacher.
You know, the fluency skill is a unique skill. The only one of its kind... You can’t learn it in the same way as you learn computer skills or mathematics or swimming.
The fluency skill needs a different approach. It can only be mastered directly. Yes. Thro’ self-effort. Without a teacher coming between you and the learning process. Only then will the fluency skill become your skill. And this is the 3rd truth.