"Tutor, How Can I Get Fluent Faster?" – The Question We All Dread
Every English learner wants to reach the promised land of fluency sooner rather than later. And at some point, some student has probably asked you how they could do that.
As we all know, there’s no silver bullet that’ll let their learning suddenly take off. But there are three simple questions you can ask to help them figure out how they could learn more efficiently.
1. What Does “Fluency” Mean to You?
First, your student will need to figure out what “fluency” means to them. Another way to ask this is, “What do you see yourself doing with English?”
For example, does fluency mean conversational English for the purpose of making friends, business English for their job, survival English for their trips abroad, or medical English to help foreign patients?
On an intuitive level, having a clear idea of how they want to use English will help them focus their studies on things that truly matter. Recent research in educational psychology also suggests that visualizing themselves successfully using the language can help students feel more motivated, potentially speeding up their learning.
2. How Much Do You Enjoy Your English Studies?
Motivation is key to learning a foreign language, and a big part of staying motivated (or not losing it at least!) is to enjoy what you’re doing.
The more you like something, the more willing you’ll be to spend time on it even when you’re tired. So if your student doesn’t like studying English, it’s time for them to spice things up.
The first step is to toss out learning methods and tools that don’t work for them. For example, they don’t need to memorize vocabulary with flashcards just because everyone else does that. If they prefer making stories with new vocabulary words, then they should do that!
Research has also found that enjoyable learning materials can improve learning. For example, a study in New Zealand found that elementary school children learned 10% more vocabulary from a storybook they liked than one they didn’t enjoy as much.
So encourage your students to tailor their learning more to their likes and dislikes.
3. How Often Do You Practice English?
Students who are serious about making faster progress should be prepared to dedicate more time to practicing English – not just studying it. So make sure to ask students how often they work on the things they want to become good at. For example:
- If your student says they want to become fluent, ask them, “How often do you speak English?”
- If they want to become a faster reader, ask them, “How often do you read in English?”
At the very least, they should be able to make English a bigger part of their daily lives, whether that’s watching English TV while doing housework or following English pages on social media.
To help them figure out ways to make more time for English, encourage them to:
- Make a list of everything they do on a daily basis, including the time spent on each activity.
- After a week, check the list and see what they can spend less time on or cut out of their schedule completely.
- Spend this extra time on English instead!
👋 That’s it for now!
The next time a student asks you how they can make greater strides in English, ask them to consider the following:
- What fluency means to them
- How much they enjoy learning English and what they can do to make their learning more enjoyable (and therefore motivating)
- How often they practice English and ways to do it more often
The path to mastering English is different for everyone, and it’s up to each student to discover their own. Happy tutoring!
