We always think of the difference between ‘a cat’ ‘cats’ and ‘cat’s’ as being to do with grammar. But what is grammar really? These words have different meanings. For example, ‘a cat’ points to one cat, ‘cats’ to more than one, or the idea of cats in general. Whereas ‘cat’s’ points to something which belongs to a cat. There’s not just a difference in grammar here – the meaning of each word is totally different. Do you know which one to use in which situation? Do you know why “This is a cat. I like cats” is correct but *“this is a cat. I like cat.” Is not appropriate unless you’re planning on eating the family pet? To native speakers, this type of mistake sounds really strange. But to non-native speakers who have no plural – like Japanese – the latter might sound more appropriate. This isn’t because they don’t understand grammar rules. It’s because they don’t understand the ‘grammar’ that words have naturally.

How do we get this kind of natural understanding that all native speakers seem to have? By spending a lot of time with the language and paying attention to the way words are used in certain contexts. And also a healthy amount of mono-lingual dictionary use. That’s it.

Cut and dried

1. Let (something) go – give up on an attitude or an idea
2. (Do something till you’re) blue in the face – make a lot of effort for a long time, but without success.
3. Come down – travel from one place to another, especially when you are going from north to south.
4. Come at – move towards someone as if you are going to attack them
5. Come out – appear;

Read the mini-story:

Now read along with the audio to check your answers:

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Got any story requests? Let me know in the comments!

Phrases not words.
Always try to make the ‘chunks’ you copy down into your notebook longer, not shorter.

Think about it – how useful is the word ‘implement’ by itself? Implement what? How? Why? You’re never going to hear the word ‘implement’ like that – just by itself. Nobody is going to come-up to you on the street and say ‘Hey, implement!’  So why learn the word like that? Much more effective – and useful – is to learn words in context, as they appear in discourse (= real life text, speech, etc.)

You’ll find that some words only appear in certain contexts. Sometimes words which have the same meanings are not all natural in all situations. You’ll never know this unless you learn everything in context. Memorizing lists of vocabulary words might have gotten you through a test at school, but it’s not going to help you get good at English.

Part 2 of ‘How to learn with graded readers’ – if you missed part one, check it out here:

How to use graded readers to improve your English part 1

When you start learning English with graded readers, you need to choose the right level.

My advice is to go to a shop that stocks graded readers*, and look at lots of different levels. Find something that is fairly easy to read with some new words, but not too many. I would say that you should already know 90% – 95% of the vocabulary.

Start on the level below that.

The point of learning English with graded readers is that is should be EASY. Really really EASY. You’re using real English. But without pain that comes with most books that aren’t simplified for English language learners or people learning to read.

The general rule for input is “your level +1” (according to the famous linguist Stephen D Krashen), but in the beginning I say that getting used to the ‘process’ is more important than getting new words or grammar – so think of this super easy stage as the ‘learning the technique’ stage.

* If you live in Tokyo, try the big Kinokuniya on Shinjuku Southan Terrace (+ I go there a lot, so if you see me I’ll help you out ~)

Shadowing: ’training’ for English fluency

People often come to me asking ‘how can I get good at speaking?‘ Well, first the most important thing is plenty of listening practice. Second, understand that speaking has to be learnt physically.

It is important to get practice actually speaking English. Actually moving your mouth. I’ve been teaching in Japan for a quite a long time now, and people often say ‘great. But this isn’t an English speaking country – how can I get a lot of speaking practice?’

But I don’t mean “conversation practise”. I mean the same type of practise that gets you good at riding a bike. Training your mouth.

It’s much easier than you probably think.

You don’t need other people to practice speaking. Just use your listening materials.

I always recommend these ‘penguin readers‘ to my students, because they come as a book/ CD set, they’re cheap, really well made and above all interesting. The important part is the CD, but the book also has an important use. I really do recommend these books.

This technique is called shadowing, and maybe like many people you’ve heard of it, but don’t actually use it. Now is a good time to start!

• Listen to the book as many times as you can.
• Read the book and check any words you don’t know in your dictionary.
• Listen to the book again.
• Listen and read (out loud!) the book together. Practice section by section until you get really good at it.
• Shadow the CD without the book.

It’s a really good idea to record yourself doing this too, so you can tell where you’re making pronunciation mistakes.

It isn’t about memorizing the book – it’s about learning to speak fluently

You don’t need to memorize the book. This type of speaking practice trains your mouth to speak and it trains your ear to listen carefully to pronunciation and rhythm. It gets you used to the patterns of English, and builds vocabulary, so it’s a really good way to get good at speaking fast.

Here are some of my favorite (British English) penguin readersbooks:

• Story telling is an important part of communicating in English. Whether you’re telling your friend about the stupid thing your boyfriend did, or explaining to your boss why a project failed (or succeeded!) narrative – or the power to tell a story – is a HUGE part of how well you communicate.
  Put another way, it’s fine to be able to say “this is a pen”, but sooner or later you’re going to have to explain where you brought it, why you brought it etc.
• There are a lot of graded readers out there. So you can choose the ones which YOU like and which are relevant TO YOU. Learn to talk about the things you want to talk about.
• Finding reading material at the right level can be hard – but graded readers are, well, ‘graded’ so it’s easy to find something just right.
• Most books can be purchased with a CD, meaning you can work on listening, reading and speaking (shadowing) over time with the same book.

Put simply, the more time you spend absorbed in English – that is DOING English, not STUDYING English – the better you will get. The more interesting and varied the material is, the easier this will be.

My recommendation is the ‘penguin readers’ series. They come with an Audio CD, and they’re also pretty cheap (really cheap compared to English textbooks – and much more useful!) so I recommend just buying as many of these as you can.

Over the next few ”How to use English Readed Readers” I’ll talk about:

• How to choose your level
• How to read
• How to use the CD
• How to use SRS to fix the language in your head
• Where to go with your English learning from there …