This unlocks unlimited progress and for Calgary Language Nerds students
We’ve figured out how to boost progress.
It’s a simple two-step process:
Step 1: Pick a learning activity
Mimicry: primarily improves pronunciation
Speaking: primarily improves speaking (duh)
Reading: primarily increases vocabulary
Studying: primarily improves grammar & tenses
Journal writing also works for this
Listening: primarily improves listening comprehension
Each activity also has secondary benefits, but I’ll leave those aside for today.
Step 2: Implement knowledge
We do this with free-flowing conversation activities. It ties everything together.
That’s basically it.
That’s what we do.
We pick a learning activity.
We do it with students
We do free-flowing conversation
The result? Students get way better.
And we measure the progress. For example, one student recently reached an upper-beginner level in just 36 hours of study.
I’d love to create a self-assessment tool to measure progress as precisely as we do, but don’t know how. What we measure requires a tutor with specialized training.
If you’re curious about what we measure, here’s the list:
Comprehension rate - Rate of speech you can understand, provided you are familiar with the words and grammar being used
Speech rate - How fast you talk. We compare your speech rate in your mother tongue and use that as a benchmark for success in your second language
Vocabulary size - Number of word families you know
Grammatical accuracy - Number of mistakes you make when speaking
Verb tenses - Number of tenses you can correctly use
Translation frequency - How often you need a translator in a conversation
Pronunciation - How close you sound to a native speaker
The bottom line: keep it simple.
Mimic, speak, read, study, listen, write. Then have free-flowing conversations.
Do these things and you will become fluent. At least that’s how it looks to me.
Thanks for reading!
Really appreciate it ❤️ Some miscellaneous things I’ve been thinking about to wrap today’s blog post up:
Time management - I’m realizing just how many people don’t know how to manage their time. I wonder if I should build in basic time management training into my Guaranteed Fluency program
The cost of fluency - Those who do become fluent end up spending lots of time and (often) money. I think my lessons and free resources reduce both costs
The cost of failure - Most people never become fluent. What’s the emotional and practical cost of that? It’s definitely expensive. It motivates me to promote my Guaranteed Fluency program since it makes the cost of failure essentially 0
Azren
Calgary Language Nerds owner
https://azrenthelanguagenerd.com