TL;DR

Once an English learner reaches an intermediate level, it’s common to get stuck. How do you break through the plateau? Focus on improving comprehension, pronunciation, and natural phrasing. Through meaningful input, shadowing, and learning phrases in context, you’re on the right track to enhance and refine your English skills.

Today, I want to talk about learning English. Globally, English has become the lingua franca for communication, business, and science. English has more non-native speakers than any other language, meaning that millions of people learn English worldwide. And yet, when it comes to learning English, many are feeling stuck.

At LingQ, we recently welcomed a new team member, Anna. She has a strong background in digital marketing in Spain, and we’re thrilled to have her with us. While working together on strategies to attract more users, Anna contributed great ideas and participated confidently. Still, her English isn’t quite where she wants it to be.

Like many learners, Anna isn’t sure where to begin. She’s taking part in a 90-day challenge to boost her English, but her biggest hurdle is simply knowing how to start. To help her get going, I sat down with Anna yesterday to share three areas to focus on and practical steps to improve in these areas. Perhaps this advice can benefit other English learners as well.

Improve Your Comprehension Skills

Comprehension is more important than your ability to speak without error. Repeating yourself or rephrasing is less of a problem than not following what others are saying. Comprehension is foundational for effective communication. To give Anna’s comprehension skills a boost, I recommended the following:

Professional Content

Sometimes you have these courses, Business English, Academic English. Find content in your area of professional specialization or expertise. For example, import sources rich in business and academic English into LingQ. Enjoy the content, but familiarize yourself with the phrasing and terminology that you need.

Don’t know where to start looking for content? Check out our library on LingQ. Discover playlists of podcasts, articles, short stories, TV episodes, and more—all curated by topic!

Find Content That You Connect With

Language learning is connected with emotion. Therefore, it’s important to find content that gets you excited. Give yourself an extra reason to interact with the language. It might be literature, film, or content that aligns with your personal interests. Build a sentimental connection to the language that you’re learning.

LingQ Mini Stories

You can’t just focus on the professional terminology. You will want to elevate your overall grasp of the language. The easiest way to do this is to work through LingQ’s Mini Stories. This series contains all of the basic structures, all of the most frequently used words, and it can be listened to over and over again. For more advanced learners, I see the mini stories as a quick refresher to revisit periodically. You’ll notice something new with each listen.

Improve Your Pronunciation

Pronunciation is a common concern among English learners. Anna’s pronunciation is already clear, but to avoid slight misunderstandings, it’s important to understand that English words sound different from how they’re written. Unlike in Spanish, where there’s a direct connection between how words are written and how they’re pronounced, English is inconsistent.

I suggested that Anna focus on intonation through shadowing. I recommended that she again go on LingQ and, using the sound bar, imitate five seconds of a text. When shadowing, it’s okay if you mispronounce a word every now and then, but continue imitating the rhythm and sounds to the best of your ability. Progress from 5 seconds to full sentences, and then to paragraphs.

Another exercise to improve your pronunciation is to record yourself and compare yourself to the native speaker. You don’t need to do this all the time. In fact, you should see some decent improvement after two weeks.

Remember, it’s not a matter of eliminating all evidence of a foreign accent. It’s possible to have an accent and clear pronunciation. In fact, a slight accent can be charming!

Natural Phrasing

When it comes to vocabulary, an English learner shouldn’t just focus on what words mean, but also how they’re used. In what combinations do certain words appear? A key part of language learning is finding the patterns in your target language. While communicating, for example, Anna may configure a sentence based on Spanish patterns instead of English patterns. This results in awkward phrasing and slight misunderstandings.

When you listen and read, mine for phrases. Integrate those phrases into your speech. The goal of listening and reading is to identify phrases. Save them on LingQ, and speak more confidently with natural phrasing. The goal is to use words appropriately, in the right contexts with natural phrasing. To achieve this, it’s important to read and listen to the target language consistently, as this is the only way to internalize what does and doesn’t sound natural.

Final Thoughts on Learning English

Well-developed comprehension skills, clear pronunciation, and natural phrasing make for strong English speakers (and language learners in general). If you’re stuck at an intermediate level, these three areas of focus can help you break through the plateau and achieve a more advanced, refined level.

I look forward to your comments. Happy learning!

FAQs

1. Why do so many learners get stuck at an intermediate level?
In my interview with JForrest English, we discuss how an over-emphasis on correctness instead of meaningful input stunts progress.

2. How can I improve my comprehension skills?
Choose content you genuinely enjoy and gradually increase difficulty. You want to personally connect with what you read and listen to. This keeps you consistent (and curious) with the language.

3. How important is pronunciation in language learning?
Clarity is important, but perfect, native-like pronunciation isn’t a goal that I’d recommend. Imitate the rhythm and intonation of your target language, but understand that a slight accent is completely fine.

4. How can I sound more natural in my target language?
Read and listen a lot. Mine phrases, not individual words. Over time, patterns sink in and your grasp for the language becomes more intuitive.

5. How do I know whether I’m improving?
Improvement in language learning is gradual and subconscious. To really be sure that you’re improving, you can track your progress on LingQ, set periodic goals, and seek external feedback from a tutor.