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  • Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What I'm talking about today is the best way to teach yourself English,

  • and that's the way that fits you, your personality, and the way your mind ticks; the way your

  • mind works. I think that, in general, it's the best time ever to be learning English

  • because you have so much access to English materials. So I'm not talking just about traditional

  • ways, like books, and going to classes because now with the internet, there are just so many

  • ways that you can learn, also with new devices. So, right now, you're learning English for

  • free on the internet. Right? But you can also be learning English for free on Facebook or

  • by using an app. So more than ever, there are just so many opportunities to learn, but

  • also to connect with other people who speak English or who want to speak English. So it's

  • great. Yeah?

  • Well, what would help, though, is knowing the best way to maximize what's already out

  • there, so how you can use it more effectively. So to get there, what I want to do first is

  • a little quiz, a quiz to find out your learning style. So let's go through the quiz and you

  • have to decide which answer fits you best. Okay?

  • So when using new equipment, equipment... This could be like... could be a new computer

  • or a new remote control for your television, something like that. Do you..? Or something

  • a little bit more difficult than that. Do you read the instructions first, do you ask

  • somebody who already knows how to use it for an explanation, or do you work it out by trial

  • and error? That means you just start using it and learn... Learn yourself. Which one

  • fits you? So, for me, I am... I am a trial and error person. This is me, so I'm going

  • to put a star there. Another good example of that is: have you ever bought any flat

  • pack furniture that you need to put together for yourself? Well, you know, do you read

  • the instructions first, do you ask somebody, or do you just start? I'm this kind of person

  • and I can tell you that it often goes wrong because I just think: "Oh, it will be fine."

  • Next of all, when you're travelling and you need to find somewhere, do you use a map?

  • "Aha, we go this way." Do you ask for directions or try to memorize them before you go? "Oh,

  • I go there, and then I turn right, and then I go left. Aha, I see." Do you do that? Or

  • do you get a sense of where to go by landmarks? I've lived in a couple of different cities,

  • and this is what I always do. I live in Dubai at the moment, so kind of have a... Just a

  • feeling of where the sea is all the time. I'm like: "The sea's over there, I'll go there."

  • Doesn't always work, but that's how I make sense of where I am, so I'm here.

  • When you're cooking, what do you like to do? Are you someone who follows a recipe? "I do

  • that, I do that, I do that." Often, people who follow a recipe do exactly the thing it

  • says. Is that you? When you're cooking, do you ask a friend to give you their tips for

  • cooking? "Oh, I really loved what you made there. Can you tell me how you did it?" And

  • then you try it yourself? Or do you just make it up as you go along? "I'll put a bit of

  • that in. I'll make it a bit spicier. Who needs a recipe?" Which one are you? I'm... It's

  • getting a little bit repetitive here. Isn't it?

  • How about this one: I learn best when I'm shown what to do? So you show me what to do

  • with your hands, I see it, and I go: "Right, I can do that now." I learn best when somebody

  • tells me what to do, so they give you instructions, you hear it. You're like: "Aha, I know what

  • to do now." Or do you learn best when you just have a go? You don't... You know, you

  • can listen to them, you can see what you're supposed to do, but you really learn when

  • you can be practical and get your hands involved. Which one are you? It's me.

  • And, I don't know about this one so much because I think there's an answer that people are

  • just not going to admit... Admit to. When you're with friends or when choosing a partner,

  • it's most important how a person looks-this is the one that I'm saying I don't think people

  • will admit to-or is it important what people say? You like to hear them saying all the

  • right things, and then you know you trust them. Or is it important how that person makes

  • you feel? It's not so much in language, it's not how they look. So you decide. For me...

  • For me it's this one again, all this side.

  • So I'm going to tell you what that means now. These are different learning styles. This

  • one is visual learning style, with your eye, visual. This one is auditory learning style,

  • learning by hearing. And this one is kinesthetic learning style, learning by doing. Okay? So

  • it's said that we each have a learning preference. So if you found you did this quiz and maybe

  • you got four out of five in visual, that means you're a visual learner, and I'll tell you

  • more about that in a minute. If you did the quiz and you had two in the auditory section,

  • that means that maybe sometimes you have a preference for learning this way, but if the

  • rest of them were in the kinesthetic part, your strongest learning style is kinesthetic,

  • and that's to do with feeling.

  • So what we're going to learn next or what I'm going to tell you next is how these different

  • learning styles relate to you learning English more effectively. So we'll look at the different

  • learning styles, and I'll tell you what you need to do to learn English more effectively.

  • Let's have a look at the different learning styles in more detail, and then after that,

  • I'm going to tell you what learning methods are good for you to try if you're a particular

  • learning style. So 30% of people have a visual learning style. So one way to recognize these

  • people is they speak really quickly. The people who speak the fastest have a visual learning

  • style. And it sounds pretty good to be this kind of person because they learn quickly.

  • When they... When they learn, however, they do need to see something; they need to see

  • an image, a text, or a diagram and that helps the information go into their brain. This

  • is the kind of person who remembers faces. You're like: "Hmm, have we met before?" But

  • you probably don't remember the name of that person. When you learn, taking notes is useful

  • for you. But on the downside, not really able to listen for a long time because you lose

  • your concentration. So they're the visual people.

  • What about the auditory people, people who learn by hearing? They learn by hearing and

  • by participating in speech. Sometimes auditory learning style people don't actually like

  • reading. Okay? They say they don't like reading. But then the issue there is that they don't

  • hear a voice in their head when they read. If they tried to hear a voice in their head

  • when they read, reading becomes a lot more attractive to them. So as long as there's

  • some kind of voice happening with the reading, it's okay. Or for auditory people, you could

  • listen to talking books, for example, that would be more enjoyable for you. An auditory

  • person learns through repetition. So imagine when you're a child and you learn a language,

  • you say something, maybe you say it wrong, then your parent corrects you, then you try

  • it again, maybe get it wrong, and your parent corrects you. Well, eventually, you get it

  • right. But for auditory people, when they're learning, they just like to repeat things

  • a lot, so they might be quite vocal when they're learning and that's good for them. And this

  • kind of person loves to talk and listen in general.

  • What about the kinesthetic people? These are the people who learn by being practical and

  • hands-on, and through feeling, you could say, in the senses. They like hands-on learning.

  • You need to be involved in what you're doing. When you're learning, you move, maybe you

  • fidget. "Fidget" means you move around, you can't sit still, you play with a pen, you

  • doodle, you draw things. And another way to recognize a kinesthetic person is, in general,

  • they're the slowest speaking people.

  • So what does this mean for you learning English? Well, I said before the... What's really interesting

  • about learning English now is there's just like so many cool ways that you can do it

  • using the internet. So you don't even really need to have access to English teachers where

  • you live, or you don't really need to attend classes, and still so much you can do. So

  • what's good for you? engVid video lessons, well, of course, it's great for all of you.

  • But let's break it down a bit. The thing about engVid lessons is there's a visual aspect

  • and there's also an auditory aspect, so that means that you get three stars... Three stars

  • for those learning styles. But what about the kinesthetic people? Well, maybe not so

  • good for them, unless you do the quiz. If you do the quiz, it's good for you, but you

  • need to be involved. Okay? If you just listen to the lesson but you don't do the quiz, well,

  • you're not going to get such a good result. For these guys, they're okay, they don't need

  • to do the quiz so much. But kinesthetic people really need to do the quiz to get the maximum

  • benefit.

  • What about podcasts? Well, depends how far you take it with the podcast because, often,

  • with the learning English resources out there, you can listen to the podcast for free, but

  • if you want the extra materials, you need to pay for them. So the extra materials are

  • usually like quizzes or PDFs that you can read. So if you're a visual person, you probably

  • need to invest in those materials for it to be worthwhile for you. So I'm just going to

  • put two stars for visual people, unless you have something you can read at the same time.

  • But it's of course great for the auditory people. And the same issue with the kinesthetic

  • people, you do need to make it practical. So when you're listening to the podcast, you

  • need to do the exercises, or the quiz, or whatever they give you as well. So yeah, it

  • depends really. So it could be two stars. It's not the best way for kinesthetic people.

  • What about gap fills online? For many people, doing this kind of grammar exercise when you

  • just find a random English site and do a gap fill, for many English... For many people,

  • that's quite a boring way to learn. But there are some people out there who just like doing

  • grammar exercises. This can be good for visual people because they learn when they're seeing

  • things, but I find this quite a boring way to learn English in general, so I'm just going

  • to do one star. Not so good for auditory learners because there's nothing to hear, so nothing

  • there. And for kinesthetic people, you're involved in the learning, so you can have

  • one star as well.

  • Role play, this is what you do in your classroom when you imagine yourself in a situation.

  • Here's something you probably didn't know, visual learning people just can't do it. They

  • can't improvise unless they're told exactly what to do, so this probably makes them feel

  • awkward in the classroom. Auditory people, they're pretty good at it because they just

  • like speaking and listening. And kinesthetic people, they learn by doing, so it's good

  • for them as well. But they speak slowly, so it might take them time to say something.

  • Apps, well, it depends what the app is, of course. But it's a little bit visual. Isn't

  • it? Could potentially have sound in it, so it depends. And for kinesthetic people, it's

  • okay too. I'd say it depends on the quality of the app, rather than the learning style

  • here.

  • For Facebook groups, what I actually quite like about this is if you join lots of those

  • Facebook pages, people make images with just some vocabulary in them or idioms, and I think

  • that's really good just to sort of daily see something like that where you can learn an

  • idiom without really trying, so that's really good if you're a visual learner, because you'll

  • see it and you'll understand. For the others, nothing special really.

  • Films, people often say: "When I watch a film, should I watch it with subtitles or without?"

  • I think generally watching it with subtitles is a bit of distraction. And if you're...

  • If you're an auditory learning, you're just watching... No, sorry. If you're reading the

  • subtitles, you're not really paying so much attention to the film itself. So visual people,

  • probably better to watch without the subtitles just to exercise your listening skills more

  • because they're a little bit weak in comparison. So for you guys, no subtitles. For you guys,

  • I think I'm just going to say no subtitles really because I think it's better without.

  • No subtitles. It's more difficult to understand, of course, and you will miss things, but it's

  • more of a listening exercising for you if you try without.

  • Recording yourself, this is quite an interesting way to improve your speaking skills in English

  • for, especially people who don't have many people to talk to in English. Not so interesting

  • to visual learners, but very good for kinesthetic people and okay for auditory learners.

  • Note taking, when you're in class, can this be useful for you? Useful for visual learners

  • and kinesthetic learners. Not needed for auditory learners.

  • And what about learning on the street, just from being around people? I really admire

  • it when people can do this and learn in this way. But these people, they're generally the

  • hearing orientated learners or a little bit of feeling orientated learners.

  • So, I hope that's going to help you in your endeavours and your trials of learning English

  • by yourself. What I'd like you to do now, kinesthetic learners, is go and do the quiz.

  • But I'm not excluding anyone else from doing the quiz. In fact, I'd really appreciate it

  • if you went to do the quiz as well. But it's especially important for you guys to do the

  • quiz. What I'd like you to do before you go there is subscribe to my channel here and

  • also subscribe to my personal channel. And I am finished now, so I'm going to go.

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What I'm talking about today is the best way to teach yourself English,

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